March 28, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



i 

 995 



The Need for Space. 



Until Easter relieves the congestion 

 we are usually very crowdedj^^ and partic- 

 ularly so this spring, as Easter is so 

 late. Now, if we can add only ten 

 per cent to our bench capacity it will 

 be a great relief, for it will enable 

 us to give a little more room to all 

 our fast-growing, soft-wooded bedding 

 plants. By the first of April you can 

 trust any cold-blooded plant like car- 

 nations in a cold frame. In fact, there 

 is no better place for them, and lots 

 of other things, providing you have mats 

 or shutters for the cold nights. 



The Good Old Hotbed. 



There is a dislike with many florists 

 for the old-fashioned hotbed. It is labor, 

 but what can you get worth having with- 

 out labor? The material of the hotbed, 

 after its usefulness is over, if thrown 

 up in a pile and allowed to decompose, 

 is worth to you for material at the pot- 

 ting bench far more than all the labor 

 of making the beds and cost of manure, 

 etc. Some may say "we can't have those 

 hotbeds on our place; they are too un- 

 sightly. ' ' 



There is no unsightliness about them 

 if neatly made. It seems at the writer's 

 age that so simple a thing as making 

 a hotbed should be known to every man 

 who owns a light of glass, yet looking 

 around we see some who do not know. 

 If your subsoil is gravel and you can 

 excavate eighteen inches or two feet 

 without fear of water lying in the pit, 

 then that would be the best method of 

 making a hotbed, because there would be 

 less cooling, but seldom without a drain 

 can we excavate even one foot in the 

 spring without being troubled with 

 water. However, making the beds on 

 the dry surface of the ground will be 

 found quite satisfactory. 



You will know the size of the sash 

 and also how many sash you want to 

 put up. Suppose you want twelve sash 

 in a row and three rows, allowing 

 eighteen inches between each run of 

 sash and two feet all around the whole 

 exterior. You can figure this out to a 

 few inches and if you want to be nice 

 and tidy put in some 2x4 posts every 

 three or four feet and two boards high, 

 and all your heating material is inside 

 this enclosure. 



The Material for Heat. 



The material can be straw manure 

 from the stable and the fresher the bet- 

 ter, but not just brought from the 

 stable, dumped into a pile or leveled off 

 and thought to be a hotbed. If you did 

 it that way it would heat most violently 

 for a week or two and then quickly sub- 

 side. The manure should be turned over 

 at least twice before it is allowed to 

 burn. 



Now is the time to add other ma- 

 terial to the stable manure. Leaves of 

 last fall can be added, if not too much 

 decayed; and refuse hops, if convenient- 

 ly procured, are a great thing to heat 



and will also retain the heat. Half stable 

 manure one-fourth hops and one-fourth 

 leaves is an ideal mixture, but you can 

 get along with the stable litter alone. 

 Spread six inches of the material evenly 

 over the whole space and tread it well 

 down; another six-inch layer and so on 

 until you have a depth of two feet. How- 

 ever well it is trodden, it will be sure 

 to sink six inches in a few weeks. One 

 important item do not forget: If in 

 spreading these layers of material any 

 of it is the least bit dry, give it a good 

 sprinkling with the hose. The whole 

 mass should be moist. 



Size of the Frame. 



The frame to hold the sash we make 

 fifteen inches deep in front and eighteen 

 inches at back and of a size to hold four 

 sash, with a rafter for the sash to run 

 on. If you do not put in the rafters 

 you will every now and then have a sash 

 dropping down on your plants. Best the 

 frames on the manure in their place 

 and see that they don't "wind" and are 

 square. Exercise a mechanic's eye for 

 once. Then we tread in a few more 

 inches of manure in the frames. Use a 

 foot of well trodden down manure in 

 the paths between the frames and all 

 around the outside of the frames. Then 

 lay a foot-board in the paths to walk on. 



In two days put in six inches of soil; 

 any old, light soil that has previously 

 been used will do. This is for plunging 

 the plants in. Some might say they 



plants into them, only never neglect 

 ventilation when the beds are new, for 

 when the sun shines and the bed has a 

 brisk heat there is in a short while such 

 a temperature as only a cast-iron sala- 

 mander could endure; but that would be 

 neglect, not gardening. 



Covers for Coid Nights. 



Provide yourseilf with some means of 

 covering these sash on chilly nights, 

 for the plants are only a few inches from 

 the glass. Double sash is an excellent 

 thing, but shutters, old carpets, or best 

 of all straw mats may oe used. The 

 difference between plants plunged and 

 those just stood on the surface is re- 

 markable for robustness and rapid 

 growth. There is also some other influ- 

 ence at work with these plants in a hot- 

 bed more than just heat and moisture 

 and that must be the effect of ammonia 

 on the foliage. In fact, so rampant is 

 the growth of some plants that it is a 

 mistaKO to put them in a hotbed. The 

 petunia is one that makes altogether too 

 much growth. 



Since the erection of acres of perma- 

 nent glass structures in the north for the 

 exclusive use of growing lettuce, cucum- 

 bers, etc, in winter and spring, and the 

 shipping of early vegetables from the 

 sunny south, this primitive greenhouse, 

 the hotbed, is not so much seen with 

 our market gardeners, but that interfer- 

 ence does not occur with our tender bed- 

 ding plants and I claim that a green- 

 house man who grows a general stock 

 can add largely to his income by having 

 a number of good substantial cold 

 frames and from April 1 to June a good 

 lot of hotbeds. Not only do they con- 

 siderably add to your growing capacity, 

 but some plants do so very much better 

 in them. 



Uses for the Hotbed. 



Zonal geraniums, which should now or 

 shortly be shifted in to the 4-inch pots. 



Cyclamen, Freesias and Lorraines at Bayard Thayer's, So. Lancaster, Mass. 



(William ^DderBon, Gardener.) 



would for this purpose use tan bark or 

 ashes or saw-dust. Either will do, but 

 the compost you are going to get from 

 these spent hotbeds would not be as good 

 as if you used loam. These beds may 

 heat very strongly for the first four or 

 five days, but in a week you can put 



we do not put into the hotbeds because 

 they would grow too much to leaf and 

 too little to flower. In early April you 

 can put into the hotbed all other gera- 

 niums, the sweet scented varieties, also 

 the variegated and bronze and the use- 

 ful little Mme. Salleroi, ageratum, lemon 



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