24 



The Florists^ Review 



Dbcimbib 29. 1921 



an overnight temperature of 60 degrees 

 and not much shade. Some growers do 

 not like pinching. I advocate and prac- 

 tice it as giving much more'^hapely 

 ftlants. At one time I favored a light 

 eaf-mold compost for begonias, but I 

 have found that while leaf-mold 

 is good for the first potting, little should 

 be used for later pottings. Plants grown 

 in leaf-mold are soft and flabby and will 

 not stand up or keep as will those grown 

 in cocoanut fiber. For a final potting 

 I use a nice, light loam, a little Scotch- 

 soot, some weH rotted cow manure and 

 a generous lot of coarse sand. No arti- 

 ficial manure whatever should be used. 

 I would never again use any leaf-mold 

 for the later pottings of either begonias \ 

 or cyclamens. ^ 



Eegarding the new race of basket be- 

 gonias, I have raised many fine seedlings 

 of these and they are splendid for piazza 

 and porch decorations, sometimes hang- 

 ing down three feet and blooming pro- 

 fusely all summer. The new variety, 

 Frau Helen Harnes, awarded a silver 

 medal by the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, is a first-class bedder, as 

 well as being excellent in pots or bas- 

 kets. , The color of this fine variety, 

 soon to be disseminated, is a rich orange 

 yellow. 



Fighting the Mite. 



Mite is one of the worst foes of both 

 ■cyclamens and winter-flowering begonias. 

 Perfect cleanliness in the house does 

 much toward preventing its appearance. 

 Should mite appear, however, I dip the 

 plants in a nicotine solution, which also 

 contains a little soap. I never use any 

 artificial fertilizers on either cyclamens 

 or begonias. In regard to varieties, 

 Melior is now the favorite; Cincinnati 

 makes a handsome plant; Mrs. Peterson 

 is a wonderful bloomer and keeper and 

 "becomes darker in color as it grows older. 

 Peerless is fine, but I am not convinced 



that it will displace Mrs. Peterson. Lor- 

 raine, the white Turnford Hall, La 

 Patrie and Chatelaine are all useful win- 

 ter varieties. W. N. C. 



CYCLAMEN POINTERS. 



[A digest of the tnlk by F. E. Palmer, of 

 Brookline. delivered before the Gardeners' and 

 Florists' Club of Boston December 20, 1921.] 



The terrible loss in cyclamens each 

 season, due to defective cultivation and 

 disease, should give thoughtful growers 

 cause for serious reflection. In the near 

 vicinity of Boston this season at least 

 40,000 plants were a complete loss in 

 about half a dozen commercial establish- 

 ments. One of the great fundamentals 

 for successful cyclamen culture, as, in- 

 deed, for about all other plants, is to 

 keep them growing continuously and to 

 remember that once plants become pot- 

 bound they never amount to much. Con- 

 tinuous fumigation is also necessary; 

 this should be attended to every week. 



Get your plants into their flowering 

 pots early; some growers pot as late as 

 the middle of October. This is all 

 wrong; the last shift should not be later 

 than September. Plants must have con- 

 tinuous and persistent attention, the 

 more the better. I use shredded cattle 

 manure at the final potting and I flower 

 the plants in from 4-inch to 10-inch 

 pots. Clay's fertilizer is the only 

 stimulant that I give my plants and I 

 never had them so fine previous to using 

 this. I give a liberal teaspoonful of 

 Clay's fertilizer once a fortnight to my 

 plants when they are well rooted and I 

 do not use liquid manure at all ; the lat- 

 ter causes a soft growth and the flowers 

 are more flabby. Cyclamens are now, by 

 all odds, the most valuable and satisfac- 

 tory of all Christmas plants. Anyone 

 selling them can rest assured that cus- 

 tomers will get full value for their 

 money. W. N. C. 



?^i«'>'i«^l^liSiJl^:iS/JtXg^'WWliSW[^W^ 



DAHLIAS FBOM CUTTINGS. 



Will you kindly tell me the proper way 

 to root dahlia cuttings? I can grow 

 them from the seed and bulb, but have 

 no success with the cuttings. 



M. L. W.— Tex. 



The propagation of dahlias by cut- 

 tings is employed chiefly by commercial 

 growers, and the attention required is 

 so great that it is often cheaper to buy 

 plants. 



The roots are planted closely in 

 benches in the greenhouse early in Janu- 

 ary, and cuttings are made from the 

 young shoots as fast as they form the 

 third or fourth set of leaves. These cut- 

 tings are then carefully trimmed and 

 placed in pure sand in the propagating 

 tench, using a dibble and putting the 

 cuttings in rows about three inches 

 apart, with from one-half to one inch be- 

 tween the cuttings. 



The propagating bench is made by run- 

 ning pipes beneath an ordinary bench 

 and boarding up the sides to confine the 

 heat. Although there may be a differ- 

 ence of opinion among propagators, yet 

 A bottom-of-sand heat of 65 degrees, 

 with the temperature of the house from 



5 to 10 degrees less, will give the best 

 results. With this temperature, the cut- 

 tings will root in about two weeks, and 

 will be far stronger than if rooted in less 

 time with greater heat. As soon as cut- 

 tings are rooted, they are potted off into 

 small pots and grown in a cool green- 

 house until danger of frost is over, when 

 they are planted out in the open ground. 

 Cuttings made too far below a joint, or 

 too late in summer, will produce flower- 

 ing plants, but no tubers. B. 



WINTER STORING OF DAHLIAS. 



The storage of dahlia clumps is im- 

 portant, because if they decay or dry up 

 they become worthless. I commence 

 harvesting as soon as the foliage is 

 killed by a severe frost. My clumps are 

 packed in large bins, each clump upside 

 down. The object of having them in 

 that position is to allow the watery 

 substance in the stalk to run out. I 

 have found that many varieties com- 

 mence to decay if this watery substance 

 remains in the stalk. If the stalk is too 

 long and the clumps are upright, the 

 watery substance collects at the base of 

 the crown, causing decay, which many 

 times destroys the entire clump. 



Where a small number of clumps are 

 to be stored, I would recommend that 

 they be packed in a barrel or case, the 

 inside of which is lined with paper. 

 Lining with paper prevents free cir- 

 culation of heat and air and maintains 

 a more even temperature. I have found 

 that it is the circulation of heat and 

 air that frequently causes dahlias to 

 dry up. An even temperature of be- 

 tween 40 and 50 degrees is best. 



In heated cellars the clumps should 

 be placed as far away from the source 

 of heat as possible, and the amount of 

 paper lining increased to prevent the 

 circulation of heat. It is well to cover 

 the top of the barrel with paper also. 



Dahlias keep during the winter best 

 in clumps; so it is better to wait until 

 planting time before dividing. Then, 

 too, in the spring eyes commence to 

 show, which help in separating. 



It is well to look at your dahlias 

 every three or four weeks during the 

 winter to see if they are keeping well. 

 If mold or decay is noticed, they are 

 too damp, and greater circulation is 

 required; if the tubers are too dry and 

 commence to shrivel, they should be 

 covered more. If shriveling too much, 

 they can be sprinkled with water, but, 

 if this is done, care must be taken not 

 to use too much water, which would 

 cause them to sprout too early. 



J. K. Alexander. 



FROPAGATINa GEBANIX7MS. 



During the last summer and fall we 

 put nearly 100,000 geranium cuttings in 

 the sand, beginning August 15 and prop- 

 agating continually until October 10. 

 All these cuttings were from outdoor- 

 grown stock. We rooted ninety-six per 

 cent. 



For propagating beds we used raised 

 benches five feet wide and three inches 

 deep. The sand was procured from a 

 local sand bank and was used just as it 

 came from the bank. It was put in the 

 bed damp and leveled off to the top of 

 the sideboard; it was then packed by 

 using the fist, palm down; next it was 

 leveled again and tamped the second 

 time with a short piece of 2x4. In that 

 way the bed was perfectly level and 

 solid. The bed was then watered suf- 

 ficiently to wet it through and the cut- 

 tings stuck in cuts in the sand made 

 with an old butcher's knife. As each 

 row was stuck the cuttings were made 

 solid by tamping lightly with the outer 

 edge of the palm. Eows were placed as 

 close together as the foliage would 

 permit. For example, in a bed five feet 

 wide and 200 feet long there would be 

 approximately 24,000 cuttings. After 

 sticking, the cuttings were not watered, 

 except applying mist sprays several 

 times a day to prevent wilt, until the 

 sand had become dry on top. In that 

 way, damping-off and fungus were kept 

 at low ebb. Instead of allowing soft- 

 wood cuttings to lie and wilt for sev- 

 eral hours, they were stuck at once. 

 The less they wilt, the more will be 

 rooted. During the extremely hot weather 

 in August and September the beds were 

 shaded by hanging burlap or canvas 

 six or eight feet above the beds, so that 

 the direct rays of the sun did not strike 

 the cuttings. 



In propagating cuttirigs in small 

 boxes, the sand dries out so quickly that 

 it is impossible to keep the cuttings wet 

 enough without frequent waterings, 

 thereby encouraging fungus and damp- 

 ing-off. If the grower only wishes to 



