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704 



ThcWcckly Fk^iste* Rc\^. 



Sbptbhbeb 1, 1904. 



Questioning one grower, he gave as his 

 reason that he wanted to get his cut 

 before the blooms were heated by the 

 sun, as they keep so much better when 

 cut in the cool of the morning. I, how- 

 ever, noticed that he did not scruple to 

 cut at any hour of the afternoon, even 

 when the blooms' had been exposed to a 

 hot sun all day, and ship within tho hour. 



This system must have appeared very 

 inconsistent to intelligent help and would 

 be apt to leave the impression that the 

 employer was trying to get an hour or 

 so from his help gratis. 



As soon as possible after the cut is 

 taken the stems should be immersed in 

 water, which should reach well up the 

 stem. The temperature of the water 

 should be very little below the tempera- 

 ture of the house from which the roses 

 were cut. 



The blooms should be assorted into 

 different grades, according to length and 

 quality of stem, having due regard to 



size, shape and color of the flowers. As 

 there is at present no uniform method 

 for classifying the different grades, each 

 grower has to study the demands of his 

 market and grade accordingly. 



The cut should then be placed in the 

 cool room, which should have a tempera- 

 ture of not less than 48 degrees, many 

 growers preferring 50 to 52 degrees as 

 the ideal. Well grown stock treated at 

 any of the above temperatures can be 

 shipped with perfect safety twenty-four 

 hours after cutting. 



Next to care in, packing, so that no 

 necks may be broken, comes neatness 

 and cleanliness. How pleasant it is to 

 open a box in which the blooms have 

 been carefully packed, in well fitting, 

 unsoiled paper. It gives a fresh, crisp 

 appearance to even inferior blooms, while 

 the finest selected stock can be given a 

 trashy look by slovenly packing with 

 soiled material. Eibes. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Poinsettias. 



In last week's issue is published a 

 prize essay delivered at Hull, England, on 

 the poinsettia. We think the prize was 

 awarded quite as much for its literary 

 excellence as for the value of its cultural 

 directions. Perhaps those who followed 

 its directions to the letter would not go 

 far wrong, yet being British, there are 

 some points in it that would be unneces- 

 sary to follow in this country. Growing 

 a plant from June to December and when 

 six feet high cutting off the top to ob- 

 tain a plant one foot in height seems a 

 laborious and expensive method. True, 

 plants propagated in June and given 

 the very lightest house will run up four 

 or five feet high. These early propa- 

 gated plants are, however, with u? used 

 for cutting, and if planted out in a bed 

 of five or six inches of soil give im- 

 mense width of bracts. Cuttings put in 

 the sand in early August and not neglect- 

 ed for either heat or nourishment at the 

 roots will make fine plants fifteen to 

 eighteen inches in height in 5-inch pots 

 by Christmas, as has been frequently said 

 in these columjis. 



Th^ single plant of poinsettia, how- 

 ever well grown, is no longer in very good 

 demand with us. It is the pan eight to 

 twelve inches in diameter that has much 

 the better sale, and for this purpose, if 

 pans containing from six to ten plants 

 and not over twelve inches in height are 

 desired, you can put in a batch of cut- 

 tings now, but plants that are now in 2- 

 inch pots will make stronger plants and 

 finer bracts. In making up the pans se- 

 lect for each pan plants of uniform 

 height and strength. The pans won 't be 

 all alike at flowering time, and they need 

 not be, but each pan will be perfect in 

 itself. 



Beferring to that well written paper 

 again, if you wanted only one batch of 

 cuttings, then you could cut with a heel, 

 but you would get no more cuttings from 

 that break. We want to put in successive 

 batches of cuttings throughout the sum- 

 mer and the heel is not necessary. Of 



course it would not be British unless the 

 formula for the compost was most elab- 

 orate and contained half a dozen in- 

 gredients. All that is nonsense. A good, 

 fresh, rather heavy loam, with a fourth 

 of half -rotten cow manure is all that is 

 needed, and for the 5 or 6-inch pots a 

 crock and piece of green moss to keep 

 the drainage free. 



It seems the propagating case or little 

 house inside a house is still in vogue in 

 England in propagating such free root- 

 ing, simple things as the poinsettia. The 

 idea is to keep the atmosphere close, pre- 

 vent evaporation and then there is need 

 of little water. This country 's method is 

 much more simple and less expensive. 

 Insert the cuttings in the sand as you 

 would those of coleus. Keep them shad- 

 ed and water copiously twice a day and 

 you will not lose a cutting. When first 

 potted off, which should be as soon as the 

 roots are half an inch long, they want 

 to be kept moist at the roots and well 

 shaded. But directly they get hold of 

 the soil, and to the end of their exist- 

 ence, they want the fullest, brightest 

 light, with all the air that can be given 

 them during warm weather. 



Frames, either with sash or without, 

 are dangerous places for these plants. 

 Nothing like a bench in your houses, 

 where neglect is inexcusable. With the 

 exception of these few points, the "prize 

 essay" is excellent and in concluding re- 

 marks on this showy plant, let me repeat 

 that the falling of the foliage is more 

 often due to starvation of the root than 

 low temperature, and never disturb the 

 roots, either by a shift or making up the 

 pans, later than the last week in Octo- 

 ber. They won 't stand for it and we have 

 proved it. 



Zonal Geraniuftas. 



I said early in August, don 't propa- 

 gate until September. The time is now 

 here. Much will depend upon how plen- 

 tiful a stock you have to take cuttings 

 from and how many plants you need. 

 If you have an abundance of stock and 

 can take off at one time all the young 



stock you require, then there is no hurry 

 for two weeks more. We sometimes get 

 a very hot spell about the middle of Sep- 

 tember and it is when the weather is hot 

 and you have to keep the cuttings well 

 watered that trouble begins and they go 

 off by the thousands with what we call 

 the black rot. We all know it. It is 

 caused, I suppose, by the cellular tissue 

 of these succulent cuttings absorbing so 

 much water that the cells burst and decay 

 and death ensues. 



If you are short of a variety, or all 

 varieties, then begin at once, for if judi- 

 tiously cut you will before frost get an- 

 other batch of excellent cuttings. With 

 us geraniums are more than usually suc- 

 culent this year, through the frequent 

 rains, which makes them all the more 

 risky to root. Get a bench full of fresh, 

 sifted loam, not too sandy, and mix it 

 with a fifth or sixth of sifted, rotten 

 manure. Eabust-growing varieties wrill 

 need a 2% -inch pot. Less vigorous kinds 

 may do in a 2-inch. 



Cut the cuttings just below a joint. 

 Never mind what has been said about the 

 non-value of cutting at a joint. The tex- 

 ture of the cutting is less sappy there 

 than between joints. Pot firmly. This is 

 one of the most important points. Don 't 

 thumb the surface, but get your thumb 

 And finger down as a wedge to make the 

 soil firm around the bottom of the cutting. 

 If you have a spare bench in a light 

 house, there is no better place; if not, 

 a cold frame outsidb does very well. A 

 thorough watering when first potted is 

 most important. Watering after that un- 

 til they are rooted is pure judgment. 

 They may want another watering again 

 in three or four days and, if the weather 

 is dull and cool, they may not want the 

 soil wet again in a week. Don't water 

 them until the soil is again what the 

 gardener calls "on the dry side." On 

 bright mornings a light spraying that 

 will wet the leaves but not the soil is 

 most beneficial. Little if any shade is 

 needed after the first week and only in 

 the brightest hours. 



We prefer to put all zonal geraniums 

 into pots, in which they remain without 

 a shiff until after the rush of the holi- 

 days. They make short-jointed, stocky 

 plants, much to be preferred to plants 

 rooted in sand. The scented-leaved, tri- 

 color and ivy-leaved sections we like bet- 

 ter to root in the sand in .the ordinary 

 way, but there is no hurry about that un- 

 til toward the end of September. 



Bouvardias. 



The first week of September should see 

 these plants on the bench. They are, 

 perhaps, not very profitable, neither are 

 they common of late years, and our cus- 

 tomers are looking for the uncommon 

 and you can get a good price for these 

 honeysuckle-like flowers. They lift bad- 

 ly if lifted carelessly. If the ground is 

 dry and you think you are going to leave 

 a lot of their working fibres in the 

 ground, soak it the night before. You 

 must get all the roots. Plant them one 

 foot apart on the bench, closer if the 

 plants are small, in five inches of soil. 

 Wet the soil thoroughly after planting 

 and syringe three or four times a day. or 

 as long as any wilting takes place. This 

 is a plant that enjoys a good syring- 

 ing every day in the year, for it is very 

 liable to be infested with red spider. 



Shade, of course, is necessary until 

 the plants are rooted in their new sur- 

 roundings. If you pinched these plants 

 a few weeks ago they will need it no 

 more, but if that was not done and the 



