26 



The Florists' Review 



May 10, 1917. 



and more active. The well-known and 

 reliable method of trapping with scal- 

 loped potatoes would mean a Herculean 

 task with such a large area to cover, in 

 addition to the expense and possible pro- 

 liibition by the authorities; but, as one 

 of the owners observed, "it is a des- 

 perate case and calls for extraordinary 

 efforts to meet it. " W. M. 



EARLY OUTDOOR MUMS. 



Kindly let me know through your 

 valuable paper the earliest white, pink 

 and yellow chrysanthemums for outdoor 

 cultivation. Also let me know about 

 what time. they bloom. I refer to the 

 large-blooming varieties, of course. 



W. F. B.— Md. 



I presume you mean the strictly green- 

 house varieties in early types. For these 

 I would recommend Smith's Advance 

 and Early Frost, white; Unaka and Pa- 

 cific Supreme, pink; Comoleta and Mari- 

 gold, yellow; Tint of Gold, bronze. 

 These varieties come into flower during 

 the first week of Octob.er. Marigold can- 

 not always be depended on to come in 

 this early and one cannot guarantee that 

 the bud will set early enough. However, 

 it is a fine variety and well worth a 

 trial. There is another type of mums 

 known as early flowering, which does 

 splendidly in your section and which 

 will come into flower earlier than the 

 above-mentioned kinds. These would be: 

 White, Dorothy, Cranford White and 

 Petite Jean; pink, Normandie, Chas. 

 Jolly and Hortense Malgat; yellow, Car- 

 rie and Cranfordia. These are not so 

 tall-growing as the average greenhouse 

 varieties, but they are more hardy and 

 will begin to flower earlier. With us 

 they are in flower the last week of Sep- 

 tember and continue to flower during 

 the month of October. This early-flow- 

 ering type is the kind we have been 

 working to popularize for the last four 

 or five years, and is just now coming 

 into its own, particularly in sections 

 where the earlier frosts are not too se- 

 vere. Chas. H. Tottv. 



STOCK FROM FROZEN MUMS. 



I have several thousand chrysanthe- 

 mum plants that were nipped by the 

 cold, cut down, in fact; but no^ young 

 growths have started at the roots of the 

 old plants. Do you think these shoots 

 will make good flowering plants by 

 fall, or do you think they have been 

 too severely stunted by the cold? I 

 am situated in the southern part of 

 Louisiana and grow my mums outdoors 

 under canvas. But the winter was se- 

 vere and my plants were not sufficiently 

 protected. Do you think these root 

 divisions will produce as good plants 

 as sand-grown cuttings, or would it be 

 better to buy a new batch of stock? 



I have been told that cheesecloth 

 houses are splendid for growing mums 

 and that Californian growers have 

 found the method successful. What do 

 you think about it? 



Last year I had some splendid white 

 mums, but some of the buds turned 

 brown and never developed. The good 

 ones, however, were hard to beat. Now, 

 I would like to know if it would be 

 safe to use any plants developed from 

 that stock. Any information will be 

 appreciated. C. C. B.--— La. 



The shoots coming up around the base 

 of the old plants will make ideal plants 



for flowering next fall. They are what 

 we call ' ' sucker ' ' plants and are always 

 taken whenever it is possible to secure 

 them. There is no reason why root divi- 

 sions should not be just as good as 

 sand-grown cuttings, and if the varie- 

 ties you have are satisfactory for your 

 purpose there is no reason why you 

 should buy others. 



Cheesecloth houses, as used in Cali- 

 fornia, certainly produce results. There 

 is no reason why you could not adapt 

 them to your conditions. 



Buds turn brown instead of develop- 

 ing when they are scorched by sun or 

 rotted by moisture settling in the cen- 

 ter of the bud. Plants propagated from 

 this stock should be all right, as the 

 trouble is not a hereditary disease. 



C. H. T. 



THE RED SPIDER. 



Please let me know at once how to get 

 rid of red spider on the plants iu my 

 greenhouse. I have tried various reme- 

 dies, but without success. 



M. E. E.— Ind. 



AN ARMY OF SOWBUGS. 



The management of a large growing 

 establishment in Illinois is waging war 

 on legions of wood lice, or sowbugs, 

 which are playing havoc with the stock 

 in the holises to an extent that makes 

 the proposition a serious one. Mixtures 

 of Paris green and sugar and of Paris 

 green and flour were liberally distrib- 

 uted, and at first the bugs ate freely, as 

 was evidenced by the hosts of skeletons 

 lying around. Since that time, how- 

 ever, not a dead one is seen, and the 

 question arises as to whether there is 

 animal instinct in a bug to avoid par- 

 taking of the poison that killed its 

 companions. 



There are two kinds of sowbugs in 

 the house, one which rolls up in a ball 

 when touched, and one whicli is slimmer 



Probably your methods in dealing 

 with the red spider have been too gen- 

 tle. There is only one way to handle 

 this customer, roughly, without gloves. 

 The red spider has no objection to most 

 of the things that are considered un- 

 comfortable by other animal inhabitants 

 of the greenhouse. There is only one 

 way to make him stop and back up. 

 That way is to hit him right in the face, 

 a hard blow with a drop of cold water. 

 The less water and inore force, the less 

 the spider will like it. The hose is the 

 only thing to use, backed by the best 

 pressure one can get. Be sure you hit 

 the spider and not just the plants. 



F. E. 



ANOTHER PROOF OF PROGRESS. 



Progressiveness, modernity, these are 

 the keynotes of the florists' business 

 today. Old methods withdraw their hold 

 of many years' standing and give way 

 to new, and with advanced practices 

 there comes also, as a natural con- 

 comitant, modern stores and green- 

 houses. The accompanying illustration 

 shows the retail store and greenhouse of 

 J. J. Kolar & Son, 5136 West Twenty- 

 fifth street, Chicago, recently completed, 

 which well typifies this pervasive spirit. 

 As can be seen by the illustration, every- 

 thing about the Kolar establishment 

 smacks of progress. 



New EstabUshmeot of ], J. Kolar & Son in Outlying Chicago. 



