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February 23, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



763 



grown another year. Quite a number of 

 pot plants are grown for use at the 

 store. The roses have done well but 

 were necessarily late planted because of 

 the rebuilding. The carnations were also 

 benched late but have done well, Law- 

 son, Enchantress, Boston Market and 

 Mrs. Nelson looking especially fine. Nel- 

 son Fisher and Wrs. Patten will be 

 grown more extensively another season. 

 There will then be two more large 

 Louses, one for carnations and one for 

 roses. There are already six houses, five 

 315 feet long and one 160 feet long. 

 The houses run east and west on a side 

 hill with a gentle slope to the south. 

 The steam main runs across the center 

 of the range in a tunnel. The heating 



system works perfectly and was installed 

 by the foreman, Wm. P. Marshall, who 

 if seen in the accompanying illustration 

 of the bench of Enchantres's carnations. 

 Mr. Marshall is a graduate of Peter 

 Fisher 's school of carnation growing and 

 got his training on roses under Alex. 

 Montgomery. He planted his carnations 

 from pots in June. He has not had ten 

 per cent split Lawsons this season and 

 will grow Mr. Fisher's varieties and 

 some others indoors next season, being 

 well satisfied with results. One of the 

 pictures shows Mr. Brown in a rose 

 house. Just at present he's in Mexico. 

 Jn the picture showing the Begonia 

 Gloire de Lorraine and the Bostons is 

 David Nolan, the plant grower. 



PROPAGATING FOR EXHIBITIONS. 



It is not too early to begin thinking 

 about propagating the chrysanthemum 

 cuttings, ior many of the best exhibi- 

 tion growers already have their cuttings 

 rooted. February propagation is none 

 too early for many varieties, particularly 

 those of dwarf habit, Merza, Nellie 

 Pockett, Cheltoni and W. E. Church fur- 

 nishing good examples of the varieties 

 referred to. If one has lots of head- 

 room any of the kinds may be rooted 

 now and grown right along with ad- 

 vantage but in such a case one must 

 have twelve feet of head room, clear 

 above the bench, which is not often pro- 

 vided for. I saw Timothy Eaton last 

 year over twelve feet high with flowers 

 of enormous size, showing the good ef- 

 fects of a long growing season. The 

 idea that one can strike cuttings in June 

 and get just as good flowers from them 

 as though the cuttings were rooted in 

 February is now proven beyond question 

 to be wrong. 



The grower for commercial flowers 

 only does not need to bother yet awhile, 

 excepting in the case of new or scarce 

 varieties, which it may be desired to 

 increase considerably. These may be 

 rooted and when the young plant has 

 made sufficient growth it can be topped 

 and the cutting rooted. This operation 

 may be repeated several times without 

 much injury to the stock if done proper- 

 ly and the plants carefully handled. 



When the cuttings are rooted they 

 should be potted up at once and kept 

 in a cold house, and by being rooted 1 

 mean when the young roots are half an 

 inch long. It is a great mistake to 

 leave cuttings in the sand until the roots 

 are five or six inches long and the top 

 all drawn up and spindly. Such a con- 

 dition as this will cause a severe check 

 to the plant at the commencement of 

 its career, and that spindly, hide-bound 

 cutting never catches up to its stronger, 

 better cared for neighbor. 



It occasionally happens, after a batch 

 of cuttings have been potted up, that 

 they will run to bud instead of making 

 a clean good growth. Every spring I 

 hear more or less of this trouble and, 

 noticing a batch of plants yesterday 

 that were budding when they should be 

 growing, reminded me that some begin- 

 ner may shortly be worrying because 



his plants were doing the same thing. 

 This disposition to run to bud instead 

 of growth shoots may proceed from sev- 

 eral causes. First, some varieties are 

 "built" that way, W. E. Church be- 

 ing a bad offender with me at any sea- 

 son of the year, and, secondly, improper 

 selection of cuttings will at times be 

 the cause. 



The ideal cutting is the sucker that 

 comes through the ground and is about 

 two inches or so in length. When cut- 

 tings are taken from the stem of the 

 plant or when the suckers are allowed 

 to run up a foot or so in height before 

 being topped, they very frequently run 

 to bud after rooting. Another thing 

 that will cause cuttings to make bud is 

 permitting them to get too dry and wilt- 

 ed in the sand and before they are root- 

 ed. A chrysanthemum cutting should 



never be allowed to wilt down but should 

 be kept well watered in the sand and 

 frequently sprayed, also, if the day is 

 warm. If it is dried out a time or two 

 the cutting gets too hard and dry to 

 root and will very frequently make a 

 small, abortive bud and never root at 

 all, or in such a feeble, half-hearted 

 way that it is useless. 



This drying of the shoot causing a 

 bud to appear is a useful hint to the 

 grower if he cares to take advantage 

 of it. In August if the plants are run- 

 ning too high and| no sign of a bud 

 showing, by drying off the plants a few 

 times the tissues of the tender growth 

 harden and a bud will result which 

 might otherwise not have appeared for 

 some time. It will thus be seen that 

 while man may not be able to make 

 the mum do just as he wants it to, he 

 can by watching its peculiarities come 

 reasonably close to it. 



Charles H. Totty. 



THE BETTER CUTTING. 



Will you please tell me if I take 

 a chrysanthemum cutting and root it 

 now, then later on take the top off and 

 root it, which is the better plant for ex- 

 hibition purposes? E. li. 



The remarks on propagating, in this 

 issue, bear somewhat on this query 

 since the writer will notice that I recom- 

 mend February propagation for the 

 slower growing varieties. It is largely 

 a matter of head room. It has been 

 proven that, all other things being equal, 

 a cutting rooted in February or March 

 produces a deeper, more solid flower 

 than will a cutting rooted in June, since 

 it has so much longer to grow- and ma- 

 ture. Either of the cuttings would pro- 

 duce equally good flowers if properly 

 cared for, the fact of one bein^ a top 

 from the other being immaterial. 



Charles H. Tottt. 



TREATMENT FOR BEAUTIES. 



When there is a protracted period of 

 dull weather Beauties are inclined to 

 run to wood rather than forming flow- 

 er buds and to stop or prevent this 

 condition requires a deal of skill and 

 careful watching. Great care must be 

 taken not to give too much water, as this 

 encourages the habit, and still greater 

 care is needed not to feed too liberally, 

 especially with nitrogenous matter. As 

 a prevention they should be run on the 

 dry side until the flower buds begin 



to form, when water can again be gii 

 freely. 



To encourage the setting of buds and 

 discourage rank growth a topdressing of 

 wood ashes can be used but as this is 

 a very concentrated food it has to be 

 used sparingly at first application, one 

 bushel being sufficient for 300 square 

 feet of bench. This can be alternated 

 every three or four weeks by an ap- 

 plication of bone meal and as the days 

 lengthen the quantity can be gradually 

 increased. 



I have frequently under such condi- 

 tions used liquid ammonia with succesB 

 but as this chemical is very quick in its 

 action it requires to be used with cau- 

 tion. For a first application, one gal- 

 lon of ammonia diluted with seventy* 



