16 



The Florists' Review 



Ski'tember 4, 1913. 



■■■l-iv. •>;';. 



When the Pier Went Down at Tonka Bay, H. B. Dorner, of Urbana, HI., Wac Ready With His Camera. 



the compost is better if broken up by 

 hand and passed through a moderately 

 coarse screen with a mesh three-quar- 

 ters of an inch or one inch in diameter. 

 The fibrous loam should not be screened. 

 It is better to chop it down, and what- 

 ever coarse portion is not used over 

 drainage can be pulled to pieces by hand 

 and used around the balls when pot- 

 ting. Of course, there are some soft 

 plants for which screening soil through 

 a fairly wide mesh might prove of bene- 

 fit. Then again, most fine-foliage trop- 

 ical plants and all orchids like a coarse 

 material, but on the whole, the value 

 of unscreened over screened compost is 

 beyond dispute. Extra large lumps of 

 manure are not desirable and should be 

 guarded against. C. W. 



GLADIOLI IN THE EAST. 



Upon paying a visit recently to the 

 firm of Chamberlain & Gage, of South 

 Natick. Mass., I was especially im- 

 pressed with the magnificent display of 

 gladioli at their place. This firm is 

 most fortunate in having an ideal set- 

 ting for the flowers. The gardens are 

 a I'ew rods distant from the buildings 

 and are reached by a winding path 

 shaded at intervals by giant trees, and 

 bordering a large pond dotted with 

 glorious pink-tinted water lilies of great 

 size and fragrance. Passing over a 

 slight incline, one enters a grove of 

 oaks, whose grateful shade borders the 

 acres of blossoming gladioli. 



L. Merton Gage, who superintends 

 the field work for the firm, is kept quite 

 busy at present, selecting and marking 

 the choicest specimens in the finest 

 collection of seedlings I ever examined. 

 Among the many fine things, I counted 

 ten solid whites and also eight yellows, 

 any one of which surpasses anything 

 now on the market. The finest of these 

 is as yellow as a Von Siou jonquil and 

 of fine form and substance. A white 

 seedling as large as a Princeps at its 

 best, of perfectly pure paper-white 

 color, showed no tinge of deepening 

 color under a broiling sun. 



A new variety of Kunderd's, of 

 which Mr. Gage informed me he had 

 purchased the entire stock for the firm, 

 will create a sensation in the trade 

 when introduced, as it is a superb 

 florists' variety; color a delicate cream- 

 pink with creamy-yellow throat, and six 

 enormous blooms open at once on a tall, 

 straight stem. A bewildering show of 



named varieties, including Rajah, a 

 royal deep red; Myrtle, pale pink with 

 soft white throat, and the ever-en-- 

 chanting Mrs. Frank Pendleton, Jr., 

 were much admired. 



This firm is producing a race of seed- 

 lings of Pendleton strain, which is a 

 revelation of wide-open, strikingly 

 marked flowers of surpassing beauty. 

 The writer spent a memorable two 

 days' visit here and enjoyed every min- 

 ute. ^H. E. M. 



TIME TO BUD ORANGE TREES. 



I have an orange tree in my green- 

 house, here in Ohio. It was raised 

 from seed and is 3 years old. I should 

 like to know the best time to graft it. 

 C. H. 



A suitable time to bud orange trees 

 is in the fall, just before growth ceases. 

 I would suggest September as a good 

 month for vou. C W. 



MAKING A HOTBED. 



When making a hotbed of fresh horse 

 manure, is it advisable to have the 

 manure soaked through with water? 

 T. K. N. 



The manure, if dry, should be 

 damped. Dry manure heats but a short 

 time; moist manure retains warmth a 

 long time. The manure should not be 

 made soaking wet, however; merely 

 moisten the dry portions of it. Also 

 be sure to trample firmly when mak- 

 ing. Loosely made hotbeds will not re- 

 tain warmth anv length of time. 



" C. W. 



PRIMULAS WITH CARNATIONS. 



Will you please inform me whether 

 Primula o])conica and cyclamens would 

 grow and do well in the same house 

 with Enchantress carnations in winter, 

 or would the bright sun wilt them, in 

 this Alabama climate? H. C. 



Primula obconica and cyclamens will 

 do well in the same house with En- 

 chantress carnations. I presume your 

 night temperature will be about 50 de- 

 grees. However, between now and 

 October 1 the sun will be rather bril- 

 liant for them, especially for the cycla- 

 mens. A shading of cheesecloth would 

 be necessary during the brightest part 

 of the day, or you could keep them in 

 coldframes until the date named. 



C. W. 



THE HARDY PERENNIAL GARDEN. 



. In Late Summer and Fall. 



Toward the endSB summer the hardy 

 perennial plants aMbme much more in- 

 teresting and attractive. The intense 

 heat of July, with its accompanying 

 drought, was too much for some usually 

 satisfactory plants, but the August 

 rains have wonderfully revived vegeta- 

 tion, and the cooler nights and heavy 

 dews have put new life into the occu- 

 pants of the hardy garden. Plants 

 which flower in late summer are, in 

 many cases, coarser and more robust 

 growing than those blooming in June, 

 which is the month par excellence for 

 herbaiCeous plants, before heat and 

 drought have had a chance to sear them. 



Lilies. 



Lilies have of late been decidedly at- 

 tractive. Foremost has been L. Henryi, 

 orange yellow, growing four to eight 

 feet in height. This is sometimes called 

 the yellow speciosum, as the flowers are 

 similar in form to the older variety. 

 However, it possesses far greater vigor 

 than speciosum and seems absolutely 

 disease-proof. The bulbs attain a large 

 size and are unusually heavy. They do 

 best if planted about a foot deep. This 

 variety remains rather high priced. It 

 will in a few years be seen in almost 

 every garden. The various forms of 

 speciosum have lately been in flower. 

 These are useful for cutting; they 

 make fine mass effects in the garden 

 and succeed well in full sunshine. Of 

 course, if they are mulched they will 

 do all the better. 



L. tigrinum, the old tiger lily, and 

 its varieties, splendens and flore |)leno, 

 are easily grown and popular old sorts. 

 When well grown, few varieties can 

 surpass them. In many cases tigrinum 

 can be seen near roadsides in a wild 

 or semi-wild state, thriving beautifully 

 in apparently poor soil, which goes to 

 show that rich soil, especially that con- 

 taining anything like fresh manure, is 

 the cause of much of the so-called dis- 

 ease found on hardy lilies. For most 

 locations, and particularly on the bor- 

 ders of streams or marshes, the native 

 variety Ij. superbum should never be 

 omitted. It carries 7-foot to 8-foot 

 stalks, with twent\- or more flowers on 

 each. The bulbs in a wild state are 

 found twelve to eighteen inches deep, 



