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18 



The Florists^ Review 



Januabt 1, 1920. 



other, cause the bloom to open sidewise 

 and in serious cases the bloom may be 

 turned down instead of up. 



It is important to bear in mind that 

 it is not the insect itself that does the 

 damage; it is its harbor, or the small 

 individual nest over each egg, that crip- 

 ples the plant. 



When Midges Take Possession. 



I have seen many thousands of plants 

 which were thus badly crippled and 

 bore what we call bull-headed growth. 

 Wherever these midges get a strong 

 footing they cripple every bit of new 

 growth as it comes out. 



If there are only a few midges in 

 your house, you will find some small 

 holes in a leaf or stem, from which the 

 insects came out, and now they are busy 

 in your stock plants. In the stock plants 

 you will notice some leaf that is partly 

 crippled, or possibl> it is spotted light 

 green. If you will use a sharp knife 

 and carefully open these spots, you 

 will find a soft substance, which is the 

 egg. If almost ready to hatch, it will 

 be reddish in color and will have a 

 soft shell. 



When the insect leaves its harbor, 

 which nearly always is on the upper 

 surface of the leaf, it opens the end of 

 its harbor as a baby chick opens the 

 eggshell in preparing to emerge. At 

 the hole from which it escapes, it leaves 

 a small bit of fluff. It goes to work 

 laying eggs and while it is out is the 

 only time you have an opportunity to 

 kill it. To stop it from laying its eggs, 

 keep the plants well covered with nico- 

 tine solution. Then, when it tries to 

 lay its eggs, it must puncture the film 

 of nicotine. As a result it dies and its 

 nefarious work is stopped. 



Some Ineffective Methods. 



Tobacco dust, sifted on the plants, 

 helps to keep the insects down, but will 

 not clean them out as does the solution 

 applied to the plants. Hydrocyanic 

 acid gas will not kill them unless you 

 can gas every few days, or so persist- 

 ently as to reach them at a time when 

 they are unprotected. 



One grower recently informed me 

 that he fumigated with tobacco faith- 

 fully for twenty-nine consecutive even- 

 ings and still could not ' ' get ahead ' ' of 

 the pest. Then he tried tobacco dust, 

 but this is not so reliable as nicotine in 

 spray form. The stock of another 

 grower was badly infested with the in- 

 sects last season, but he was entirely 

 successful in cleaning them out by 

 spraying faithfully with Nico-fume. 



It may be well to emphasize the point 

 that this midge on mums is not the same 

 as the rose midge, but in one respect is 

 more dangerous, as it is slower in hatch- 

 ing, and a plant, when once affected, 

 bears the scar always. So use your 

 favorite nicotine solution freely. Pick 

 the infested leaves off your cuttings and 

 start them clean, and you can keep 

 them clean. You may have only two 

 or three spotted leaves now, but that 

 means thousands next season. 



Midg»-pzoof Armor of Nicotine. 



Remember, these insects are working 

 all the time. So keep the young growth 

 on the plants covered with nicotine; 

 they do not lay their eggs on hard 

 growth. It is the egg harbor that does 

 the damage, not the insect itself. 



Let me utter a special warning to 

 western growers. Heretofore the peat 

 has been most prevalent in the more 



easterly states, but now it is moving 

 west. 



Cooperation was the great force that 

 ended the world war. Let us cooperate 

 and clean out this dangerous profit- 

 killer. Tell your brother florist all you 

 know about this insect, as well as about 

 other pests. As you are benefiting by 

 reading helpful articles in The Review, 

 give others a chance to benefit by your 

 experience. I have found that members 

 of florists' clubs usually are "on to" 

 new remedies sooner than others, on 

 account of the friendly interchange of 

 ideas that goes on at club meetings. 



Cooperate. Each reader who tests 

 this method is requested to report his 

 success, or failure, so we may all have 

 clean mums hereafter. 



D. W. Dumser. 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY STAMP. 



The promotion bureau of the national 

 publicity campaign has prepared the 

 gummed paster stamp, lV^x2 inches, re- 

 produced in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion. The heart is in red, on a black 



VALENTi; 



FEB.I4 



voo j 



CANStNC 



FLOWtRS 



BY WIRE 



^=^!:^ 



S. A. F. Poster Stamp. 



background, with an outer background 

 in green. Cupid, of course, is in flesh 

 color. The stamps are offered at low 

 prices on orders sent to Secretary Young, 

 1170 Broadway, New York. 



MOTT-LY MUSINGS. 



Christmas assuredly brought joy into 

 the hearts of both grower and retailer, 

 as viewed from a business standpoint. 



E. V. B. Felthousen, of Schenectady, 

 N. Y., observed that "while it had 

 bubbled for some time past, it now fair- 

 ly boiled over," incidentally adding that 

 a new sectional Lord & Burnham boiler 

 had been installed at his modern range. 



The Rosendale Flower Shop, Julius 

 Eger and John C. Hatcher, of Schenec- 

 tady, N. Y., each made seasonable and 

 attractive displays. They were too busy 

 to give details of sales, but the content- 

 ed expressions of countenance spoke vol- 

 umes for the Electric City leaders in 

 floriculture. 



W. C. E^er, of Schenectady, was es- 

 pecially joyful, inasmuch as his 

 daughter, who met with a serious acci- 

 dent recently, is progressing favorably. 



Fred Goldring, of Slingerlands, N. Y., 

 remarked that he did not have enough 

 blooms left to fill a small box. Plants 

 were also in big demand, the clearance 

 of two large houses of ferns in pots 

 being mentioned as evidence of their 

 popularity. 



W. W. Hannell, of Watervliet, N. Y., 

 is another grower who ate turkey at 

 Christmas dinner, following a clean-out 



of everything salable. One item was 

 mentioned, of 125 cyclamens in 10-inch 

 pots that wholesaled at $5 each, as 

 evidence of the increasing popularity of 

 this serviceable plant. 



"We said it with flowers," observed 

 W. C. Gloeckner, of Albany, N. Y., 

 "which reminds me that a visitor men- 

 tioned she had just returned from Wash- 

 ington, D. C, where at Keith's theater 

 she heard the now well known song, 

 'Say It with Flowers,' with the ac- 

 companiment of a perfect shower of 

 blooms among the audience. She pre- 

 served a small bunch of sweet peas as a 

 souvenir, stating the impression would 

 never be lost on her and must enhance 

 the love for the beautiful." 



Fred A. Danker, of Albany, N. Y., 

 believed he was voicing the opinion of 

 his fellow-craftsmen thereabouts when 

 he said, "It is the best Christmas busi- 

 ness for many years and a later survey 

 will doubtless strengthen this view." 



Sambrook Bros., of Troy, N. Y., noted 

 ,an enormous demand for combination 

 .baskets and single specimen plants. 

 They were among the fortunate ones 

 who looked ahead for supplies. One 

 grower used up a ton of wrapping paper 

 to insure safe deliveries during the se- 

 vere cold snap and saved every plant. 



J. G. Barrett, of Troy, N. Y., found 

 his business well balanced, both on 

 blooming plants and on cut flowers, 

 though it is becoming more and more a 

 plant season, owing chiefly to the at- 

 tractive trimmings. W. M. 



BBIDaEPOBT, CONN. 



The Market. 



The local florists have been busy dec- 

 orating stores, homes, clubhouses and 

 churches. There has also been a good 

 call for floral designs. There was such 

 a large supply of Christmas greens and 

 trees on hand that some were left over. 



Potted plants were plentiful in most 

 of the stores, but cut flowers were 

 scarce and high, especially roses. 



Various Notes. 



George Pflomm reports that he had 

 a good assortment of novelty boxes 

 and baskets filled with artistic com- 

 binations of crotons, ferns and flower- 

 ing plants on hand. These sold rapidly. 

 There was more of a demand for plants 

 than for cut flowers. 



Victor Carwardine says that Christ- 

 mas business was good and everything 

 was sold out. He remained in the store 

 until 2 o'clock Christmas morning fin- 

 ishing up funeral work. 



James E. Beach booked so many or- 

 ders that he ran short of potted plants, 

 although he had a large supply of poin- 

 settias, ferns, begonias and primroses 

 on hand. Cyclamens were high. He sold 

 a number of cut poinsettias after the 

 supply of red carnations gave out. 



The Arcade Flower Shop had fine 

 Christmas sales. Baskets and potted 

 plants sold best. 



Robert Hawkins reports that he had 

 a larger Christmas trade than in the 

 previous year. He says, however, that 

 people complained about the high prices 

 of cut flowers. 



Julius Reck had a good supply of 

 Christmas Gold pompons, late chrysan- 

 themums, narcissi, red, yellow and 

 other carnations, stevia and cut poin- 

 settias on hand. His only trouble lay 

 in filling his orders for roses. He does 

 not grow them and wholesale prices 

 were unusually high. His son. Sergeant 



/. 



