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May 26, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



.v^Huf 



Alyssum and Lobelia* 



There are a few common plants that 

 enter into our busLness that are liable 

 tc be overlooked at this busy time. Many 

 of our soft -wooded plants you can prop- 

 agate from cuttings taken outdoors in 

 the fall, but not all. The sweet alyssum 

 if! one. Take a few cuttings now. A 

 few hundred will be useful struck now 

 and kept in 2-inch pots until August or 

 September and then planted along the 

 edge of a carnation bench will give you 

 flowers through the winter and all the 

 cuttings you want for spring use. We 

 are often short of good lobelia cuttings 

 in the winter.; plant out a dozen and in 

 September cut them back and lift before 

 fiost. 



Aloysia, Lantana and Heliotrope. 



There are a few of our bedding plants 

 tliat it is almost impossiblsf to root in 

 the fall from cuttings taken from out- 

 door plants. Among them are the fra- 

 grant lemon verbena, lantana and helio- 

 trope. If you happen to have an old 

 plant of the latter trained up the gable 

 end of a house you don't want to bother 

 with any plants, because with a cutting 

 back in September, as you would a grape 

 vine, it will give you flowers and cut- 

 tings the entire winter, yet if you don't 

 happen to have such, then pot up a 

 few into 5 or 6-inch pots, lantanas and 

 lemon verbenas also, and plunge out- 

 doors. Brought in before frost and 

 shortened back, the heliotrope- will make 

 cuttings that root like chickweed and the 

 Itmon verbena ,and lantana, after partial 

 rest till January and then cut back and 

 started into growth, will also give you 

 t\w right kind of cuttings. 



Summering the Azaleas. 



Azaleas that were not sold this spring 

 make our best plants for next Easter. 

 I-*:' they were in bad shape and the foli- 

 age damaged, then it is to be hoped you 

 cut them back hard, even if you left them 

 Icjifless. And you may have some that 

 came largely blind and yet made a fine 

 growth. These latter need only the 

 strongest growth pinched back. There 

 is no hurry for a week or two, or till 

 the young growth on the cut back plants 

 is somewhat matured, but they should go 

 outdoors before the middle of June. 

 "Whether you plant them out or keep 

 them in pots plunged in frames, they 

 should be in the broad sun every hour it 

 shines; putting them beneath the shade 

 o? trees is a great mistake. The Bel- 

 gians, who produce such marvelously fine 

 plants at what seems to us a very inex- 

 pensive price, plant them out in beds of 

 richly prepared soil and even the plants 

 riot sold they plant on benches in houses 

 for the winter and replant again in the 

 beds the following summer. 



Now, if you have a light, sandy loam 

 ■with the addition of leaf-mold and 

 plenty of very rotten manure (thorough- 

 ly rotten refuse hops is also excellent) 

 you will have an ideal bed to plant out 

 the azaloas. As to lifting in the fall. 



you know how they are lifted in Europe, 

 cross the Atlantic and smile at you when 

 the case is opened. Don't make the mis- 

 take of planting them in the beds too 

 thickly. These plants will increase a 

 third and maybe fifty per cent in size 

 during the summer and it is bad to have 

 them crowded. Daylight should be 

 around every plant. I have seen them 

 planted out in this country with great 

 success. 



If you are not blessed with any such 

 conditions of soil, then these azaleas will 

 do finely kept in pots and plunged to the 

 rim of the pot in frames. Faithful wa- 

 tering and a daily syringing in hot 

 weather is the principal care. Very lit- 

 tle if any pinching is needed in the sum- 

 mer, except perhaps a strong growth 



sprout a new crop of hair under such 

 nourishment, ■" 



* Metrosideros and Acacia. 



Metrosideros (the bottle brush) and 

 Acacia armata that were shortened back 

 after Easter want just such treatment as 

 the azaleas in pots, except that if you 

 gave the azaleas a good soil when re- 

 ceived last fall there will be no need of 

 any shift, but the acacia and -bottle 

 brash are free-rooting plants, particu- 

 larly the former, and if well rooted give 

 them a larger pot. 



Planting Out Asters. 



Some early asters are doubtless plant- 

 ed by many, but there are many more yet 

 to be planted. The aster wants a deep, 

 rich soil and if a long dry spell occurs 

 ntar their flowering time, say August, 

 they are ruined, so have them within 

 reach of the hose. I think as good a lot 

 of asters as I ever saw were grown in a 

 heavy clay loam dug deeply aniL thor- 

 oughly worked and then well supplied 

 with water. If asters do well they want 

 plenty of room. The early varieties may 

 do in rows one foot apart and nine or 

 ten inches in the row, but Semple 's and 



The Improved Form of Nephrolepis Piersoni. 



( V\rinner of New York Horticultural Society's Fifty- Dollar Premium as Best Horticultural Novelty.) 



occasionally. Good, strong liquid ma- 

 nure once a week will be of the greatest 

 benefit to those kept in pots. 



To digress a moment. "We had a call 

 last week from Alfred Dimmock, that 

 cosmo])olitan gentleman who represents 

 the orchid king, Sander of England and 

 Bruges, Belgium. His photographs of 

 their azalea beds in Belgium, and they 

 are only one of many acres, looked as 

 neat and orderly as a model Italian flow- 

 er garden. If he told you " the ingre- 

 dients of the compost you would think 

 ns T did that an Egyptian mummy would 



Vick's Branching and Truflfaut's need 

 fifteen by eighteen inches. Plant four or 

 five rows and then miss a row for a path. 

 You will find both for handling the hose 

 and picking t^ie flowers it is no loss of 

 space. 



Last year we were badly troubled with 

 the aster beetle, which delights to get 

 down in the center of the flower. We 

 sfirayed them with a solution of Paris 

 green, a teaspoonful of the poison in a 

 pail of about three gallons , of water, but 

 wore too late. The solution did not 

 vvac-h the heart of the flower, where the 



