May 18, 1920. 



The Florists^ Review 



27 



DISEASED QEKANIXTM LEAVES. 



I am sending you specimens of gera- 

 nium leaves. One is marked with dis- 

 ease around the edges and the others 

 fiave spots of either disease or burns. 

 What is the cause and what is the cure? 



F. O.— Minn. 



The trouble with the geranium leaves 

 i=i caused by either some water or soil 

 condition, or it may be both. The leaves 

 plainly show that something which acts 

 on the tissues of the leaves is affecting 

 them, causing the edges to dry up and 

 turn brown. The trouble is so marked 

 and serious that if the leaves sent are 

 a fair specimen of the rest of the stock, 

 every effort should be put forth to find 

 out where the trouble lies, and I should 

 suggest that you take the matter up 

 with your state experimental station. 

 M. P. 



FAULTY GERANIUM CULTURE. 



I am sending you two diseased gera- 

 niums. Can you tell me what the trouble 

 is and how to control it? 



C. H. K.— Mich. 



My opiniou of the cause of the con- 

 dition of the geraniums is that you have 

 been too hasty in pushing the plants 

 along, not giving them a fair opportu- 

 nity to establish themselves and get 

 strength in the various stages of their 

 growth. If my judgment is correct, the 

 plants appear to have been shifted from 

 small-sized pots to those which were 

 entirely too large for them; consequent- 

 ly the soil turned sour before the plants 

 attained size enough to get thorough 

 control of it. I should suggest that you 

 give the plants careful watering "and 

 endeavor in every way to assist them to 

 make root growth. M P 



GERANIUM TROUBLE AT ROOTS. 



We are sending you some diseased 

 J^eranium plants. What is the disease, 

 ^ne cause and the remedy? 



M. B.— Kan. 



Jt is diflScult to tell what is wrong 

 ^^'ith the geranium plants unless the 

 Whole plant with the roots attached is 

 ^^*:^*' because there is bound to be some 

 discoloration of the foliage after being 

 •iiclosed in the mail package. When 

 q wl**^^® plant is sent for examination 

 ri, !i. opinion can be formed as to 

 ynether the trouble is caused by con- 

 r.^^ of soil at the roots of the plant 

 'I Whether cultural treatment and tem- 

 l-erature conditions are the cause of it. 

 _ Here did not appear to be anything 

 wrong with the stem of the shoot, which 



'rnnL • ^"^" ^° believo that the 

 v^ouhie IS caused by similar conditions 

 Anrii oo r«^«"ed to on page 22 of the 

 own ^^ '"""e of The Revilw, For my 

 «wn personal satisfaction as to the cor- 

 ^y^ ";^^ °* "ly judgment on these plants, 

 stripped the leaves from the plants 



sent for examination, potted them and, 

 under our methods of culture, they have 

 entirely grown out of any trouble. 



M. P. 



MISSOURI FREE SOIL TEST. 



Many Missouri soils are strikingly in 

 need of lime, according to the investi- 

 gations of the department of soils of the 

 University of Missouri. The exact ex- 

 tent of this acidity, however, is not well 

 known. As a test of the soil is essen- 

 tial before one should go into the matter 

 of liming the soil, it is proposed to make 

 an extended survey of the acid soils 

 existing in the state. The department 

 of soils will make tests for acidity on 

 samples sent in and report the result of 

 these tests at once, provided the samples 

 are taken in the following manner: 



Select a place representing an aver- 

 age of the soil to be sampled. Clear the 

 surface of trash and with a spade dig 

 a hole seven inches deep. From th« 



smooth side cut a slice a half -inch thick 

 to the full depth of the hole. Place this 

 on a clean newspaper with two other 

 samples taken in exactly the same way 

 in other average places of the soil. Mix 

 these samples thoroughly and send one 

 pint of the mixture in a clean box or 

 can, bearing the name and address of 

 the sender, to the Department of Soils, 

 University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 

 For the present each person will be 

 limited to six samples and these should 

 be in before August 1. 



MAYBE THEY ARE. 



If prices are coming down there will 

 be a sigh of relief from many people, 

 among them florists and the large pro- 

 portion of florists' customers or erst- 

 while customers. So we are inclined to 

 lend an attentive ear when someone 

 thinks they are. This is the way a 

 bank circular sizes up the situation in 

 that regard: 



For more than a year business has been con- 

 ducted In the United States as if the purchasing 

 power of the American people were limitless. 

 An extravagant use of advanced wages, the 

 spending of savings accumulated in Liberty 

 bonds and a liberal use of bank credit have 

 contributed to this. Many persons, having sold 

 their Liberty bonds or reached the end of their 

 credit facilities and now finding their income 

 below expenditure, have been compelled to cur- 

 tail. In addition, the growing protest and re- 

 sistance on the part of a large part of the 

 public generally against high prices and a wide- 

 spread belief that lower prices instead of higher 

 prices are due have acted materially to alter 

 the situation. Bradstreet's index number shows 

 that since the general level of prices reached 

 its peak in February there has been a decline. 

 February 1 the figure was 20.889; March 1, 

 20.798; April 1, 20.712. 



Mackinac Island, Mich. — F. R. Wig- 

 gin Dyde has just returned from a trip 

 to Europe. 



Jackson, Miss. — E. E. Langley has 

 sold the Pleasant Ridge Greenhouses to 

 the Capitol Floral Co., of which L. 

 Cabaniss is manager. 



Bay City, Mich. — John Irvine met 

 with an accident March 6 which laid him 

 up for six weeks and business suffered. 

 Since getting well, Mr. Irvine has been 

 busy catching up with back work and 

 patching up the things that went wrong. 



Bethasnres, Pa.— N. A. Stockton, Jr., 

 who before the war was employed first 

 by H. A. Dreer, Inc., at Riverton, N. J., 

 and then for two years as private gar- 

 dener for Mrs. W. P. Worth, at Coates- 

 ville. Pa., will start in business for him- 

 self here as a florist and market gar- 

 dener sometime in May or June. 



Cleveland, O. — As part of its adver- 

 tising for Mothers' day, the Park Floral 

 Co. distributed cards of an attractive 

 shade of green, reminding the public 

 that "a few cut flowers tastefully ar- 

 ranged or a pretty plant attractively 

 trimmed" would be "appreciated by 

 Mother, the one person who notices 

 every detail no matter how seemingly 

 unimportant." 



Cortland, N. Y. — A. Frost says that 

 despite Miss Jarvis's public request, 

 few flags were seen Mothers' day, but 

 the florists in this vicinity were all sold 

 out. 



Atlanta, Ga. — Ralph Deans, who for 

 five years was manager of the West 

 View Florist's establishment, has 

 opened a retail store at 28 North Broad 

 street, with the firm name of Ralph 

 Deans, Florist. 



Nashville, Tenn. — The Joy Floral Co. 

 reports an increase in Mothers' day 

 business of approximately forty-five per 

 cent over last year. AH plants and 

 flowers sold well. News items in the 

 local papers offset the propaganda of 

 Washington dispatches against the use 

 of flowers. 



Canton, 111. — George W. Jacobs spent 

 two unhappy days at Springfield, 111., 

 when the growers of central and south- 

 ern Illinois were organizing a local of 

 the national organization April 20, and 

 then came home suffering with a car- 

 buncle. This was still troubling him 

 Wednesday, May 12, when he, his wife 

 and the nurse whose attendance the 

 carbuncle made necessary went to Ex- 

 celsior Springs, Mo., in the hope that he 

 might find some relief there. 



