Pebbuabt 16, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



699 



Watch the Azaleas. 



Very soon your fall-imported azaleas, 

 even if they are kept cool, will be mak- 

 ing new growth from the base of the 

 flower bud and if these young growths 

 are not kept rubbed off thev will take all 

 the strength from the buds, which will 

 shrivel up and you will have a fine green 

 bush but no flowers. If well budded, 

 keep all that young growth pinched off 

 as soon as it appears. 



There are a few varieties that flower 

 poorly the spring following their importa. 

 tion, notably Bernard Andre and Bernard 

 Andre alba. If you see there are not 

 enough flower buds on them to make sala- 

 ble plants, then let these young shoots 

 grow and you will have fine plants for a 

 year from now. Summered-over azaleas 

 seldom have this tendency to make a 

 growth before they flower. There is no 

 doubt that selling the plants the first 

 spring is most desirable, yet the plants 

 that did not sell, if given good and cor- 

 rect care during summer, make the finest 

 plants and have increased fifty per cent 

 in value. 



Overdrawn Tulips. 



I noticed last week some Yellow Prince 

 tulips drawn up to 15-ineh stems and 

 rather spindling. It was no fault oi 

 the bulbs; they have had too high a 

 temperature and too much shade. Everv 

 week now as we approach spring their 

 gay flowers will want less heat and shade 

 and by March 1 they will come along to 

 perfection on an ordinary bench without 

 any shade. While a good length of 

 stem is desirable, when it is weak and 

 spindling your crop is about valueless. 



Good Ferns Always Salable. 



There is sure to be at least the usual 

 demand for a nice pot or pan of nephro- 

 lepis at Easter. "We would a year ago 

 have simply said Boston fern, but now 

 there are Piersoni, Anna Foster and last- 

 ly comes perhaps the most useful of all, 

 Scottii. "Well grown plants of these ferns 

 sell every day in the year. I think right 

 at this season we are selling more mod- 

 erate-sized plants of the old Boston form, 

 plants worth from $2 to $3, than we are 

 any three other plants, and well do they 

 deserve their popularity. 



Piersoni seemed to get a set-back last 

 year after the first gush of admiration 

 for its beauty. I notice of late if you 

 can show a Piersoni in an 8-inch pot, 

 fairly dense with fronds, that it will out- 

 sell any of them. "We are not yet all 

 on to the wrinkle of how to make salable 

 plants of Piersoni «s quickly as we can 

 the Boston, but we know it is a most free 

 and luxuriant grower or Mr. Pierson 

 could not have grown that great and 

 splendid stock in so short a time, for 

 wo saw the mother plant — not a very 

 thrifty looking old hen, either — surround- 

 <■<! by licr flock of litMe chickens. And 

 now he is sending out Piersoni elegantia- 

 sima, certainly a beautiful thing. 



Anna Foster is very attractive when a 



specimen but it reverts too much. Scot- 

 tii seems as if it' would be the leading 

 commercial nephrolepis. Its dense 

 growth of fronds, even as a small plant, 

 makes it a specimen in a 4-inch pot and 

 its form in larger plants is perfection. 



Making-up Pans. 



Too often we are guilty of making up 

 8-inch or 10-inch pans of these ferns by 

 lifting 3 -inch or 4-inch plants from the 

 benches and potting several of them to- 

 gether. They pass in appearance, yet it 

 is not the honest thing to our customers. 

 Plants for spring sales should be shifted 

 now, so that they will become well estab- 

 lished. There is no harm in putting 

 three plants in one pan to make a good 

 sized plant, but give them time to get 

 well rooted and make a growth that 

 takes off that stiffness which made-up 

 pans always have. Don't keep these 

 plants in the shade. Give them a light, 

 sunny position and plenty of room to 

 grow or you cannot produce a shapely 

 plant. In a fern it is form, not color, 

 that is admired. Give these ferns that 

 you want to grow just for the next two 

 months about 60 degrees at night. 



Shifting Palms for Spring. 



Moderate-sized palms have sold better 

 the past year than they have for two or 

 three years. Palm raising is best left to 

 the specialist. "We raised a few thousand 

 kentias for two or three winters and are 

 convinced. You can buy plants in 4- 

 inch pots and upwards from the man who 

 raises a hundred thousand cheaper than 

 you can raise them. It is their specialty 

 and there is nothing like division of la- 

 bor. It is a feature of the highest civil- 

 ization. 



Palms just potted are dangerous to 

 sell to a customer. The customer is crude 

 enough about watering without giving 

 him a newly shifted plant to wrestle 

 with. Don't be afraid now to shift a 

 palm that will want it this spring. Ken- 

 tias need only a comparatively small pot, 

 but a customer will he sure to want you 

 to shift it if the pot looks too small. If 

 skillfully done, a shift from a 5-inch to 

 a 6-inch or from a 7-inch to an 8-inch 

 pot will do. Larger plants can, of course, 

 be given a shift of two or three inches. 

 Be sure with small kentias not to bury 

 the base of the stem beneath the soil, or 

 not more than half an inch, and let the 

 soil be well firmed between the old ball 

 and the pot. 



Arecas and latanias will enjoy a more 

 liberal shift, say from a 5-inch to 

 a 7-inch or from a 7-inch to a 9- 

 inch pot. "While shifting these palms 

 it is a good time to thoroughly clean 

 them. Brown scale and mealy bug 

 appear sometimes in the best regulated 

 families. A sponging with fir tree oil, 

 kerosene emulsion or Gishurat Compound 

 will thoroughly clean tlicm and make 

 them look bright. 



Sowing Early Asters, 

 it will now be about tune to aow some 



of the early asters if they can be planted 

 out the end of April. It is only for 

 very early cutting that the small early 

 varieties are used. The Comet, Victoria, 

 peony-flowered and, best of all, the late 

 branching varieties, need not be sown 

 untU early March, and then if you want 

 successive crops you should sow at inter- 

 vals of three weeks up to the middle of 

 May. 



Improve Your Strain. 



Did you ever try saving your own aster 

 seed? All there is about it is to select a 

 few dozen of the very finest blooms, tie 

 them to a stake so they won't get cut or 

 broken down and, when thoroughly ripe, 

 put the heads away in a paper bag and 

 clean them at your leisure. Although I 

 am a thorough believer in the division of 

 labor, it is worth while saving some 

 asters when you see a very fine flower. 

 It may be good in color, form or size. 

 You will be pretty sure to get as fine 

 flowers as the parent and in a few gen- 

 erations a considerable improvement will 

 be effected if every year you select only 

 the finest flowers for seed. 



Antirrhinums. 



In these days when flower gardening 

 is desired to be interesting rather than 

 gaudy, a bed of antirrhinums is well 

 worth a place. There is a splendid strain 

 of large-flowered varieties that make a 

 beautiful flower bed. Separate colors 

 can be used, yet a mixed bed of colors is, 

 I think, prettier. If sown now and trans- 

 planted later into flats they can be 

 planted out after danger of hard frost, 

 for they are nearly hardy plants, and 

 will commence to flower by the end of 

 June. , 



Propagating Genista. 



This should be a busy time with the 

 propagating bed. Besides all your soft- 

 wooded bedding plants, there are some 

 cuttings to go in that will be wanted as 

 flowering plants next winter and spring. 

 The cytisus, or genista, is one. Don't 

 take little, single shoots, but take little 

 branches with two or three shoots and a 

 heel where it came off a stronger growth. 

 You can always find such growth on the 

 larger plants. They root freely and will 

 make good, salable plants in one year. 



The Euphorbia. 



Euphorbia fulgens (itused to beknown 

 to the trade as E, Jacquinisefiora) is an- 

 other pretty and useful cut flower plant 

 that can be propagated now. Twenty-five 

 years ago this was a standard cut fiower, 

 but it went out of fashion. It is as 

 easily grown as the poinsettia, which is 

 also a euphorbia, but very different in 

 appearance. Any small piece with two 

 or three joints of this winter's growth, 

 but not too soft, will root easily in sand 

 in a bottom heat of 65 degrees. It needs 

 that heat, as it is a tropical plant. They 

 can be pinched as they grow and plunged 

 outdoors during the hot months and 

 planted out on the benches in September, 

 or if you can spare the room they will 

 make a freer growth if planted out of 

 3 -inch pots on the bench in June. They 

 will just delight in the tropical heat that 

 the glass will afford. The long, dropping 

 branches, studded with the vermilion 

 flowers, make them invaluable for decora- 

 tions, and nowadays they are a novelty 

 in many places, and the public is always 

 after a change. "William Scott. 



