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14 



The Florists' Review 



August 10, 1916. 



a nice growth, it may prove to be fair- 

 ly satisfactory, but, speaking on broad, 

 general principles, this method of in- 

 creasing stock is not to be commended.. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



LEAF BOLLEBS ON MUMS. 



Will you kindly inform me what to 

 use for leaf rollers on chrysanthe- 

 mums? I am using nicotine extract, at 

 the rate of about a tablespoonful to a 

 gallon of water. This solution, how- 

 ever, does not affect the pest in the 

 least. F. H. L.— Ind. 



I have never had any actual ex- 

 perience with the leaf roller, but I 

 understand it is extremely troublesome 

 in some localities, and one of the hard- 

 est possible pests to exterminate. A 

 grower of my acquaintance cleared his 

 house of it entirely by the use of cya- 

 nide of potassium every ten days. If 

 it is impossible to use this, hand-pick- 

 ing will have to be resorted to, as the 

 caterpillar's habit of rolling itself up in 

 the leaf renders it immune from poison, 

 and fumigation with tobacco will not 

 bother this insect. Were I in F. H. L.'s 

 place, I would try the cyanide treat- 

 ment, as affording the easiest and best 

 way of exterminating this pest. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



MABEET FIXES BLOOM SIZE. 



I have a few hundred extra fine 

 chrysanthemums in a bed. They are 

 from eighteen to thirty inches high, 

 with from two to five branches each. 

 They were pinched back at six to ten 

 inches and now are unusually strong, 

 some of them being as thick as a pencil. 

 The compost is rotted sod, 1 year old, 

 and rotted manure. Now, shall I allow 

 only one flower on each lead or shall 

 I let them branch at the top and leave 

 two or more blooms on each lead! The 

 varieties are Pacific Supreme and Glory 

 of Pacific. Will they be too early? I am 

 spraying them with Bordeaux, with 

 nicotine added. Last year I had blooms 

 six and one-half inches in diameter. 



E. B.— Pa. 



Whether you should grow one flower 

 to a plant or let them branch is entirely 

 optional. For the finest results, the 

 plants should not be allowed to pro- 

 duce more than one or two flowers to 

 a plant. The thing to consider is 

 whether or not your market will pay 

 the price for stock of this grade. If 

 you could use a medium grade of stock 

 to better advantage, which will sell, 

 say, at $3 per dozen, the plants may 

 carry three or more flowers. 



The plants that now are eighteen to 

 thirty inches in height have made a 

 splendid growth and you should have 

 fine results. Because the plants have 

 been planted early is no reason why 

 they will bloom earlier, but they will 

 give you better finished flowers when 

 they do bloom. If I were you I would 

 grow just a few specimen show blooms 

 — one flower to a plant — in order to 

 make a display. The large blooms are 

 always valuable for show purposes and 

 as advertising, but if you were to run 

 your whole house in large flowers I 

 question if it would be profitable. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



TOP CUTTINGS ABE BEST. 



I have about 1,000 rooted chrysanthe- 

 mum cuttings ready to bench. In mak- 

 ing these cuttings I cut two or three 

 from the same growths on the old plant, 

 and I am informed that they are not 

 so good as if cut only from the tops 

 of the original growths. If you can give 

 me some advice on this, I shall greatly 

 appreciate it. J. G. — 111. 



I am not sure just what J. G. means 

 by taking two or three cuttings from 

 the same growth, unless it is that the 

 growth was extra long and he cut the 

 same growth in two or three places. If 

 this is so, the plants would not be so 

 good as if they were top cuttings, since 

 the growth farther down the stem is 

 considerably harder than the top and the 

 cuttings will not run evenly or grow 

 the same size when so treated. Cut- 

 tings made from hard wood often run 

 to bud, instead of growing along and 

 making a good, clean growth, as top 

 cuttings will. If the stock has been 

 rooted some time and is now making 



CUTTINGS KILLED BY FUNGI. 



We are sending you a few samples of 

 cuttings which are affected by a fungus^ 

 The fungus has given us considerable- 

 trouble in our cutting bench. In fact,, 

 out of 2,000 chrysanthemum cuttings^ 

 we did not get over 100 to root. We- 

 have cleaned out the sand and put in a 

 fresh supply, after whitewashing the- 

 bench and giving it a good washing 

 with a solution of formalin, but all this 

 seems to do no good. Perhaps you can 

 tell us of a remedy. If you can tell u» 

 the reason for the presence of the 

 fungus, we shall take steps at once to 

 prevent it. C. F. S.— S. C. 



The trouble referred to is the usual 

 bench fungus, and if C. F. S. has faith- 

 fully carried out the work as described 

 in his letter, cleaning the bench, put- 

 ting in fresh sand, whitewashing the 

 bench, etc., the trouble must be due 

 to the sand. In such a case the only 

 thing to do is to sterilize the sand by 

 cooking it with live steam for an hour 

 or two before putting it in the benches. 

 This will kill all the germs of fungoid 

 growth and should insure a bench of 

 cuttings free from fungi. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



illiHi^ 



GEBANIUMS LOSING FOLIAGE. 



Can you tell me what is causing my 

 geraniums to lose their foliage? There 

 are small flies hovering over the beds 

 and the decaying leaves seem to have 

 some kind of parasites on them. I 

 haA'e sprayed the plants with nicotine 

 and soap suds, but have not been able 

 to check the decay. The geraniums in 

 the greenhouse are not affected. I am 

 sending a leaf taken from an affected 

 plant. J. B. M. — Mo. 



The principal cause of geraniums los- 

 ing their foliage outdoors is not the 

 attacks of insects but fungoid affec- 

 tions due to abnormal climatic con- 

 ditions. Heavy rainfalls at frequent 

 intervals, or long spells of hot, moist 

 and more or less sunless weather, fre- 

 quently eause geraniums to lose a great 

 deal of foliage. When this fungoid dis- 

 ease is in an aggravated form, it can 

 be checked by using Bordeaux mixture 

 or Fungine as a spray, being sure the 

 foliage is dry when the spray is ap- 

 plied. Greenhouse-grown geraniums, 

 not being exposed to the same weather 

 conditions, are not usually affected in 

 this way, and when attacked are more 

 readily and more successfully treated. 

 C. W. 



WOBMS ON GEBANIUMS. 



I am sending you a stem of one of 

 my ivy-leaved geraniums. There is 



something on the stem, but I have been 

 unable to ascertain what it is. What 

 would be the best thing for me to dot 

 I burned tobacco stems in my green- 

 house a few days ago. 



M. E. E.— Ind. 



The stem appeared to have been tun- 

 neled by a small worm of some kind,, 

 but I could not find the worm. Fumi- 

 gating with tobacco would be of na 

 avail against pests of this character,, 

 but if you spray the plants with a nico- 

 tine extract — the directions come on 

 each can — I think you can overcome 

 the worms. This remedy has proved ef- 

 fective against the marguerite leaf 

 miner and I think should prove service- 

 able in your case. C. W. 



GEBANIUMS FLOWEBING POOBLY. 



For two years I have noticed that 

 my plants of Poitevine geraniums have 

 grown rank, flowering but sparsely and 

 producing flowers of small size. Other 

 varieties under the same treatment do- 

 well. From this description would you 

 advise a renewal of stock? Is there any 

 salmon-pink geranium similar to Poite- 

 vine and Viaud that you would advise 

 as being suitable for growing? 



H. F. W.— Mass. 



Poitevine is naturally a robust va- 

 riety and it flowers, or should flower, 

 with unusual freedom. While it has ■ 



.Lli- C''i^>*^M. 



