SbfteUbgr 9, 1915. 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



FEBTILIZEB FOB MUMS. 



As a fertilizer for chrysanthemums 

 in pots and boxes, would one teaspoon- 

 ful of bone meal, sprinkled around each 

 plant, be too much? Would one tea- 

 spoonful of nitrate of soda to six quarts 

 of water be about right? As the latter 

 is so powerful a fertilizer, I prefer to 

 mix it in small quantities, so as to be 

 sure of what I am doing. I should 

 hate to kill with kindness. Would it 

 be advisable to use either of these at 

 intervals of a day or two? 



P. E. I.— La. 



One teaspoonful of bone is not 

 enough to hurt a plant in a pot or box. 

 Probably P. E. I. is aware that the 

 finer the meal, the better the results. 

 A teaspoonful of nitrate of soda in six 

 quarts of water is also safe. A rough 

 and ready way to calculate is to put a 

 4-inch potful of soda in a kerosene bar- 

 rel of water, which is supposed to be 

 about fifty gallons, and this can be 

 used about once a week. Personally, I 

 prefer to use sulphate of ammonia 

 rather than nitrate of soda, as the for- 

 mer seems to be better suited to chrys- 

 anthemums. Chas. H. Totty. 



STEMS EATEN BY GBUBS. 



Will you kindly let me know what to 

 do for my chrysanthemums? I have 

 possibly 200 or more plants in the open 

 ground, and every here and there one 

 of them is hanging its head just as 

 if it were scalded. The leaves look 

 sick. I dig the plants up early in the 

 morning, but can find no worms or 

 bugs. Still, there must be something 

 that eats them, for the stems are hol- 

 low and seem to be cut off entirely 

 from the root. I water and spray every 

 day and the plants were perfectly 

 healthy looking until this trouble began. 

 I have sprinkled the ground rather 

 heavily with hydrated lime. 



P. E. I.— La. 



The trouble is caused by an insect 

 that eats the sap and inner tissues of 

 the stem, leaving nothing but the shell 

 of the plant, so that the plant naturally 

 falls over when moved by the wind or 

 when sprayed. This pest is by no 

 means common, but almost every year 

 some section of the country reports 

 trouble with it. The eggs are deposited 

 by a butterfly in the stem of the plant, 

 and the larvse, when hatched, proceed 

 to work either up or down the stem, 

 eating their way out as they go. They 

 usually go downward and consequently 

 the plant generally separates at the 

 root. P. E. L will see that the, plants 

 are eaten down to a point where there 

 is a hole, and there the worm has made 

 its escape. 



There is no insecticide that can touch 

 this pest, because to kill the grub would 

 mean death to the plant. The same 



grub is often present in the common 

 burdock; in fact, I think the burdock 

 is the host plant, and this furnishes 

 anothgr reason why weeds of all de- 

 scriptions should be kept cut down 

 around a florist's establishment. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



This is applied when the plants are 

 making a strong, vigorous growth and 

 is one of the finest fertilizers for chrys- 

 anthemums that I know of. It is read- 

 ily soluble and is available for use by 

 the plants almost immediately. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



PBOPOBTION OF FEBTILIZEB. 



Will you kindly let the readers of 

 The Eeview, as well as myself, know 

 what proportion of phosphate of am- 

 monia should be used for chrysanthe- 

 mums, roses, etc? I had the directions 

 once, but have lost my memorandum 

 book. I am now especially anxious to 

 produce fine foliage on the plants. 



E. T.— Kan. 



LEAF-MINEBS ON MUMS. 



I notice here and there a few leaves 

 at the bottom of my Polly Eose chry- 

 santhemum plants that have brown 

 spots on them like those on the leaves 

 enclosed. What is the cause of these 

 spots? H. A. C. — Ala. 



I have never used phosphate of am- 

 monia for chrysanthemums, so I am 

 unable to state its proportion. Is E. T. 

 sure he does not mean sulphate of am- 

 monia, which is an excellent fertilizer 

 and largely used? A safe proportion 

 of sulphate of ammonia is one pound 

 dissolved in a 50-gallon barrel of water. 



The spots on the leaves are caused 

 by the leaf -miner, the same Insect that 

 attacks celery. This pest lays its egg 

 between the tissues of the leaf, and 

 when hatched it has the inner and outer 

 leaf-skin to protect it. Therefore it 

 cannot be reached by insecticides of 

 any kind and the only method of fight- 

 ing it is to take the infested leaves off 

 the plants and burn them. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



djllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllll^ 



I SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS I 

 I FOR SOUTHERN FLORISTS | 



Tillllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll? 



YOUNG POINSETTIA PLANTS. 



The present is a good time, in the 

 south, to start making the last batch 

 of poinsettia layers. They root a lit- 

 tle more quickly this month, and, as 

 they also make a smaller growth be- 

 tween the time of layering and rooting, 

 they are more easily handled and es- 

 tablished after being potted off. Shift 

 any 2%-inch pot stock into 3-inch pots, 

 to carry them along until time to put 

 them into their flowering pans, which 

 is during the latter part of September 

 or early in October. 



These plants, when handled right, 

 are not especially touchy in regard to 

 cool or changeable temperatures. Last 

 year we had ours on a side bench in the 

 rose house, with the side glass removed, 

 and the night temperature fell to 52 

 degrees inside for a full week before 

 a fire was started. The plants grew 

 strongly, with a fine color. 



The two most important factors in 

 their fall culture in the south are the 

 watering and fertilizing. They should 

 always tend to the dry side and should 

 be well sprayed with a fine stream to 

 check mealy bug. For fertilizing, a top- 

 dressing of pulverized cow manure, not 

 too fresh, is preferable to manure wa- 

 ter. This should be renewed each week 

 from the middle of October until the 



bracts have developed. A night temper- 

 ature of 56 degrees is enough till the 

 bracts are developed, after which a lit- 

 tle less heat will be all right, with a 

 lessened water supply. L. 



CABNATIONS IN THE SOUTH. 



Two weeks after planting is a good 

 time to give the beds their first work- 

 ing. By that time the weeds and grass 

 have become big enough to be easily 

 pulled. The ground can be worked 

 pretty deeply, with no attempt at 

 smoothing it off, but rather leaving it 

 in a rough state. Each week for an- 

 other month the beds can be worked 

 again, smoothing the surface and break- 

 ing up any lumps Rt sach operation. 

 When the carnations are grown on solid 

 beds, as they should be, they can be 

 worked much longer without injury 

 than when grown on raised benches. 

 Indeed, on solid beds it is possible to 

 work the surface lightly until spring 

 approaches. If the right moisture is 

 maintained in the beds, there is no 

 danger of the roots appearing on the 

 surface. When the roots appear early 

 on the surface of a solid bed, you may 

 be sure the moisture is deficient under- 

 neath. 



After the carnations have been 

 planted a month, under southern condi- 



