

42 



The Florists^ Review 



March 18, 19ls. 



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I SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS I 

 I FOR SOUTHERN FLORISTS | 



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Caxnations — ^North and South. 



There is an ever-present danger that 

 in these notes, under the head of "Sea- 

 sonable Suggestions for Southern Flo- 

 ists," the distinctions between north- 

 ern and southern methods may not be 

 made sufficiently clear, though one of 

 my chief objects is to draw attention 

 to these distinctions. For instance, in 

 my remarks on carnation propagation 

 in the issue of February 25, page 20, 

 it is quite possible that I did not 

 place enough emphasis on the necessity 

 of early propagation, planting-out and 

 housing here, in the south, though I 

 did refer to that necessity and to other 

 points of difference between northern 

 and southern methods. 



The difference is more in degree and 

 in time than in actual method. The 

 reason early propagation ought to be 

 practiced in the south is, that unless 

 you start planting early in the field 

 with a strong plant that has already 

 been topped and has made strong 

 breaks, you will not have a plant worth 

 bousing. There are so few rains, es- 



pecially in what is known as the Pied- 

 mont section, that a small plant set out 

 in the spring is still a small plant at 

 housing time. Then there is a section, 

 farther south, where the rainy season 

 starts in July and all plants must be 

 lifted and housed before then. 



Also there is a dead line below which 

 the plants cannot be grown either profit- 

 ably or otherwise. We can lift a plant 

 here in June with about six or seven 

 good breaks, plant it in the house and 

 have a big plant ready for blooming in 

 October. We lift these plants during 

 the driest spells, when growth is prac- 

 tically at a standstill, and plant them 

 in the houses without any shade, giving 

 them all the water the ground will ab- 

 sorb and the sun evaporate, and they 

 do not even wilt. The top and side 

 ventilators are left wide open, likewise 

 the doors, day and night, and the plants 

 are sprayed a few times each day for 

 a week. 



Moisture and Temperatiire. 



The beds need watering here every 

 day, and forceful syringing also, until 





The Croton Foliage Supplies the Touch of O>lor. 



the short days arrive. We could not 

 begin to measure out the water, ine. 

 half pint to each plant, as is rec? m. 

 mended by some authorities for no h- 

 ern growers. 



The night temperature varies a' o* 

 the farther south, the warmer hg 

 houses should be run at night. W! .^a 

 you get well down in Alabama t-kJ 

 Mississippi, a night temperature of 56 

 degrees is much better than 52 'e- 

 grees. You get more flowers this w ,7. 

 The season is much shorter there, ad 

 when the warm weather starts in 

 March or April, plants grown in a 

 night temperature of 52 degrees last uo 

 longer than those grown at 56 degrres 

 and have not produced as many flowers. 



These are some of the reasons, I s.-iv, 

 why propagation, planting-out and hoi 'fl- 

 ing must be done early in the south. 

 I do not believe you could find a Wis- 

 consin grower who would be likely to 

 set out his plants in the field in the 

 middle of March. These small differ- 

 ences are all vital, and constitute the 

 difference between success and failure, 

 between profit and loss. I have known 

 some good northern growers who came 

 down south with a big hurrah and went 

 north again in less than a year's time, 

 sadder but wiser men. They simply 

 failed to read the signs aright. 



In the growing of chrysanthemums, 

 also, many successful northern growers 

 meet with disaster here in the south, 

 simply because the wrong bud is taken 

 or insufficient precautions are used 

 against thrips and red spider. In rose 

 growing, too, there are differences, 

 small but just as vital. A northern 

 cyclamen grower came down to a flo- 

 rist's place not over 100 miles from 

 here a year or two ago. He had about 

 10,000 seedlings and out of all these he 

 did not have even one plant that was 

 good enough to grace the dump pile, 

 when they should have been ready for 

 market. I saw them myself and they 

 were a sight to make angels weep. L. 



TBAININa LANDSCAFEBS. 



• 



[An address on "Landscape Gardening" dellT- 

 ered before the Illinois State Florists' Associa- 

 tion, at Champaign, March 2, 1915, by Frederick 

 N. Evans, Instructor In landscape design. Uni- 

 versity of Illinois.] 



The twofold ability to tell a group 

 of florists just what they want to 

 know concerning landscape gardening 

 and to put it before them in the right 

 way, is an accomplishment I fear I may 

 not possess. I shall try, however, to 

 do two things quite simply: To tell 

 you, in the first place, what the lanil- 

 scape gardening department is aiming 

 to do at the university, and in th:it 

 way define what landscape gardening 

 is; and, in the second place, to mention, 

 if I can, a few points at which tl e 

 landscape architect and the flori t 

 touch shoulders. 



We are endeavoring at the univc"- 

 sity to fit young men and young womea 

 for work in a profession in which t 

 has been found that a young man or 1 

 young woman cannot accomplish tl e 

 best things, or, at least, is not apt 

 produce the best results without sp - 

 cial, diligent and pretty strenuoi 9 

 training. Now, it does not matt< r 

 whether this training is obtained i' • 

 side or outside of academic walls, bit 

 it does matter how long it takes to g> t 

 such training. There should be no di - 

 f erence between what is called the; ■ 

 retical and practical training. Theo- 

 retical training is merely a boilin:; 

 down of other men's experience int ) 



