JUMB 23, 1904. 



The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



J 99 



, Spread Out the Palms. j^_^ 



There will be less stock in our houses 

 for the next two mouths than at any 

 time of the year, except it be with the 

 palm specialists, who are now pushing 

 along their young stock that will be sent 

 out in the fall. If you grow a few 

 young palms don 't over-force them. It is 

 true that our leading commercial palms, 

 the kentia, areca, latania and phoenix, will 

 endure a great amount of heat and hu- 

 midity, and some large growers give it 

 to them, but others do not. It is those 

 who give all the ventilation they can, 

 with the least shade that is permissible, 

 and plenty of room for the plants to de- 

 velop their growth, who send out the 

 fine stock, well formed, desirable palms. 

 I once entered a house of arecas in June ; 

 the sun was shining and it was about 70 

 degrees outside in the shade, and yet thero 

 was steam on in that house. The temper- 

 ature must have been about 117. Of 

 course the Areca lutescens were growing 

 fast, but when sold to the man who 

 could, in the fall, only give it 60 degrees 

 at night they would soon assume that 

 beautiful (f) pale yellow color. Give 

 your young palms plenty of room now 

 that you can afford it. 



SomelPlants Can Go Outside. 



Decorations of all kinds are about over 

 and large plants of kentia, latania and 

 phoenix are just as well out of doors for 

 the next three months. It is of the 

 greatest benefit to sink the pots or tubs 

 in the ground, or surround them with 

 some light material, for then there is 

 less danger of their suffering from neg- 

 lect of watering. 



Areca lutescens is the most decora- 

 tive of all palms and yet is not as valu- 

 able to us as the kentias because it is 

 not as good a house plant, nor will it 

 stand the ' ' rough and tumble ' ' usage we 

 give our plants that are carted around 

 the city to participate in many varied 

 functions. This beautiful palm is best 

 kept under glass, for, with the greatest 

 care, it soon loses its color in the sun. 



Araucaria excelsa should be given 

 plenty of bench room in a well ventilated 

 house, beneath shaded glass, and they 

 greatly «^njoy a spraying with the hose on 

 every bright, warm day. 



Plan to Keep Smilax Warm. 



As soon as all your chrysanthemums 

 are planted you will be attending to yoar 

 smilax and asparagus beds. Anyone can 

 grow smilax, but not all profitably. On 

 the ground is the place for it and thero 

 is no need of a dry bottom or drainage 

 of any kind. Six inches of soil is enougii, 

 because it is to be there only one year. 

 As good a smilax bed as the writer ever 

 saw was in a house where the lower roots 

 must have been constantly wet, in fact 

 almost in water. Don't plant smilax in 

 a house where the temperature cannot 

 be kept steadily at 60 and if 65 degrees 

 80 much the better. It likes heat, and 

 needs it to be profitable, and is none the 

 more tender or soft because it is grown 

 in a strong heat. 



Deep Soil for Plumosus. 



There never seems an oversupply of As- 

 paragus plumosus or Sprengeri. Particu- 

 larly is plumosus wanted in the shape of 

 sprays and for that purpose it can be 

 planted on a bench in six inches of the 

 richest soil, but it will not do as well 

 as it would in a solid bed. For the pro- 

 duction of long strings of plumosus 

 never plant it anywhere but in a solid 

 bed with no tiles, stones or drainage of 

 any kind, as it would be a detriment. 

 Put your rich, heavy loam, with a third 

 of animal manure, on the surface of the 

 soil, and if that was dug and manuref? 

 a foot deep, so much the better. You 

 don't plant Asparagus plumosus every 

 year. It will be profitable if left undis- 

 turbed for three or four years. I will 

 quote the words of W. H. Elliott, the 

 asparagus king, who gave the writer the 

 best of advice when he said, "Nev- 

 er divorce plumosus from mother 

 earth," and we found what he said was 

 true, for in nine inches of rich soil, but 

 with a plank separating the bed from 

 mother earth, the ends of the growths 

 became bleached-looking after the bed 

 had been planted a few months. 



Asparastifi Sprengeri. 



Adiantum cuneatum and similar specie's 

 are doubtless very beautiful and indi^- 



feeders on a bench in five or six inches 

 of soil. It will produce a few fronds rit 

 first and the aftermath will be a slow, 

 stunted, starved growth. 



Mr. G-owe's Method. 



I have several times quoted the method 

 used by Peter Crowe, of Utica, N. Y., in 

 growing this useful plant. He used Bel- 

 gian glass boxes that had held 100 feet 

 of 16x24 glass. They are eight or nine 

 inches broad and when stood on edge 

 and filled with the richest of soil the 

 roots would have to go down sixteen 

 inches before they were exhausted. In 

 addition to great depth of soil they were 

 most liberally treated to liquid manure. 

 I have never seen such luxurious and 

 continuous growth, or better color. The 

 boxes were standing on the ground be- 

 neath the gutters in a large rose range 

 that had no partitions. You may not 

 have such a place, nor is it necessary to 

 import Belgian glass to obtain these 

 boxes, but the above will illustrate what 

 this useful plant needs to make it profit- 

 able. It is a hog for feed and if you 

 stint its food, either solid or liquid, it 

 will be a lean, stunted thing. 



Poinsettias. 



This is an excellent time to keep on 

 putting in cuttings of poinsettia and you 

 can do so till the end of August. They 

 root quickly and surely in the hot months, 

 providing you keep them soaked and 

 shaded. When you pot them keep them 

 well shaded and frequently sprayed till 

 they get hold of the soil. After that they 

 want the broadest and purest sunshine 

 that warms this little sphere. A new 

 theory is that it is not the sun that 

 warms our earth, but radium; don't be- 

 lieve it! 



Tree Peony Queen Elizabeth. 



pensable. Yet we think that in a spray 

 of roses or carnations, so much asked for 

 nowadays, Asparagus plumosus is far 

 prettier and has a grace of form an(t^ 

 color that the adiantum lacks. A. 

 Sprengeri is not so high class, yet it is 

 always in demand and we find constant 

 use for more than we produce. It is 

 useless to put this most voracious of 



Adiantum Croweanum. 



Very shortly that most excellent of 

 |adiantums, Croweanum, will ba'sent out. 

 The writer has seen it growiflg at Mr. 

 Crowe's place at Utica many times 

 within the past seven or eight years and 

 there it is truly wonderful. There is a gen- 

 tleman in Washington, D. C, who thinks 



