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April 20, 1015. 



The Florists^ Review 



19 



OPEN LETTCEi^^- KEADEG6. 



GBOWING CANNAS FROM SEED. 



In the March 18 issue of The Ee-* 

 view appeared an inquiry as to how 

 and when to start canna seed, under 

 the head "Propagation of Cannas." 

 I thought the reply was rather discour- 

 aging if one wanted good flowering 

 plants the coming summer, and I felt 

 sure I could advise better. Let me 

 tell what I have done. 



March 22 I received a half-pound of 

 seed from a seed concern. I have ac- 

 cess to an emery wheel, and I ground 

 down to the white meat on every seed. 

 That same evening I poured hot water 

 on them, and kept them in hot water 

 until the evening of March 27, giving 

 the seeds a five days' bath, I found 

 four seeds showing a white germ the 

 size of a pin-head. I put the lot in 

 a big dish of sand, covering them about 

 an inch. The dish stood in a hot place 

 over a stove, where the seeds luxuri- 

 ated in bottom heat and had hot sun- 

 shine. Fifteen days after I put the 

 seeds to soak, there were more than 

 200 plants, averaging two inches in 

 height. Some are three inches and 

 some three and one-half inches tall. 

 If these plants keep growing as they 

 have begun, they will match any plants 

 started from roots by the time warm 

 weather comes. Heat and moisture do 

 the business, and March is a good 

 month for starting the seeds, for fire 

 heat is needed. 



In my opinion, any time in March is 

 early enough for cannas. Sow them 

 when you put in your earliest toma- 

 toes, but run them hotter. 



F. P. Avery. 



DAHLIAS FBOM CUTTINGS. 



We have noticed considerable in- 

 quiry this spring in the trade papers 

 as to the best method of propagating 

 dahlias from cuttings. We used to 

 have considerable trouble with these 

 cuttings, but at present we have none. 

 The present season we have rooted 

 more than ninety-nine per cent of 

 them. 



We bed the tubers, preferring the 

 undivided field-grown clumps, in a 

 sunny place in a bench of the green- 

 house, bedding them, in soil enough to 

 cover them an inch or more and mak- 

 ing sure that there is at least two 

 inches of soil under the tuber. When 

 the shoots are three or four inches tall 

 we pull them up, just as we do sweet 

 potato plants. We do not use the 

 knife on the plants, except on the few 

 that break between nodes. We stick 

 the plants in sand in the propagating 

 house without shading them. We find 

 that shade causes them to rot. On 

 the other hand, it has been our ex- 

 perience that they are not at all sure 

 to grow if potted up in soil before 

 they are rooted, as we have been in- 

 formed some of the larger growers do. 

 We cannot succeed that way. 



There seems to be no limit to the 

 number of times the eyes will sprout 

 It the plants are pulled carefully, so 



as not to tear the eye off the tuber. 

 We can get a crop of cuttings about 

 every ten days, and when we have done 

 taking cuttings, the tubers can be 

 divided and planted in the field just 

 as well as before they were used for 

 this purpose. As there is little ad- 

 vantage in planting dahlias in the 

 field for some weeks yet, at least here, 

 in northern Tennessee, there is still 

 time to propagate freely of the dif- 

 ferent varieties, of which we have 

 but few. F. B. 



OLIVIAS. 



The old name, imantophyllum, still 

 clings to clivias, just as people prefer 

 croton to codiseum, dracsena for cordy- 

 line and spiraea for astilbe. Anyone 

 not knowing clivias would at once con- 

 clude that they were bulbous plants, 

 but, while botanically they have bulbs, 

 it is merely in the way of thick, fleshy 

 roots like the agapanthus, as they do 

 not produce a bulb like the amaryllis, 

 although they belong to the natural 

 order amaryllidacese. Clivias are not 

 much used commercially, but some 

 growers are now handling them. They 

 will never be cheap plants, and for 

 that reason they will always find pur- 

 chasers. They flower in late winter 

 and early spring and the flowers are 

 usually of a rich orange color. Some 

 are reddish orange and others pale in 

 color, almost approaching soft yellow. 

 All are of easy culture and do well in 

 a cool greenhouse. 



This is the proper time to pot clivias. 

 They do not need frequent disturbance, 

 but any plants containing several 

 growths can be separated, preserving 

 all possible roots, and will soon become 

 established if placed for a few weeks 

 in a warm, moist house. If grown in 

 a tropical house, clivias will grow well 

 but flower sparsely. They need a cool 

 house in winter, 45 degrees at night 

 being ample. In repotting, give them 

 ample drainage and a coarse compost. 

 Bough, fibrous loam, lumpy charcoal 



and cow manure with coarse sand suits 

 them. The old C. miniata is the best 

 known sort, but there . are numerous 

 grand hybrids, mostly raised by the 

 noted firm of James Veitch & Sons, 

 London. 



OABBYING OVEB OYOLAMENS. 



We have a lot of cyclamens in 4-inch 

 and 5-inch pots, left over from last 

 season. They are heavy in foliage and 

 we have them under a bench, owing to 

 lack of room. Shall we repot these 

 and put them on a bench? What kind 

 of food do cyclamens require? Any in- 

 formation as to the handling of these 

 will be greatly appreciated. 



C. F. B.— Ohio. 



Of course your cyclamens will suffer 

 badly if they remain long under the 

 bench. Stand the plants on a bench 

 in a cool, sunny house, where they 

 can complete their growth. Gradually 

 reduce the water supply as the foliage 

 begins to decay, but do not keep them 

 absolutely dust-dry at any time. If 

 greenhouse bench space is scarce, place 

 the plants on a bed of coal ashes in 

 an ordinary coldframe. Shake out and 

 repot the plants about the end of July, 

 continuing to keep them in coldframes. 

 Shade with lath coverings during hot 

 weather. Leave fully exposed on 

 cloudydays and at night, removing 

 the ^^asheBx Cyclamens, when well 

 roote)!, appr^iate some feeding. Weak 

 liquid manure is good. C. W. 



IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 



By additions from time to time, the 

 Crissman Greenhouse Co., of Punxsutaw- 

 ney. Pa., has built up its range of green- 

 houses at Pine and Sycamore streets to 

 its present extent of 50,000 feet of 

 glass. This is partly shown in the ac- 

 companying illustration. The company 

 has a downtown store, in the Y. M. C. A. 

 building, and has, altogether, built up a 

 quite satisfactory trade. , M. 



Wilmington, Del. — George Fountain, 

 whose greenhouses are at Greenbank, 

 this season grew a number of plants 

 of perpetual-flowering ten weeks' stocks 

 and had them in good shape for Easter 

 when they cleaned up readily at $1 

 each. 



Range of the CriMtnan Greenhouse G>«, Puoxicstawneyt Pa* 



