42 



The Florists^ Review 



Marcu 2!), 1917. 



although I would not be positive about 

 it. A scant inch of manure on the bot- 

 tom of the bench is ample, and even 

 that is not essential to success. For next 

 season, mix your carnation soil early 

 this spring, using four parts of sod soil 

 and one part of stable manure. If the 

 stems are strong, your soil has enough 

 lime. A. F. J. B. 



OUR NOVELTIES IN ENGLAND. 



One of the British trade papers, in 

 <Uscussing carnations, recently said: 

 ^'A good rule of life is, if one cannot 

 say anything nice of people, to say 

 nothing at all, and if one applied this 

 rule in this case, one would not have 

 much to say of most of the novelties 

 of 1916. A bevy of American varieties 

 have not made good, on this side of the 

 water. Miss Theo, a rose-pink, is too 

 blue, small and sleepy for this climate 

 The reds, Aviator, Belle Washburn, 

 Nebraska and Red Wing, all show the 

 .weakness of reds in midwinter by go- 

 ing slaty. Red Wing is worth trying 

 again, as it measures up and is sim- 

 ilar to Beacon, still one of the best in 

 this color. Aviator, too, is of fine color 

 at times. Finally, Alice Coombs, a 

 bright salmon-rose-pink, although of 

 good color and substance, is slow, prob- 

 ably too slow to make a first-class mar- 

 ket variety, and even the Corner va- 

 riety, Nancy, a fine salmon-pink and 

 good grower, opens too slowly." 



EXTERMINATOR OF CUTWORMS. 



I am having considerable trouble with 

 grubworms or cutworms in my green- 

 house. The pests devour everything, 

 and seem to be particularly fond of 

 carnations and smilax. During the day 

 they are invisible, but after dark they 

 crawl up on the stems and eat the 

 leaves. They drill holes through the 

 carnation buds and destroy the flowers 

 completely; even the roots suffer heav- 

 ily. What is a good exterminator of 

 these pests? I have used carbon bi- 

 sulphide, but this treatment has been 

 ineffectual. The soil was taken from 

 an old field and well rotted manure was 

 added. H. 0.— N. D. 



Your carnations undoubtedly are be- 

 ing attacked by one of the common cut- 

 worms, of which there are several varie- 

 ties. They feed at night, and that is 

 why you do not see them during the 

 day. If you will take a strong bull's- 

 eye lantern late at night, you will be 

 able to see many of them and destroy 

 them. Another method is to scatter poi- 

 soned bait where the insects are doing 

 <lamage. Mix some bran with enough 

 molasses to make a mash, then incorpor- 

 ate in it enough Paris green to make it 

 deadly. The cutworms will eat the 

 sweetened bran in preference to most 

 vegetation. You perhaps will find this 

 the most efficient remedv. A. F. J. B. 



CARNATION BUDS HOLLOW. 



If you closely examine the enclosed 

 carnation bud you will notice that it 

 is hollow. About one-half of my car- 

 nation buds come in that condition, and 

 I would like to know the cause of the 

 trouble and a remedy for it. The com- 

 post is good, with about four inches of 

 ^•ell rotted manure in the bottom. 



Whenever the plants seem dry I water 

 them, usually in the morning. The soil 

 seems to contain little lime, but whether 

 or not carnations require lime I do not 

 know. The temperature in the house 

 averages about 50 degrees, and when it 

 goes higher on warm days I open the 

 ventilators. I have not used liquid 

 manure on the beds. 



C. E. B.— Pa. 



While the specimen arrived in a fresh 

 condition, it guvc no clue as to the prob- 

 able cause of your trouble. One could 

 see that it would never develop into a 

 good flower; but there was no sign of 

 insect or fungus. You did, however, 

 make a serious mistake in putting four 

 inches of manure under the soil when 

 filling your bench. That may possibly 

 lia\e something to do with the blasting. 



THE F. T. D. IS GROWING. 



In line with the provisions for pub- 

 licity made at their special meeting at 

 Chicago last year, the members of the 

 Florists' Telegraph Delivery Associa- 

 tion are accomplishing a great deal of 

 missionary work in educating the public 

 to the uses of the F. T. D. service. With 

 each member availing himself of every 

 opportunity to acquaint the people of 

 his territory with the service, this phase 

 of the retail business is bound to grow 

 rapidly. Perhaps an indirect result of 

 the drive for more F. T. D. orders has 

 been an addition of about fifty new 

 members to the association's member- 

 ship list since the first of the year. 

 There now are approximately 425 

 F. T. D. stores, indicating that one 

 branch of the business is rapidly becom- 

 ing better organized. 



A ROSE OF PRIME QUALITY. 



The title, "A Rose of Prime Quality," 

 is not intended as an authoritative 

 statement, but only as an attempted 

 definition — a plausible interpretation of 

 the name Primerose, with which one of 

 the new roses has been christened. 

 Please do not omit the "e" at the end 

 of the first syllable of the name, for 

 the rose is supposed to be "prime"; 

 that is, "first in rank or excellence," as 

 Webster says. And some of the noted 

 rosarians, such as E. G. Hill, Chas. H. 

 Totty and A. N. Pierson, Inc., have 

 watched the behavior of the rose long 

 enough so that they have confidence in 

 it and feel safe in recommending it as 

 being reasonably worthy of its name. 

 In helping to disseminate it, they do 

 not seem to have serious fears that 

 their reputation for honesty and good 

 judgment will suffer on its account. 



Primerose is a hybrid tea and was in- 

 troduced in 1913, by Soupert & Netting, 

 one of the famous European firms whose 

 names naturally occur to us whenever 

 we think of roses. 



Apparently the aforementioned trio 

 of authorities, Messrs. Pierson, Hill and 

 Totty, have not borrowed their opin- 

 ions of the rose from one another, but 



each speaks from personal observation. 

 Yet they seem to be in substantial ac- 

 cord with reference to the main char- 

 acteristics of the rose. They agree that 

 it is at least fairly free in growth and 

 of good habit; that its foliage is of a 

 bronzy cast, "deep bronzy maroon 

 when young and bronzy green in later 

 stages ' ' ; that the bud is long and pointed 

 and the fully developed flower is shapely 

 and of good size. They even agree ap- 

 proximately in their description of that 

 almost indescribable quality, the color 

 of the flower. They say that the hue is 

 "saffron and cream with apricot shad- 

 ings," "Indian yellow with apricot 

 shadings," "a deep shade of pinkish 

 yellow," or "melon yellow in warm 

 weather, golden yellow with apricot 

 shadings in autumn and winter. ' ' 



Mr. Totty says that the rose, under 

 his culture, seems to be proof against 

 mildew and spot and that he ' ' feels 

 sure it has a future as a greenhouse 

 rose. ' ' He says it resembles Ophelia, 

 l)ut has more substance and color. 



ROSE FOLIAGE SCORCHED. 



I am enclosing some rose leaves. Can 

 you tell me the cause of these leaves 

 falling off? I think there may be a 

 gas leak. Would this cause the leaves 



