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460 



The Weekly FloristsrReview* 



August 4, 1904. 



they are up thin out to three plants. If 

 you are doing nothing with the bench 

 you can sow the seeds on the bench, but 

 usually the sweet peas succeed mums on 

 the bench. Let the rows be at least 

 eighteen inches apart across the bench 

 and, if sown, the plants should not be 

 nearer than three inches. If put into 

 the bench from pots, then a clump of 

 three plants one foot apart will be 

 right. The original growth should be 



encouraged to grow up and should be 

 trained up a string, just as you would 

 smilax. All lateral or bottom growth 

 should be kept pinched off, or it will en- 

 tirely overwhelm the first growth, which 

 would, if encouraged, give you the early 

 blooms. Fifty degrees at night is the 

 temperature. A little below that will 

 not hurt and the greatest amount of light 

 you can give them. W. S. 



Transplanting Evergreens. 



C. W. Ward was quoted very recently 

 as saying that evergreens could be trans- 

 planted from the middle of August to 

 the end of September and even in Octo- 

 ber, but he much preferred transplant- 

 ing in the spring. Undoubtedly the 

 month of May in our northern states is 

 the best of all times, yet any time in 

 August evergreens can be moved with 

 perfect safety. We will, under favor- 

 able conditions, include the two first 

 weeks of September, but don't go be- 

 yomd that. To transplant a Colorado 

 blue spruce or Austrian pine in October 

 would be sure death unless you could lift 

 it with a perfect ball of earth and with- 

 out the loss of a fibre. 



Circumstances alter cases. Nurserymen 

 are growing more honest and able. The 

 man who used to plant a row of Norway 

 spruces when they were six inches high, 

 leaving them untouched for five or six 

 years and selling them when they were 

 four feet high, will soon be a relic of 

 past civilization. Nurserymen are now 

 transplanting their evergreens, so that 

 with decent, intelligent care, there is a 

 good prospect of your saving a great 

 majority of them. No matter how fa- 

 vorable the time, or if watering, mulch- 

 ing and every other attention be given, 

 you can't keep alive ope of those trees 

 that has lost every working root and fibre 

 in lifting. 



If you have occasion to move ever- 

 greens, do it at once. See that fine soil 

 is in contact with all the roots. When 

 the soil is filled in to within six inches 

 of the surface, give them a thorough 

 soaking and wnen the water has soaked 

 away, fill in with the dry soil and on top 

 of that a mulch of two or three inches 

 of stable litter is most beneficial. 



All this seems quite a performance, but 

 to water on the surface and then allow 

 the ground to bake, is really a little 

 worse than notning. The whole secret 

 of successful transplanting is the avoid- 

 ance of loss of roots. How easily the 

 greenhouse man shifts a plant from a 

 2-inch to a 4-inch or an 8-inch to a 

 12-inch pot without the loss of a tender 

 leaf, because no root or fibre is lost or 

 bruised. This is impossible in moving 

 an elm or Norway spruce, but the nearer 

 you approach, so relatively will be the 

 measure of your success. 



Propagating Geraniums, 



Some people begin propagating zonale 



geraniums early in August. Those who 



have tried it have learned to be wiser. 



It's too hot and in applying enough water 



to keep them from drying up, they go off 

 with what we call the black rot, which 

 I suppose is a bursting of the walls of 

 the cellular tissue and the decay which 

 must ensue. Wait until September. 



9y the middle of this month and for 

 a few weeks later is the proper and best 

 time to propagate the show and fancy 

 pelargoniums, often called Lady Wash- 

 ington. I suppose pelargonium is the 

 correct generic name of all our geraniums 

 and in Europe they are generally known 

 as zonale pelargoniums, show pelargoni- 

 ums, etc., but here in this expansive and 

 expanding country, the old familiar 

 name, geranium, is so firmly fixed that 

 it would take a century to amend it. 



Lady Washington is harmless if you 

 like it, but Beefsteak geranium in place 

 of Eex begonia is slightly depressing; 

 in fact, it is worse than the interpreta- 

 tion of a young Irishman, who was once 

 in my employ for about seven and a half 

 days. I told him to carry the begonias 

 into the shed and after he had accom- 

 plished the effort, he reported that the 

 "Bigonions were all in." 



The Show Pelargoniums. 



After flowering, the show pelargoniums 

 make a strong growth. By the end of 

 July that growth is about matured and 

 somewhat ripened and if water has been 

 sparingly given for the last two or three 

 weeks, so much the better. When you 

 cut down a pelargonium for propagating, 

 cut it down. Leave only two or three 

 inches of the old stem. There will be 

 eyes and breaks that were not visible 

 to the naked eye. Keep your old plants 

 almost, if not quite, dry until they are 

 covered with signs of a new growth, 

 which will be in about three weeks. 

 Then shake off every particle of old soil. 

 Trina back the ends of the roots and re- 

 pot in a smaller pot than they flowered 

 in. 



The cuttings from this cut-down plant 

 will root either singly in 2-inch pots, or 

 in the sand in the ordinary propagating 

 house. Eemember the cuttings are some- 

 what ripened and they do not need a lot 

 of water. The amount of water you 

 would give a batch of chrysanthemums or 

 poinsettias in the sand at this date would 

 rot the pelargoniums. Almost any part 

 of the plant will root, hard or soft. In 

 fact, in the earliest half of the last cen- 

 tury, I remember a good old gardener 

 propagating these showy plants from 

 pieces of the root almost as we do 

 bouvardias. 



Decline of the Pelargonium. 



That landmark of horticulture in Amer- 



ica, Peter Henderson, says in his book, 

 "Practical Floriculture," that if -e 

 were compelled or had no opportunity to 

 grow but one plant his choice would bo 

 the show pelargonium. If this great, 

 good and shrewd man were alive today, 

 he would not say that, because our cli- 

 mate does not suit it as does that of the 

 British Isles. The English gardener or 

 nurseryman shows a plant in a 10-inch 

 pot that is six feet in diameter, as per- 

 fect in outline as an umbrella in a 

 shower, a great triumph of art and in- 

 dustry, but there is no call for that hero 

 and the decline and fall of the show pe- 

 largonium is simply explained by the 

 fact that the zonale pelargonium has 

 been so wonderfully developed in size, 

 color and all other desirable attributes 

 that the dear old pelargonium by which 

 we made many an honest dollar (mostly 

 spent) has dropped into oblivion. Grow 

 a few, if it is only to find out that you 

 are not much of a gardener after all. 



The Poinsettias. 



We often allude to the poinsettia be- 

 cause we think we know all about it, 

 having grown it quite successfully for 

 very many years and traveled with that 

 progressive organization known as the 

 Gardeners' and Florists' National Pro- 

 tective Federation of Labor. 



Never allow your early propagated 

 plants to become what is called pot- 

 bound. You must shift them. If cut 

 blooms are wanted, then there is noth- 

 ing so good as to plant them on a bench 

 ^n six inches of heavy, rich soil. A 

 poinsettia that has plenty of food at the 

 root will endure 10 degrees lower tem- 

 perature than a starved plant in a pot. 

 You hear occasionally some Mr. Vernon 

 say: "My poinsetts didn't do very 

 well; I ain't got heat enough." He 

 had heat enough, but the plants were 

 starved. 



This month, even the end of it, is an 

 excellent time to put in cuttings for 

 plants to make the pans which are now 

 the most important feature of the poin- 

 settia business. There is a hint here.. 

 Don't attempt to put them in the pan 

 from the sand, because some will b« 

 stronger or more vigorous than others. 

 After being in 2*^ -inch pots for a week 

 or two, you can select half a dozen of 

 similar strength and propensity and so 

 your pans will be a success. However 

 much nature and incidentally, an artist 

 hates a straight line, the public loves a 

 show, however gaudy, and your pans of 

 poinsettias should be of uniform height, 

 size and quality. 



Lorraine Begonias. '"■'♦' - 



Begonia Gloire de Lorraine is now an 

 established Christmas plant. Our ex- 

 perience with it as a house plant is not 

 favorable, but we have heard other ac- 

 counts and if its life in the dining room 

 is ephemeral it matters not, because it 

 is more beautiful than any bunch of cut 

 flowers can possibly be and will last 

 longer. Why it loses its leaves quickly 

 in the writer's dining room is perhaps 

 accounted for by the fact that we heat 

 and illuminate with natural gas and inter- 

 communicate our views and impressions 

 of life, past, present and prospective, 

 also by gas more deadly even than the 

 strange subterranean product. 



This beautiful plant will now be mak- 

 ing active growth and you can still put 

 in cuttings. The plants rooted now will 

 make excellent medium-sized plants for 

 midwinter. The begonia is the most 



