'."^w^ 



July 7, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



299 



Azalea Kokinshiba. Azalea Ovinkin. 



Two of the Japanese Azaleas so popular in the New York market the past season. 



Of course varieties difTer somewhat, but 

 with the general run of varieties you 

 will find that this will hold good. 



The number of plants you have to 

 house will, of course, have some bearing 

 on the time you commence to plant. If 

 you have only one house to plant you will 

 not need to begin so early, as two men 

 can throw out the plants, refill a house 

 10x100 and replant it all in ten days 

 or less. In such a case I would begin 

 about July 15 to 20, so as to have it 

 replanted by August 1. If you have 

 several houses to plant I would advise 

 making a start just as early as possible. 

 You cannot plant too early, but you will 

 find the days slipping past rapidly p. 

 little later on, when you are in the thick 

 of the work, and unless you get an early 

 start you may find yourself planting car- 

 nations well into September. I think 

 that most growers will agree with me 

 when I say that you can figure off at 

 least one per cent of the earnings of 

 your plants for every day you let slip 

 by after August 20 before planting them. 



Much -will, of course, depend on the 

 weather you will have up to the first of 

 the year, but a plant benched in Sep- 

 tember certainly cannot be in good shape 

 to thrive during a dark November and 

 December and it will be in still poorer 

 shape to pull through a cold January, 

 with constant fire heat and little ven- 

 tilation. No good blooms could be ex- 

 pected from a plant under such condi- 

 tions, A plant which was planted early 

 in the summer will be well established 

 and growing sturdily along through the 

 fall and when a dark spell comes they 

 will not suffer so quickly because the 

 roots are in better working order. Oft- 

 entimes you will see a bed doing poorly 

 all winter, but when spring comes the 

 plants pick up and produce a big crop 

 of fine blooms in April and May. While 

 the grower is cutting the fine blooms 

 he forgets what he lost on them all win- 

 ter. A big crop of ever so fine blooms 

 in April and May can never make up 

 for a poor cut during the winter months. 

 You should have a fair cut from them all 



winter and the big spring crop too, then 

 you can make «ome money. 



Some of the larger growers can af- 

 ford to grow a bench or a house of a 

 variety like Crocker, which will not give 

 a large cut during mid-winter but will 

 almost if not quite make up the deficit 

 by holding up into the hot weather later 

 than most varieties. The average grow- 

 er does not want much to do with such 

 varieties, however, as he can buy plenty 

 of carnations during late spring at low 

 figures. When he can sell his blooms for 

 $1 per dozen is when he wants to be 

 cutting the heaviest and he cannot do 

 that from September planted stock. 



The market these days requires so 

 little stock and most of your beds will 

 be bringing you such small returns that 

 it will pay you well to throw out the 

 plants and refill the beds. If yqu do 

 not care to bring in the plants iintil 

 after August 1st it will pay you to empty 

 and refill as many beds as you can be- 

 fore you begin planting. It will not hurt 

 the soil to lay on the beds and dry out 

 perfectly dry for a few weeks. By wet- 

 ting it about a week before planting it 

 will resume its natural condition. I 

 would not wet it one day and plant the 

 next after it had lain dry several weeks. 

 When refilling be sure you clean the 

 house up well. Take out all the rubbish 

 and weeds which may be growing along 

 the paths or under the benches if your 

 beds are raised above the ground. Old, 

 decaying wood will harbor wood-lice 

 which will give you much trouble later 

 on. Painting should also bfe done now 

 if possible, although of course, it can be 

 done later on if great care is exercised. 



A, F. J, Baur. 



JAPANESE AZALEAS. 



The accompanying illustrations are 

 from photographs of two plants of Jap- 

 anese azaleas flowered by Julius Eoehrs, 

 Rutherford, N, J, These Japs were very 

 popular this spring in the better class of 

 New York retail stores. Azalea Kokin- 

 shiba is a small-flowered single variety, 

 the color reddish pink. The plant is 

 about four feet high and well developed 



specimens are four to six feet in diame- 

 ter. Azalea Ovinkin is white, double 

 fringed. The plants in tubs make four to 

 eight feet in height and three to six feet 

 in diameter. 



THE CUT FLOWER TRADE. 



The cut flower season is supposed to 

 close with the schools at the end of 

 June, although the summer business 

 makes many growers an excellent profit, 

 and it is worth while to look back at 

 this time to see the year in the perspec- 

 tive. It is undeniable that, on the whole, 

 the season of 1903-4 was not equal to ita 

 predecessors in profit to the cut flower 

 growers. The high cost of heating was 

 enough to make an appreciable differ- 

 ence in results, other conditions being 

 equal, but, unfortunately, they were not. 

 Prices were not up to last year. The 

 difference was most pronounced in the 

 e^^-jjut it held good in Chicago, St. 

 lioWQl and all grineipal markets, A gen- 

 eral dept^fssioH in business seemed to 

 affect ouLT.trade all through the season, 

 save at Christmas, Easter and Memorial 

 day, when new recojrtfs for sales were 

 established' in many places. Conditions 

 were slowest in the fall and winter, busi- 

 ness seeming to approach normal toward 

 spring, but B*oductibn, which had been 

 below the ugual cuts all winter, then so 

 prodigiously increased that, with a 

 marked deterioration in quality, average 

 prices have been the lowest on record 

 for May and June. 



The season started out poorly with 

 the chrysanthemums; trade was slow, 

 qualities were not high and warm weath- 

 er served to bring in a large part of 

 the cut all at once. The production of 

 violets was enormous and prices low all 

 season, with fair business at Christmas 

 and better at Easter, on Marie Louise 

 and singles, most markets refusing 

 Campbell altogether. Lilies made fair 

 pnces at Easter but many thousands 

 were late and have sold very low. Bulb- 

 ous stock made a meagre margin, if any, 

 for the growers. While prices on roses 

 have almost everywhere been less than 



