JANUAUY 27. 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



25 



MORE FOR MOTHERS' DAY 



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OME years ago, when the 

 idea of commemorating 

 Mothers' day by wearing 

 a carnation was origi- 

 nated by Miss Jarvis, a 

 great deal of publicity 

 was obtained. The ladies' 

 clubs, churches, etc., catch- 

 ing the idea, took it up 

 and followed her lead, 

 with the result that the first year found 

 Wichita exceedingly short in the sup- 

 ply of carnations and long in the de- 

 mand for them. Being some twenty- 

 four hours away from any large market, 

 we have tovplace our order early to get 

 carnations. We were unfortunate in 

 receiving tjie first cut of carnations and 

 by the time they reached us the poor 

 things were so tired that they went to 

 .sleep, which* all florists know is most 

 discouraging. I do not blame the grow- 

 ers for holding their flowers as long as 

 they possibly can, and I do not blame 

 the commission houses for disposing of 

 the first cut first. But the poor florists, 

 twenty-four to thirty-six hours away 

 from the market, had to take the sleepy 

 carnations, pay for them, smile and try 

 to make the best of a bad matter. The 

 second and third years seemed equally 

 bad, if not worse, 



for the demand for . 



carnations had in- 

 creased. 



I took up the 

 matter of increas- 

 ing our cut with my 

 carnation g r o w- e r 

 and told him that 

 I thought we could 

 do it. By carefully 

 watching the flow- 

 ers at the time of 

 development we 

 came to the conclu- 

 sion that we could 

 increase the yield. 

 Our method has 

 been this: On or 

 about February 1 

 we select a bench or 

 two of carnations 

 which are begin- 

 ning to show many 

 shoots coming on. 



disbudding. 



By February I.") 

 the buds begin to 

 show. Wc disbud 

 the lower two, as 

 these two have a 

 rather weak stem. 

 Then we watch the 

 development of the 

 remaining buds. 



If the terminal 

 bud is developing 

 rapidly, we leave 

 that on, as it holds 

 the next bud back 

 somewhat. W li c n 

 the terminal bud 

 has opened, we take 

 it off and use it in 

 design work. If the 

 terminal bud is not 

 developing rapidly, 



The paper by Charles P. Mueller, of Wiehita. 

 Kan., presented at the thirtieth Hiiiuial meetint; 

 of the American Carnation Sooiet.v, at Wash- 

 ington, 1). C, January L'(i, on "My Kxperienct; 

 in Increasing the Cut of Carnations for Mothers' 

 Day." 



we disbud it and leave the other three 

 or four good, strong buds to develop. 

 The buds must be watched carefully 

 from now on, so as to bring in tlie crop 

 at the proper time. Should the buds 

 come a little slowly, we put more heat 

 under the bench (we grow all our car- 

 nations on raised benclies) and open up 

 the ventilators. If they seem to be 

 coming a little too fast, we cut off the 

 steam entirely and lower the tempera- 

 ture in the house by giving plenty of 

 air. 



Hastening or Hindering. 



In this way we liasten the flow- 

 ers a week to ten days or we can 

 liold them back. By treatment in this 

 manner the flowers all develop at the 

 same time. I have had as many as six 

 perfect flowers on one stem. Care 

 should be taken in feeding, as carna- 

 tions require more nourishment wlien 

 more flowers are grown to the stem. 



To be sure, the same treatment will 

 not apply throughout ttie United States 



Charles P. Mueller. 



and must be modified to suit local re- 

 quirements. In the first place, we must 

 consider the condition of the weather. 

 Out in Kansas we have from twelve to 

 twenty days of sunshine a month during 

 the winter, which causes the flowers to 

 develop more quickly and strongly than 

 where there is much cloudy weather and 

 artificial heat must be depended upon. 

 It took us nearly five years before we 

 got hold of tlie right flowering stem and 

 learned how to handle the temperature 

 ill tlie houses so that we could depend 

 on a big crop. It is quite true that once 

 in a wliile we miss it by two or three 

 days, but that is due to sudden, unex- 

 jiected changes in the weather. 



Instead of raising prices on carna- 

 tions for Motliers' day, we are able to 

 lower tlie prices for individual flowers 

 because we grow four to six perfect 

 flowers on a stalk. We sell them for 

 $2 per dozen flowers, while if we had 

 disbudded, we should have had to get 

 at least .$4 per dozen stalks, and I have 

 licard that some florists charge as high 

 ;is $.^. Tliis was possible only because 

 we increased the number of flowers on 

 the stalk and sold the stalks for 60 or 

 7'i cents each. You can readily see how 

 iiiiicli more money may be realized by 

 this method than 



where ilisbudding is 



practiced and only 

 ;!.j to ■')() cents a stalk 

 is received. This 

 also eliminates 

 many of the "prof- 

 iteering" charges 

 which were so prev- 

 alent last May. Our 

 custdiners seem to 

 he well satisfied with 

 three and four flow- 

 ers to a stalk, and 

 to my notion they 

 make n much nicer 

 a ]) p c a r :i nee in a 

 vase. If they are 

 to be worn indi- 

 vidually the stems 

 must be cut off any- 

 way. 



Best Varieties. 



I have found the 

 best varieties to 

 grow in this man- 

 ner are Matchless 

 for white and Belle 

 Washburn for red. 

 We used to grow 

 Prosperity, w h i c h 

 really did better 

 than Matchless for 

 this jiurpose. Belle 

 Washburn gives 

 good results, as it 

 is naturally a late 

 bloomer and its full 

 crop comes in just 

 about right for 

 Mothers' day. We 

 have neve r tried 

 niiv ]) i n k cnrn.T- 

 tioiis. l)nt this ye.'ir 

 I think we shall try 

 a few jilants of 

 ("i 1 o r i osn niid see 



