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J 52 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



JuNB 16, 1904. 



We have used two bricks for the wall 

 and, instead of 3-inch round tile, a hol- 

 low brick five inches broad, four inches 

 thick and twelve inches long. We prefer 

 the hollow brick but either must be the 

 best of drainage. Instead of the five 

 inches of cement for the edge, just place 

 a 2x6 scantling on the edge of the hollow 

 bricks. True, this scantling will rot, but 

 not for six or seven years, and that is 

 quite a time to look forward to when it is 

 so easily replaced. This bed last de- 

 scribed costs about thirty per cent more 

 than one built of 2-inch hemlock plank. 

 Another ground bench is four bricks 

 laid up in Cement for the sides of the bed. 

 Then six inches of rubble stone is filled 

 in and on top of the stone five inches of 

 soil for your plants. Now, you may not 

 have the stone on your farm, but if you 

 have, this bed will cost one-half the cheap- 

 est wooden bench you could possibly build 

 and, as for drainage, I think the rubble 

 stone the most perfect of all. I am 

 aware that where stone is not plentiful, 

 clinkers and coarse ashes have been used 

 with success, yet I can't speak from ex- 

 perience, as is the case with the stone. 



Air Not the EssentiaL 



Just let me say here that we attach no 

 importance to the fall of the air passing 

 through the drain tiles or hollow bricks. 

 We would not seal up the ends of the 

 tiles to prevent it, but can see nothing 

 essential or beneficial in it. The drainage 

 is in and through between the tiles, and 

 as for air at the roots, they will get all 

 they want from the surface, the natural 

 way, and so these little brick walls about 

 eleven inches high with six inches of 

 rubble stone need no tiles to ventilate 

 the bed, as we have seen done. 



It is only justice to what I have been 

 asserting to say that last summer we 

 vbuilt two of these brick beds with stone 

 for drainage. Each bed was 5x125 feet, 

 a nice width, and although planted al- 

 together too late with Lawson carnations 

 from 4-inch pots, nothing could have done 

 better and the quality of bloom and 

 strength of growth showed they were 

 enjoying their environment, and are 

 doing so to this day. The most orthodox 

 believer in the raised wooden bench with 

 2x6 plank for a bottom would not assert 

 that the space of one-half or three-quar- 

 ters of an inch between the boards or 

 planks was anything but for drainage, 

 and this six inches of stone is infinitely 

 better drainage than the boards. 



Another Good Bench. 



Still another. Supposing from one 

 cause or another you have no time, or 

 perhaps none of the needful, to build 

 the brick and tile bench, or the much 

 cheaper one with the little brick walls 

 and stone drainage. Then what's the mat- 

 ter with putting up a 12-inch plank for 

 the side of the bed and filling in with 

 six or seven inches of rubble stone or 

 crushed stone or clinkers? The plank will 

 last at least six years and will answer 

 all the purposes of the brick wall an*!, 

 although the cost of material will not be 

 so difl^rent, the cost and time of put- 

 ting it in place will be one-tenth that of 

 the brick. Where stone is not found on 

 the land, there may be stone quarries in 

 the neighborhood where the ' ' chip ' ' stone 

 is sold cheap enough. Where there is 

 neither, there may be brickyards where 

 spoiled and imperfect bricks are sold 

 cheap, and if none of these, you have 

 clinkers and the coarsest of last winter's 

 ashes. The quality of soil you use, com- 



bined with your skill and, more than all, 

 care, is what will count for your success 

 or failure. 



Those who have been uniformly success- 

 ful with the fast decaying, awkward to 

 work, laborious to fill and empty, raised 

 wooden benches are slow to believe in any 

 other. Yet I can but foresee that the 

 three-quarter-span, long-slope-to-the-south 



house and the step ladder benches are 

 fast disappearing and where the modern 

 range of two or three acres without a 

 partition, devoted to one class of plants, 

 or the still more modern fifty-feet-wide 

 house with glass almost to the ground, 

 the raised benches are two feet of folly, 

 expense and worry. 



William Scott. 



WORK WITH BEAUTY. 



Planting, which should constitute the 

 largest part of the work during the rest 

 of the month, should be vigorously 

 pushed, so that the young stock may make 

 some headway before the real hot weather 

 commences. Every day of delay now is 

 curtailing the growing season, cutting 

 oflf, in fact, the best and most active part 

 of it, especially so in the case of Beau- 

 ties, which should have a long season of 

 growth to develop a stocky, bushy plant 

 before putting them into crop, if we de- 

 sire to have them in good bearing shape 

 by the holiday season, when the demand 

 is good and prices fair. 



During this month, when the majority 

 of the larger growers have replanted their 

 houses, there is frequently a demand for 

 Beauties and other roses which is an 

 inducement to defer planting for a week 

 or two, under the impression that this is 

 a saving method and that by greater care 

 and attention to the young stock they 

 can be made to catch up with the earlier 

 planted stock. A few seasons of experi- 

 ence and careful comparison where strict 

 records are kept will prove this to be a 

 fallacy, as the returns invariably show 

 in favor of early planting. 



Beauties which are late in being plant- 

 ed must, in order to catch up, even in 

 appearance with early planted stock, re- 

 quire more care, attention and coddling 

 and are usually hustled along at such n 

 rapid rate that the growth is too soft 

 and spongy to enter on the winter with n 

 fair chance to set their buds in time for 

 the best and most remunerative market 

 of the season. 



To secure a really good quality of 

 wood for this purpose plenty of ventila- 

 tion, both day and night, is absolutelv 

 necessary and if the nights are too cold 

 to admit of this vrithout firing, it is a 

 poor system of economy to withhold heat, 

 and this applies not only to Beauty grow- 

 ing but to all classes of roses under glass. 

 Being a rapid grower and a gross 

 feeder the Beauty requires large supplies 

 of water to keep the food in an assimil- 

 able form, and the soil cool. This lib- 

 eral use of water also entails persistent 



and free from caking, which, next to 

 ventilation and watering, is one of the 

 most important essentials in Beauty grow- 

 ing. This should be continued until the 

 bench is so well filled with roots that 

 further cultivation might be injurious. 



To prevent the insidious attacks of 

 thrips, fumigating should be systematic- 

 ally practiced. A light application once 

 a week, if done during the early morning, 

 when the house is comparatively dry and 

 the glass cool, will keep such pests a» 

 thrips and greenfly from giving muct 

 trouble. 



To keep spider in check the syringe 

 must be used every day during bright 

 weather and during hot spells a second 

 syringing during the afternoon will be 

 of great benefit, helping to cool the house, 

 recharge the air with moisture, refresh- 

 ing the foliage and giving it that firm 

 and rubbery texture so noticeable in well 

 handled stock. To be effective syringing 

 must be accompanied by a good force of 

 water, sufficient to dislodge the spider 

 and break up the web under which the 

 eggs are deposited, and be so directed 

 that the under sidps of the leaves receive 

 the full force of the spray. In order to 

 accomplish this vrith safety, so that none 

 of the young, sappy shoots may be bro- 

 ken tying should be strictly attended to. 

 Many of the younger and less experi- 

 enced growers are under the impression 

 that the successful Beauty grower pos- 

 sesses some weighty secret which enables 

 him to produce such perfect blooms and 

 which he religiously guards from the 

 knowledge of the uninitiated. I am fre- 

 quantly accused by this class of growers 

 of withholding this secret. "You don't 

 give it all away in your notes," is the 

 comment Now the most successful grow- 

 ers of this rose never claim, nor do thev 

 possess, any such secret. It is by strict 

 attention to the details, carefuHy observ- 

 n"Ai^ habits, ^d supplyingr the wants 

 of the plants at the proper time, and the 

 exercise of sound judgment, never for- 

 getting that no condition or circumstance 

 in the cultivation cf this imperial rose is 

 of so little importance as not to be wor- 

 thy of being carefully noted for future 

 use; that 18 what gives them the knowl- 

 edge which constitutes the abiKty to grow 

 iieauty with success. Bibes. 



Faiepield, Ia.— George Wray has had 



eral use of water also entails persistent a busy season, the pleasure of eood trade 

 cultivation of the surface to keep it sweet | interfered with by sickness in hiTfaSftr! 



