ULY 26, 1917. 



The Florists' Review 



19 





How R. Vincent, Jr., & Sons Co., White Marsh, Md., Beat the High Cost of Labor in Planting Acres of Dahlias. 



1 LANTING OUT BY MACHINERY. 



Hc-ause of the scarcity and increased 

 I t of labor, machines arc taking the 

 I ' CCS of men on the K. Vincent, .1 •., 6c 

 > ii< Co. ijlace at Wliite ^Marsli, Md. 

 I I 'wing is done l)y tractor, while a 



I ; II ting machine is used to plant out in 



Held. The tractor and planting 

 ;;,.;rliine in operation are slif)Wii in the 

 ,1 ■ Miniianying illustrations. 



It was to meet the lahor conditions 



II it the Vincent conijiany e.xiieriinented 

 virli the macdiines. It was discovered 

 ili.it with tlie tractor one man can do 

 :!;.• wiirls of three men aiid ten horses. 

 Tinii' men and the ])lanting macdiine 

 I Ml accojiijilish as much in a day as six 

 ' ' <i'ven men. 



The soil is prepared for ]danting by 

 '!>k harrows drawn by the tractor. The 

 I'liiiter is of the same type that is used 

 tiT (danting out vegetables, tobacco and 

 "I her ]ila7its with the exception that for 

 the jdants named there is a barrel of 

 •"■iTer carried and a little is dropped at 

 till' root of each plant. I'or flower 

 i'l'ints, the barrel is removed and a plat- 

 I'lrm installed. "We can jdant with 

 this ma(diine about 20,000 2 inch pot 

 'hih'ia plants and the same quantity of 



inch pot canna ]dants," declares Mr. 

 '^ iiiccnt. 



THRIPS IN HOUSE AND FIELD. 



I am having trouide with thrips on 

 . 'adioli outdoors and in two houses, 



lie used for sweet pe.'is and the other 



' r carnations. 1 am anxious to get the 



' --ts cleaned out before the new crop 



I)eas is planted. I do not know 



'hether these are like the thrips in the 



:ist. The young ones are straw- 



dored and cannot jump far. The 



iiture insects are black and about 



■le eighth of an inch long, and 



II jump fast. I ha\e two lieds of Bon- 

 ift'ou mums in the sweet pea house and 



iese insects are on them also. I am 

 ^raying Avith Nico-Fume twice a week, 

 ringing with strong pressure twice a 

 ;iy and keejiing the ground stirred. 

 ■ his does not seem to ludp. Will Paris 

 reen or ars<'nate of lead ludp and at 

 hat strength is it safe to use these in- 

 doors? Will fumigating with tobacco 

 terns help? The tlirips are much worse 

 utdoors than in the lu)uses. 



V. (1.— Mo. 



l>o not use I'aris green alone, it will 

 not kill the pests and will probably burn 

 the f<diage. Neither will arsenate of 

 lead jirove effective in itself and it 

 disfigures foliage badly. Tobacco stem 

 fumigation I have little faith in. 



C. W. 



A FAILURE WITH BEGONIAS. 



I have had a failure with tuberous 

 begonias and should like to g(!t some 

 suggestions as tt) the piobalde cause. 

 The tubers were startecl in flats in Feb- 

 ruary and made a fine growth at first, 

 but since they were moved from 4-inch 

 ]>ots into ri-incli and (Mnidi pots to flower 

 they have been going down steadily. 

 The root action is jioor. The flowers 

 wither as soon as they open and the 

 ]dants have a sickly apeparance, with 

 sdmetimes a branch or leaf stem rot- 

 ting. The soil us(>d was such as we 

 grow coleus in, consisting of one part 

 leaf-mold, one ])art rotted manure and 

 three i>arts old compost from the sweet 

 pea beds. The s(ul is clay. Was this 

 loo light and rich for tlie final potting? 

 The plants arc in a shaded house. The 

 viMitilation is not first-class and the 

 temperature runs from 90 to 100 de 

 grees in the daytime, with alxHit (50 de- 

 grees at night. Would a cooler house 

 suit them better and slio\ild they be car- 

 ried wet or on the dry side? Does wet- 

 ting the foliage on liright days harm 

 them.^ V. C — Mo. 



Try spraying with a mixture of one 



.'ound of I'aris green, 1<'0 gallons of 



'•^ater and twenty pounds of brown 



' ugar. J have found this quite effective. 



Your soil was not of the best for 

 tuberous begonias. If you would leave 

 out the leaf-mold at the last potting and 

 use one part old, deca.\('(| cow or horse 

 manure and thri'e parts W( II rotted and 

 broken up sod, with some coarse sand 

 and broken charcoal added where the 

 loam is of a clayey, retentive nature, 

 your jdants would do much better. How- 

 ever, I think you have grown them much 

 too warm and close. These begonias 

 need some shade and should not be 

 syringed overhead at all. They want a 

 (■Old and well \entiiate(l house and the 

 shade must not be hea\y. .\ilow them 

 to dry out fairly well between the 

 waterings, but ne\ cr let them become 

 anything like dustdrv. Frmi well with 

 lici'.iid manure when the pots are well 

 filled with roots. C. W. 



PLANTS FOR CHRISTMAS BLOOMS. 



I would like to have some jdants in 

 Idoom at Christmas and want to know 

 when to jdant and when to expect 

 blooms of the flowers: Godetias, bro- 



wn llias, la\ateias, Scilla sibirica, [lusch- 

 kinias. Anemone (ii.ant St. l»rigid. Al- 

 lium neapolitaniim ^ra rolitloniin. 



L. A, W. Miss. 



You cannot flower Scilla sibirica, 

 l'us< hkinia lilianotica, Aneniout; St, 

 Ibigid. Alliiini iieapolitanum .-ind lava- 

 ter.'is for ( 'hrist ina^. Hfow ;i II ia-<, if 

 sown now, can be llowereil at th;it time, 

 aiid godetias sown c'li-ly in Aii'_;ii<' atid 

 L;ros\n as cool a-- [lossiKle c.-in In; 

 tlov\ered for the holidays. .\one of the 

 plants you name will pro\c nt' niiudi 

 value for the holidays. ( iodet i;i-;. i'\ I'U 

 if you can flo\\( r ihein. .are likel\' to be 

 in pool' condition during the ijarkest 

 jiel lod of the vear. < '. W. 



SMILAX THE THIRD YEAR. 



Will sniilax plant-^ iU> well the fiiird 

 year, providing the\' are (leaned and 

 transplant (n| into new soil.' The jdants 

 ari' doing splendidly, ^i/nding up a fine 

 liat( h o\' new shoots. C. A. -l*a. 



Smilax may tie erown for threi- yeai'S 

 in the s.'iirie tied if the plants remain in 

 good condition, and prolialdy will give 

 better results without ri'planting. Re 

 move the rutibish from the surface (d' 

 the boij and flu' d(\ad L^rowfii I'roin the 

 plants; then eive the plants a good top- 

 dressing, with the compost consisting of 

 one jiart s(ul and one jmrt cow' manure. 



Syringe the plants regularly and 

 water them moderately until the growth 

 gets a start. .Vf'ter this season it wandd 

 be safer to dij,' (Uit the bed, refill it with 

 ni'w soil and plant witli strtuig, \(iung 

 idanf^ from .binch ptds. W. u'. T. 



OLEANDER FOLIAGE BURNED. 



1 am eni losing some cdeander leaves 

 and wouM like to ha\e you tell me the 

 cause of their condition. 



C. K. W.— X. .1. 



This corolition may \>o due to tin; 

 plants having been kept too dry wiiilo 

 in winter storage. If you w.itcr the 

 pla'its abundantly, feed them with 

 liijuid manure or to[>-dress them and 

 syringe them fre(dy. tliev will soon 

 make abutidant new growth. ' '. W. 



Peoria, 111. --The continued advance 

 of prices i>\' materials has caused the 

 florists of I'eoria to form an organi/.a- 

 tion for the purj)ose of pofditiL: their 

 puridiases in the future. Plans for the 

 coiijierat ive buying weie com|ilettMl at 

 a meeting last week at the Sieljeiithal & 

 .Nelson store. 



