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Fbbbuabt 23, 1006. 



The Weekly Rorists^'fecview. 



757 



Keep Easter Stock CooL 



We shall soon be studying out the 

 right time to get in various plants for 

 the big event, Easter. To those who 

 have been forcing plants for years for 

 this occasion I give no hint except to 

 remind them that Easter is very late and, 

 after this steady, hard winter, it is more 

 than likely we should get an early, bright 

 spring, although I don't aspire to be a 

 weather prophet, for they are "without 

 honor" both at home and abroad. 



Azaleas of nearly all varieties must 

 be kept very cool. A north house, where 

 the direct sun will never reach them, is 

 a great help in retarding them, as well 

 as a low temperature. If kept now, 

 and for another month, almost dormant, 

 three or four weeks will be plenty of 

 time to give them in a light house and 

 moderate temperature. The bright and 

 perhaps warm days of April are sure 

 to make them jump, 



Pyrus Japonica will want about four 

 weeks in the house. This is a very at- 

 tractive plant when well flowered, but it 

 is difficult to get plants well prepared 

 for forcing. 



Various Shrubs. 



We have been rather late more than 

 once with Deutzia gracilis. Give it six 

 weeks in a night temperature of 50 to 

 55 degrees. Lilacs you are forcing right 

 along and they are particularly well set 

 with buds this year. For Easter, four 

 weeks in the greenhouse will be plenty 

 of time for them. A well-flowered 

 Marie Legraye is a beautiful plant and 

 we find our customers know enough to 

 ])refer a plant that has some blossoms 

 fully out and some buds to open, as 

 they do with the azalea. 



The rhododendrons differ in earliness. 

 Tliose swelling their buds must be kept 

 cold and shaded but those showing no 

 signs of starting, and the buds small 

 and tight, can be got into a warmer 

 house, for these varieties come along 

 slowly. The hardy deciduous azaleas, 

 known as the Ghent hybrid varieties, are 

 not as generally grown as they deserve. 

 With a little decorating with ribbons, 

 etc., we find they sell well. They 

 give us shades of orange and pink and 

 clear yellow not found in any other of 

 our forcing plants and are a mass of 

 blossom. Considering the season, one 

 month will bring , them into flower from 

 the cold -frame. 



Now all these plants, whjch are really 

 hardy shrubs, should receive a thorough 

 watering when first potted up or 

 brought into the houses and never al- 

 lowed to get dry afterwards; also, they 

 should be sprayed at least once a day 

 until the flowers are open. The syring- 

 ing is an important item. 



^ZZ *' Lemon Verbena. 



This is a good time to start up this 

 old favorite. In ovory mixed border of 

 plants there ought to be some lemon 

 verbena. Plants that have been under 

 the bench, dormant but not dried out, 

 will, if cut back to sound wood and 



put into heat and kept sprayed, give 

 you any quantity of young, tender 

 growths, which root as easily as a coleus 

 providing you keep the sand well sat- 

 urated. I knew there is a prejudice 

 against the old-fashioned hotbed and I 

 am almost afraid to mention it, yet how 

 many of our plants will thrive anc; 

 grow in them as no up-to-date steam- 

 heated greenhouse can make them, and 

 the lemon verbena is particularly one of 

 them. 



The Lantana. 



The lantana is another plant that 

 should be started now. We give it the 

 same treatment, a little shortening of 

 last summer's growth, and with heat 

 and moisture soon get young growths 

 that root readily. This is not a showy, 

 high-colored bedding plant, yet most 

 pleasing. In the almost forgotten but 

 good old Pan-American there was a bed 

 of lantanas shown by Henry A. Dreer 

 Co. The variety was called Robert Craig 

 and there were few flower beds more ad- 

 mired on the grounds. 



Petunias. 



Your seedlings are now, or shortly 

 will be, advanced enough to prick out 

 into flats or pots. I much prefer pots 

 for these very small, soft plants, as 

 there is less danger of their damping 

 off if over-watered. We use a 2*/^- 



apart. They will never feel the trans- 

 planting into the flower beds any more 

 than a pansy. What a lot of cheap 

 bedding plants can be grown in flats 

 quite as well and at half the cost and 

 labor of fussing with little pots! The 

 verbenas, alternantheras, petunias. Be- 

 gonia Vernon and several others can be 

 transplanted just as well as from pots 

 as we do all our asters and other so- 

 called hardy annuals. 



Light or Air. 



I mentioned just now to put these 

 petunias "near the glass." We have 

 contended heretofore that there was as 

 much light ten feet from the glass as 

 there was ten inches away and on the 

 middle bench of a light house there is 

 certainly perfect light. Yet what is 

 there that conduces to a healthy, vig- 

 orous growth, especially in winter, with 

 plants on a shelf near the glass? It is 

 not merely perfect light. It must be 

 the pure, fresh atmosphere they breathe 

 in the uppe» part of the house. The 

 heavier, denser and more impure atmos- 

 phere remains near the ground and this 

 sometimes makes me skeptical of our 

 low benches or solid beds for such im- 

 portant plants as the rose and carna- 

 tion. When ventilation can be given 

 daily and freely there may be little dif- 

 ference in the atmosphere in any part 

 of the house, but in the winter, when 

 the opportunity to ventilate is very in- 

 frequent, and then only to a small de- 

 gree, there must be a difference and 

 it is greatly to the advantage of the 

 plants well above the ground. 



Lady Washington Geraniuni. 



The show pelargoniums will soon want 

 the last shift. How fashions have 

 changed 1 Thirty years ago these were 

 most popular of plants and honored with 

 the title of Lady Washington, If they 



The Indian Azalea as it Should be Fbwered. 



inch or 3-inch pot. Make the soil mod- 

 erately firm and then strike it off level 

 with the rim of the pot. With a fine 

 pointed stick, transplant the little seed- 

 lings, five or six plants around the edge 

 of the pot and three or four in the cen- 

 ter. Put the pots in the full light and 

 as near the glass as you can. When 

 thoy begin to crowd it is time to pot 

 them singly in 2 Ms -inch pots if you in- 

 tend to sell them by the dozen. If you 

 want them for bedding orders they are 

 just as well put into flats, two inches 



y* 



could return to favor they might be 

 rechristened Lady Lawson or Lady 

 Rockefeller. We keep them over winter 

 in 3-inch pots, not growing much because 

 they should be kept on the dry side 

 and not higher than a night tempera- 

 ture of 45 degrees. You can shift them 

 now into 6-inch pots. Use rather rough, 

 unsifted loam with a fifth of rotten 

 manure and make the new soil firm. 

 Give them the lightest bench and not 

 over 50 degrees at night. Greenfly is 

 their greatest enemy and tobacco stems 



