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886 



The Weekly Florists' Review; 



March 9, 1905. 



they expect the shipment and don't get 

 it. Don't even waste a postage stamp 

 on these ; they are not deserving. ' ' 



MASSACHUSETTS GARDENERS. 



Harvard Botanic Gardens, Gunbridge. 



The nunaerous visitors to the Harvard 

 Botanic Gardens always find something 

 at the dullest of seasons to please and 

 interest them. The head gardener, or 

 professor, as he has not inaptly been 

 termed, Bobert Cameron, is a skillful 

 practitioner, one who makes use of every 

 inch of space at his disposal. "While 

 a good part of the space in the glass 

 structures is devoted to collections of 

 cacti, economic and other plants of par- 

 ticular interest to the Harvard college 

 students, good batches of all the more 

 useful and showy flowering and foliage 

 plants are to be seen. 



Among hard-wooded plants, Acacia 

 Baileyana, certificated in Boston in Jan- 

 uary, 1904, was noteworthy. It is a 

 rapid grower and extremely graceful, 

 splendid for cutting. Plants three years 

 old were over ten feet high. Acacia 

 Murryana and A. heterophylla were also 

 in fine bloom. The seldom seen Fran- 

 ciscea eximia, similar in color to Lasian- 

 dra macrantha, was clothed with its 

 pretty dark blue flowers. Among the 

 ericas, Mediterranea and melanthera 

 were on the wane, but the pretty E. 

 arciolaris was at its best. 



A house filled with finely grown Pri- 

 mula obconica, P. Sinensis and P. stel- 

 lata was very attractive. P. Sinensis 

 The Duchess is especially good, for 

 florists' use. The color is pure white, 

 with a zone of ro8y carmine surround- 

 ing a clear yellow one. It is one of 

 Sutton's introductions. A division of 

 cyclamens was a blaze of bloom. Gloire 

 de Lorraine begonia, which is grown in 

 quantity, was nearly over. Roses, of 

 which Maids and Woottons are grown, 

 all looked first-class. The stove house 

 contains a fine collection of beautiful 

 specimens of all the best ornamental 

 foliaged plants. A splendid collection 

 of well pitchered nepenthes in numerous 

 varieties was suspended from the roof. 

 Orchids are grown in considerable num- 

 bers. Phaius grandifolius was flower- 

 ing freely, also Dendrobium nobile in 

 variety, D. nobile nobilius being the 

 best. Cattleya Trianae also made a fine 

 showing of blooms. All who visit these 

 well kept gardens will find Mr. Cam- 

 eron courteous in the extreme and a 

 veritable encyclopedia of horticultural 

 knowledge. W. N. Craig. 



CAPAQTY OF FLOWS. 



Will a 3-inch flow down the center 

 of a greenhouse supply six 3-inch re- 

 turns? Will a 2-inch flow supply five 2- 

 inch returns? M. B. 



Whether or not the 3-inch flow will 

 supply six 3-inch returns or the 2-inch 

 flow supply five 2-inch returns depends 

 entirely upon the length of the returns. 

 If there is not more than 1,200 feet of 

 radiation in the combined area of the 

 six 3-inch returns and not more than 

 400 feet of radiation in the 2-inch pipes 

 the flows will be ample. To state it 

 in another way, the 3-inch flow will sup- 

 ply 1,200 feet of 3-inch pipe while a 

 2-inch will supply 640 feet of 2-inch re- 

 turns. . L. C. C. 



DIGITALIS. 



The plant shown in the accompanying 

 illustration carried nine spikes, several 

 of them over six feet in height. It was 

 one of a number of small plants car- 

 ried over a year on account of not flow- 

 ering and grown in a bed of Ghent aza- 

 leas to supply flowers after the azaleas 

 were over. 



Henry Wild, of the A. W. Blake es- 

 tate, Brookline, Mass., who grew the 

 specimen under note and who handles 

 foxgloves very successfully, states that 

 he sows hia seed in June. The young 

 plants are placed in their winter quar- 

 ters on a side hill in August. They win- 

 ter splendidly with a covering of pine 

 boughs, and are transplanted to their 

 flowering quarters about April 20. He 



Digitalis Purpurea. 



considers that it pays well to carry over 

 plants which fail to bloom the first 

 season and certainly such grand speci- 

 mens are an ornament to anyone's 

 grounds. 



For planting in masses, in shrubberies, 

 on the borders of woodlands or in beds 

 by themselves, no biennials surpass the 

 foxgloves and their lasting properties 

 are excellent. The cut spikes are splen- 

 did for house decoration, especially the 

 white varieties. Seed sown in shallow 

 drills under shaded sashes in June or 

 July and transplanted to the open dur- 

 ing showery weather will give sdIcikIH 

 spikes the succeeding summer. Digitalis 

 gloxiniseflora and Ivery's spotted are 

 superior varieties. W. N. Craig. 



VINCA ROSEA. 



Would you please tell me how to grow 

 vincas? I have na luck with them and 

 would like to know what causes the 

 trouble. The plants come up nicely 

 from seeds, and I can keep them grow- 

 ing well until about December. Then 

 they start to dry up. I kept them in 

 the carnation house and planted them 

 in carnation soil from last year. At 

 about what time would you advise me 

 to sow the seed and what soil and tem- 

 perature would be best? Can I put 

 them under the benches in winter? I 

 mean the bedding vincas. R. 



We think your failure is that you 

 have kept the seedlings too cool and 

 perhaps too wet in the dark winter 

 months. For bedding purposes sow the 

 seed the middle of January. Let the 

 soil be light sandy loam with some 

 leaf-mold or very rotten manure added. 

 They don't like a heavy soil at any 

 time. 



When the seedlings have made the 

 second leaf, transplant into flats, and 

 when they crowd in that, pot into 2- 

 inch and later into 3-inch, which is 

 large enough to make good bedding 

 plants. As the vinca is a tender plant, 

 they should not be planted in the flower 

 beds before all dan-rpr of the slightest 

 frost is over, with us about the labt of 

 May. A temperature of 50 degrees at 

 night is the lowest they should be given 

 under glass, and always the fullest 

 light. You can yet make a sowing and 

 have fairly gooa plants. Thev will 

 only be a 'little late. W. S. 



WHITE FLY AGAIN. 



I send a leaf covered with a louse 

 which finally becomes a white fly. Please 

 tell me what will destroy it. I have 

 used tobacco in smoke, dust and extract, 

 but it does not hurt them much. 



R. B. T. 



The leaf sent was covered with the 

 eggs of the little fly of which there has 

 been so much complaint for the past 

 few years and which I saw only a few 

 days ago infesting some large tomato 

 plants. The only thing that will kill 

 the mature fly is hydrocyanic acid gas; 

 the formula for which has been pub- 

 lished in the pages of the Review at 

 least every month for the past two years. 

 One dose may not clean your house. Re- 

 peat three times at intervals of two 

 weeks, and they will be gone. W. S. 



FiNDLAT, O. — N. B. Swan, of the Swan 

 Floral Co., has opened a branch store 

 at Lima, with his sister. Miss Esther 

 Swan, in charge. 



FiTZGERAiiD, Ga. — We have had ex- 

 tremely cold weather for this section, 

 down to 14 degrees. Joel Thomas re- 

 ports cut flower business good. 



Johnstown, Pa. — Karl Sehafler, hav- 

 ing . studied rose and carnation growing 

 in this country for two years, is about 

 to return to his home in Germany. 



Fort Wayne, Ind. — W. C. Puckett, 

 wlio has for some years been gardener 

 nt the Indiana State School for Feeble 

 Minded Youths, will go into business 

 inst outside of town, on Rural Route 

 Xo. 8, doing a general greenhouse and 

 nursery business. 



