' ' /^■^^'■'rc-S'r--ryy*iif; 



5!5f^^rw- 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



May 26, 1904. 



beetles "do mostly congregate." Be- 

 fore the buds are in the least expanded 

 would be a better time to apply it. If 

 any one knows a better remedy to de- 

 stroy these lively little devils let's hear 

 from him. 



The BostoQ Fern. 



Some one has remarked very recently 

 that the Boston fern is the most popular 

 decorative and house plant of the day 

 and it is about true. All of us grow 

 more or less, but you don't often see a 

 really fine, perfect lot. As soon as the 

 frost kills our plants in the garden, then 

 the plant lover wants something green in 

 the window or drawing-room and now is 

 the time to prepare for this demand. 

 Many plant Bostons out on benches from 

 2% or 3-inch pots in five or six inches 

 of rich soil. If given room they grow 

 rapidly and make nice plants for 6-inch 

 pots by September or October. Then 

 they should be lifted and given at least 

 a month in the pots before they are 

 sold. 



I think, however, the best and most 

 finished plants are grown altogether in 

 pots. Plunge the pots on the benches 

 during summer and you will save water- 

 ing and greatly benefit the plants. If 

 you start now with a little plant from a 

 2%-inch pot shifted into a 4-inch and 

 ill August given a 6-ineh, you should 

 have a fine plant in October. That is 

 the size that is in most demand, although 

 8 and 9-inch plants are often asked for, 

 which are easily produced by starting 

 with a larger plant or putting three 

 small plants now into a 6-inch pot. They 

 are too often given too much shade in 

 our hottest weather ; then again, they are 

 too often crowded. A nephrolepis with 

 only stifif, upright growth is not hand- 

 some. It does not show its graceful, 

 drooping form, and, of course, it is form 

 that is the chief beauty of all ferns. 



Old Boston holds its own and it will 

 be a long time, "methinks, " ere it is 



to perfection. If there is anything in a 

 name this beautiful fern ought to be in 

 great demand. The Scots and Picts 

 flourished about 200 years B. C. The 

 Picts got picked oflf, but Scot^ii still 

 lives in Brooklyn and several other 

 places. 



My experience is that a loose, light 

 soil is not the thing to grow good plants 

 of these robust ferns. A soil of the tex- 

 ture and richness that would do for your 

 rose benches will grow them well. I 

 do know, however, that decayed hops 

 they delight in, yet let the soil be firm 

 and compact and don 't give them a dar 

 gloomy house. 



More Cemetery Notes. 



I finished off my cemetery notes last 

 week without saying all I intended to. 

 As pretty and graceful a vase as any is 

 one filled with nothing but Boston ferns, 

 either half a dozen good plants or a 

 specimen with a spread of four or five 

 feet. If watered faithfully they will 

 grow and flourish in the full sun. We 

 also occasionally put in one palm alone, 

 but there is very little choice in the 

 palms, and Phoenix dactylifera and P. 

 canariensis are the ones, because they 

 don't burn even if slightly neglected for 

 water, and they are the right form. 



While on the cemetery subject, I no- 

 tice Mr. Craig, of Boston, in his most 

 interesting notes on winter-killed plants 

 and shrubs, mentions the English ivy as 

 being killed even when protected. It is 

 of no use with us, but there is a little 

 plant that endures our hardest winters 

 and I can see that for cemetery use it is 

 coming to the front more and mon 

 every year, and that is Vinca minor, 

 which many of our people who ought to 

 know better call myrtle. It is going to 

 be more and more in demand. It is too 

 cheap a thing to grow in pots or frames. 

 Some place beneath the trees, or any 

 piece of ground if planted with it, just 

 a spray with a root planted a few inches 



End View of a Hitchings House at the Strafford Flower Farm. 



(See Philadelphia News Letter. Pagre^»^-^^ 



displaced. Anna Foster is fine, a good 

 grower, but has reverted to the old type 

 ja many fronds, yet that does not hinder 

 its being a beautiful plant. Piersoni is, 

 as we all know, the most beautiful of all 

 the varieties; as was said once before, it 

 i? the Farleyense among the nephrolepis. 

 The new aspirant to favor, Scottii, I have 

 only seen as a specimen plant at "Wadi- 

 Ron Square Garden in November, 1902. 

 That plant was truly a beauty and en- 

 dowed with the graceful drooping habit 



apart, will in two years be a mat and 

 you can sell it by the yard as you buy 

 sod. 



The Smilax. 



After you get over your bedding plant 

 rush you will have time to attend to 

 future crops. Among them is the smi- 

 lax bed. Plant every June; about the 

 middle of the month is a good time. 

 Smilax needs no drainage of any kind. 

 Put seven or eight inches of heavy loam. 



well enriched with manure, on the solid 

 ground and you can, if you keep a tem- 

 perature of not less than 60 degrees all 

 night, cut four crops before the twelve 

 months are around. Smilax is by no 

 means displaced by the beautiful aspara- 

 gus. It may pay you to buy it of p 

 specialist when you have occasion to 

 use fifty or 100 strings, but it is a great 

 comfort to have some on your own place 

 when you need it. Smilax grown in a 

 cool house does not pay. 



Botivardias. 



When there is no more fear of the 

 slightest frost you should plant out your 

 young bpuvardias. They like a light, 

 sandy loam, well enriched, and should 

 bo watered freely when rain ip absent. 

 Soon after planting they will begin to 

 throw up strong shoots from the ground 

 and when they are five or six inches high 

 they should be stopped. These growths 

 are what make the plant. The little, 

 spindly plant that started from the cut- 

 ting bed will never amount to anything 

 and when there is plenty of new growth 

 from the bottom the original plant can 

 be cut away. Why the soil should htj 

 light is because the bouvardia is not the 

 easiest plant to lift and unless you can- 

 get all the roots and fibres when lifting 

 they will wilt badly with the best of care. 



Geranium John Doyle. 

 I have only just recently made the 

 acquaintance of that splendid zonale ge 

 ranium, John Doyle. It is a grand scar- 

 let. Perhaps it is old, yet we did noi 

 know it. If you don't have it, buy a 

 hundred and plant it out. It is brighter 

 than Nutt and as healthy as J. Austin 

 Shaw. Wiij.iTAM Scott. 



ROSES. 



Supports for the Plants. 



Since my first notes on rose growing 

 appeared in the Review some years ago 

 I have had many suggestions fr>om grow- 

 ers of merit as to the best system of 

 erecting rose supports. Some are recom- 

 piended as labor savers; others claim 

 merit as being economical as regards ma- 

 terial, etc. The principal object to be 

 kept in view should, in my estimation, be 

 utility; in other words, the method 

 which, while being easiest 'of erection 

 possesses permanency, makes least trou- 

 ble to remove and replace, requires lit- 

 tle repair and, while possessing eflSciency, 

 has also a neat appearance. 



When visiting growing establishments 

 I am always on the lookout for some 

 newer and better feature in rose sup- 

 ports, as even tlie best methods seem to 

 have some weak points in the system, 

 and along with other growers 1 shall 

 gladly welcome the system which will 

 simplify this work. 



In large establishments the most com- 

 mon method is to erect at each end of 

 the bench a form or frame made of ly^- 

 hich iron piping. This frame consists 

 of two legs with a cross bar which for 

 neatness and strength should be joined 

 at the corners by elbows. The legs 

 should be of such a length that they can 

 be sunk a foot into the ground, leav-' 

 ing the cross bar twenty-eight inches 

 above the surface of the bench. The 

 whole frame should be at least six inches 

 narrower than the bench, so that it can 

 rest against the ends, thus giving sup- 

 port when the wires are stretched. 



A line of wire should then be stretched 



