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J 98 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



Deckmbeb 15, 1904. 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY 



■ The Central Passenger Association and 

 the Trunk Line Passenger Association 

 have 'granted the rate of a fare atid one- 

 thii'd to the members going to the itneet- 

 ing of this society in Chicago, Jaii^ary 

 25 and 26. It is presumed that the 

 other associations wai fall into lin^ and 

 help make tliis the best ipeeting aibd the 



largest attended of any we have yet 

 held. 



There will be a supplement to the 

 preipium list to go to press December 27. 

 Anyone wishing to offer special premiums 

 or advertise in this supplement should 

 gfet into communication with the Secre- 

 tary- at 'pnce'. 



, V '■' Albert M. Here, Sec'y. 



PROPAGATING BEAUTIES. 



In selecting wood from Beauties for 

 propagating purposes the greatest of care 

 is nof-essary in order to secure wood of 

 unr'foira ripeness, so that all the cuttings 

 in the batch may form roots about the 

 same time and that all may benefit by tht 

 uniform conditions of temperature, moist- 

 ure, etc. 



The practice of cutting long stems 

 which are dilatory in showing bud and 

 utilizing them for propagating wood is a 

 fruitful source of failure, because in a 

 stem of four or five feet in length, upon 

 which there are perhaps twenty eyes, the 

 eyes near the base and the eyes near the 

 top are far removed from each other in 

 point of ripeness and if these are indis- 

 criminately placed in the sand it is obvi- 

 ous that there cannot be any uniformity 

 in root formation. 



To secure uniformity it is advisable to 

 select short and close- jointed shoots, which 

 may possess only four or six eyes, suflScient 

 to make from one to three cuttings. T.'i«J^e 

 form roots in nearly the same length of 

 time, are less liable to shed their leaves 

 and make a much thriftier plant than do 

 those from longer-jointed- wood. 



In nearly all Beauty houses some plants 

 are found which are tardy in r'orming 

 flower buds, but possess an abundanc.3 of 

 wood and these are often called upon to 

 furnish the wood for propagating. For 

 years I have been carefully avoiding tak- 

 ing wood from such plants and find that 

 this class of plant can by this method be 

 greatly reduced. 



By selecting wood from our most free 

 blooming plants and persisting lu this 

 practice year after year we propagate 

 only those plants which possess good char- 

 acteristics, which are almost certain to be 

 perpetuated in the young stock, thus se- 

 curing stock of a more floriferous charac- 

 ter and although we may not get quite so 

 many extra long stems we will have a 

 house of more uniform growth atd n 

 greater quantity of medium length stems, 

 which are certainly the easiest sellers and 

 most profitable. 



Beauty cuttings of course require a p;ood 

 deal more room in the bench than teas 



do, as it is advisable not to allow the 

 leaves to overlap each other, as this pre- 

 vents them from drying out quickly alter 

 syringing. In order to prevent the loss 

 of foliage in the cutting bench great care 

 is required in watering, as the least excess 

 of moisture in the sand is almost certain 

 to cause it, while over-dryness will have 

 the same effect, and as a cutting without 

 foliage, no matter how well it may be 

 rooted, can never make a good, robust 

 plant, its, vitality having received such a 

 check, it is safest to discard all such. 



Beauty cuttings when rooted require 

 much 'the same treatment as teas, but if 

 the weather is bright it is better to give 

 iheiu the benefit of shading a -^ay or two 

 longer, the foliage being so muon 'tirger 

 that if it is allowed to wilt or curl it 

 takes a longer time to recover. 



When in the younger stages they are 

 very subject to the attacks of green fly, 

 which are hard to dislodge, by reason of 

 the foliage lying so close to the pots and 

 it requires more care to keep them clean 

 than Brides, Maids or even Meteors. 



After they get a start in 2-inch pots 

 they grow very rapidly and should be 

 carefully watched so that they do not be- 

 come pot-bound, as this condition is a 

 very serious set back to young Beauties. 



iflBF.S. 



SOIL FOR ROSES. 



I send two samples of soil and some 

 foliage of Golden Gate and Brides- 

 maid roses. They were benched June 

 1 and made a very good start. I took 

 a small crop in September and since 

 then the growth and blooms have been 

 weak. There has been much blind wood, 

 flowers off color and weak necked. Have 

 run the houses 58 degrees at night, 62 to 

 70 degrees in the daytime, with air as 

 long as possible. The benches are made 

 of 6-inch boards with cracks three-quar- 

 ters of an inch wide. We used sod, grass 

 side down, with about four inches of soil 

 like sample No. 1. Is the fault in the 

 soil! Sample No. 2 is of sod prepared 

 this fall for use next year. J. P. K. 



The treatment accorded these roses 

 should have produced better results and, 

 had sample of soil No. 2 been used in a 

 properly composted condition, there is 

 little doubt but that the crops would 

 have been satisfactory. Sample No. 1 

 is very poor and not at all suited for 

 roses. 



This method of laying the sod on the 

 bottom of the bench is not- the best way 

 of getting the most out of it. In my 

 experience I have found it mbre satis- 

 factory to chop up all the sod aih,d thor- 

 oughly incorporate it with the najanure, 

 using only a light covering of rye or 

 wheat straw to cover the cracks. This 

 serves the purpose of keeping the ,soil 

 from running through till it gets pet, 

 when if the soil is properly handled 

 there is no more danger from this caupe. 

 Sample No. 2 is a good rose soil and, if 

 composted in April, chopped up ajpd 

 turned over a couple of times previous 

 to using, there is no reason why it 

 should not produce good crops. 



BlBES. 



ADVICE FOR A BEGINNER. 



I am a beginner in floriculture, ana 

 there are some things I wish to know 

 which I presume you will think even a be- 

 ginner ought to know. I shall build a 

 greenhouse next summer for roses and 

 I wish to stock it with roses for forcing 

 for cut flowers. Should I buy small 

 plants, say rooted cuttings, and set them 

 in nursery rows to be cultivated during 

 the summer and then transplant them 

 to the benches in the early fall, or would 

 I better buy older stock in the fall to 

 be planted in the benches at oncef How 

 close will they bear to be planted for 

 best results? The house I propose to 

 build will be 20x70 feet. I have a small 

 one which I fllled with carnations this 

 fall. J. C. H. 



From the nature of the queries pro- 

 pounded by J. C. H. it is quite evident 

 that he is a beginner. I would advise 

 him to study some good work on green- 

 house management before he builds. He 

 ought to equip himself with sufficient 

 knowledge on this subject to give him- 

 self a fair chance of success. Such 

 knowledge is contained in Scott's Man- 

 ual, a work which no beginner should 

 be without. 



The safest kind of stock to purchsise 

 for a flrst planting, say in June, would 

 be from 3-inch pots, and plant in the 

 bench at once. By planting in the field 

 you have to wait until the plant becomes 

 dormant before it can be lifted with any 

 chance of success. Brides and Maids re- 

 quire from 144 to 165 square inches of 

 root area. Beauties about 225 inches. 



H3ES. 



A BEGINNER'S TROUBLE. 



I am sending you some buds of my 

 roses and ask your advice as to what 

 would be the best course of treatment 

 to improve the stock. The roses have 

 been carried over from last year. They 

 had been badly neglected when I took 

 them over in the middle of September. 

 They had contracted mildew, were only 

 watered once in two or three days, 

 weeds allowed to over-run them, etc. On 

 taking possession I immediately got the 

 weeds out. cut out all dead and some 

 blind wood, then mulched them with well 

 rotted horse manure, the only kind at 

 my disposal. I watered them as fre- 

 quently as they needed it, ventilated 

 carefuUv, got nearly rid of the mildew 

 by dusting on sulphur, also painted the 

 pipes, syringed on fine days but find 

 red spider still. The houses are two 

 in number, 20x100, even span, running 

 north and south. I am advised not to 

 open the ventilators now, as the houses 

 are rather high, and am told that open- 



