14 



The Florists' Review 



"Ji;-^.=f.: 



JULT 1. 1915. 



of firms supplying this trade. The 

 State Department is now engaged in 

 constant communication informally 

 with British authorities with the object 

 of securing the unhindered transporta- 

 tion of European products to this coun- 



try, so that the commercial conditions 

 of the nation may not be further upset. 

 What the outcome will be, no one can 

 surely tell, and prophecy is only guess- 

 work. Work and wait, is the motto of 

 the importers and florists. 



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i SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS I 

 I FOR SOUTHERN FLORISTS | 



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give tone to the plants. TOiej require 

 plenty of room when growing, and 

 when in 4-inch pots or over they should 

 be stood on inverted pots to keep the 

 foliage clean. 



Each Farleyense plant must be wa- 

 tered according to its individual needs, 

 using a small stream from the hose. 

 Avoid water on the foliage except in 

 case of a midday wilt, as before men- 

 tioned. When established finally they 

 can be given a liquid manure watering 

 once a week. This variety, when prop- 

 erly cared for, will make a fine 8-iuch 

 pot specimen in one season. L. 



ADIANTUMS IN THE SOUTH. 



Propagation and (General Culture. 



The varieties of adiantum most com- 

 monly grown in the south are A. Crow- 

 eanum, A. hybridum and, in certain 

 localities, A. magnificum. The two 

 former varieties are grown both for pot 

 plants and cut fronds. They grow only 

 slowly during the summer months. The 

 best place for the small plants is in 

 a well shaded coldframe. Larger plants 

 that have seen service during the win- 

 ter do best if placed on a shady table 

 and given just enough water to keep 

 the crowns alive. When the nights get 

 cooler, in August or September, they 

 can be shaken out, repotted and started 

 growing again, using some leaf-mold 

 anu some old, pulverized cow manure 

 in the compost. A night temperature 

 of 60 degrees in winter suits these va- 

 rieties well. When well established they 

 require some extra feeding and I find 

 a good top-dressing of sheep manure 

 suits their requirements better than 

 anything else. 



A. magnificum makes a remarkably 

 fine pot specimen and lasts well in a 

 house. It is a shallow rooter and does 

 well in ordinary seed pans. Plants in 

 small pots are useful for fern dishes. 

 The tops seem to flourish, no matter 

 how the roots are cut or maltreated. A 

 few plants set out on a shallow bench 

 will give plenty of crowns to be di- 

 vided. It is not particular as to tem- 

 perature, 55 degrees at night suiting it 

 as well as any other. 



The best method of propagating A. 

 hybridum seems not to be generally 

 understood in the south. It does not 

 come from seed, and old crowns divided 

 do not make compact plants in small 

 pots. The best way is to take a few old 

 plants, cut off the fronds and punch out 

 the center crowns. Knock out of pots 

 and place the plants on their sides in a 

 sash-covered frame in the greenhouse. 

 Water with a can or a fine spray from 

 the hose. The young plants will appear 

 in quantity all over the ball of each 

 plant and when big enough can be 

 pricked off into boxes and grown on. 

 These make stocky little plants, away 

 ahead of the leggy samples obtained 

 from divisions of old crowns. 



Adiantum Farleyense. 



Adiantum Farleyense succeeds well 

 in the south when its needs are under- 

 stood. The right location in the green- 

 house is just as important as the right 

 compost for potting. Little top ven- 

 tilation is needed, but there should be 

 plenty of side ventilation, if possible, 

 below the level of the benches. The 

 doors also can be left open. The walks 

 will have to be kept well dampened 

 down. If the plants show the least ten- 



dency to wilt at midday, a gentle dew 

 from the hose will soon straighten them 

 up. 



The old Farleyense crowns are di- 

 vided in late fall or early winter, 

 potted in small pots and plunged to the 

 rim on a lightly shaded table near the 

 glass. A little bottom heat is a great 

 help in starting them off. The night 

 temperature of the house should run 

 about 65 degrees, with the usual rise in 

 the daytime. The best soil mixture at 

 this time is one-half sandy loam and 

 one-half leaf-mold, with a few small 

 pieces of charcoal at the bottom of each 

 pot for drainage. Avoid overwatering, 

 but maintain a nice, moist condition. 



The plants may not be ready for a 

 shift for twelve weeks or more, but 

 after being shifted they grow quickly 

 enough. The compost may be increased 

 in strength at each shift, by gradually 

 adding a little rotted cow manure, but 

 see that it is always sifted and made 

 porous by the use of leaf -mold or sand. 

 This variety grows naturally on a 

 lime rock formation, and if any 

 old lime plaster is available, a few 

 pieces at the bottom of each pot seem to 



HYACINTHS FOE EXHIBITION. 



Will you kindly inform me what are 

 the finest and largest flowering hya- 

 cinths for exhibition purposes? I want 

 all colors. Do you advise planting 

 three bulbs in a potf 



W. H. Q.— N. Y. 



The following are splendid exhibition 

 hyacinths of their respective colors: 

 Single pink — Charles Dickens, Moreno, 

 Queen of the Pinks; single red — Koi 

 des Beiges, La Victoire; single white — 

 La Grandesse, Mme. Van der Hoop, 

 Grand Vainquer; single blue — En- 

 chantress, Queen of the Blues, King of 

 the Blues; single yellow — Yellow 

 Hammer. If doubles are wanted, the 

 following are fine: Pink — Lord Well- 

 ington; white — Double La Grandesse; 

 blue — Bloksberg or Lord Baglan; yel- 

 low — Goethe. 



Hyacinths do particularly well in 

 deep pans, commonly called half pots. 

 One bulb can be grown in a 5-inch pot 

 or pan, three in ?. 7-inch pot, six in a 

 10-inch pot and ten in a 12-inch pot. 

 This is for bulbs of the best exhibition 

 quality. 0. W. 



EARLY HOUSING OF PLANTS. 



0«tting the Beds Beady. 



You are perhaps not yet ready to 

 start refilling your carnation beds for 

 next year. If you grow roses, mums 

 and a general line of retailers' stock, 

 you will, of course, want to get the 

 roses and mums planted before you 

 commence on the carnation beds, and 

 rightly so. For this reason and because 

 you will have plenty of work to keep 

 all hands busy, it might be well to con- 

 sider the advisability of eliminating 

 those beds that can be spared from this 

 time on, either on account of unprofit- 

 ableness or overproduction at a time 

 when business is on the wane. To keep 

 a bed properly watered in June and 

 July requires considerable time, and 

 unless a fair quantity of blooms is cut 

 and disposed of, it might not pay to 

 keep the plants going. If you have any 

 such beds, do not let them dry up, as is 

 sometimes done, but pull out the plants 

 and clean off the beds, even if you 

 cannot take out the soil right away. 



There is perhaps nothing that breeds 

 insects and disease as does a bed of 

 old plants that are overgrown with 

 weeds. Red spider and thrips fairly 

 revel in such conditions. 



Early ]^lanting Pays. 



Many of the carnation specialists be- 

 gin getting at least a part of the beds 

 ready for replanting soon after Memo- 

 rial day, with a view to finishing their 

 planting as early in July as possible. 

 Where only a house or two are planted,^ 

 there is, of course, no need of such 

 hurry to get started, but, specialist or 

 no specialist, in either case early plant- 

 ing pays, and the first part of August 

 should see every plant in its winter 

 quarters. It may not mean a great 

 difference in the number of blooms cut 

 during the season, whether the plants 

 are benched in July or in late August 

 or early September, but there will be a 

 great difference in the quality of the 

 blooms and in the steadiness of the cut 

 during the season and both of these ad- 

 vantages cut a good figfure when you 

 count up the returns at the end of the 

 season. 



Early benching does not necessarily 



