Apbil 10, 1919. 



The Florists' Review 



29 



Decoration for a Memorial Service for Lodge Members who Died in the Great "Wat, 



them until the weather becomes settled 

 and they will come in well ahead of 

 open-air-sown seedlings of the same an- 

 nuals. 



PERENNIAL PHLOX. 



Aa the perennial phlox clumps start 

 to push up their numerous shoots is the 

 proper time to take a liberal batch of 

 nice, succulent cuttings, which will prac- 

 tically all root in any propagating 

 bench which will root mums or carna- 

 tions. You can hardly grow too many 

 of the best varieties of hardy phlox, 

 such as Miss Lingard, Elizabeth Camp- 

 bell, F. G. Von Lassberg, Europa, Le 

 Mahdi, Coquelicot, Eichard Wallace, 

 Eynstrom, Beacon and Esperance. You 

 can either pot off these cuttings singly, 

 or lift with good roots and line out eight 

 inches apart in the field or garden about 

 May 1. These will give you a hand- 

 some truss of flowers each at a time 

 when the older clumps are on the wane 

 and make excellent clumps for fall 

 sales. Be sure to give them a deep, 

 well enriched soil, but do not use any 

 fresh manure about them. 



STEVIAS. 



It may seem unimportant to bother 

 about the stevias now, when so much 

 else needs doing, but next fall and win- 

 ter you will be badly handicapped un- 

 less you have a good batch of this use- 

 ful little flower. This will serve as a 

 reminder that there still is time to put 

 in a generous batch of cuttings. They 

 root easily and should then be potted 



off, pinched and grown cool. In a short 

 time they can go into a coldframe, to 

 gradually harden them before time for 

 planting out. Perhaps you may prefer 

 to grow your stevia in pots through tlie 

 summer and this plan has the advantage 

 of securing nice, stocky plants, which 

 can be flowered a little earlier than 

 lifted stock, and it does away with the 

 work of digging up and potting. Of 

 course, against this is to be placed ad- 

 ditional labor in watering and potting, 

 but, having tried both plans, the writer 

 of this note has concluded that pot cul- 

 ture gives finer plants, better flower 

 spikes and more of them than are pro- 

 duced on field-grown plants. For pot 

 plants, the dwarf form of serrata is 

 best, but for cutting by all means grow 

 the tall variety. 



A BELGIAN'S WAR EXPERIENCE. 



The name of De Smet Freres is well 

 known to large numbers of American 

 florists who never have visited Belgium, 

 for it was on the labels of some of the 

 best azaleas that came to this country 

 before the war. The following letter, 

 then, will be of interest to many readers 

 of The Review. It was written by one 

 of the De Smet brothers and was made 

 public by a customer in England. In 

 part it was as follows: 



The communication states that the 

 Germans arrived in Ghent October 12, 

 1914. "In September we had already 

 some battles in our neighborhood, but 

 we did not suffer and we went to visit 

 the battlefields. We established our 



daughters at Heyst, but they fled from 

 there and went to England, where they 

 are now, but we expect them back every 

 day. Mr. Snow, of Bush Hill Park, took 

 them under his protection and Mr. 

 Eisele, of Henry A. Dreer, Philadel- 

 phia, provided them with money. We 

 knew all that and were contented and 

 happy, although we had scarcely a let- 

 ter from them. Everything has been 

 dear and scarce. Nearly every month 

 the German soldiers came to our houses 

 to look for plunder. They requisitioned 

 all our copper, wool, leather, bicycles; 

 our meat, ham, eggs, butter and other 

 food in the house they took away. But 

 we put most things away in security and 

 they could only find a little plunder. 

 They are thieves and murderers, but we 

 bore everything with courage, knowing 

 that we would be victorious. From Oc- 

 tober 25 to November 11 last we had 

 dangerous days during the battles 

 around Ghent. The Germans had put 

 sixty cannon close to our nurseries, and 

 we heard during all those days the sheila 

 flying and whistling over our nurseries, 

 but we suffered no more damage than a 

 lot of glass broken by shrapnel." 



Toledo, O. — Philip Breitmeyer, of De- 

 troit, stopped off to congratulate Mrs. 

 E. Suder on passing another milestone 

 in her life of floral activity. Fifty years 

 in the same place is an enviable record 

 and our busy confrere is as active as 

 ever, although her son, Arnin, now has 

 charge of the greenhouses, which are 

 filled with a choice line of Easter stock. 



