

380 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



July 21, 1904^ 



best suited, but there oan be but one 

 opinion of the desired effect and that is 

 to thoroughly soak the ground when it 

 is dry and then hoo. WiUjIAM Scott. 



THE ADIANTUMS. 



Ed. Review: — Since naming my new 

 fern plants Adiantum Croweanum, about 

 a year ago, I have heard through other 

 parties that there are a great many grow- 

 ers who claim they have the same kind 

 of fern as mine. I have sent fronds of 

 my fern to some of these parties and 

 have had no reply afterward from them. 



I have on* my place several kinds of 

 adiantum, such as cuneatum, decorum, 

 concinnum, Bausei and Mr. Ley's hy- 

 bridum, which, when in young plants, it 



would take experts to point out the very 

 slight differences, but when from five to six 

 months old there is a vast difference in 

 all kinds. Those growers who claim they 

 have the same fern as Adiantum Crowea- 

 num, if they are good growers, why did 

 they not push it for all it was worth 

 when they found they had a money 

 maker? 



Now, I challenge those men to exhibit 

 samples of their plants at the florists' 

 convention in St. Louis in August. I 

 want them to put up or shut up. I will 

 have a few plants of my fern at that 

 convention, also a few hundred of the 

 cut fronds. "Will also have a few plants 

 bf other kinds of adiantum, 



Peter Crowe. 



Utica, N. Y., July 15, 1904. 



MULCHING. 



Plants that were set out on the benches 

 in May now have the soil filled with 

 roots and to keep things up to par a 

 light mulch is necessary. This mulch 

 will serve a double purpose. It will pro- 

 tect the roots from the hot sun and af- 

 ford nourishment to the plants. The 

 bed should have a dusting of fine bone 

 meal, the finer the better, and then a nice 

 layer of half rotted oovv manure, from 

 half an inch to one inch in thickness. 



I always prefer cow manure to any 

 other for this mulching because it is mild 

 and does not burn the roots, If sufficiently 

 decayed. Do not use fresh cow manure 

 by any means, or the ammonia rising 

 from it will strip all the bottom leaves 

 off the plants and kill all the feeding 

 roots. If one has nothinoj but the fresh 

 manure, it should be mix^d with an equal 

 bulk of dry soil and turned over several 

 times before being used. Sheep manure 

 that has previously been used for mak- 

 ing liquid makes a fair top dressing, 

 but I would not care to use it fresh as 

 received from the dealers. Some growers 

 use leaf-mold to top dress with, mixing 

 with it either fine bone, or a highly con- 

 centrated fertilizer like Clay's, and it 

 seems to work very well. 



Whatever is used, do not delay too long 

 in putting it on, the idea being to keep 

 the plants moving along nicely without 

 a check of any kind. Always remember 

 in feeding a plant tli-'* 

 applied frequently is very much better 

 than a strong, dose of anything applied 

 at once. In the absence of any kind of 

 manure suitable for top .Irossing, tobacco 

 stems scattered over the bed will keep it 

 from drying out too rapiJlv and help 

 to keep down the blask and green fly. 



Watering with liquid water need not 

 yet bo commenced unless you are grow- 

 ing your plants in pots or boxes and 

 think they really need it. 



Seasonable Work. 



Routine work mostly is now in order. 

 By killing all the butterflies that you 

 find in the houses much of the work of 

 chasing caterpillars will be done away 

 with, though there are always enough 

 to keep one from getting lonesome. 



Keep the side shoots and suckers picked 

 off and have the plant grow on in the 

 straight and narrow wav. Do not neg- 

 lect the tying up of your plants uutil they 

 are falling all over and getting crooked 

 in the stem. The keynote of chrysanthe- 

 mum growing is never to put off till to- 

 morrow what should be done to-day. 



Where plants are producing buds, some 

 little care is |ecessary. Pinch out the 

 bud and leave' the throe or four young 

 shoots all grow until you can see that 

 they are not blind; then select the best 

 one and remove all the others. This 

 disbudding should not be hurried, be- 

 cause it sometimes happens that a shoot 

 makes one or two leaves and then goes 



blind after it has apparently started 

 away all right. As a general thing I 

 have found that the second bhoot below 

 the bud is the best one to retain. 



A New Pest, 



Hearing of a new pest that is raising 

 havoc with a friend's plants, I journeyed 

 to see it and found that it is a serious 

 matter. It is a grub about an inch long, 

 with a light-colored head, and having 

 a violet-colored stripe running down 

 from the head to the tail. This grub 

 seems to penetrate the plant at a point 

 where the bark is soft, and then bores 

 its way right up to the top of the plant 

 eating out all the center of tlie stem 

 and leaving nothing but the outer bark. 

 The whole plant, of course, collapses 

 and the grub then seems to move on 

 to the next one, and <je process is re- 

 peated. Occasionally he turns round, and 

 bores down to the soil, coming out at the 

 base of the plant. It is a new grub to 

 me and I certainly hooe it will be a 

 stranger to all my readers. It is very 

 active and gets away in double quick 

 time when disturbed, A'ith the humpy 

 movement common to most of the type. 



It seems impossible to suggest any 

 way of getting rid of 't. Its method of 

 getting all its food from inside the plant 

 [)recludes the possibility of using poison, 

 and about all one can do is to cut off 

 the plant and kill the borer after the 

 damage is done. Where it passes its 

 existence up to the boring stage I cannot 

 say, but it seems to appear out of the 

 soil. I feel positive in saying that the 

 eggs are not deposited in the plants to 

 hatch out. If any reader .^an throw any 

 light on this fellow, such information 

 would be greatly appreciated. 



Brian Boru. 



Tarrytown, N. Y. — The sixth annual 

 exhibition of the Tarrytown Horticultural 

 Society will be held November 1 to 3. 

 A schedule has been issued, copies of 

 which may be obtained by addressing 

 the secretary, E. W. Neubrand. 



CARNATION NOTES.-EAST. 



FiIIia£ the Benches. 



The first of August should see a great 

 part of the field grown stock in the 

 benches. Many growers hesitate to 

 throw out the old plants if there is a 

 prospect of a few good blooms ahead, 

 but the longer old stock is held, the less 

 time the new plants will have to become 

 firmly established in their permanent 

 quarters; besides many varieties, if left 

 in the field until the middle or last of 

 August, get too large to handle well. 



Medium-sized plants are preferable as 

 a rule. They will lift better, can be 

 housed more rapidly, will take hold of 

 the soil sooner and in finishing their 

 growth must necessarily get more firmly 

 established than large plants nearly or 

 quite mature. The exception to the rule 

 is with slow-growing varieties of the 

 nature of Mrs. Bradt, which, to give 



paying returns, requires large plants at 

 housing time. However, this should be 

 provided for by early propagation. 



If planting is deferred till late the 

 rush of work often necessitates putting 

 off needed repairs to benches and hurried 

 filling of same, when in point of fact 

 this operation demands thorough work 

 and time to do it well. Filling benches, 

 while seeming to call ehiefiy for main 

 strength, nevertheless needs considerable 

 common sense and intelligence mixed in 

 if any degre of success is looked for. 



One of, the main objects is to have 

 the soil of equal density throughout and 

 this is much easier to accomplish by 

 arranging the help to level the soil as 

 fast as brought in instead of dumping 

 large quantities here and there and level- 

 ing afterwards. One may think, from 

 appearance, a bench to be properly filled 

 but after planting and several good 

 waterings the defects, if any, will show 

 when it is too late to remedy them. 



Some growers advocate putting manure 

 in the bottom before filling with soil and 

 others regard the practice as a waste 

 of raw material. After reported expri- 



