18 



The Florists^ Review 



September 21, lOlC. 



LEAF-SPOT ON MUMS. 



Is it best to have clean, fresh sand 

 to start geranium cuttings inf 



Of late many of my mum plants in 

 the benches have lost their lower leaves. 

 The leaves seem to dry and then die, 

 although the plants are watered suf- 

 ficiently. Many of the leaves have 

 light spots, which give one the impres- 

 sion that worms have crawled on the 

 leaves and left little streaks. The 

 lower leaves, as a rule, show this con- 

 dition. What is the trouble and what 

 would you advise me to do? The plants 

 are in good soil, are well watered and 

 make good growths. I spray the plants 

 with a hose on bright mornings. 



F. B. K.— O. 



Sand that has been in the benches 

 for an indefinite length of time is not 

 good for new cuttings of any sort, and 

 to use such sand is to court disaster at 

 the start. 



The mums mentioned undoubtedly 

 are affected with septoria, or leaf-spot, 

 which always comes at this season when 

 plants are grown close together and 

 when the eunlight does not get down 

 to the benches. There is, of course, a 

 certain quantity of foliage lost when 

 the plant is hardening or ripening, but 

 F. B. R. speaks of little spots, or 



streaks, which would indicate that the 

 ripening is not normal. When the 

 plants are watered see that they are 

 dry by night and keep them more on 

 the dry side from now on. To kill the 

 spores of leaf-spot, spray the plants 

 with Fungine or Bordeaux, as directed, 

 and this will hold the disease in check. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



PROBABLY DUE TO CHINCH BUGS. 



Last year I had the best Major Bon- 

 naffon chrysanthemums grown around 

 here, but this season I am having poor 

 luck. I am sending you a package con- 

 taining a few sample plants, and I hope 

 you can tell me what to do for them. 

 I grew them outdoors until August 1. 

 When I put them in the house, about 

 that dat.e, they looked as well as any 

 that I ever saw, but when they started 

 to branch they suddenly showed signs 

 of deterioration. I fumigated twice 

 with cyanide, the last time nearly burn- 

 ing the plants. I removed all the 

 branches except one, as I wished to 

 grow them singly, and I notice that the 

 branch I left is now suffering from the 

 trouble. There is something eating out 

 the center. I cannot find any pest in 

 the house except wireworms, and they 

 appear to be harmless. I have about 

 8,000 plants of Major Bonnaffon and 



ninety per cent of them are affected in 

 the way I have described. 



L. M. — Mass. 



The package of plants has not yet 

 come to hand, but L. M. 's description 

 of his trouble seems to indicate the 

 ravages of chinch bugs. Persistent 

 fumigating with cyanide once a week 

 should eliminate this bug. Meanwhile 

 about all L. M. can do is to take off the 

 superfluous shoots and endeavor to get 

 the plants grown into a healthy condi- 

 tion. There is still time to do this, 

 though it will make the crop quite late, 



Chas. H. Totty. 



Chrysanthemum William Turner Grown in Cloth House in California. 



MUMS IN CALIFORNIA. 



Those in the trade who keep in touch 

 with the broader phases of business de- 

 velopment are aware that in recent 

 years a movement of cut flowers east- 

 ward from the Pacific coast has set in 

 which has attained large volume in an 

 extremely short time, extending as far 

 as the tier of states composed of Texas, 

 Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South 

 Dakota and North Dakota and cover- 

 ing the far western section of the coun- 

 try after the fashion that the shipping 

 trade of the Chicago market covers the 

 middle west. Growing conditions in 

 the territory that supplies the Los 

 Angeles market are entirely different 

 from those that maintain in other parts 

 of the country and growers in the east 

 who have not had the opportunity to 

 visit the coast will be interested in the 

 accompanying illustrations showing how 

 chrysanthemums are grown in solid 

 beds in enormous cloth houses. 



The larger illustration was repro- 

 ► duced from a photograph made Septem- 

 ber 1, 1916, and shows a house of mums 

 being grown for the California Cut 

 Flower & Evergreen Co., Los Angeles. 

 The stock in this one house totals 150,- 

 000 plants. All the best shipping and 

 commercial varieties are included, one 

 of the most popular being Major Bon- 

 naffon. There is something about the 

 climate of southern California that is 

 especially suited to the growth of this 

 variety and growers of wide experience 

 say they never have seen such Bon- 

 naffons, even when grown for exhibi- 

 tion in the east, the middle west or in 

 Eyrope, as are turned out by commer- 

 cial growers near Los Angeles. In ad- 

 dition to the Bonnaffons, the large 

 white, William Turner, is grown in 

 quantity, some of the flowers from this 

 same house last year, as shown in the 

 illustration, measuring over sixteen 

 inches across. 



Aside from the ability to dispense 

 with glass and heat, what appeals most 

 forcibly to the eastern grower is the 

 planting in the solid ground, without 

 the use of the tables used everywhere 

 else except in a small southern section. 



