18 



The Florists^ Review 



Mat 6, 1915. 



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I SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS I 

 I FOR SOUTHERN FLORISTS | 



nilllllllllllllllllllilllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli; 



conditions bloom the next year! Will 

 tulips, daffodils, jonquils or hyacinths t 

 E. D. G. C— Ark. 



NEPHBOLEPIS IN THE SOUTH. 



Planting Runners and Divisions. 



At any time now the small pot plants 

 or runners of nephrolepis can be 



Elanted outside, either under a lath 

 ouse or in frames covered with lath 

 sashes. Old specimen plants may be 

 cut down, divided and planted out also. 

 The ground should have a good coat- 

 ing of manure, spaded in, well broken 

 up and smoothed. A half-inch layer of 

 leaf-mold on top makes an excellent 

 running ground for young suckers. 



In some of the extreme southern sec- 

 tions it is better to plant out in the 

 open than under a shade of any kind. 

 The larvae from a night-prowling moth 

 do an immense amount of damage to 

 the young shoots of plants grown under 

 a shade, while those grown in the open 

 evidently have no attraction for the 

 night rover. August seems to be the 

 month of greatest damage and the pests 

 are hard to reach with any kind of 

 spray. Weekly sprayings of Fir Tree 

 Oil seem to be the best remedy. 



The Favorite Varieties. 



The old Boston and W. K. Harris 

 seem to be the best sellers for vases 

 and porch boxes in the spring, while 

 the dwarfer varieties, like N. compacta, 

 Scholzeli and Smithii, are the winter 

 favorites. N. Smithii last winter eas- 

 ily led in popular favor and is the pret- 

 tiest and most graceful of the whole 

 genus when well grown. Thi» variety 

 can be grown in shallow pans and these 

 can be placed on inverted pots, allow- 

 ing plenty of room between the plants. 

 Some care is needed in watering, to 

 keep the foliage dry. If allowed to 

 get wet, the bottom foliage decays and 

 the plant loses much of its beauty. 

 This variety takes up more room than 

 the others, but it sells for more money 

 also. 



N, davallioides furcans is a grand 

 old fern, which still can hold up its 

 head with the best of them, but the 

 pity is that it is seldom seen now. 

 This variety does not produce runners 

 80 readily as most of the others, but if 

 planted out and allowed to remain un- 

 disturbed for two years, it will produce 

 runners literally by the million. Surely 

 some of the growers who are practically 

 below the frost line could devote a 

 frame to this fine variety, with profit. 



L. 



CYCLAMENS IN THE SOUTH. 



Their Summer Treatment. 



The best place for cyclamens during 

 summer, in the south, is in a shallow 

 frame under a lath shed. During the 

 hottest part of the day they should 

 have another coverang of lath sashes; 

 otherwise they wiltlbadly. Th^e latter 

 can be removed generally *bout . 4 

 o'clock in the afternoon. In the Caro- 

 linas I have never found it necessary to 

 protect the plants with glass sashes dur- 

 ing rain storms, simply because the 

 rains have never been severe or fre- 



quent enough to do any harm to the 

 plants under the laths. 



Betore taking the plants to their 

 summer quarters, it is well to dip each 

 one in a nicotine solution to kill any 

 thrips or other insects. A layer of 

 tobacco stems between the rows is a 

 great thrips preventive and should be 

 renewed every two weeks, at the same 

 time respacing the plants and cultivat- 

 ing the surface soil around each one. 

 They will require watering twice each 

 day, unless it is cloudy. Each plant 

 must be watered according to its in- 

 dividual needs, using a slender stream 

 from the hose. After they are watered, 

 the plants should be sprayed gently, or 

 rather dewed, all over. A final spray- 

 ing just at quitting time will take the 

 place of the night dew, which the lath 

 house excludes. 



In repotting, see that the pots are 

 clean and use plenty of drainage; for 

 this a piece of broken pot, with some 

 small cinders on top, will be satisfac- 

 tory. The soil should still contain a 

 generous quantity of leaf-mold and 

 nearly one-third of old, well rotted cow 

 manure. L. 



BULBS A SECOND SEASON. 



Considerable uncertainty prevails 

 here regarding the second blooming of 

 bulbs. The question is, will certain 

 kinds of bulbs bloom next year, if the 

 flowers have been cut this year? Does 

 the picking of flowers have any effect 

 upon the blooming of the bulbs the 

 next year? Will narcissi under these 



If hyacinths, tulips and narcissi are 

 forced under glass, they are of no 

 value for forcing a second season. 

 These bulbs can be planted outdoors, 

 however, and will give fairly good re- 

 sults a second and succeeding seasons. 



Hyacinths planted outdoors and left 

 undisturbed will continue to flower for 

 several years, even if the flowers are 

 removed. They gradually deteriorate, 

 however. None of the narcissus fam- 

 ily are harmed by having their flow- 

 ers picked and many of them will con- 

 tinue to flower almost indefinitely if 

 occasionally lifted when the foliage 

 has matured, and planted out more 

 thinly. The small trumpet section, 

 which includes forms of poeticus, in- 

 comparabilis, Leedsii, etc., generally 

 speaking are hardier and increase more 

 satisfactorily than the big trumpets, 

 but Emperor, Empress, princeps and 

 Double Von Sion are exceptions to this 

 rule. All the true jonquils, such as 

 simplex, Campernelle and rugulosus, 

 will last from year to year outdoors. 



Tulips are more injured by having 

 the flowers cut than are the other 

 bulbs, for, if they are cut down to the 

 ground, all the foliage is removed. If 

 the flowers only are removed, no harm 

 is done. Bulbs from which the entire 

 foliage is cut with the flower will 

 bloom sparsely, if at all, the following 

 season. Darwin and cottage tulips 

 make long stems and it is possible with 

 them to get a sufficient stem with the 

 flower without sacrificing too much 

 foliage. These late tulips will not only 

 bloom from year to year, but often in- 

 crease. They should be replanted 

 every third or fourth year, however. 

 The early tulips will flower for sev- 

 eral seasons, but do not wear so long 

 as the Darwins. C. W. 



ODEN LCTTCR^^^ KEADEIi6, 



WHERE IS THE OUTLET? 



Would it not be a good idea to get 

 an expression of opinion from florists 

 in different sections of the country, re- 

 garding the business conditions which 

 prevailed during the month of April? 

 We think it is generally conceded that 

 April was a sort of "Black Friday" 

 to the flower trade in general. 



Commencing the first of the month, 

 a severe storm developed in the south- 

 west and gradually swept across the 

 country, ending in a violent snow storm 

 along the Atlantic coast, as far north 

 as Boston, This storm, coming just 

 when the Easter trade of the whole- 

 salers should have been at its height, 

 resulted in a tremendous loss to the 

 growers. In the Chicago district, the 

 shipping trade to the south, southeast 

 and east was nearly cut off by this 

 storm, and a severe slump in the mar- 

 ket the day before Easter developed, 

 while along the Atlantic seaboard the 

 losses to our eastern florists were enor- 

 mous. 



A few days after Easter there de- 



■veloped an unusually hot wave, which 

 lasted all through the month of April. 

 This hot waVe seemed to become more 

 aggravated as the month wore on. The 

 U. S. Weather Bureau states that the 

 temperature during April had an ex- 

 cess of 10,4 degrees above the normal 

 April, and that the heat wave, both in 

 intensity and area, broke all previous 

 records for the month of April. This 

 hot wave brought on such quantities 

 of flowers that it was impossible to dis- 

 pose of our product at satisfactory 

 prices. Quantities of stock had to be 

 thrown away, and a severe demoraliza- 

 tion existed in the market the greater 

 part of the month. 



The question which has come to my 

 mind is whether this serious slump in 

 the flower business was caused entirely 

 by the weather or if there has not been 

 too great a development of the growing 

 end of our business, without equal at- 

 tention being given to the selling end 

 of the line. It is an easy matter to 

 build additional glass and produce ad- 

 ditional stock, but we must bear in 

 mind that additional outlets must be 



