14 



The Florists^ Review 



May 24, 1917. 



sumed no importance and was grown by- 

 only a few specialists. Consequently, 

 it was a distinct novelty to most flower 

 buyers; even the name was unfamiliar. 

 Also, there were a good many in the 

 trade who did not know as much about 

 the ranunculus as they will when they 

 have read to the end of this article. 



But the flowers were a welcome addi- 

 tion to the stock of many a flower store 

 that had known them not before. They 

 were new and they were useful; also, 

 they were extremely pretty, and the 

 way they keep was a surprise. Indeed, 

 the keeping quality is one of the chief 

 merits of the fragile-looking flower. The 

 ones photographed for this article stood 

 on the writer's table a week after they 

 had served their purpose. 



Large Iiosses of Bulbs. 



The ranunculus, however, sadly dis- 

 appointed many a grower who listened 

 to the smooth-spoken Hollander and 

 took on a quantity of bulbs for ' ' forc- 

 ing. " One can not "force" ranuncu- 

 luses. If one tries to do so he scores 

 a complete failure of his crop. Also, 

 the requirements in the matter of water 

 are exactly opposite from what one 

 would deduce from the name and the 

 native habitat which is supposed to be 

 responsible for the appellation. Quite 

 the opposite of requiring moisture, the 

 Turban ranunculuses grown in green- 

 houses must be kept on the dry side or 

 the roots will rot and the stock will be 

 lost. One grower accepted 200,000 bulbs 



dry. If the temperature is even a little 

 high it will result in crooked stems, 

 curved at the neck; good, strong, stiff 

 stems are to be had only in a cool house. 



Cultural Directions. 



Here are cultural directions by a 

 man who has scored a success with 

 them: 



' ' The roots usually arrive in October 

 and are better if placed in the soil as 

 soon as time will permit, although it 

 will not harm them seriously if they 

 are packed away in dry sand in a cool 

 shed or cellar for some weeks. Pots, 

 pans, flats or benches may be used for 

 growing ranunculuses, but flats and 

 benches give me the most satisfactory 

 results. I have had good success by 

 using flats five inches deep, planting the 

 roots in late October, then placing in 

 coldframes and covering with dry leaves 

 on the approach of severe weather, pro- 

 tecting sufliciently to exclude frost and 

 housing the flats from the early part 

 of February onward. 



' * The compost used is light but toler- 

 ably rich, consisting of three parts loam, 

 one part leaf -mold, one part old, well 

 decayed manure passed through a %- 

 inch screen, and a generous dash of 

 sharp sand. The flats should be well 

 drained. 



' ' For those growing a limited number, 

 flats are to be recommended, but where 

 bench space will permit the roots can 

 be planted out four to five inches apart 

 each way. I have had them do finely 



Ranunculus Hercules, Pure White, Somewhat Enlarged. 



last autumn and succeeded in flowering 

 only 3,000. There were many others who 

 failed; they grew them too warm and 

 too wet. 



Properly handled, the plants will 

 average from two to three flowers each, 

 the blooming period being February to 

 April. But the temperature should be 

 40 degrees to 50 degrees, not higher, and 



in an ordinary carnation compost, but 

 the addition of some old manure, leaf- 

 mold and sand made them still better. 



Another Method. 



"Another method of growing ranun- 

 culuses which has given good results 

 is to dot them between violet plants, 

 particularly double ones, which make 



less leaf growth than do the singles and 

 exhaust the soil less. A violet tem- 

 perature, 40 to 45 degrees at night, is 

 just what ranunculuses need, and, as 

 they do not make a heavy growth which 

 shades the violets appreciably and do 

 not impoverish the soil, this method of 

 culture can with confidence be recom- 

 mended. 



"In a poorly drained bed or bench 

 many ranunculus roots will rot, but 

 given suitable porosity to allow water 

 to pass away readily, any florist can 

 grow these pretty spring flowers credit- 

 ably. Strong fumigation where they are 

 growing should be avoided. Occasion- 

 ally green aphis may attack the foliage, 

 but light fumigation will readily con- 

 trol this. If the plants turn yellow it 

 is a sign of overwatering, poor drainage, 

 too high temperature, or a combination 

 of the three. 



"It will not pay to attempt to carry 

 ;, over ranunculuses a second season. The 

 ^'- roots are so cheap in Holland that it 

 'would not pay to dig up the roots, and 

 [even if they were saved and replanted 

 [the crop of flowers would be almost 

 Inothing." 



Why Bulb Prices Fluctuate. 



Confronted with the necessity of find- 

 ing a new market for the 1916 crop of 

 bulbs, it is natural that the price fell 

 sharply, but last year was not the first 

 one in which there was no profit for 

 the Alkmaar growers; it had been bad 

 in 1915 and worse in 1914. It looked 

 as though something had to be done. So 

 some of the principal factors in the 

 ranunculus business at Alkmaar got to- 

 gether, put up some money and bought 

 up all the stock they could get their 

 hands on. They destroyed what they 

 thought they did not need. It was a 

 case of restricting the output this sea- 

 son. 



The result is that the price for 1917 is 

 three times what the 1916 crop brought 

 — and yet any grower who wants to 

 follow the wonderfully increased popu- 

 larity of the flower can get all the bulbs 

 he wants at $6 per thousand along with 

 his import order. Large importers will 

 get them even cheaper and jobbers will 

 not ask much more. 



Some Good Varieties. 



The Dutch catalogues list about a 

 dozen named varieties of Turban ranun- 

 culuses, they run the range of colors, 

 but half the quantity grown has been 

 the one variety Komano, brilliant scar- 

 let. It is shown in the illustration on 

 the preceding page. Merveilleuse in 

 some of the catalogues is Citron in 

 others. It is a clear orange yellow. 

 Hercules is the white. Grootvorst, 

 which is Hollandese for Great King, is 

 a beautiful soft carmine. Souci Dor6, 

 brownish orange, is a good seller, but 

 the grower who goes in for ranuncu- 

 luses will want an assortment, espe- 

 cially if he retails his stock. 



Scranton, Pa. — Anton Schultheis has 

 advanced the retail prices of bedding 

 plants. One special item, geraniums, is 

 $1.75 per dozen. He finds his patrons, 

 with few exceptions, willing to pay this 

 for good stock. His argument is that 

 it is easier to sell well grown stock 

 at an increase than poor stock at a 

 low price, for the reason that the bet- 

 ter the article, the more it is appreci- 

 ated. The average buyer realizes the 

 increased cost of production. 



