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J 94 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



December 13, 1904. 



just as strong and effective. Use about 

 a 4-inch or 5-inch pot of powder on 

 each screen and one screen to each twen- 

 ty-five running feet in a house twenty 

 feet wide. Start these in the evening, 

 as it takes several hours for one of these 

 piles to burn up. The above quantities 

 are what we find effective with To-bak- 

 ine Fumigating Powder, but I suppose 

 others use about the same. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



OVER-FEEDING. 



My carnations are coming sleepy and 

 the trouble seems to be increasing. My 

 soil is about one-fourth cow manure and 

 good clean loam. The plants were housed 

 about the middle of September and what 



flowers I cut were all right, with a few 

 exceptions, until about Thanksgiving. I 

 have been giving them some liquid dress- 

 ing of late, as the blooms were growing 

 smaller. I ran the temperature 48 to 50 

 degrees until lately I have let it go up to 

 55 degrees at night, but they came sleepy 

 before I raised the temperature or used 

 liquid dressing. Twice in the liquid I 

 put two ounces of nitrate of soda to a 

 barrel for a house 28x100. Now what 

 shall I do to bring them out of it? I 

 shall have to use liquid fertilizer to get 

 good blooms. The plants look very heal- 

 thy and are putting up a large crop of 

 flowering shoots with good length of 

 stems. The varieties are Crane, Joost, 

 Hill and Queen Louise. G. P. G. 



While there may be other causes for 

 the sleepiness of your carnations, I feel 

 certaii;! of one thing and that' is that 

 you are over-feeding them with manure. 

 One-fourth manure is the greatest of 

 plenty for carnations, and carnations 

 that are planted in such a rich' soil the 

 middle of September surely do not need 

 any extra feeding by the first of Decem- 

 ber. Instead of piling on the liquid 

 manure you would better give them a 

 sprinkling of air-slaked lime to set free 

 what food there is already in the soil and 

 a little bone to give them substance. Give 

 plenty of ventilation whenever possible. 

 There may be other causes, but I feel 

 sure you have erred along this line. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



COMMERCIAL VARIETIES. 



The market for cut blooms has been 

 better than for several seasons and com- 

 mercial growers generally are fairly well 

 satisfied with their returns for the year. 

 Local conditions vary so much that it is 

 presumptuous to say that the kinds men- 

 tioned below^ will suit every taste, and, 

 again, a heavy call develops in some sec- 

 tions for early flowers, while the demand 

 in another section for similar stock may 

 be almost nil. There was a frantic call 

 this year in the New York market for 

 good early flowers, particularly of yel- 

 low varieties, and Monrovia was whole- 

 saling for $5 a dozen on October 1 that 

 would not bring nearly half as much 

 two weeks later. This demand was due 

 largely to the fact that a killing frost 

 had wiped out the dahlias, cosmos and 

 other outside stock in many sections be- 

 fore the end of September. This nat- 

 urally created a shortage in flowers and 

 the mum growers benefited very materi- 

 ally, and, while we do not want to see 

 the dahlia men go out of business, we 

 hope we may get our share of the early 

 market next year. 



Even admitting that we are not fa- 

 vored with an early frost every year, 

 the grower who has good flowers early 

 in October is more likely to make money 

 than the grower who tries to hold back 

 for Christmas. The first flowers have 

 the charm of newness and change, where- 

 as by Christmas the public has had 

 enough and the novelty has gone. Early 

 varieties also are more profitable by 

 reason of the fact that they are sold 

 off early and the bench space can be im- 

 mediately utilized for some other pur- 

 pose, which is quite an important con- 

 sideration to the average florist. 



The varieties here mentioned are given 

 in the order of their flowering: 



Yellows: Merstham Yellow, Monro- 

 via, Beveil A'Begles, Halliday, Apple- 

 ton, Yellow Eaton, Bonnaffon, 



Whites: Polly Rose, Alice Byron, 

 Clementine Touset, White Coombes, 

 Baton, Chadwick and Merry Christmas, 



Pinks: Pacific, Lady Harriet, Mrs. 

 Coombes, W. Duckham, Mrs. G. Mile- 

 ham and Maud Dean. 



I mention Merstham Yellow first be- 

 cause if it comes as early next year it 

 will be the first of the yellows fit to cut. 

 It is, of course, a novelty yet, and in a 

 sense untried, so we must wait another 

 year for final judgment. Reveil A'Beg- 

 les is also a novelty though I have heard 

 it highly spoken of. The other yellows 

 are, of course, well known, and, if a 

 grower could have only one yellow, that 

 one should be Col. Appleton, Bonnaffon, 

 while it has been ousted by Appleton as 

 a midseason, is still largely grown for a 

 late variety, and fairly good flowers are 

 still in sight for Christmas. 



In whites, Polly Rose comes first and 

 with this, as with its parent, the pink 

 Pacific, it would be better if more of 

 the growers tried to grow better flow- 

 ers and not so many of them. Polly 

 Bose is a very dwarf grower and wh'-u 

 it is pinched and several shoots taken 

 up, it means that a lot of short-stemmed, 

 small flowers are thrown on the market 

 that come into direct competition with 

 the late asters; whereas, had the' mums 

 been better grown and sent in with 

 good stems their superiority over the 

 asters would be self-evident. Polly Rose 

 brought this year from 3 cents each 

 up to 40 cents each and the range of 

 quality was about as variable as the 

 price. 



Clementine Touset is a new arrival 

 about which I know little, though it is 

 large and early, two very desirable fea- 

 tures. White Coombes is in every re- 

 spect a replica of its parent, Mrs. 

 Coombes, except in color and will be 

 largely grown in the east next peason 

 as a second early white. With us it will 

 take the place of Robinson, which has 

 become so soft as to be practically 

 worthless. White Coombes was certifi- 

 cated by three committees, New York, 

 Boston and Philadelphia. The other 

 whites are standards and well known. 



In pinks there is little change. Duck- 

 ham will be grown more hirgely with u.s 



than any other pink. Maud Dean in 

 many sections is still the best late pink. 

 Those growers who have been handling 

 Viviand-Morel as a pink will find Leila 

 Filkins an improvement on it in every 

 way, but most growers run entirely to 

 the incurving types, as they ship better 

 and do not need so much care in pack- 

 ing. 



There are several varieties that can- 

 not be classed as either white, pink or 

 yellow, which have begun to make their 

 mark in the trade and among these are 

 W. B, Church, Harrison Dick and Don- 

 ald McLeod, the two latter being very 

 beautiful varieties on the bronzy-crim- 

 son order that light up wonderfully. 

 Church is a purple-crimson that oftener 

 than not shows a bronze effect. It is a 

 peculiar color and very distinct but the 

 floral artist has put his approval on it 

 and Church will be grown in consider- 

 able quantity next year. 



8. T. Wright, while sent out as a 

 crimson, sold fine as a bronze, this pe- 

 culiar state of affairs arising from the 

 fact that on an early bud this variety 

 incurves so closely ?is to entirely liide 

 the crimson and show onl/ rhe goI'U^n 

 bronze reverse. 



There are many varieties that Jo 

 well and sell well in l;ffoi.-.'>it sections 

 of the country, that arc not iienrd cf 

 outside the home circle, so ti speak, r.nd 

 where a grower has wich a variety it 

 would be foolish to discrir.1 if. 



Occasionally one hears of a variety that 

 drops out of sight to reanpi.Mr in a year 

 or two as something entirely n^^w. Such 

 a variety is the Dorothy I'aust thnt has 

 appeared at Philadelphia. From the in- 

 formation to hand there siems no qu's- 

 tion but that it is Mrs. Jvobo'-t Mi-Ai- 

 thur, a variety introduced by Spa.ilding 

 in 1897. This is the second ime that 

 this variety has come up under a lew 

 name, which is a tribute to its staying 

 powers as a variety, if nothing else. 

 There is no desire on anyone 's part to 

 willfully deceive, so far as I know. A 

 label lost or transposed will easily ac- 

 count for these things but if we are to 



