.•^j.TjT'w-; JTfc/T. 



■il'Sj^-wSiev 



14 



The Florists' Review 



Adqcst 12, 1915. 



GLADIOLUS BULBS DECAYING. 



I am sending under separate cover 

 some leaves and bulbs of Gladiolus 

 Peach Blossom. These were planted in 

 the first part of January, between car- 

 nations in ground beds. They have 

 had two applications of pulverized 

 sheep manure and two of lime. The 

 watering and temperature have been 

 the same as usually given to carna- 

 tions. Eecently I noticed some of the 

 shoots dying. They turn yellow at the 

 tip and then gradually dry up. Yo* 

 will notice that one of the bulbs I 

 send is completely decayed, while the 

 other is just starting to decay on one 

 side. In the decayed tissues you will 

 find some little white maggots and also 

 a number of little, yellowish insects, 

 similar in form to aphides. Have these 

 anything to do with causing the trou- 

 ble, or did they get in after the plant 

 tissues had decayed? Some Blushing 

 Bride planted at the same time and 

 given the same conditions are slightly 

 affected, but not nearly so badly as the 

 Peach Blossom. Can you suggest a 

 remedy! C. Kj|||^-^ich. 



I think the maggots were not the 

 cause of the plants becoming sickly, 

 but came after the bulbs started de- 

 caying. The most probable cause of 

 the Gladiolus Peach Blossom dying is 

 that they had too much plant food. 

 They are naturally much less vigorous 

 in habit than G. Blushing Bride, which 

 will stand an amount of feeding which 

 would be ruinous to Peach Blossom. I 

 am aware that good gladioli of the 

 small-flowered or nanus type are some- 

 times grown with carnations, but they 

 do vastly better in a bed by themselves, 

 and best of all in flats containing four 

 or five inches of soil. Considering the 

 long period that elapses from planting 

 to fiowering time, I consider these 

 gladioli the reverse of profitable as a 

 bench crop, but quite profitable if 

 grown in flats. C. W. 



GLADIOLI IN OHIO. 



On a visit last week to the establish- 

 ment of C. Betscher, Canal Dover, O., 

 I discovered something that was sur- 

 prising to me. Possibly to the spe- 

 cialist in gladioli it was just an ordi- 

 nary field, but 200 rows of gladioli, 

 6,000 bulbs to the row, in rows over 

 900 feet long, was a sight. Fully half 

 of this field is taken up with seedlings 

 of Mr. Betscher 's own raising, some 

 blooming for the first time, some on 

 trial as first and second year sorts, and 

 one, Eugene V. Debs, a red of unusual 

 brilliancy, is a seedling of 1911. It 

 promises to surpass anything in its 

 color that is known today as a standard 

 sort. 



The majority of Mr. Betscher 's 

 crossings have been on the primulinus 

 type crossed by the gandavensis type, 

 and the race he has produced is tall 

 and wiry, heavily flowered, with dis- 

 tinct coloring and early blooming habit. 



At this date, August 6, the majority 

 of the primulinus seedlings have passed 

 their prime, while the Kelway, Vil- 

 morin, Childsii and other well known 

 types are just coming into flower. 

 America, Augusta, Mrs. Francis Eing 

 and other standard sorts are grown in 

 quantity, to a height of about three 

 feet, while the sefedlin^s average well 

 over four feet, a decided difference. 



Mr. Betscher has been working for 

 six yearsi on this new strain of gladi- 

 oli, and sbn^e w«nderful new varieties 

 are bound to result from this batch of 

 seedlings that he now has in flower. 



A small field of Astermum, both pink 

 and lavender, shows unusual promise, 

 running over ninety per cent full 

 double flowers. By careful selection the 

 single and half -single flow^Uauhave 

 been eliminated. EverbloOT^J^ seed- 

 lings of hemerocallis, or day "lily, are 

 another specialty to be found here. 



F. A. r. 



SOWING DELPHINIUM SEED. 



JPUm you tell me how to plant delphin- 

 liirir seed to get it to germinate? I 

 have planted several different varie- 

 ties from four different seed houses and 

 none of it seems to come through the 

 ground, except, perhaps, one or two 

 plants to a package. Does this seed 

 need different treatment from other 

 perennial seed? If so, what is the se- 

 cret of success in growing these plants 

 from seed? I have purchased a quan- 

 tity of seed and wish to raise a lot of 

 plants, if possible. F. T. W. — N. J. 



I cannot understand why you have 

 so much trouble in germinating del- 

 phinium seed. Surely at least one of 

 the seed houses would have fresh seed 

 of it. Sow your seed in coldframes. 

 Screen the soil well and mix a fair 

 proportion of sand with it. Cover light- 



ly. Sow in rows six to eight inches 

 apart. Protect with sashes and cover 

 with board shutters until germination 

 starts. Then gradually inure to light. 

 Leave the sashes tilted,, at the top, so 

 as to admit some air all the time. 

 Water with a ^|p|pro.se can after sow- 

 ing. A g:ood time to sow is April and 

 May, or later in the season. August' 

 will be found better than July. Why 

 not save some seed from good plants 

 of your own? Sow when ripe. 



C. W. 



DISEASED ANTIRRHINUMS. 



I am sending under separate cover 

 a plant of yellow snapdragon which is 

 badly affected with what seems to be 

 some sort of fungous disease. I first 

 noticed this trouble just before plant- 

 ing outdoors. The plants made a vigor- 

 ous growth and seemed to be recover- 

 ing. Eecently, however, the disease 

 has become worse and is spreading to 

 the other varieties. When a plant is 

 badly affected the stem is attacked and 

 the plant dies. This seems to resem- 

 ble the antirrhinum rust which was 

 described in The Beview about a year 

 ago, except that I hav% been' unable 

 to find any of the brown particles. Can 

 you tell me what this disease is, and 

 suggest a remedy? I am using Bor- 

 deaux mixture. 



C. K. S.— Mich. 



This disease seems to be quite preva- 

 lent at present, being especially bad 

 where there has been cepsiderable 

 rain and damp, cloudy weather. It at- 

 tacks cuttings worse than seedlings. 

 The leaves are usually first affected, 

 showing small, round spots. The dis- 

 ease, however, soon fastens on the 

 stems just above the soil and in a 

 short time completely girdles the plants 

 and kills them. Indoor plants in a drier 

 atmosjJhere are not immune from attack, 

 but it is possible, by spraying before 

 the disease shows at all, to keep the 

 indoor stock clean. Outdoors all you 

 can do is to pull up and burn badly 

 affected plants and spray the remain- 

 ing ones every fourth day with Bor- 

 deaux or Fungine. I have found 

 the latter a reliable remedy and now 

 use it entirely on snapdragons, chrys- 

 anthemums and other indoor plants at- 

 tacked by fungoid growths. 







. ■, •■ ^'.'.'•■■■-'■';/-"\'^.;;?^:»'«>i'. '- '''^:'>>^-i!':'''^/'-"C- ' -.^:-''V- ' •' .'• At? -j-j "'-• " •.^/J^• 



Gladioli at the Establishment of C. Betscher, Canal Dover, O. 



< 



