16 



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The Florists^ Review 



Januabt 18, 1917. 



a good color and are stiff. I also have 

 given the plants two doses of lime. The 

 house runs east and west and receives 

 all the sunshine there is. 



J. H. S.— Conn. 



As I see it, the only thing wrong with 

 your carnation culture is the lack of 

 uniformity in your house temperature. 

 As long as you allow it to drop to 42 

 degrees, the flowers will come along 



slower than they should. This condi- 

 tion likely will continue until you have 

 a mild, clear spell of weather toward 

 spring, and then you will have a deluge 

 of blooms. Make provisions for keeping 

 your house temperature at 50 to 52 de- 

 grees during the entire night, and raise 

 it to 60 degrees on cloudy days and 65 

 to 70 degrees at noon on bright days. 

 You then will soon see an improvement 

 in the size of your cut. A. F. J. B. 



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Easter Lilies. 



The date of Easter, 1917, is April 8, 

 and that is less than three months 

 away. It may seem a long time just 

 now, but remember that if lilies are to 

 be on time for that great flower festival 

 they must show their flower buds plain- 

 ly not later than February 25. After 

 that, given a minimum night tempera- 

 ture of 60 degrees, they should be along 

 in season. Plants should now be six 

 to nine inches high. If less than six 

 inches high they are late and will need 

 all the heat you can give them. Bet- 

 ter do the forcing now rather than after 

 the buds are showing. Probably you 

 have potted in 6-inch pots and filled 

 the pots about half full of earth. As 

 soon as the shoots are nine inches long 

 fill in this remaining space, leaving, of 

 course, a good margin to hold water. 

 Bulbs put in 4-inch pots must be shifted 

 into 6-inch pots before they become 

 matted. Spray the plants with nicotine 

 or fumigate them to keep aphis in 

 check. Throw away any diseased 

 stock; move backward plants to a 

 warmer location. Try to give all the 

 plants a temperature of as near 60 de- 

 grees at night as possible. 



Lilium Candidum. 



The beautiful and popular Madonna 

 lily will not stand hard forcing. Our 

 plants intended for Easter blooming 

 now are nine to twelve inches high and 

 are growing in a minimum temperature 

 of 50 degrees. Do not exceed this tem- 

 perature if you want good flowers. You 

 can force this lily into bloom as you 

 would giganteum, Formosa or Harrisii, 

 but the plants will produce flowers half 

 tbeir natural size and will be much 

 lacking in substance. 



Perennial Phloxes. 



Propagation of perennial phloxes is 

 comparatively simple at this season. If 

 you remembered to lift a few clumps of 

 such varieties as you wish to increase 

 your stock from, you can now place these 

 clumps in a temperature of 50 degrees. 

 When the cuttings are three inches long 

 take them off and root them as you 

 would mums or carnations, later potting 

 each singly. This stock can be grad- 

 ually hardened and planted outdoors 

 from the middle to the end of April. 

 You cannot go far wrong in working up 

 a good stock of the best varieties of 

 phloxes. The demand for them remains 

 constant and strong and a few clumps or 

 a bed of them near your house should 

 prove a splendid advertisement for you. 



Late-Flowering Fansies. 



Many florists either forget to sow 

 pansies in the early fall or, fearing an 

 inability to successfully winter them, 

 depend on seeds sown during the winter 

 to flower in early summer. Sow seeds 

 now in flats, in a temperature of 55 de- 

 grees. Later transplant them to other 

 flats and still later, if bench space per- 

 mits, -plant the young stock in a bench 

 in a house kept at 45 to 48 degrees at 

 night. Use a light, rich soil, one con- 

 taining a good proportion of well de- 

 cayed manure. Purchase good seeds, 

 and if you use a portion in separate 

 colors it should prove useful for bedding. 



Candytuft. 



Candytuft makes one of the best Me- 

 morial day crops. The giant white strain 

 is the best to grow and seeds should be 

 sown about the middle of January, so 

 that plants may be benched early in 

 March. I like to sow in flats and later 

 pot the plants off singly, planting out 

 before the little plants can become pot- 

 bound. It is important to grow the best 

 procurable strain of white candytuft and, 

 if you specialize in it, I would strongly 

 advise you to select some specially fine 

 types and sow seeds from them. Only 

 by doing this can you get a really su- 

 perior strain. 



Cinerarias. 



Cinerarias like cool weather and now 

 are making rapid growth. If they have 

 not yet been placed in their flowering 

 pots, they should be moved with as little 

 delay as possible. Give them a compost 

 containing one-third old cow manure 

 passed through a coarse screen and a 

 4-inch potful of fine bone to each bushel 

 of compost. A night temperature of 40 

 to 45 degrees is better in every way than 

 50 degrees; the warmer they are grown, 

 the more spindly and unsatisfactory will 

 the plants be, and the more effectively 

 will green aphis get in its work. _ If leaf 

 miners attack the folijLge give the 

 plants a spraying of NTco-Fume juice, 

 properly diluted. As the plants progress, 

 spread them out so that the foliage will 

 not become attenuated and weakly. A 

 weekly fumigation should be given to 

 keep green aphis away. 



GERANIUM FOLIAGE DISEASED. 



About a month ago I found spotted 

 leaves on two of my geranium plants; 

 now I have six or more. One is Scar- 

 let Bedder and the others are Poitevine. 

 The trouble commences on the new 

 leaves. Yellow spots come first, the 

 discoloration spreading until the sur- 

 face covered seems burned and dry. 

 While the plants have not died, they 

 are worthless to propagate from; in 

 fact, they make little growth after at- 

 tacked. 



This is my first year in this work and 

 I am having a bad time. I have only 

 two houses, each 25x62, and want to 

 add more eventually, but I must get 

 started right. Will you kindly tell me 

 if there are some kinds of plants that 

 I can start from seed now in flats and, 

 by transplanting to beds or pots, get 

 marketable pot plants or cut flowers 

 from them by spring? Owing to the high 

 price of coal, I am not able to buy 

 potted stock or bulbs. Could I do any- 

 thing with calceolarias, cinerarias, 

 snapdragons, salvias, cyclamens or prim- 

 ulas, or is there something better? I 

 shall appreciate your advice. 



A. R. H.— N. Y. 



The best plan is to throw away the 

 diseased geranium plants. If more 



trouble appears, give the plants a 

 spraying with Fungine, as per the di- 

 rections on the can. This is an excel- 

 lent and safe antidote for fungoid dis- 

 eases of all kinds. Geraniums want a 

 light, sunny house which is well venti- 

 lated. They like a dry atmosphere and 

 should not be sprayed overhead at all 

 when watering. Let the plants dry out 

 well between waterings. 



The following are some of the an- 

 nuals you can start from seeds for 

 spring sales: Salvias, petunias, vincas, 

 verbenas, salpiglossis, asters, stocks, 

 marigolds, zinnias, snapdragons, lo- 

 belias and begonias of the Vernon type. 

 Of these you can sow begonias, ver- 

 benas, vincas, snapdragons and petu- 

 nias now; the other kinds a little later. 

 Calceolarias and cinerarias you can 

 sow in late July or early August to 

 flower the following eason. Cyclamens 

 should be sown in August to flower for 

 Thanksgiving and Christmas of the fol- 

 lowing year. Primula Sinensis and P. 

 obconica can be sown from now until 

 April. For good holiday plants sow 

 this month. P. malacoides you need not 

 sow until July. If I were a beginner, 

 T would let the cyclamens and primulas 

 alone for at least one season. Special 

 care is needed to germinate seeds of 

 greenhouse annuals successfully. 



C.W. 



