;...,., ■y.. 



636 



The WceUy Florists^ Revie w* 



JAMCABE 28. 1903. 



Inspect the Canna Roots. 



Thi8 is the time that your canna roots 

 should be looked over. If they are on 

 boards beneath a carnation or a rose 

 bench, where there is little drip, they 

 are probably all right, but if not on 

 boards they are sure to feel the mois- 

 ture from the ground, however dry it 

 may appear, and start into growth. This 

 is just what you do not want them to 

 do. If on boards and a drip from the 

 bench is falling on a few roots, remove 

 them or the roots will decay and be 

 useless. Experienced men know all about 

 these simple points, yet I have seen 

 young men, who knew well how to treat 

 them, deliberately put the canna' roots 

 beneath a plant bench on a wet surface 

 where there was a constant drip and 

 lose the entire lot. The success or fail- 

 ure of most of our gardening operations 

 is not so much lack of knowing what 

 to do as the failure to do it. 



Ampelopsis Veitchii. 



In the residence portions of our large 

 cities we have used Ampelopsis VeitcWi 

 almost to excess, although there is noth- 

 ing compared to it for covering stone 

 or brick buildings and walls. It can 

 be bought cheap enough, yet you can 

 raise 500 for your own trade quite as 

 cheaply by sowing the seed now, or with- 

 in a month. They occupy little bench 

 room until they are shifted from 2-inch 

 to 4-inch pots and by that time your 

 bedding plants are gone. They will 

 make a good growth durincr summer and 

 it is very important that they be moved 

 outdoors by the middle of ^September 

 so "that Wey may ripen their stems and 

 foliage before a hard frost arrives. 



Dracaena Indivtsa. 



"While you are sowing, don't forget 

 Dracaena indivisa. We never have enough 

 possibly because we occasionally neg- 

 lected to sow a flat of seed. It takes 

 about two years to raise a good plant 

 in a 5-inch pot large enouerh for the 

 center of a 2-foot ,vase. It is easily 

 grown and tough. The dracaena might 

 be called the "cemetery palm" for, 

 whatever a vase is filled with, the last 

 part of the order is sure to be, "Now 

 •nind, I want one of those narrow-leaved 

 palms in the center," 



Keep Propagating Space Filled. 



There should be no idle space in your 

 propagating bench at this time. The 

 experts on roses and carnations have told 

 all about the proper conditions required 

 for their encicessful propagation. Near- 

 ly all our soft-wooded plants are very 

 simple to root. A sand temperature of 

 60 to 65 degrees and the atmosphere 

 as near as you can keep it to 50 degrees. 

 Tropical plants, like coleus, will, of 

 course, root faster in a temperature 15 

 degrees higher both top and bottom, but 

 the respective temperatures above quoted 

 will suit, the very great majority of 

 soft-wooded plants and root them all. 



The "fungus of the cutting bed," as 



Peter Henderson named it, that almost 

 invisible fungus that spreads with great 

 rapidity over the surface of the sand, 

 which sometimes carries off hundreds of 

 cuttings in a few hours, is never so' 

 troublesome where the temperature- of 

 the house is kept low. A warm," close, 

 muggy atmosphere is just the condition 

 to produce this minute fungus. A 

 bright sun when the sand is dry, not 

 sufficient water at any time before the 

 cuttings are rooted, and too high a tem- 

 perature are the causes of failure. 



The young growths of many plants 

 that cannot be ' properly called soft- 

 wooded, more shrubby, will • also root 

 finely now, such as lemon verbena, acaly- 

 pha, H. P, roses and hydrangea. .Just 

 about now Hydrangea Otaksa for next 

 year's forcing should go into the sand. 

 You have the young, stout growth from 

 the base of the plant and if rooted 

 soon there is time to make a fine plant. 



The Rooting Medium. 



Last week I answered a correspondent 

 a question about the use of coal ashes 

 and mentioned that it is an excellent 

 material for the propagating^ bed. I 

 said, for that purpose^ to "sift them 

 through a half -inch mesh." I find that 

 is a little coarse. A ouarter-inch or 

 three-eighths is better. Sand from the 

 lake shore or a pit where the waves 

 of Lake Erie once rolled, perhaps two 

 million years ago, is easily procured 

 here, and we use it, but if we were so 

 situated that sand was difficult to get 

 and perhaps paid for by the barrel, we 

 should use our coke or hard coal ashes. 

 I have several times seen carnation and 



chrysanthemum cuttings rooted in ashes 

 quite as well as they were ever rooted 

 in the cleanest saf^d. And I have never 

 seen any trouble vnth fungous on a bed 

 of ashes. But proper condition of the 

 cutting and care are of far more conse- 

 quence than the medium you use for 

 the bed. 



Tuberoos Rooted Begonias. 



If you raise tuberous-rooted begonias 

 and gloxinias from seed they can now 

 be sown. They ai'e both extremely small 

 seeds and are delicate to handle, for 

 when just germinating a few hours* ne- 

 glect will ruin the whole batch. We 

 think, at the extremely low price at 

 which these bulbs can now be purchased 

 from specialists or our seed houses, that 

 the small grower had better purchase 

 annually one year old bulbs. 



If you do sow seed, then fill a seed 

 pan half full with broken crocks or 

 coarse lumps of loam or anything that 

 will afford good drainage. Finish off 

 with an inch of finely sifted compost. 

 An equal mixture of loam, sand and 

 leaf-mold will do for any very fine 

 seeds. Press the surface smooth, mod- 

 erately firm and level, the latter being 

 important. Water with a fine sprinkler 

 until you believe all the soil is wet. In 

 an hour or so the surface of the soil 

 will be moist but not sticky. Then sow 

 the seeds 9nd press them gently into 

 the soil. No covering of soil is needed, 

 A piece of cotton cloth laid on the sur- 

 face and kept moistened is" about all 

 that is necessary, but the moment the 

 seeds germinate, remove the cloth. Uni- 

 formity of moisture until the plants are 

 well up is the important point. You 

 cannot expect many flowers from these 

 young plants, at least in pots. Special- 

 ists plant the seedlings out in rich soil 

 in frames in May or June and they 

 make fine bulbs for the next year's 

 flowering. It is six or seven weeks too 

 early to start the tuberous-rooted bego- 

 nias for bedding. The gloxinias are 

 grown only for a pot plant and you can 

 start some bulbs now or later oi\, even 



A. B. Dovis & Son's Red Sport of Gen. Maceo. 



