Jolt 3, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



15 



growers have quit cucumbers for an en- 

 tire season to get rid of the disease by 

 planting houses to roses or carnations 

 or any crop for a change. 



The wilt does not usually appear until 

 the vines are full-grown and bearing, or 

 ready to bear. The stalks, branches and 

 leaves turn dark when they wilt. Some- 

 times the cucumbers are partly decayed. 



There is no such thing as a cure for 

 any plant affected with wilt disease, 

 even if you cut off the wilted branches. 

 The plant will soon die anyhow. Many 

 plants, although diseased, do liot show 

 it until the water-carrying tubes are 

 entirely stopped up with bacteria, there- 

 by preventing the water supply from 

 coming up the stalk. So if all wilted 

 plants are removed, more may show up 

 later. After long experience with it, 1 

 should say the only thing you can do is 

 to clean up, and clean up thoroughly. ' 



HONEY DEW UNDER GLASS. 



I am replying to E. L. — Mass. in re- 

 gard to growing Honey Dew melons un- 

 der glass. I grew this variety at Lake- 

 wood Farm, Holland, Mich., last year, 

 and WKs much disappointed with it. 

 From my experience it requires a long 

 season to ripen the fruit, and I am sure 

 could not be grown profitably under 

 glass. 



The seed was sown February 21. The 

 plants were put in solid beds March 15 

 in a temperature of 70 to 75 degrees at 

 night. As the plants bloomed, hand pol- 

 lenizing was necessary to get a good set 

 of fruit. In August the vines began to 

 dry off. The fruit was gathered, but 

 was not ripe. 



Some of the melons were placed in a 

 cupboard in the potting room and kept 

 until Thanksgiving day. They were in 

 good condition then and would most 

 likely have kept until Christmas. 



This year I have a house, 28x50 feet, 

 devoted exclusively to melons. The Eng- 

 lish forcing varieties are grown. The 

 first bench was sown February 15. The 

 first melon was picked May 23 and the 

 last June 25. I have four solid beds in 

 the house. The plants are spaced two 

 feet apart in a doublef row. The rows 

 a.T'^i only one foot apart. This gives 

 tVsnty-two plants to the row, or forty- 

 four plants to the bench. These are 

 trained on a trellis. The plants are al- 

 lowed to grow up the trellis to a height 

 of five or six feet, when the top is 

 pinched out. This causes the side shoots 

 to develop and it is on the side shoots 

 that the fruit is produced. 



I pinch the side shoots at the third or 

 fourth leaf. As the blossoms open, pol- 

 lenizing is necessary to set the fruit. 

 This can be done by hand, but a far bet- 

 ter way is to let the bees do it. 



I have a hive of bees on the south 

 side of the melon house, with an open- 

 ing made for the bees' to enter the house, 

 which they do freely when the plants 

 are in bloom. After the fruit is set, the 

 hive is opened on the outside. As the 

 other benches come into bloom the hive 

 is closed on the outside and the bees 

 work inside to perfection. This gives 

 a perfect set of melons. 



As the fruits attain the size of an egg 

 they are thinned to three or four on each 

 plant. The fruits that are left on the 

 plant must all be the same size or they 

 will not swell evenly. The fruits when 

 ripe will average six to eight pounds 

 in weight, and many will be as high as 

 ten pounds. From one plant I gath- 

 ered two melons, weighing ten and one- 

 quarter and nine pounds, respectively. 



^ mvjiLuji4Lmmm^is^it.i^^ 



WHO'S WHO KLAND WHY 



^lft^fflf«l»^ffififly^«iy«Bf^l??^^ 



MARTIN EOHANKIE. ^ 



-"pEONIES from the acres of Martin Kohankie, at Painesville, Ohio, have taken 

 X prizes at shows for many years. How he is able to do so is easily seen when 

 one knows that in the fields about Mr. Kohankie 250,000 peonies bloomed. The 

 section illustrated is about eight acres in extent, and was in almost full bloom. 

 The variety in the row where Mr. Kohankie is giving the high sigf is Lamartine, 

 a free-flowering pink. Other well known varieties, such as Festiva Maxima, 

 Jeanne d'Arc, Dorchester, Duchesse de Nemours, Philip Crousse, M. Jules Elie, 

 Richardson's Rubra Superba, Marguerite Gerard and Venus, grow near by in large 

 numbers. But peonies are not all Mr. Kohankie has in his sixty-five acres. The 

 greater part of the tract, indeed, is given over to perennials. 



The variety is Sutton's Superlative. 

 If E. L. wishes to force melons for an 

 early market, I should advise him to try 

 only the forcing varieties, and of these 

 I have found Sutton's Superlative the 

 best. I have tried several varieties of 

 outside melons under glass, but have not 

 been successful in getting a good crop. 

 I have also tried the American-grown 

 forcing Emerald Grem, but these have not 

 the flavor or size of the Sutton varieties. 

 Unless E. L. has had experience in the 

 growing of melons under glass, I would 

 advise him to try the growing of these 

 fruits in an experimental way, as melon 

 growing is one of the high arts of horti- 

 culture and requires more than ordinary 

 skill to be successful. 



Alfred H. Brown. 



ROOTING DIFFICULT SUBJECTS. 



A number of commonly grown stove 

 and greenhouse plants are so. readily 

 propagatid by means of cuttings that no 

 detailed directions for pl'eparing the 

 cuttings are necessary. On the contrary, 

 many subjects are difficult to increase in 

 this way, and special treatment must be 

 accorded them in order to insure success. 



The selection of the cuttings is an all- 

 important matter, says a British garden- 

 ing authority, and, generally speaking, 

 the most satisfactory are the shoots of 

 medium vigor. The shoots, which should 

 be of the current season 's growth, should 

 be taken when they have lost their suc- 

 culent character and before they are 

 fully matured. This system is effective 

 in the case of the majority of hard- 

 wooded plants, provided the after-treat- 

 ment is correct. They may be dibbled 

 into clean, well-drained pots filled with 

 a mixture of peat and sand, which has 

 been passed through a sieve having a 

 14-inch mesh. This compost must be 

 pressed down firmly; when inserting the 

 cuttings care should be taken that the 

 lower part is securely fixed in the soil. 

 When the pot or pots are filled with cut- 

 tings, give water freely through a fine 

 rose, in order to settle everything in its 

 place. They should then be placed in 

 a close propagating case, or covered with 

 a bell-glass. A temperature a few de- 

 grees higher than that in which the par- 

 ent plants grew will be suitable for the 

 cuttings. The after-treatment will con- 

 sist in removing the glass or glasses 

 every morning, in order to admit dry 



