16 



The Florists^ Review 



July 5, 1917. 



CARRYING CARNATIONS OVER. 



It will he greatly appreciated if you 

 Avill ;ins\vcr a (jiK'stiou on carnation 

 <-iiltiir(' t'(ir iiic, as I am grcon in this 

 )»usint'ss. Jiust year I jilaiitiMl a luuisf 

 of caniatidiis, alioiit 800 jilants. Tiicy 

 LTi-i'w lairly wi'll till tlic 40-bolow-Z(M-() 

 wcat licr cainc. Then they did lud l)lo()ni 

 ■\vcll. liiit as soon as the weather l>e- 

 <aiiie mild they liegiiu to bloom freely 

 ami they ikiw are hearing a jirofiise 

 eroji lit' flowers. Please tell me Avhether 

 it wdiihl |iay to cany them over, in 

 th.-it lase. h(.w shall I tr(>at them.' Shall 

 1 cut Iheiii <l(iwii, and how (ddsidy .' 

 What would he the hest feed for them.' 

 When I |ilaiited them last year I ]iut 

 iu entirely new soil. E. W.Can. 



If. as you state, you arc ''green'' 

 at the husiness, 1 Avould hesitate to 

 ad\ ise you to try to carry your carna- 

 tion> over for a second season. Many a 

 Ncteran gr(i\V(>r has ti'ied and failed. 

 AVhih' 1 feel conliilent that these fail- 

 ures have, in most cases at least, oc- 

 i'urred hecaus(> of failure to heed a 

 few facts which are ]iatent to anyone 

 who will take a secoiul thought, yet 

 a little more skill and judgment are 

 re(|nired in this oj)eratiou than in re- 

 ]ilantiiig from the iield. One of the 

 most important factors is that you can- 

 not cut haidx hard, in tlie heat of sum- 

 mer. ;i plant which has Avorkdl hard 

 Jill winter ami is pretty W(dl exhaiisti'il. 

 .and expect Jt to hfeak from the hai'il 

 Wood ami thii\e. This is the ino<t com- 

 mon cause ot' I'ailui'e. The old iiiaxin), 

 ' • \'ou cannot cat your cake anil h;i\'e 

 it,'' .applies in this case. In oi'.ler to 

 iiin cain.ation jilaiits <i\cr the secon<l 

 season \(Ui must s;icri(ice ;i portion ol' 

 the lir^t ^c^ason '> crop hv cutting the 

 ]ilants h.ack while the wi'uther is yet 

 ccunpa r.at i\ I'ly cool, thus .allowing the 

 jil.ants to ri'co\ (U' anil ni.akc a new 

 start iiniler fa\oi-ahle weather condi- 

 tions. 'I'liat means to s;iciilice at least 

 thi' .lum- clop anil part of the May 

 crop. 



Now for \iuir case. ^ i>\\ ;ii"e uji in 

 C'.anail.a, Avheie the temperature proh. 

 uhh' does not rise high emuigh to lie 

 o|ijiressi\-e to the I'.arnation. Assuming 

 that to he true, if your jikants have 

 not m.aiie .a iiorm.al season's growth, 

 so th.at they are in good i-omlition as 

 I'eg.ards the --upporting, you might he 

 ahle to run them right tlir(Uigh without 

 mn(di dillicidty. M.ake sure th.at the 

 .supjioits \ou .are using will hold the 

 plants erect during the tiext season. 

 ;is on that will largely dejiend your 

 success during the second season. Cii\e 

 the hi'ds a muhdi of half rotted stable 

 m.anure. to prevent too r.apid evapora- 

 tion, .after lirst sprinkling on ;i light 

 a|i]dication (d' gnuind hone. 'I'liis will 

 (•.aia'\' them through tlie summer, until 

 .about Si|it eui iier, when you can begin 

 feedine' a little with ernnnd sheeji ma- 

 nure, dried hlood, acid jdios^ihatc, 



tank.age or uny other food you may 

 wish to use. Keej) the jdjints ui)riglit in 

 the supi)orts, keep them disbudded and 

 ket'p them clear of aphis, thrips and 

 red spider. A failure to heed any one 

 of these ])rinciples would diminish, if 

 not ruin, vour chance of success. 



A. F. J. B. 



USING SOIL A SECOND SEASON. 



J Mease t(dl us whether it would be 

 ]ir(ditalde to use carnation soil for two 

 years. A.s it is almost impossible to 

 get the necessary helji, we thought we 

 might use the soil that is at i)resent in 

 the beiudu>s for aiu)ther season. What 

 kind of fertilizer should we use? 



C. AV. E. & S.— Pa. 



It would have to be a case of rather 

 stoni necessity before I would give up 

 changing the soil in my carnation 

 benches every- year. Occasionally we 

 run across a grower who claims to grow 

 high-grade carnations on the same soil 

 for several seasons in succession. "Just 

 as line as anyone coidd grow them on 

 new soil," is the way they usually 

 put it. Further inquiry, liowever, gen- 

 erally discloses the fact that tliese 

 claims need more or less modification. 

 1 know of only one instance where a 

 grower produced really high-grade car- 

 nations on what he called second-year 

 s(ul, and he admitted that the 



plants were slow in starting and 

 were not really in lirst-class condi- 

 tion until well along iu the season. The 

 blooms I saw were staged late in 

 March. I know of no method of han- 

 dling this kind of soil to restore it to 

 its original fertility. Should such a 

 method ever be discovered, it would in- 

 deed be a boon to the growers, espe- 

 cially the carnation growers. 



If you really find it necessary to use 

 some of this soil, 1 suggest that you 

 take out the plants ancl allow the soil 

 to dry out somewhat. Do not allow it to 

 become jiovvder-dry and do not allow it 

 to dry out too rajjidly, but touch up the 

 dry spots with the hose every day or 

 two until you have the whole bed just 

 a little drier than you would have it at 

 the time of planting. If you have some 

 well decaye<l cattle manure on the place, 

 si)read a la.ver about an iiudi thick over 

 tlie entire beiudi, preferably after you 

 have got the soil into the state de- 

 scribed. Then grind the whole mass 

 through a soil grimier, of which there 

 nuiy be nuiny styles, luit perhaps none 

 that is handier ;ind more practical than 

 the one m;ide at North Tonawanda, 

 X. Y. I think the W. F. Kasting Co., 

 of Bnfi'alo, \. Y., sells it. 1 refer to 

 the one whitdi is operated by hand. 



In the ahseiH'e of cattle manure, you 

 might substitute well rotted horse ma- 

 nure, to which you would add ))ulverized 

 sheep manure to the amount of 200 

 pounds to 1,000 square feet of bench 

 space. Level this otf and ])lant a few 

 days later, after adding moisture grad- 

 ually to the soil until it is iu ju-oper 

 condition for ])l;niting. Bone meal, acid 

 ])hosphate and other fertilizers may be 

 added later, .as they are needed. Run- 

 ning the soil through the grinder is for 

 the j)urj)ose of lireaUing it uj) .and also 

 thoroughly mixing it with the manure. 

 Both of these results are essential, in 

 mv estim.ation. A. F. J. B. 



I THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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. %'r»i'^.-»|-'^^»>-^.-»)-i^r»>-^V»)^yr»>^'» > 



A CHAIR OF FLOWERS. 



The '-chair'' shown in the accom- 

 p.anyiiig illustration was made by the 

 Art I'hual Co., of San Francisco, for 

 the fuiier.al of Alexander Davidson, the 

 sujierintemlent of Cypress Lawn ceme- 

 tery, S.an I'rancisco, for twenty-five 

 years', who w;is stru(d\ and killed re- 

 cently by an automobih^ as he was com- 

 ing out of the g.ate of the cemetery. 

 The ''chair'' repia'senti'd an expendi- 

 ture of $11111 ;ind was the tribute of the 

 cemetery enijtloyees. b'ussell rf)ses were 

 used, exce]it on the ,arm rests, which 

 were covered with Opludia roses, ami 

 the legs, which were made of sweet ]>eas. 

 S. II. G. 



S2 PER POUND. 



A llori^t in .a sni.all (dtv n^cently had 

 a weilding order lui whiidi the cost \v,as 

 not limited ipiite ^o dosidy ,as is cus- 

 tomary in his comtnunity. \(d only 

 ^\as he called on to decorate the (diuiadi. 



hut he was asked to do his host on the 

 houcpiets for the bride and her maid. 

 He receiveil .+30 for one and $25 for the 

 othei-, so he sjiari'd nothing. ''They 

 weighed twelve poUllds JlpiecO,'' llC 

 juauidly de, dares. 



Lightness .and ^race often are char- 

 .ai-terist ics ot' wedding Ixuiquets for the 

 attainment of vvhiidi the florist feels 

 liiins(dt' entitled to idi.arge, but the com- 

 parison ol' Weight with ])rice is some- 

 thing distinctly no\(d. Let us hop(^ 

 Weight will not heconie the st.andard cd" 

 value in cut llower arrangement. 



PARCEL POST C. O. D. FEES. 



< I rowers, and those of the retailers in 

 the tr.ade who take .ad\'antage of the 

 c. o. d. ser\ice ol' thi' ]i,aic(d ]iost, will 

 he int(>rested in the ch.anges that be- 

 came (d'fectivc .lulv 1. The fee for re- 

 Inruing money now is 10 cents for 

 .amounts of .t-lo and less and 11') cents for 

 .amounts of .-floii and less. The pay- 



