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The Florists^ Review 



Deckmbkk 17, lOl'l. 



lAght. 



We are approaching the shortest and 

 darkest day of the year and, with a 

 lew exceptions, orchids now need all 

 j^sible light. If any shade remains 

 on the glass, remove it. If whitewash 

 has been used, instead of kerosene and 

 white lead, which softens up and re- 

 ihoves quite readily, use a little sal 

 doda in warm water and with a long- 

 liaadled mop dampen the parts to be 

 cleaned. This is better than using a 

 syringe, which wets and helps to re- 

 move paint from the woodwork. Where 

 orchid houses gather considerable soot, 

 the roofs should be given a scrub-down 

 followed by a hosing. If shading is 

 left on cattleyas now, the plants will re- 

 main a fine, dark green color, but they 

 become soft and will flower disap- 

 pointingly. 



Ventilation. 



The cattleya house should rarely be 

 tightly closed. In fact, except during 

 really severe weather, a chink of air 

 can be left on either at the top or the 

 bottom ventilators. Where small ven- 

 tilators are provided in the walls, these 

 can be left at least partly open on all 

 but a limited number of nights in the 

 y6ar. Avoid a close, moist atmosphere 

 where cattleyas are growing. They 

 must have air. The close conditions, 

 however, are more to the liking of 

 phalsenopsis, cypripediums and other 

 East Indian varieties. 



Watering. 



Plants for the next two months will 

 need less water at the roots than at 

 any other period of the year. All 

 watering should be done in the morn- 

 ing and clear days should be selected 

 for the work. On dark, damp days 

 leave watering alone altogether. The 

 plants can well wait one or two days, 

 and perhaps you may have noticed that 

 plants which are kept on the dry side 

 aie much healthier looking than such 

 as are kept a little too moist. Cat- 

 tleyas, such as labiata, Bowringeana, 

 Portia, etc., that recently have finished 

 flowering, should be kept drier than 

 such as are flowering or making up 

 their bulbs. As fire heat is now used 

 steadily, suflScient moisture should be 

 kept on the floors and below the 

 benches so that there will be no chance 

 for spider or thrips to get a foothold 

 on such varieties as are susceptible to 

 ikftir Attacks. 



Potting. 



Such cattleyas as labiata can be 





addition to sponges, sharp-pointed 

 ■sticks and small,' : stiff ' brushes are 

 needed . to thoroughly remove scale 

 frOm the ends of the. pseudo-bulbs. 

 Apply an insecticide wJien sponging. 

 Bponge the bulbs well in addition to 

 •the foliage. Cut away any temains of 

 .old sheaths,. which .are excellent lurking 

 places for plant pests. At the same 

 -ttttier; cat . away . all • dead and ..useless 

 ■growths. It is. really, surprising what 

 lan l;iiiiproyed appearance a batch of 

 ■orciudsj piesjente, which, ias Ueen care* 

 -f iflly- spoxtged" and trimmed. • . 



taken in hand almost at once and ai^y 

 potting OT surface dressing done. All 

 plants which have roots hanging over 

 the edges of the pots should be re- 

 potted. Cattleyas with overhanging 

 roots always have a stunted, half- 

 shriveled appearance. Osmunda fiber 

 is the best potting medium for prac- 

 tically all orchids and, as there will 

 soon be lots of overhauling needed. It 

 would be well to secure a good supply 

 of fiber, also some live sphagnum moss, 

 which is useful for surface-dressing 

 odontoglossums and many of the Ea^t 

 Indian warm house varieties. F<|r 

 cattleyas, use the coarser grades of the 

 fiber, which is the most indestructible. 

 Shake out all loose, dusty material 

 first. It need hardly be said that all 

 orchids, no matter whether in pots, 

 pans or baskets, should be thoroughly 

 firmed. Plants which will wobble 

 around will never do any good. 



Sponging. 



This is the season when there is more 

 time to do necessary sponging and 

 cleaning than at any other period. In 



WI^ AZkL^AS ABE INSPECTED. 



- In .the . Decisarber Inews-letter of the 

 Federal fi6rticiiltBralIBoatd,':containing 

 •the monthly Hisk 'of "tpesta fbund.'on im- 

 portations of flerristai and:iiursery ^tock, 

 JO. 'L.- Marliatt, chairman.- o$: the -board, 

 gives the following, statement of ■ the 

 /leed of inspecting -azaleos a^'dv like 

 stock : - .7 - - ,-. r L- :• 



. ' ' The question has \>een asked sev^er^ 

 times whether it is necessary to ^nep^ 

 florists' supplies, such as.azaleas^ .whij.c^ 

 are often destroyed as. soon as rtfieif 

 xather; transient decorative use is over, 

 ^The risk with azaleas and plants of thi; 

 kind is in the repeated finding in such 

 material of gipsy-moth egg masses, as 

 reported in news-letters hitherto issued. 

 An additional instance of this kind is 

 reported in this news-letter, on azaleas 

 from Belgium. It does not seem safe to 

 neglect inspection of any imported plant 

 which may be field-grown. Quite fre- 

 quently, also, azaleas and similar plants 

 are set out in gardens or dooryards 

 after their house use is completed, or 

 are thrown out in yards or vacant lots, 

 where the hatching larvae later on may 

 easily gain access to vegetation. ' ' 



ODEN LETTEri^^"» DEADED0. 



ANOTIQBB "PENT UP UTIOA." 



While on the train en route to New 

 York I bought a Utica newspaper from 

 the train boy — the Utica Daily Press, 

 dated November 27. I thought I would 

 see at least the advertisements of four 

 or five florists, but I was much sur- 

 prised to find none. 



Now, if I remember correctly, there 

 are about thirty florists in the vicinity 

 of Utica, and it is a good shipping 

 point too. In checking up the ads in 

 the paper, I found, -exclusive of the 

 classified ads, the announcements of 

 druggists, shoe stores, clothing stores, 

 jewelers, milliners, cigar dealers, de* 

 partment stores, plumbers, opticians, 

 window cleaners, etc., in all about forty 

 different lines. Chief among them to 

 attract my attention was a 4-inch ad, 

 well displayed, offering artificial eyes. 



Now, if it pays to advertise in the 

 daily papers artificial eyes, it certainly 

 would pay some fiorist to advertise. 

 I would not be a bit surprised to find 

 that business in the floral line is 

 "dull" in Utica; I would not wonder 

 at it at all. Florists must advertiM. 

 Utica is no exception particularly, for 

 there are scads of other towns with 



good dailies of which florists do not 

 take advantage. 



In this same Utica paper eight inch- 

 es of news space was devoted to a flow- 

 er bazaar held in some auditorium, 

 opened that day. It certainly surprises 

 me that florists do not seem to realize 

 the enormous power of the daily news- 

 papers and take advantago of it more 

 than they do. 



To compare the demand for glass 

 eyes with that for flowers in the vi- 

 cinity of Utica ought to make the 

 florists ashamed of themselves. 



Ralph M. Ward. 



YEATS ON DESCRIPTIONS. 



In an article in The Review for De- 

 cember 10 I notice a letter in regard 

 to "Roses of the Future." This arti- 

 cle will perhaps bring forth a great 

 deal of intelligent talk on the rose and 

 will perhaps do the trade in general 

 some good, as it should. 



Mr. Betscher seems to leave it all to 

 the rosarians to give us the new and 

 perfect roses. The rosarians have given 

 us some fine things in tk« line of new 

 roses, we must admit, but how many 

 of us who have been in the trade, say, 



