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948 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



October 6, 1904. 



Plants raised from these ripened, dor- 

 mant fuchsias will want to grow and 

 not flower so precociously as does the 

 weak little stuff struck from a plant 

 that had no rest. The writer can look 

 back on the days when we grew fuchsias 

 thirty inches high and two feet wide at 

 the base, full of flowers in the month of 

 April, and sold them for $3 each, retail. 

 And a fuchsia is still a fuchsia. 



Carnations in Pots. 



There is always a call in the spring 

 for carnations in pots. Our customers 

 want them for their gardens. The busi- 

 ness man who can pick a carnation out 

 of his own garden and walk down the 

 street adorned, thinks the flower quite as 

 large and twice as beautiful as one he 

 buys of the florist. Thousands of plants 

 could be sold for a good price in every 

 city if they could be had. Perhaps it 

 should have been done two weeks ago, 

 but it is not yet too late. Lift plants 

 from the field that you considered too 

 small to bench. Pot into 5-inch pots 

 and plunge in a sound cold-frame. Of 

 course you will cover with glass and 

 shade for a week, or two and after that, 

 if the weather is favorable, remove the 

 sash whenever you can, because you want 

 them to go through the winter in this 

 frame. Double sash is a great protec- 

 tion in cold weather. You need not lose 

 ten per cent of them and they make 

 early and very satisfactory flowering 

 plants for the garden if planted out 

 about the middle of May. 



Another plan to fill this want is to 

 root some cuttings at once, and carna- 

 tions root quickly and surely now. 

 Grow them on all winter and you can by 

 May have plants in 3^ -inch or 4-inch 

 pots with several shoots. These may 

 flower longer in the garden than the 

 old plants wintered over, but they will 

 not please your customer as well, as ho 

 or she does not want to wait until Au- 

 gust for flowers. Besides they have cost 

 you coal and labor, more than the cold- 

 frame plants. 



A Retrospect. 



While dipping into another man 's de- 

 partment I must again be slightly rem- 

 iniscent. Where are the carnations in 

 pots, in bud and bloom, that we used to 

 grow and sell in January and on to 

 spring t It seems to me they could be 

 easily grown for Christmas; not in pots 

 all summer, never, not with the greatest 

 of care. They must be lifted from the 

 field. We have lifted them as late as the 

 middle of October and had them in fine 

 shape by February. Of course, y(»u could 

 get some flowers long before tliat, but 

 for a pot plant you want a big show of 

 bloom at one time. Please excuse me, 

 but in the days when we dug up, potted, 

 watered and tied our plants with our 

 own hands, we have sold at $25 per 100, 

 La Piirite carnation plants in 6-inch pots 

 with sixty to seventy open flowers and 

 buds. I think that was the winter after 

 the panic of '73. Nevertheless it's a 

 fact. It's true that I^a Purite, carmine, 

 and Edwardsii and President Degraw 

 were very free-flowering kinds and 

 had no such length of stem as our pres- 

 ent varieties, yet it strongly aj)peals to 

 me that we have varieties just as suit- 

 able for pot culture as those old pioneers. 

 Lawson would be grand for the purpose 

 and so would Estelle and Galcier, and 

 there may be many of the splendid new 

 varieties that would make a good com- 

 pact plant. 



John Thorpe, at Indianapolis, ' miggest- 



ed that a prize should be offered for pot 

 plants. Nothing came of it. Can you 

 think of anything that would sell much 

 better than a well-flowered carnation 

 plant? There is nothing to it but to 

 try by stopping early flowering stems to 

 get a full crop of flowers at one time. 



Propagating Summer Roses. 



This is an excellent time to put into 

 the sand a big batch of Maman Cochet, 

 President Carnot, Kaiserin, Etoile de 

 Lyon or any of this class of summer- 

 flowering roses. As is well known, Co- 

 chet, pink and white, is queen of them 

 all, because it grows and flowers so 

 splendidly all summer long, and now, 

 when the cool nights are here, it is giv- 

 ing us grand flowers. They root easily 

 in the sand, with or without any fire 

 heat, but by the time you pot them off 

 you will have fires going and a warm 

 bench should be given them until they 

 have made roots. After that they will 

 winter in anv cool house. 



Put in a lot, especially of Cochet, for 

 your own use. Plant them out in spring 

 in beds where they can be given copious 

 watering and you will have fine rose 

 buds when those in the house are thrown^ 

 out. Kaiserin Augusta Victoria (what 

 a name) is, we think, indispensable for 

 summer cutting under glass and a bed 

 in a foot of soil will last for years. If 

 you have to make a new bed, these fall- 

 struck cuttings, grown on cool, are just 

 the thing. 



Cyclamen. 



Cyclamen, whether grown in frames 

 or indoors all summer, should now be 

 in their fiowering pots and on the bench 

 where they are to bloom. No sun will 

 hurt them now. Never let them be neg- 

 lected for water. Give them plenty of 

 space between plants. On bright morn- 

 ings spray them and let there be lots 

 of tobacco stems between the pots. 



William Scott. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



As the bushes increase in strength 

 and crops approach maturity, the 

 nutriment in the soil will be more or 

 less exhausted and some provision 

 should be made to supply the deficient 

 elements. As plant food must be re- 

 duced to an assimilable state before 

 absorption can take place, the easiest 

 and quickest method is to convert it 

 into a liquid. The best and safest ma- 

 terial for this purpose is fresh cow ma- 

 nure, which contains nearly all the ele- 

 ments of plant food in their proper 

 proportions, and few of the caustic 

 principles so prevalent in chemical 

 preparations, which are so detrimental 

 to roses under glass. 



The proper preparation of this ma- 

 terial is a very simple process, the ap- 

 paratus required for the preparation 

 and distribution being simple, inexpen- 

 sive and easily erected. A tank of suf- 

 ficient capacity to hold at least as much 

 water as would be required for one ap- 

 plication should be constructed and 

 placed convenient to the pump and con- 

 nected with the water pipes, so that it 

 can be used as a reservoir to distribute 

 from. A smaller tank to be used as a 

 mixer should be built on a higher level, 

 so that the contents can be drained 

 through a screen into the lower tank. 

 The smaller tank should be filled with 

 manure and sufficient water added to 

 start fermentation. After fermenta- 

 tion the liquid should be drained into 



the reservoir and sufficient water added 

 to reduce it to the strength required. 



The first applications should be 

 ratJier weak, till the plants get ac- 

 customed to this class of food, when 

 the strength can be increased to meet 

 the requirements of the plants. 



The greatest benefit is derived from 

 this method of feeding if care is taken 

 to apply it only during bright weather 

 and when tie crops are at the right 

 stage to use it with effect. 



There is great danger of sickening 

 the plants if applied when the soil in 

 the bench is too dry and, of course, 

 common sense will teach us not to sat- 

 urate the soil by using it when the soil 

 is too wet. If plants are sickly or in 

 a weak growing condition they arc in 

 no condition to derive benefit from 

 this form of feeding; in fact, it is the 

 means of aggravating the trouble. 



Sheep, pigeon and chicken manure, 

 being of a more concentrated nature, 

 require the exercise of greater caution 

 when used for this purpose. Nitrates 

 and chemical preparations are only 

 safe in the hands of experts and any 

 experiments with these should, as a 

 matter of safety, be limited to a small 

 area. Watchfulness, careful observa- 

 tion and a close study of the attend- 

 ing conditions are absolutely essential 

 to the safe and beneficial use of these 

 compounds. Bibes. 



APPLYING SULPHUR. 



Will you inform me of the safest, 

 surest and cheapest method to apply 

 sulphur for mildew on roses, in houses 

 heated by hot water! J. V. L. 



Take two parts sulphur and one part 



