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16 



The Florists^ Review 



August 14, 1913. 





SEASONABLE NOTES. 



The Shade on Cattleya Houses. 



While we stilj may expect consider- 

 able warm weather, the days are short- 

 ening and the nights are preceptibly 

 cooler. While the sunshine so far dur- 

 ing August lias been about equal to that 

 during July, we are likely to have a 

 good deal of warm, humid and cloudy 

 weatiier i)efore the month closes, and 

 it behooves those who have the inter- 

 ests of their cattleyas at heart to see to 

 .it that the shading on the glass is not 

 too dense. If a house looks dark in- 

 side during a cloudy day, it is a sure 

 sign that some shade should be removed. 

 Cattleyas in a densely shaded house will 

 have beautiful, dark green foliage and 

 bulbs, but they will not flower like 

 others which have had stronger light. 

 Those who can afford roller, or other 

 movable shades, have a great advantage 

 in being able to give their plants a 

 maximum of light when it is most 

 needed. 



Cattleya flowers at this season are 

 scarce, and retailers who may chance to 

 get a decoration or funeral order calling 

 for orchid.s will have hard work to get 

 the needful supplies. C. Dowiana is 

 still in flower, and there are still a few 

 C. gigas and C. Gaskelliana. The chief 

 standby, however, is that free-flowering 

 little variety, C. Harrisonia*. The flow- 

 ers of this are small compared with 

 those of many other cattleyas, but are 

 of a charming pink color and are quite 

 freely i)roduced on stout scapes. It 

 probably pays the grower for the mar- 

 ket as well as any of the labiata section. 



Holding for a Late Market. 



Cattleya labiata has buds well up in 

 the sheaths, and some few almost open. 

 These flowers always bring an excellent 

 price. It is the early and late ones 

 which make the dollars. Any grower 

 who can hold his flowers back until De- 

 cember, when about all the labiatas 

 have passed, is sure to make good 

 money. ' ' How can we hold our plants 

 back?" may be asked. Give an abun- 

 dance of air both night and day. Never 

 mind if the night temperature falls be- 

 low 60 degrees; it will not hurt them 

 at all, and your flowers will have all the 

 more substance when you get them. 

 Cattleyas should not be treated like 

 cypripediums, dendrobiums, or even 

 roses. It is all wrong to shut them up 

 tightly in the afternoon after syring- 

 ing overhead, to produce a "nice grow- 

 ing atmosphere." The top ventilators 

 of a cattleya house should never be 

 closed except in the winter months, and 

 even then some bottom air should be 

 admitted. 



Watering and Feeding. 



Watering should be done in the morn- 

 ing. Plants such as C. labiata, Trianse, 

 Mossiffi, Percivaliana and others, in act- 

 ive growth, will need a liberal supply, 

 more than C. Gaskelliana, Dowiana and 

 others which are just starting into 

 growth. Feeding is a much debated 

 question. Some recommend, others con- 

 demn it. We have seen equally good 

 l)lants grown by either system. The 

 best of all were watered with rain water 

 caught in a large tank. This involved 

 dipping each plant — a heavy task. This 

 water sometimes smelled rather strongly 

 and probably gave the plants just the 

 little tonic they needed. Do any feed- 

 ing moderately, and use weak cow or 

 sheep manure water, or a little Bon 

 Arbor, which is similar to the well 

 known Lookson 's formula in its effect 

 on orchids, and do not feed cattleyas 

 or Iselias more frequently than once a 

 fortnight. 



A spraying each clear afternoon 

 should be given the cattleyas. Give it 

 suflSciently early so that it will dry 

 before nightfall. Night temperatures 

 are variable during August. As a gen- 

 eral rule it can run from 60 to 65 de- 

 grees. Some nights it will be higher 

 and it will do no harm if it falls to 58 

 degrees on cool evenings. It is not a 

 good plan to shut the house up tightly 

 on a cool night; leave some air on, to 

 keep the atmosphere buoyant. 



HEAD LETTUCE IN FRAMES. 



I am preparing to grow head lettuce 

 for the market, and should like to know 

 the most economical method to employ, 

 I may be in the business only tempo- 

 rarily, and it would therefore seem to 

 be unwise to build a regular lettuce 

 house at this time. Do you think that 

 a hotbed would answer the purpose for 

 winter use in this Oregon climate? Or 

 I might use a coldframe with a couple 

 of '^i-inch or 1-ijieh pipes on the sides, 

 as I can place them on a hillside. If 

 you think this feasible, what tempera- 

 ture would be best? The soil I have 

 is a deep black loam, containing some 

 sand, and it retains moisture to a fair 

 d«^ree. What commercial fertilizer 

 should I use? What varieties of head 

 lettuce would vou recommend for mar- 

 ket use? ' G, G. W. 



Whether or not you can grow good 

 head lettuce in frames in winter de- 

 pends a good deal on your climate. 

 Where the temperature will fall to 

 zero, I would advise against sti^rting 

 any plantings in coldframes before 

 February 10. Then, if you can secure 

 some warm stable manure, mix and 

 tramp a foot of it and cover this with 



seven or eight inches of good lettuce 

 loam. After one crop is cleared, a<(l 

 three inches more of well decayed nii- 

 nure and fork it in for the succeedii g 

 crop. 



You could get fairly good head L t- 

 tuce in midwinter if you could proviii,', 

 in addition to the warm manure, si;i- 

 licient steam or hot water — the latt r 

 is preferable in frames — to keep i;p 

 a winter minimum of 40 to 42 degree s, 

 rising to 45 degrees on warm nighis. 

 By using warm manure alone you could 

 be sure of an excellent crop umli 

 Thanksgiving. This would leave nine 

 or ten weeks during which some fiie 

 heat would be advantageous. Your 

 loam should be all right if it is will 

 mixed with stable manure. The lead- 

 ing lettuce forcers sterilize their soil 

 to destroy all soil pests, weeds, etc., 

 and this also prevents a disease called 

 leaf scald. If you use steam, I would 

 advise you to sterilize in that way. I 

 would not advise the use of a com- 

 mercial fertilizer. If you plant in the 

 greenhouse, allow for fully fifteen 

 inches of soil. 



A good selection from the many Ten- 

 nis Ball varieties, white-seeded, is in- 

 comparable for forcing purposes. 

 Among the best are Hittinger's Bel- 

 mont, Thorburn 's Glasshouse, Kawson 's 

 Hothouse and Boston Market. C. W. 



OLD STOCK OF POINSETTIAS. 



Early in the summer I bought a lot 

 of old stock of poinsettias, which had 

 been flowered last year. I put them in 

 6-inch pots. The plants now have half 

 a dozen or more strong shoots on them. 

 I want to flower these poinsettias for 

 cutting and have been advised by one 

 florist to leave the plants in the pots 

 and simply plunge 'the pots in a bed 

 or bench. Is this a good method? 1 

 have never seen this method used and I 

 have had no previous experience with 

 poinsettias. The house in which I in- 

 tend to plant them is about five feet 

 high above the middle bench. Would 

 that be suflicient head room? W. I. 



By plunging the pots and allowing 

 the plants to root through you will get 

 good bracts, but the plants would make 

 much stronger growth and larger bracts 

 if planted out in a bench in five or six 

 inches of good soil, or even in a soli<l 

 bed. A height of five feet should suffice 

 for these poinsettias, provided they are 

 not over two feet high now. Growth 

 will be rapid during the next three 

 months. The plants require a minimum 

 temperature of 60 degrees after the 

 bracts start to form, and until devel- 

 oped, after which a few degrees less 

 heat will suflSce. C. W. 



Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. — Victor Mann 

 has started a small greenhouse business 

 here, growing roses and carnations. 



Columbus, O. — John E. Hellenthal. 

 whose houses were damaged by the hail 

 storm July 9, is going to use the money 

 he has just received from the Florists' 

 Hail Association in rebuilding three of 

 the houses. 



Butte, Mont.— The Butte Floral Co. 

 is completing new greenhouses com- 

 prising a glass area of 40,000 square 

 feet, and a boiler shed and service 

 building, 35x125 feet. The officers of 

 the company are: President, William 

 .1. Day; vice-president, Philo King, and 

 secretary and treasurer, James H. King. 



