Januaby 2tf, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



.C-r'^^ f-^ •.7,.»-^iVV-95ir T' 



539 



Boutherner, Mr. Joy, of Nashville, and 

 he told us that their experience with 

 solid beds has been so satisfactory that 

 all their benches are going to come down 

 and give place to solid beds for carna- 

 tions and roses, including Beauties. 



There is no doubt in my mind that, 

 all things considered, the solid beds or 

 semi-solid, beds are preferable to raised 

 benches. The one thing you want to be 

 sure of is that you have good drainage. 

 If the ground on which you build is 

 of a sandy nature you can just as well 

 have solid beds, but if it does not nat- 

 urally drain well, then you would better 

 build a semi-solid bed, using a foot of 

 cinders, coarse ashes or broken stone 

 -and about four inches of soil to plant in. 

 You will not find much, if any, diflfer- 

 •ence in quality and quantity between the 

 two methods except what may be caused 

 by the soil used or the grade of cul- 

 ture given. These will count for just as 

 much with the one as with the other 

 and in fact they are the main factors. 



The dimensions you give for sidewalls, 

 xidge and width will give about the right 

 pitch to your roof. A. F. J. Baur. 



HAD A CHECK. 



I send specimens of Lawson, Norway 

 and Joost which are crippled, the foli- 

 age seeming unable to unfold. What is 

 the trouble? Only a fej^y, plants are as 

 yet affected. " ? I/. M. 



The specimens came so badly frozen 

 that I was unable to form any idea of 

 what might be the cause of the trouble. 

 Frequently such trouble is brought on 

 bj a severe check of some kind: Dry 

 at the bottom of the bed, too strong a 

 dose of food, a sudden change in tem- 

 perature, or something like that. 



A. F. J. Baub. 



TOOC(X)L. 



I send specimens of carnation foliage 

 to show how it is turning brown and 

 •drying up. They are in a house 40 to 

 45 degrees at night and 60 degrees in 

 the day. The pipes are under the 

 benches and I have found the soil dry a 

 few times. I also send specimens of 

 White Cloud. The plants are strong, 

 but the flowers do not develop as thev 

 should. These ay in a house 45 to 50 

 degrees at night and 65 degrees in the 

 daytime. On account of being planted 

 late these have never had any fertilizer. 



C. U. 



The drying of the foliage on your 

 plants is caused by a bacterial disease, 

 brought on by a general unhealthy con- 

 dition of the plants. The White Cloud 

 buds acting as they are doing is no 

 doubt also due to the same cause. You 

 are running them entirely too cool; 40 

 "to 45 degrees is too low a temperature 

 for any carnation to do anything in. 

 Baise the temperature to 48 to 52 de- 

 grees at night and 60 to 65 degrees m 

 the daytime. Pick off all the diseased 

 foliage and the weak buds and when 

 you see a renewal of growth give them 

 a thin mulch of well rotted cow ma- 

 nure. Run them a little on the drv 

 side until they begin to grow and 

 sprinkle some wood ashes or air-slaked 

 lime on the soil and water it in. Do 

 this as soon as you eet the soil into 

 the right condition. Do not propagate 

 from this stock, but buv healthy cut- 

 tings from some responsible firm. Plant 



earlier next season. The first of Sep- 

 tember should see all your carnations 

 planted and started. 



A. F. J. Baub. 



THE BUGHTED CARNATION. 



The note below is reprinted from the 

 January issue of Everybody's Magazine, 

 the publication which is printing Law- 

 son's articles on "Frenzied Finance." 

 His readers will hope that Mr. Lawson 

 is more accurate than this fellow-cm- 

 tributor : 



ThM'e was a time not lontr ago when the 

 carnation waa the favorite flower, surpasalng 

 la Its fleeting popularity even the Tlolet and 



the rose. President McKInley's fondneas for 

 the red carnation Is still fresh In every mem- 

 ory, as is his habit of giving Mrs. McKlnley 

 a bouquet of carnations every morning. A very 

 beautiful red carnation Is called The President 

 in remembrance of his liking. The carnatlom 

 deserved the enthusiasm of its lovers. It is 

 lovely of color, shape and fragrance. It is baU 

 hardy. It is within the reach of not too 

 plethoric purses. But it- has fallen on evil 

 times. Its old enemies, the green fly, th« red 

 spider, and the thrlps, are easily fought. Even 

 the bacteria that attack it can be conquered. 

 A^^alnst stem-rot and dry-rot, however, no suc- 

 cessful defense has been found. It has loat its 

 vitality. Its constitution has broken down. 

 The average variety lives only three or four 

 years and produces but a, single flower to a 

 stem. Formerly there were eight to twelv* 

 flowers to a stem. In short, the carnation Js 

 dying of some unknown disease. Which means, 

 translated into economic language, that cama- 

 tlons will be rarer and costly. 



CARE IN CUTTING. 



During the winter months, when plants 

 are in their most torpid state, root 

 action slow and eyes hard to start, 

 great care should be taken when taking 

 the cut to leave the very best eyes on 

 the flower stem in order to secure a fu- 

 ture cr.op. Which are the best eyes for 

 this purpose is still a mooted question 

 and especially so where the true hybrid 

 remontant is in question. With teas, 

 such as Bride and Bridesmaid, it is a 

 safe practice to leave at least three well 

 developed leaves on the stem, as any 

 one of these is certain to produce a 

 good flower stem, and the others will 

 produce as many leaves as will keep 

 root action going when the flower is cut 

 Without causing a plethora of Udnd 

 wood, which should be carefully guarded 

 against and which can easily be in- 

 duced by careless cutting. 



With hybrid teas, such as Meteor, it is 

 safe to leave even more than this num- 

 ber, as we invariably get the best stems 

 from those plants which have been cut 

 rather high. After years of experiment- 

 ing with this variety, which is not quite 

 a dead one, I am in favor of leaving 

 at least four eyes, even on the strongest 

 stems, as it is usually the topmost eye 

 that gives the best stem. 



On parallel benches I have tried close 

 cutting, that is, leaving one or two eyes 

 on one bench and on the other leaving 

 from four to five. This, of course, 

 showed at the first cut in favor of the 

 close cut plants by reason of the longer 

 stems, but during succeeding crops they 

 failed to keep up with the other benches. 



When cutting our first crop of Beau- 

 ties an inch or two more in length 

 of stem adds materially to the price and 

 many of us are so anxious to catch 

 that elusive dollar that we lost sight of 

 the others that are certain to come 



our way if we only treat our plants 

 right. By cutting so very close in 

 September and October we denude our 

 plants cf their breathing apparatus, 

 which checks root action and causes the 

 wood to harden abnormally and the con- 

 sequence is that our plants remain in- 

 active during the winter and only start 

 into vigor with the spring growth, 

 when the best of the harvest is over. 



Such varieties as Chatenay, Ivory and 

 Golden Gate, which show a sparseness 

 of foliage on* the stem, should also be 

 allowed at least four eyes, as this has 

 a tendency to sustain and keep the plants 

 vigorous, strong and active, lessening the 

 tendency to take a rest, which it is the 

 duty of every grower to obviate, and 

 the fewer leaves we leave on a plant 

 the greater encouragement we give to 

 rest. And when they enter on this 

 condition during the winter it is a hard 

 problem to entice them to go to work 

 again. BiBSS. 



ROSE SEEDS. 



Please tell us how to handle rose seeds. 

 I have two pods of seeds still on the 

 plants that I have fertilized. Can the 

 seeds be sown as soon as ripe or must 

 they be stratified t F. P. B. 



In order to perfect the germs the hips 

 must remain on the bushes until they 

 are perfectly ripe. After gathering they 

 should be dried in the sun and after- 

 wards rubbed out. The seed can then 

 either be sown at once or, if the season 

 is not suitable, the hips can be kept 

 whole and stored in dry sand or soil un- 

 til sprine. 



A shallow box or pan filled with soil 

 of a sandy nature suits them. Sow in 

 drills and cover to the depth of half 

 an inch and place the box in a cold 

 frame. Keep the soil moderately moist 

 and during the summer use a light mulch 

 of moss to keep the surface cool. 



The sefds take a long time to germi- 

 nate, many of them not appearing the 

 first season, so patience must be exercised 

 when dealing with this class of work. 



