August 9, 1917. 



The Florists^ Review 



23 



SPENCERS FOR CHRISTMAS. 



Are the new early-flowering Spencer 

 sweet peas, like Early Morning Star, 

 Early Heather Bell, etc., suitable for 

 winter growing? If so, when should 

 they be planted to flower by Christinas? 



R. E. M.— Okla. 



Yes. Sow early in September for a 

 Christmas crop. 



C. W. 



HOME GROWN SWEET PEA SEED. 



There are some good looking ripe seeds 

 on my Spencer sweet pea vines and I 

 should like to know wliat success I am 

 likely to have if I plant these seeds the 



«'0ming season. 



A. S.— 111. 



There is no reason why your sweet 

 ))ea seeds should not prove j)erfectly sat- 

 isfactory, and if you are growing only 

 (ine or two special varieties they should 

 come fairly true to color — more so, per- 

 liaps, than manv which are sold. 



C. W. 



APHIS ON SWEET PEAS. 



Will you i)lease tell nie what will de- 

 stroy aphis on outdoor sweet ])eas? I 

 liave sprayed them witli commou soap 

 ;ind witli fish oil soap, hut tiie blooms 

 were injured so badlv as to bo worth- 

 less. ' E. A. P.— Md. 



Try nicotine, whicli will reach the 

 I'est bettor than any otiier insecticide, 

 r.se it according to the printed instruc- 

 tions on the cans. There are several 

 ♦•xceilent brands of li(juid nicotine on 

 tiie market. 8])ray in the evening, not 

 wiieu tiie sun is sliining, and syringe 

 with cold water early tiie next morn- 

 ing. 



C. W. 



GARDENIAS FOR CHRISTMAS. 



Please tell me how to grow gardenias 

 so as to have tlicm in bloom by Decem- 

 l)er. I tried tliem tliis season and tliey 

 did not bloom until April. I j)lanted 

 tliem in the bed at the end of June and 

 tliey grew well and made a great maii\' 

 ImkIs by November. I then took off 

 all surplus shoots around the buds, ex- 

 pecting to h;ive jdenty of blooms for 

 <'liristmas, but from tiiat time on they 

 tiid not do well. In March the buds 

 ijogan to swell. I kej)t them in a tem- 

 perature of 7o to 72 degrees. Is it 

 <-ustomary to disbud tlicse jdants? I 

 have 400 plants and from tlie middle of 

 A])ril I have been cutting from loO to 

 200 blooms per day, but at that date 

 they are too late to be of much value in 

 the trade. Would you advise carrying 

 over the old jtjants for another vear.' 



C. J. R.— Ga. 



Cardenias are by no means an easy 

 croji to flower for tlie holidays. The 

 soil should be quite jiorous, so that 

 wati'i passes readily tliroiigh it, and 

 should consist of librous loam with the 

 liner particles screened out. dried cow 

 inaiiuro W(dl broken up and partly de- 

 cayed lea \ OS. Some t-oarse sand also 

 should be added, especially if the loam 

 is heavy, to give the soil more porosity. 

 A few growers succeed in tloworing gar- 

 denias well in solid beds, but I have 

 had the best success with them in raised 

 benches, with heating pipes running be- 

 low them to give a little bottom heat. 

 I prefer to use from four and one-half 



Some Well Known Chicagoans Take an Afternoon Off. 



to five inches of soil and do the bench- 

 ing in June. 



Your winter temj)erature of 70 to 72 

 degrees is too high for night. At night 

 62 to 05 degrees is amide and on severe 

 nights GO degrees is better. Ventilate 

 a little when the temjierature gets up to 

 72 degrees on cloudy days or 75 degrees 

 with sun. C.ardeiiias need careful 

 watering to avoid a loss of buds. It is 

 a safe plan to allow the benches to dry 

 out toleraldy well between waterings. 

 Give the jdants a tiiorough syringing 

 twice a week even in midwinter, to keep 

 them clean, selecting (dear mornings for 

 the work. Lighter sprayings may be 



given at shutting up time in the after- 

 noon. 



Gardenias \vill Idoom earlier in jiols 

 than in Ix'iudies. Last season I ha<l a 

 batcli in 8 iiudi jiots which started to 

 bloom about Xoveniiier 20 and gave a 

 tine Christmas ciop. These same plants 

 bloomed profital)ly until May 20. They 

 wci'e grown in a liouse witli ]»oinsettias 

 and begonias, wiiei'e tlu^ a\(>rage mini- 

 iiiiim in wintei' was 55 degices, and 

 occasionally lower. f think yoii ke|it 

 your ]ilants too dose and warm. Keep 

 them somewhat cooler and air nu)re 

 freely .and \du -^liouid i;et much earlier 

 flowers. ' '. \V. 





r 



^ 



^ OBSERVATICTS[ CAKgl! p 





» 



With liberty loans, war taxes an.l 

 other big figures goes the information 

 that the Poehlmann Bros. Co., of Chi- 

 cago, uses .1!»,ooo tons of soft coal tluring 

 the season. 



Growers at Philadelphia were puzzled 

 last wtH'k li\- the receijit of printed 

 forms from the go\ernmeiit asking tlnin 

 as to theii- find siip|ily. •Witli wlioiii 

 lia\f you placed your emit ract .' " " was 

 the ipiestion that bothered the grower^ 

 most. How mucli and what kind td' 

 coal the ijitVeieiit industries letjuire is 

 probably what tlie go\ enniient is driv- 

 ing at. 



Paul Janisch, of the Broad Hippie 

 Floral Co., Indianapolis, recently jiur- 

 chased an automobile. Since then he 

 has been purchasing liberty bonds. No. 

 not the kind that boars interest at the 

 rate of throe anil one-half per cent, but 

 the kind that gets one what the word 

 implies, freedom. Twice he has been 

 arrested for speeding; a like numlior 

 of times he has engaged in disputes 

 with policemen about how long his car 

 has been parked. Not unlike his great 

 namesake, Paul, the evangelist, Paul 

 now preaches many sermons, but with- 

 out exceiition tiiey are on one subject — 

 policemen. 



Sam Seligman went li>liing to rest. 

 Asked how he managed to do Itotli at 

 one time, Sain replied: "I had jdent} 

 of time to rest while fishing, because the 

 lug fish didn't bother me much; I onl\ 

 lia<l to wake uji now .and then to thidw 

 a minnow back into the water.'' 



It sounds almost too good to be true, 

 but it is fact that the II. Weber \ 

 Sons Co., at Oakland, Md., heats its 

 iioiises witii natural gas, of wliich there 

 is an abundance, and when it becomes 

 -o cold that coal is necessary — why. the 

 ioial minors are glad to furnisti the 

 artnde at $1.5U per ton. ("Printer, set 

 that !fl.50, not $3.50.) 



Some men are bom wealthy, some 

 achieve wealth, while others have 

 wealth thrust upon them. Several 

 years ago Charles Thorley. the New 

 York retailer, had a lease on a store 

 whore now stands the Times building, 

 lie is said to haxc receixcd .*;tO,000 a 

 vear for the surrender ot' the lease. 

 Now the building at Fifth avenue and 

 I'luty sixth street, known as the "Thor- 

 ley corner,'' has been sold, and Mr. 

 Thorley is found to be the possessor of 

 another lease. It apj)oars certain that 

 lightning will strike in the same placi' 

 a secon(l time. 



