20 



The Florists' Review 



Janoari 20. 1921 



or 42 cents, making $1.68. Tlicii the 

 weight of the container, now charged 

 for, adds 10 to 20 cents at least, making 

 a probable total in the vicinity of $1.83, 

 not far from double that original $1 

 charge. From this each florist can 

 calculate what his shipments will mean 

 in added cost to him. 



Florists have enjoyed the second- 

 class rates on the items now put into 

 first-class, for a number of years. One 

 of the notable achievements of the S. 

 A. F. in its early days was to win the 

 second-class rate for members of the 

 trade. But the work that was the 

 boast of the early officers of the organ- 

 ization has been undone by the inter- 

 state commerce commission, placing a 

 far heavier burden of transportation 

 cost on florists than they have ever 

 felt before. 



above freezing is better than a higher 

 one. I find it easy to have a succession 

 from Thanksgiving until about the mid- 

 dle of February. C. W. 



RATES TO CANADA RISE. 



The increase in express rates which 

 applies to interstate shipments in the 

 United States has been extended to cover 

 those going to Canada also. The Ameri- 

 can Railway Express Co. announced last 

 week that an increase of twenty-six per 

 cent in' rates between United States and 

 Canadian points would become effective 

 on all shipments of carload lots January 

 15, and that a twenty-six per cent in- 

 crease in rates would also apply on first 

 and second-class express matter carried 

 by the company between United States 

 and Canadian points after February 4. 



When the twenty-six per cent increase 

 on first and second-class matter becomes 

 effective Fcbfuary 4, the express com- 

 pany will have received a twenty-six per 

 cent increase covering every part of the 

 United States and Canada, one state — 

 Illinois — excepted. Illinois so far has 

 allowed an increase of only twelve and 

 one half per cent over the old rate. 



CULTURE OF 



STE^i 



Will you please give us some informa- 

 tion on growing stevia? What is the 

 best variety, time of' planting and 

 method of "handling and how are the 

 I)linits treated during the summer? 



R. M. C— Fa. 



Rtrvia scrrata is the variety grown so 

 much for winter floworing. It is one 

 of the most valuable and easily grown 

 subjects for the winter months. There 

 . nro tall, intermediate and dwarf va- 

 rieties. The tall sorts arc preferable 

 for cutting, but the dwarf types make 

 excellent pot plants. These are shapely 

 forms, carrying flowers more double and 

 of a purer white color than other va- 

 rieties. Propagntidn need not be done 

 before March and a few stock plants 

 should ho cut back and grown cool to 

 furnish the necessary cuttings. There 

 are two methods of culture. One is to 

 plant outdoors, dig up and pot in Sep- 

 tember before the early frosts. An- 

 other and much superior plan is to 

 grow plants in pots all summer, keep- 

 ing outdoors from early June until late 

 September or later. Dug-up jdants are 

 liable to break badly when being lifteil 

 and also get a consider.-ible check be- 

 fore they can be established in pots. 

 For this reason I much prefer pot cul- 

 ture. One of my friends, who special- 

 izes in this plant, grows over 10,000 

 pot plants, mostly 0-inch, annually. To 

 be seen at its best and in order to have 

 it over a long season, stevia must be 

 grown cold and a temperature a little 



CYCI.AMEN MITE. 



I am sending you under separate cover 

 a cyclamen plant which shows an abun- 

 dance of buds. As soon as the buds ap- 

 pear and are about one inch long they 

 become wrinkled and show brown and 

 black decayed spots. They also appear 

 rusty. The foliage is good, but the 

 buds seem to dry right up. I have them 

 on a bench near the glass, with some 

 bottom heat at night. I sprayed them 

 every week or ten days with nicotine 

 until the buds appeared. In preparing 

 the soil for their final shifting, I used 

 about one-half leaf-mold and one-half 

 good compost soil. Is this the work of 

 thrips, rust or blight? J. M. — Pa, 



The cyclamen plant arrived several 

 days after your letter. I found it af- 

 fected with the dreaded cyclamen mite. 

 In all probability all your plants will 

 have this same trouble. In this case 

 the best policy would be to throw them 

 all away and start with new stock, if 

 |)0ssible, not growing them in the same 

 liouse as your diseased plants are now 

 in. Nicotine spraying will check thrips 



and is believed by some to cure the mite 

 itself. This is doubtful. The writer 

 has known some of the most skillful cyc- 

 lamen specialists to lose practically all 

 their stock some years from diseases, 

 heroic remedies having been tried in 

 vain. Your failure this season is not 

 at all unusual. Thousands of plants in 

 the hands of well known growers within 

 a few years have been seen almost 

 valueless, because of the mite. For a 

 final potting you used a pretty light soil. 

 Leaf-mold is essential for young gro\y- 

 ing stock, but when transferred to their 

 flowering pots a better compost would 

 be three parts decayed sod loam and 

 two parts thoroughly rotted and well 

 broken up cow manure, with sonoe^ne, 

 powdered charcoal and sharp sand added 

 to make it sweeter and of greater po- 

 rosity. C. W. 



EARLY AND LATE ASTER. 



What are the best varieties of asters 

 to grow in the greenhouse? S. G. — ^111. 



Queen of the Market has done better 

 with me than any other variety. For 

 late use, however, I prefer American 

 Branching. If you want early asters, sow 

 the first named, while for September and 

 October use you will find American 

 Branching excellent. C. W. 



BOX-CAR STATION TO THE FORE. 



Into Newspapers by Its Flowers. 



There has never in the history of this 

 country been a slogan applicable to a 

 business which has been so much copied 

 by other firms in variDus businesses 

 and used with greater success than the 

 one of the trade, "Say It with 

 Flowers." Another notable illustration 

 of this is in the following article from 

 the Cleveland, O., Plain Dealer. In it, 

 as well, the value of flowers to a com- 

 munity is emphasized and the apprecia- 

 tion by a department head of llie decora- 

 tive value of flowers for a railroad sta- 

 tion is shown: 



Say It witli Flowers. 

 • So said Miss Ida Pratpr. 27, st.ition apent 

 for tlie Eric railroad at Westminstpr station. 

 Allen county. Tlien slip added n iiortico to her 

 l«ox-car Htiitiiin. applied n ooat of paint, planted 

 flowprs all around tlip station and made it a 

 thing of Itcaut.v instead of a travesty upon 

 transportation. 



Say It with Flowers. 



Her exploit was chronicled under that caption 

 on tlie editorial page of the Plain Dealer, Decem- 

 ber 7. 



Say It with Flowers. 



So said J. D. Brown, general agent of the 

 passenger department of the Erie, presenting 

 Miss Prater with the following verlial bouquet, 

 at the same time citing her for honorable men- 

 tion to R. S, Parsons, of New Yorls, general 

 manager of the Erie railroad: 

 "My dear Miss Prater: 



"On the editorial page of the Cleveland Plain 

 Dealer. Dccpmber 7, 1920, writer had the plea- 

 sure of reading an Interesting article entitled 

 'Sny It with Flowers,' and was particularly 

 Interested because no person. It seems to me, 

 cotild be n more affectionate lover of flowers 

 than myself. 



"The article informed me how yon had com- 

 pletely rehabilitated little old Westminster sta- 

 tion and its surroundings, so this communication 

 Is sent you conveying my sincere commendations 

 and congratulations on your unique and remarlt- 

 able achievement. 



"There was a time when writer's duties took 

 him frequently over the Chicago division of tlie 

 Erie, and we" retain a photo In our minds to 

 this day of that forlorn station as wp then saw 

 It. Some day in the future we hope to en.loy 



the pleasurable opportunity of again visiting 

 Westminster station to thank you and view 

 .your splendid work, perhaps in the spring or 

 early summer when nature carpets the earth 

 with its paintings of the most beautiful things 

 in the world, flowers, which God has given us 

 and seemingly forgot to give them a soul. 



"You, as I do, love flowers, love them for their 

 own sake, for their beauty, their associations 

 and the Joy and pleasure they give and always 

 will. 



"They seem to be revelations of God's love of 

 beauty; pouring their life out in fragrance. 

 Flowers remind us of people with kind and 

 nohle liearts who make us better by our associa- 

 tions with theiiu,. 



"A t)eautiful sunset Is but a blossoming of 

 the clouds; flowers are always silent, yet they 

 seem to and do jpeak through our eyes. They 

 are really lovely acquaintances, and they can- 

 not he monopolized; God never intended ' they 

 slioiild be, for the poor can enjov them as well 

 as the wealthy. 



"Flowers are messengers of affection and 

 tokens of remembrince; they are gifts of uni- 

 versal acceptance. This sunny Sabbath morning, 

 just before writing you, I visited a sacred 

 place, city of the dead, to see if the flowers 

 Mrs. Rrown and I place there often would greet 

 us as they always do, silently thanking us for 

 visit, and perhaps looking down from that land 

 far abovp whose windows are tiie stars, those 

 near and dear to us in Sweet Reulah Land may 

 have watched and been thankful. 



"How gloomy this world would he if it were 

 not for these lovely gifts of the Creator! 



"As flowers carry headed dewdrops. trem- 

 bling on the edges of their petals, readv to fall 

 at the first waft of wind or bush, or "wing of 

 bird to thirsty roots below, so, my fair lover of 

 flowers, in your kind heart remember, please, 

 that every employee of the Erie commends and 

 thanks you for the unusual and splendid work 

 you have seen fit to carry out. 



"Oftentimes In the evening hour, when 

 shadows creep from the west and the sun seems 

 d iiped In liquid gold, going to rest behind the 

 distant hill tnps, leaving a golden stream of 

 gorgeous splendors, making the whole western 

 horizon seem as if the most opulent dve pots 

 in tlic Studio of the Angels had l)een upset and 

 had trickled through upon the clouds, giving 

 them tlie tintings of celestial glories, I cast a 

 pehhle into memory's pool and, lol the ripples 

 widen out and through a tear drop in my eye 

 whiili becomes a lens, the landscape of fond 

 memory ri'VPals a picture of mvself riding in 

 tlip ciiiiola of an Erip caboose on tlie rear of a 

 lo<al freiglit train with forlorn Westminster sta- 

 tion standing out vividly like a ray from the 

 Star in the East. 



"Perhaps, and we hopp it will be. an example 

 for other agpTits of the Erie work 



"I thank you." 



