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OCTOBKU 27, 1004. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



uu 



■with the Bamblors it is of the utmost 

 importance that there, should be no de- 

 lay between digging and potting, for 

 these are not cut back, either in fall 

 or spring, and a heavy growth has to 

 be started by few roots and those not 

 working. 



Readers who do me the favor to notice 

 these hints know that I advocate a more 

 expensive but surer way of growing 

 Ramblers for forcing, yet there are thou- 

 sands lifted from the field and flowered 

 the following spring. With the hybrid 

 perpetual it is the only way for the com- 

 mercial man. 



As soon as dug or received pot with- 

 out delay. The hybrids planted in the 

 ^spring and lifted with care, saving every 

 piossible root, will want a 6-inch or 7- 

 inch pot. A heavy clay loam, with a 

 fourth of cow manure, not too rotten, 

 will do for all of them. Pot firmly and 

 give them a good soaking. 



Storing for Vinter. 



I forgot ta — mention that little 

 pruning shouJtK be done to the hybrids 

 when IrftiDg them. You may shorten 

 back the canes one-third arid with the 

 Ramblers only the uuripened tips of the 

 long growths. In an hour or two after 

 watering lay the plants down in rows 



with the pots on their sides touching. 

 A row five feet wide will do. Then an- 

 other, row of pots, the tops of the plants 

 overlapping the pots of the first row, 

 and so on, making as long a bed as you 

 need. 



Choose for this storage bed, as we 

 will call it, a piece of ground that 'water 

 will not lie on, even in a thaw. After 

 your plants are in place, if some of the 

 tops are unruly and stick up, run a piece 

 of strong twine across the bed here and 

 there to hold them down. Then cover 

 the whole bed, pots and all, with five 

 or six inches of garden soil, or any soil 

 you have at hand. Soil dug from each 

 side of the bed is proper, because that 

 helps drainage. In ordinary seasons, 

 after an inch or so of frost has pene- 

 trated the soil covering these roses, a 

 cover of six inches of leaves or stable 

 litter will be all that is needed to keep 

 the soil in the pots from freezing, so at 

 New Year's they can be taken up and 

 removed to a cool house. If there is 

 little snow and much zero cold, then 

 give more covering. This envelope o± 

 moist earth will restore shriveled wood 

 and they will come out at New Year's 

 with wood and eyes freeh and plump and 

 in fine condition to gradually start grow- 

 ing. William Scott. 



RECORDS OF CUTS. 



Every grower who wishes to keep up 

 with the procession should have a system 

 of ^record-keeping, so that he may be 

 able at any time and at the end of the 

 season, to tell exactly what each house, 

 variety and grower is producing. By 

 this means he will be certain to arrive 

 at conclusions which should be a guide for 

 the coming season. Not only will this 

 be a true guide in cultural methods, 

 but, if the system is complete, it will in- 

 clude records which will enable him to 

 grow the varieties in the proper quanti- 

 ties which his customers call for, thereby 

 eliminating, or at least reducing the 

 waste to a minimum. 



Each house should be supplied with a 

 case into which a card can be inserted 

 to protect it from damp and sunshine. 

 This card should show each day of the 

 month and contain a space for each va- 

 riety planted in the house. Provision 

 should also be made for showing the 

 morning and evening cuts separately, a 

 copy of which should be handed to the 

 manager immediately after each cut is 

 taken. 



In the sorting room similar record- 

 keeping should be in force, so that after 



grading each house, variety and grower 

 may be credited, according to the merits. 

 The manager will, by a daily comparison 

 of records, be in a position to know near- 

 ly what he can expect from each house 

 and by consultJJig the sheets he will be 

 able to ascertain whether the cut is on the 

 increase or decrease and take orders ac- 

 cordingly. 



Careful Handling Essential. 



The care of the stock between the 

 time of cutting and shipping is a- very 

 important duty and should be entrusted 

 only to qualified help, as many of the 

 "kicks" coming from customers can be 

 traced to the poor methods adopted in 

 keeping stock and to ignorance or care- 

 lessness in packing. Having well-trained 

 Help in charge of this department en- 

 hances the value of the stock, keeps down 

 waste, pleases our customers, and by 

 adding to our reputation gains us new 

 ones. 



Neatness and cleanliness in packing, 

 generous count, dispatch, and, above all, 

 a determination to please our customers, 

 will result in adding to the list, forming 

 and cementing a friendship which should 

 ever exist between customer and grower 

 to the advantage of both. Ribes. 



TOO MUCH RED SPIDER. 



I send some foliage of Liberty for your 

 inspection. Will you please inform me 

 what the trouble is and what I can do to 

 remedy it? These plants have been do- 



ing fine up to about the last week in 

 September and the rest of my roses are 

 still all right. J. R. E. 



The rose leaves were in too dry a con- 

 dition when they reached me to allow of 

 a correct diagnosis, but under the micro- 

 scope they showed undoubted signs of be- 

 ing infested with red spider; in fact, 

 there were more spider eggs enclosed in 

 that envelope than I would care to see 

 in a Meteor house of 3,000 square feet. 

 Keep the syringe going on each side of 

 the bench on every bright day and see 

 that the spray reaches the under side of 

 the leaves, where the spider makes his 

 home. The leaves are of good quality 

 and must have been produced on vigor- 

 ous, growing plants, but the spider has 

 entirely destroyed their usefulness. 



Ribes. 



THE WRONG CULTURE. 



Will you please tell me why my roses 

 do not hold up better? They wilt too 

 soon after taking out of ice box or cel- 

 lar and they seem rather small to me, al- 

 though that is probably owing to hot 

 weather. I planted them in March on 

 raised benches in five inches of soil. The 

 soil was prepared last fall, using two- 

 thirds gumbo and one-third rotted cow 

 manure. Gumbo seemed to me to be the 

 most available, as we have no clay and 

 my soil is a sandy loam. The foliage 

 looks healthy and they have made a good 

 growth, American Beauties trying to 

 climb out of the roof,' but the flowers are 

 small. We shaded lightly up to about six 

 weeks ago; since then have had no shade. 

 They had a mulch of rotted cow and 

 Jiorse manure on all summer, but took it 

 off recently. We have used no liquid 

 manure as yet, as the weather has been 

 too hot during the past six weeks. We 

 had thrips on them during most of the 

 summer; then they disappeared for 

 awhile and reappeared about three weeks 

 ago. How can I get rid of them? I 

 liave mostly Brides, Gates, Maids and a 

 few Beauties and Kaiserins. I send you 

 a sample of the roses. C. B. 



I am always glad to help by advice 

 those brethren who may get into trouble 

 with their roses, and particularly so 

 when the case is stated so explicitly as C. 

 B. has stated his. This simplifies mat- 

 ters and gives me a chance to advise in 

 such a way that some benefit may be de- 

 rived. 



Tlie reason why these blooms are defi- 

 cient in keeping qualities is because they 

 are grown in too close an atmosphere. 

 This is indicated by the texture of the 

 foliage and by the spongy nature of the 

 calyxes and petals. And under such con- 

 ditions small, poor keeping blooms are 

 the natural result. This also accounts in 

 a measure for the Beauties having a ten- 

 dency to climb. 



Roses planted from pots never require 

 shading, even during the hottest weather, 

 and any stock so treated is certain to 

 show the effect of it during the winter 

 months by weak growth, a sure index of 

 an impaired constitution. Liquid manure 

 should not be applied to such stock until 

 it has regained a vigorous growth, as 

 any stimulant which acts so quickly as 

 this does is apt to sicken the plants and 

 agfirravate the trouble. 



True gumbo soil, which T subjected to 

 a searching analysis ahouf two years aeo, 

 contains few of the essential elements for 

 "uccessful rose culture and should not 

 bo used, even as a mixture, almost any 



