14 



The Florists' Review 



JANUABT 16, 1919. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



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casionally fed and were protected from 

 direct sunshine. 



PETUHIAS. 



About the end of the present month is 

 early enough to start petunias from 

 aeed. If you want doubles, secure seed 

 which is guaranteed to give a small 

 percentage of this type. The most satis- 

 factory manner, however, to propagate 

 doubles is from cuttings, and if you 

 have carried over some stock plants in 

 a moderately cool house you should be 

 able to get a nice crop of these cuttings 

 now. Petunias are most satisfactory 

 bedders; they also have much value for 

 use in baskets, vases and window boxes. 

 In the case of the singles, such charm- 

 ing pinks as Bar Harbor Beauty and 

 Eosy Morn, the California RuflBed Giant, 

 white and pink, and a good blue are 

 specially fine for bedding. 



VABIEOATED VINOAS. 



There is always a tremendous call for 

 variegated vincas for vases, baskets 

 and boxes, and country florists never 

 have much of a surplus of them. If you 

 are anxious to increase your stock, you 

 will find a good crop of nice, succulent 

 shoots coming up and these will root 

 readily in a propagating bench. Pieces 

 of the long, well ripened shoots will also 

 root, but take much longer. Another 

 way to increase the stock is division of 

 the roots. Wash away all the soil from 

 the roots before cutting them or pulling 

 them in pieces. After potting them, 

 keep them close and warm until they 

 are established. Later stand them along 

 the sides of a carnation bench and they 

 will make nice stock before spring sales 

 atart. I have mentioned only the varie- 

 gated vinca, but the green form is also 

 valuable and is by some preferred to 

 the variegated. Some cultured people 

 -class all variegated plants as pure freaks 

 and refuse to tolerate them. They are 

 certainly less popular than they were 

 twenty-five years ago, but are, I think, 

 entitled to a place in any garden. 



FUCHSIAS. 



Those charming old-fashioned plants, 

 the fuchsias, have come back into favor 

 a good deal during the last few years. 

 It is true we never see the mammoth 

 standards or pyramidal specimens which 

 I well remember were great features at 

 exhibitions in Great Britain in my boy- 

 hood days, but plants of small size, in 

 4-inch pots and upwards, are in good 

 demand. Fuchsias do well bedded out, 

 if in partial shade, but they are also 

 valuable in baskets, vases and piazza 

 boxes, especially where they are not ex- 

 posed to strong sunshine and are given 

 an adequate water supply. 



In baskets fuchsias are grand. All 

 varieties can be grown in this way. 

 Line the baskets with moss before filling 

 them with compost, which should be 

 tolerably rich. Varieties not of a droop- 

 ing' habit can be tied down to the wires 

 of the baskets for a time and then al- 

 lowed to grow naturally. The drooping 

 varieties, of which Trailing Queen is 



the best, need no tying unless it is with 

 the idea of covering any bare portion 

 of the basket. As a companion plant, 

 dot in a few of the Kenilworth ivy, 

 Linaria Cymbalaria. These fuchsia 

 baskets, if filled now, will be in fine 

 condition for selling in May. Some 

 pinching will be necessary, as well as 

 the removal of ekrly flowers. Give 

 them plenty of water and, after they 

 are well established, give them liquid 

 manure. Do not fill level full of loam, 

 but leave a hollowed out space for 

 water. Use three to five plants to a 

 basket, from 3-inch pots, according to 

 size. Fuchsias in baskets will flower 

 the entire summer if properly cared for. 

 Last season some of ours bloomed from 

 June until November. They did not 

 suffer from lack of water, were oc- 



FIOHTINa FIEIiD MICTB. . 



Field mice do great damage in some 

 winters, especially when we have a lot 

 of snow. They girdle many trees and 

 shrubs, eat up tulips and other bulbs 

 and also devour the roots of platycodong 

 and other hardy perennials. If the 

 ground would stay hard-frozen below 

 the winter mulch, they would do little 

 damage below ground, but in such a 

 winter as the present, with soft ground 

 when January came in, they are proving 

 troublesome. If you discover their 

 haunts, you can poison them by soak- 

 ing some strychnine and cracked corn 

 over night in warm water and dropping 

 some of the grain down their runs. 

 Fresh clover leaves, lettuce or cabbage 

 leaves and parsley can be dipped in the 

 strychnine and pushed into the runs. I 

 have also found that if a little coal tar 

 or creosote is poured here and there in 

 the runs, the rodents disappear. Where 

 trees are liable to be girdled, it is a good 

 plan to paint the stems to a height of 

 eighteen inches with creosote. It will 

 not harm the trees. 



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BEPAIBINQ DAMAGES. 



Examination of the individual adver- 

 tisements of our retail florists evinces 

 a singular circumstance. They all fea- 

 ture a decided reduction in price. The 

 inference is that prices have been con- 

 siderably too high to suit the average 

 purse. This is undoubtedly true and the 

 experience gained in the brief period of 

 exalted values should remain to forever 

 prevent a repetition. 



Much has been said, pro and con, upon 

 the subject, but it is undeniable that the 

 sudden elevation of prices materially in 

 jured business and served to counteract, 

 at least temporarily, the splendid bene- 

 fits of the national advertising. Nor 

 can the nefarious effects be remedied 

 immediately; it will take time. The 

 habits of the public have been inter- 

 fered with and it is realized that spe- 

 cific effort is required to remold them. 



The welfare of the trade demands the 

 elimination of great fluctuation in 

 values. There is something radically 

 wrong when an article which sold at $5 

 in the latter part of December is offered 

 the public at one-fifth of that figure 

 early in January. A comparative steadi- 

 ness in prices, with extremes carefully 

 avoided, should be productive of greater 

 ultimate good. Of course there are 

 times of shortage and oversupply, but 

 they are invariably brief; and, as the 

 trade is tolerably well organized, many 

 plans are feasible for relieving the pinch 

 of such situations. 



The retail trade is well organized, like- 

 wise the wholesale section. It would 

 seem that the growers supplying central 

 markets could secure mutual benefits by 

 getting together at regular intervals, 

 with a view to regulating the all-impor- 

 tant matter of supply. Without doubt, 

 there is urgent need of concerted effort 

 in this direction and, until it is forth- 



coming, conditions will remain much as 

 they are. Mac. 



THE 'COSMIC X7JIGE. 



An intimate acquaintance with the 

 personnel of the trade of the Sixth City 

 and its environs discloses the presence 

 within its fold of a few men who dream 

 of the accomplishment of greater things. 

 They are not many; they can be counted 

 upon the fingers of one hand, in fact. 

 A goodly degree of success already has 

 crowned their efforts, but this is not 

 sufficient. There is a keen desire to go 

 farther, to perform feats of hitherto un- 

 approached magnitude, to gain for them- 

 selves the plaudits of their confreres. 

 Placed in a circumscribed sphere of ac- 

 tion, they chafe at restraints and, with 

 an ambition nurtured by red-blooded 

 young manhood, they aspire to broaden 

 out and do something that will elevate 

 their profession in the business world of 

 the day. They are practical men who 

 think success and are filled to the brim 

 with the wholesome spirit of enterprise. 



May their tribe increase and may 

 their salutary influence stimulate the en- 

 tire local trade to the attainment of 

 better ideals! A new business era is 

 upon us and its full and proper real- 

 ization requires awakened faculties. 

 Wealth is more generally diffused than 

 ever before, the gospel of flowers is be- 

 ing preached by myriad voices and suc- 

 cess and prosperity eagerly beckon the 

 alert florist. The personal equation en- 

 ters more largely into calculationia than 

 at any previous time. Our great profes- 

 sion is yet in its infancy and its future 

 status is solely dependent upon the busi- 

 ness caliber of its present members. 

 May they all become inoculated in gen- 

 erous measure with the cosmic desire to 

 succeed. Mac. 





