20 



The Florists' Review 



OCTOBBB 4, 1917. 



MIOM 



aMAT.T., DISEASED PLANTS. 



I am sending you under separate 

 cover some diseased carnation plants. 

 I have a house of these that are more 

 or less affected. Would you advise try- 

 ing to nurse this stock through, or would 

 it be better to replant with new stock? 

 What is the best method of fighting this 

 trouble? D. H.— S. C. 



In my opinion, it would not pay you 

 to nurse along these carnation plants. 

 Even if they were not diseased, they 

 are so small that you could not expect 

 them to yield even half a crop of blooms. 

 By this time, plants that were benched 

 from pots should show at least ten or 

 twelve young breaks, while those from 

 the field must show that many or more, 

 if they are to give a satisfactory yield 

 during the early part of the season. I 

 would advise you to pull up these plants, 

 refill your benches with good, fresh 

 soil and replant with good, field-grown 

 plants. They will give you several 

 times their cost, over and above what 

 you could get from those you have now. 

 Do not make the mistake of retaining 

 the soil that is in the benches now. The 

 chances are that this soil is not in good 

 condition, or your plants would be mak- 

 ing a better showing. A. F. J. B. 



REMEDY FOR THRIPS. 



My carnations are developing splen- 

 didly, but there are a number of thrips 

 and bugs on them that I would like to 

 get rid of at once. I am enclosing a 

 clipping from The Eeview giving di- 

 rections on how to exterminate thrips, 

 but as the text does not seem complete 

 I would like to have you print instruc- 

 tions in greater detail. 



W. E. P.— Okla. 



Arsenic, when properly applied, is 

 one of the most efficacious insect reme- 

 dies we know of, but if not handled 

 carefully it is capable of doing as much 

 damage as any one thing you can get 

 hold of. The article in question, which 

 appeared in The Keview a couple of 

 years ago, was written to warn growers 

 against carelessness in using a formula 

 we had recommended for the extormi- 

 nation of red spider. The formula had 

 been given to us by a friend. We tried 

 it out carefully and found it most satis- 

 factory, but dangerous if not mixed 

 according to directions. Another friend 

 reported to us that an employee had 

 mixed a batch and applied it to a 200- 

 foot house of carnations with disas- 

 trous results. On inquiry he found 

 that the employee had followed direc- 

 tions to the letter, except that after 

 having the mixture ready to use he 

 boiled it and thereby heightened the 

 burning property of the arsenic. 



The formula is as follows: Mix one 

 pound of arsenic with five pounds of 

 white sugar. Then add enough water 

 to make a thick syrup. Use one drug 



ounce of this to one gallon of water 

 and spray it on the plants with a fine 

 spray. 



Remedies of this nature are all right 

 in aggravated cases where ordinary 

 remedies fail, but ordinarily we prefer 

 to use preventive measures. For sev- 

 eral years we have used salt to keep off 

 red spider, with the best of success. 

 We spray the plants at least once each 

 week and find this sufficient to keep 

 them away. For thrips we spray the 

 plants regularly with one of the nicotine 

 extracts and find it most satisfactory. 

 We find, almost invariably, that when 

 a grower complains of thrips, the spray- 

 ing or fumigation is done in a haphazard 

 sort of way. 



There are a number of methods of 

 applying these remedies, each one good 

 only when applied properly and regu- 

 larly. We spray the plants once each 

 week for thrips, as regularly as the 

 spraying day comes around. The man 

 who does the spraying has nothing else 

 to do that day uutil the spraying is 

 done. We have found that is the only 

 way to keep thrips away from the car- 

 nations. Red spider is not so persistent 

 as thrips, but it pays to keep the place 

 unhealthy for them, rather than to adopt 

 heroic measures to get rid of them after 

 they get a hold. A. F. J. B. 



SUPPORTING THE PLANTS. 



Information will be appreciated re- 

 garding how to use wire lengthwise and 

 cord crosswise to support carnations. 

 What gauge of wire is used? Is it best 



to use a heavier wire for the outer rows? 

 How far from the ground is the first 

 support placed? Is this method of sup- 

 port considered generally the best for 

 carnations? L. H. H. — O. 



Perhaps more carnations are sup- 

 ported by the wire and string method 

 than any other, or possibly all others 

 put together. The most modern method 

 is a combination of the wire and string 

 method and the wire ring support. One 

 of the numerous styles of wire rings is 

 used for the lower support. These are 

 put into place as soon as the planting 

 is finished, if the plants need support- 

 ing, or as soon after as the main weed- 

 ing and scratching have been finished. 

 We prefer to leave them off as long as 

 the plants will stand up properly, as 

 it is easier to work the soil without 

 the obstruction of the supports. When 

 the shoots begin to lengthen and addi- 

 tional supports ar,e needed, we stretch 

 the wires lengthwise of the bench, one 

 between each row and one on the outside 

 on each side of the bench. 



We use the same gauge of wire 

 throughout, preferably 15 or 16-gauge. 

 We prefer the soft steel, galvanized 

 wire. Then we cut strings of a proper 

 length to reach across the bench, al- 

 lowing enough length to provide for 

 winding once around each wire and ty- 

 ing on each side of the bench. Each 

 one of the two men working at the 

 job will take half of these strings. 

 Each will start a string from his side 

 of the bench, wrapping the string 

 around each wire until he has reached 

 the middle, when they will exchange 

 strings and proceed across to the edge 

 wire, where it is tied. Two handy 

 men or boys will tie the strings on one 

 tier of a 200-foot bench in one hour. 

 Two tiers, in addition to the lower wire 

 ring, are usually all that is needed, but 

 sometimes we find it necessary to apply 

 a third tier of the wire and string. If 

 you have not the wire rings, you can 

 use the wire and string method alto- 

 gether from the bottom up. Be sure 

 you stretch the wire tightly. 



A. F. J. B. 



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DISPLAYS OF HIGH QUALITY. 



Attendance Large. 



The third annual meeting and ex- 

 hibition of the American I)ahlia So- 

 ciety, held in conjunction with the 

 eighty-sixth annual fair of the Ameri- 

 can Institute, an account of which ap- 

 peared in last week's issue of The Re- 

 view, came to a close at the Engineer- 

 ing building. New York city, Septem- 

 ber 27. The two exhibitions were con- 

 sidered the finest in the history of 

 either society, both in the quantity and 

 quality of the dahlias shown, and the 

 attendance during the three days of 

 the exhibition was fully up to that of 

 former years. Richard Vincent, Jr., of 

 White Marsh, Md., estimated that more 

 than 10,000 flowers were shown. 



The exhibitions were under the man- 

 agement of W. B. Rickards and Secre- 

 tary Eggleson, of the American In- 



stitute. During the exhibition music 

 was furnished by an orchestra, which 

 added much to the show. The com- 

 bined exhibitions were so successful 

 this year that it already seems certain 

 that the same arrangement will be 

 made next year. 



The judges of the exhibits were 

 Peter Duff, William Turner, J. G. Mc- 

 NicoU, Prof. F. Hall, J. C. Clarke and 

 George H. Hall, who made the following 

 awards in classes wherein commercial 

 ifrowcrs were allowed to compete: 



Display covering 100 square feet — W. Atlee 

 Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, Pa., first. 



Display covering fifty square feet — N. Harold 

 Cotton & Sod, Wappingers Falls, N. Y., second. 



Six vases collerette dahlias, distinct varieties 

 — N. Harold Cotton & Son, first; C. Louis AUing, 

 second. 



Bowl or vase decoration — P. W. Popp, Mama- 

 roneck, N. Y., first; W. C. Noonan, Locust Val- 

 ley, N. Y., second. 



Basket cactus dahlias — P. W. Popp, first. 



Vase ball-ahaped double dahlias — P. W. Popp, 

 second. 



Decorative exhibit — John F. Anderson. Ber- 

 iiardsville, N. J., first. 



