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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



March 9, 1905. 



I. Mixtures of this kind occur some- 

 times on the best places. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



I PA^^LS PQKT. ' 



Not later thaa April 1 *a parcels post 

 arrangement with Great Britain will 

 go into effect and packages of .merchan- 

 dise wibB be carried "between ;the two 

 countries at the uniform rate of 12 

 cents a ^ound, with the maximum for 

 each parcel of four pounds six ounces. 

 A similar arrangement, has been mttde 

 with lYance to go into effect at an 

 early date. By the payment of 8 cents 

 for registration, delivery can be assured. 



An anomaly is that under this ar- 

 rangement a plantsman at Chicago can 

 send a jiackage of cuttings to London 

 or even to Hong Kong, China, cheaper 

 than he [can send them to Evanston, 



Hinsdale or Blue Island. The domestic 

 rate will be 16 cents a pound and the 

 foreign rate 12 cents a pound. This 

 may before long result in a broadening 

 of the pajwels. post laws and the eventual 

 general adoption of the system in this 

 country... 



PRONOUNCnSTG DICTIONARY. 



"Begin my subscription with the first of the 

 Pronouncing Dictionary. ' ' 



So many requests like the above have 

 reached the Sbview during the past two 

 or three months that it has become im- 

 possible to comply with them. We are 

 therefore reprinting the Pronouncing 

 Dictionary in booklet form, just the size 

 to fit a desk pigeon-hole and be instantly 

 available. A copy will be sent postpaid 

 to anyone who sends 25 cents with his 

 request. 



The Seed Sowing Month. 



This will be a busy month with the 

 man raising a general assortment of 

 bedding plants. It is a seed-sowing 

 month. Asters, stocks, dianthus, mari- 

 gold and other so-called hardy annuals 

 should be sown about the middle of the 

 month, i allude more to the plants that 

 you expect to sell for your patrons' gar- 

 dens, and this is a considerable busi- 

 ness nowadays, and a fairly profitable 

 one. It does not do to sow so early 

 that these plants occupy much room un- 

 til after Easter, for you will not have 

 room to spare, and by the end of April 

 or early May they should go into cold 

 frames. Now, take asters at 25 cents 

 a dozen! There is a fair profit in them, 

 as they can be grown in flats at little 

 more than one inch apart. 



Cobaea. 



Don't sow this until the end of March. 

 They soon get long and tangled up and 

 are no better than plants eighteen inches 

 long. If you are not sure that you can 

 distinguish the right end to push into the 

 soil, then plant the seed edgewise, press- 

 ing the seed in until it is even with the 

 surface and you will be sure to be right. 

 Don't keep the soil too moist or the seed 

 will rot. 



Pennisetum. 



This beautiful grass is one of the most 

 ornamental plants for the flower garden. 

 Particularly good is it for the edges of 

 beds of sub-tropical plants, such as can- 

 nas and caladiums. P. longistylum is the 

 species mostly grown. Sow the seed 

 thinly in shallow flats. When an inch 

 high prick out into other flats and later 

 pot into 3-inch. From the first of May 

 a cold frame is the best place for them. 

 Sow at once. 



In connection with this plant some one 

 ought to encourage the use of ornamental 

 grasses, for they are, if tastefully ar- 

 ranged, capable of making a most beau- 

 tiful group. If you could see during 

 the summer but one flower bed, either 

 flowering or foliage, and had to look at 

 it often I should for mine have such a 



bed of grasses as the Henry A. Dreer 

 Co. planted at the Pan American. There 

 was the arundo, plain and variegated; 

 eulalia in variety, some other grasses I 

 don't call to mind, and edged with the 

 beautiful pennisetum. 



Cannas. 



It is time now to get up and divide the 

 canna roots. In cutting up the roots 

 discard any piece that is unsound. Any 

 piece that shows one or, better still, 

 two eyes will make a fine plant by bed- 

 ding time. Spread an inch of sphagnum 

 moss or coeoanut fibre on a bench in a 

 warm house — 'better still if there is a 

 heating pipe beneath it — and lay the 

 roots on this and cover them very light- 

 ly with the same material. When the 

 growth is four or five inches high they 

 should be lifted and potted, for they 

 will also have made good active roots. 



Perhaps, and most likely, you will not 

 be able to pot them all at once, for they 

 do not all start at once, but you will 

 be saved the labor and expense of pot- 

 ting those roots that from some cause 

 or other do not start at all. Pot them 

 from the bench into 4-inch pots and that 

 will do them until they are sold. 



We have often bought cannas about 

 the first of June that were drawn up, 

 weak things that looked as if they had 

 been subjected to the treatment of Jan- 

 uary tulips. This is not right. They 

 should from their very start have the 

 fullest light and when planted out be 

 strong, stocky plants that sun and wind 

 won't hurt. They occupy the benches 

 less than two months, demand no more 

 space than a well grown 4-inch ger- 

 anium, but we get considerably more for 

 them and we should give our customers 

 good plants. 



I am not going to say anything about 

 varieties, for they are too numerous and 

 several good old standard sorts are not 

 yet played out. What we want for bed- 

 ding is, first, free flowering, second, 

 erect strong flower stems, and, third, a 

 distinct, decided color. 



The Gloxinia. 



The first contribution the writer of- 



fered years ago to horticultural readers 

 was on this beautiful summer-flowering 

 plant of no use except for the conserva- 

 tory or window of a dwelling house but 

 for that purpose most admirable. Some- 

 how I never grew this plant better, or 

 as well as we did some fifteen years ago, 

 but I retained recollections of how it 

 was done in the days when we first as- 

 sumed pants. 



We put the bulbs in 3-inch pots, now 

 or perhaps a little later, in light soil 

 and one-third rotten refuse hops (leaf- 

 mold is just as good) and after the first 

 watering kept, them rather dry until the 

 leaves appeared. When the leaves had 

 overlapped the pots they were shifted 

 into 5-inch and some of the strongest 

 into 6-inch. The shifting must be done 

 carefully or the brittle leaves will break. 

 The pots were drained an inch or so. 

 The soil was three parts loam, not sifted, 

 one part old, well-rotted manure and one 

 part of the hops. The pots were ele- 

 vated on an inverted 5-inch pot and Icept 

 far enough apart so that we could water 

 each plant without wetting the leaves, 

 spreading them wider apart as they grew. 

 We watered with a can because * * they 

 only want watering when they want it." 

 They were shaded "with cheese-cloth, 

 which was removed when the sun was 

 not on them. We saw no rust that 

 summer because they had careful at- 

 tention to their needs and that is about 

 all there is in the successful culture of 

 any plant. 



They are rather common now in our 

 town. The chief value of them is that 

 they are a splendid plant for a room and 

 will develop all their foxglove-like flow- 

 ers. The dry air of a dwelling seems 

 to suit them. 



Pelargoniums. 



A week or so ago in some remarks 

 on the show pelargonium I said "they 

 were wintered in 3-inch pots." Some- 

 body blundered, either the man at the 

 machine or my pencil. Of course, I 

 meant to say a 4-ineh. 



William Scott. 



SMILAX, 



Should smilax roots be lifted from 

 the beds and divided each year? How 

 soon after cutting the vines will it do 

 to lift them? How should they be eareil 

 for during the resting period? 



A. M. B. 



It is not profitable to lift and divide 

 smilax roots, such divisions being far 

 inferior to young seedling plants. The 

 method favored by the most successful 

 growers of this useful plant is that of 

 sowing the seeds in flats or pans in Feb- 

 ruary or early March, and as soon as 

 the seedlings are large enough to be 

 handled to pot them off into 2-inch pots, 

 in which they may remain until some 

 tinie in May and then be repotted into 

 3-inch pots, this practice giving sturdy 

 and well rooted plants in readiness ' for 

 planting in the bed in July. 



With proper care and a night tem- 

 perature of 60 degrees throughout the 

 winter such a bed should furnish three 

 or four crops of smilax in the season, 

 providing that the bed has been filled 

 with six to eight inches of good soil at 

 the start, and also been given a light 

 top dressing of soil and manure between 

 the crops. 



Some growers do run a smilax bed for 

 two or three seasons, and in that case 

 the roots are rested by keeping them 



