1066 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



'...'■''>*'■.•• ■.* ■\%'i''!>: rJ'T^'y' 



Mauch 30, 1906. 



can tell but little about a disease or in- 

 jury on a lot of wilted or dried up 

 foliage. A. F. J. Baur. 



EVERBLOOMING LORRAINE. 



It does not appear to be very com- 

 monly known, says a writer in the Gar- 

 deners' Magazine, that by cutting away 

 the exhausted flower trusses and very 

 lightly cutting back the growths of Be- 

 gonia Gloire de Lorraine, that plants 

 may be caused to freely break into fresh 



growth, and again blossom as freely as 

 in the first place. By treating batches 

 o'f plants in this manner in succession, 

 a lengthy and splendid show can be 

 easily maintained, even up to midsum- 

 mer. Careful watering, a cool stove 

 temperature, and shade from bright sun- 

 shine, are all the cultural requirements. 

 We find plants either grown in pots, or 

 baskets, when suspended in a warm 

 house afford a gorgeous display well into 

 the summer. 



MISCELUNEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Bulbous Stock for Easter. 



Several correspondents mention in their 

 notes of last week that bulbous stuff is 

 likely to be scarce at Easter on account 

 of Easter arriving so late. I should 

 think you would have to cross the Eock- 

 ies or go far south for this to occur. 

 If you have kept your tulips, hyacinths, 

 and narcissi out of doors, covered with 

 a few inches of soil and the same of 

 straw manure, there has been such a 

 covering of snow that little if any frost 

 has touched the soil in the flats and 

 every day now they will be reaching up 

 to daylight. The greatest trouble now 

 is to keep the stems from becoming long 

 and crooked. When tulips begin to hang 

 over the flats and stems are weak and 

 twisted, they are no longer very salable. 

 Another thing to consider is that if 

 they are left out much longer they will 

 be through the covering of litter and 

 their leaves will quickly expand and 

 then it is a terrible job to get the flats 

 cleaned of the covering. 



These bulbous flowers are not such a 

 very important flower at Easter, but 

 you may as well have them right, after 

 all the labor and expense. We feel sure 

 that two weeks on the greenhouse bench 

 will be all the time necessary to give 

 the single ^ulips, Dutch hyacinths. Von 

 Sion narcissi or any of the Trumpet nar- 

 cissi. If making too much growth out- 

 side, then put up a cold frame not less 

 than two feet deep, raise the sash bar 

 back and fron1», so that a draught of air 

 will pass over them, and heavily shade 

 the sash. If the flats are cleaned and 

 placed in such a frame it will retard 

 them more than if left in the beds and 

 if the weather should be bright and 

 mild they will want no greenhouse at 

 all. 



Making Up Pans. 



If you neglected (I was going to say 

 forgot) to put the bulbs in pans last 

 fall you can still h^ve hyacinths and 

 tulips in most acceptable shape in any 

 sized pan you chootfie and it is no im- 

 position on your cu8;toBaBr^. I have seen 

 tulips pulled out of ' flafe this winter, 

 very ruthlessly made-up into pots and 

 pans and delivered right away. They 

 last in bloom jusrt about as long as 

 those grown in the pans. Yet don't do 

 it carelessly. Get ail the roots you can. 

 Never mind if all the soil shakes off and 

 always do this transplanting when the 

 soil in the flats is wet. Hyacinths we 

 transplant just as they are showing col- 



or, tulips and narcissi a little later, 

 about when they are full grown, but 

 the petals not expanded. This plan 

 is very workable with Dutch hyacinths 

 and with narcissi and tulips if they have 

 straight, stout stems, but if your Yel- 

 low Prince or Cottage Maid have as- 

 sumed the graceful form of a swan's 

 neck, don't attempt it, for it cannot be 

 done. 



This is also the very best plan to make 

 up a pan or pot of lily of the valley. 

 Let the bells be nearly all open. As 

 they make no root in the sand that you 

 forced them in, they do not suffer in 

 the least from a change to the pan and 

 you can select stems of equal growth. 

 Fill the pan as thickly as you like. 



Speaking of pans and pots, the ordi- 

 nary pan is rather shallow for some of 

 these things, valley for instance, and the 

 ordinary pot is deep for its width and 

 rather unsightly for the purpose for 

 which these arrangements are often 

 used, table decorations perhaps, so we 

 use what may be called the half pot, 

 but which we know as the azalea pot. 

 Wliere you put four or five longiflorum 

 lilies into a 10 or 12-inch azalea pot it 

 is just the thing, while the ordinary pot 

 would look unwieldy. 



Lilies for Easter. 



Now that I have mentioned this im- 

 portant plant we may as well finish all 

 that can be said about it for Easter. 

 If when you read these lines some of 

 the largest buds are turning white, you 

 are all right. When once the buds are 

 white they will open in a cool, shady 

 house and flowers that are open will last 

 ten days in a cool, dark shed. The 

 darkness is of importance. Plants that 

 are later, say with buds from two to 

 three inches long, will come along very 

 fast now and be there in time if you 

 give them 60 to 65 degrees at nifeht. 



The ifirjt year we grew the black- 

 stemine4 "giganteum many came t very 

 dwarf, /4n>'they are again this yeai> but 

 thev were vioi a failure. You caiijitake 

 a Dig sharp jtnife (yo^r wife 's carving 

 knift suits be^t) and slice down thje ball 

 of a plant grown in a 6-inch pot until 

 it is only wur inches square and then 

 you can squeeze three of these plants 

 into an 8-inch azalea pot,' or five plants 

 into a 12-inch, and so on. The plants 

 will open evety bud and be in appear- 

 ance equal to one undisturbed. »- They 

 have lost roots, lotg of them, but the 

 fresh cut roots take up enough mois- 



ture to keep them going until the flow- 

 ers are faded. This you can do with 

 any of these lilies, tall or dwarf, but 

 with the very short ones it helps out 

 wonderfully and we realize almost as 

 much as if sold singly. "What beauti- 

 ful lilies! A new variety, I suppose," 

 exclaimed many ladies. "Yes ma'am, 

 quite new." This Easter we should not 

 hesitate to tell our patrons that these 

 beautiful little , lilies are the ' * Kuro- 

 kiensis ' ' variety ! 



Sweet Peas. 



Don't forget that the favorite sweet 

 peas should be sown just as soon as 

 you can work the ground. Two years 

 aiTo we sowed in the open ground on 

 March» 9. That was very early for these 

 parts. If you prepared the trenches last 

 fall and dug in a liberal allowance of 

 manure, you have a great advantage 

 now, for you have only to draw a drill 

 three inches deep with the hoe, and in 

 goes the seed. If that were not done 

 then too, heavily manure and plow the 

 whole patch where the peas are going. 

 This must be done directly the land can 

 be worked. Let the rows be four feet 

 apart and sow thinly. Go up and down 

 the row with the hoe, making a broad, 

 deep trench. You need riot fill in all 

 the soil at once. When you hoe after 

 the peas are up a few inches you can 

 pull in the remainder of the soil. If 

 possible let the rows run north and south 

 arid when the peas are four or five inches 

 high put brush both sides of' the rows. 

 Don't wait until the vine is sprawling 

 on the ground. Brush from the woods 

 may be difficult to procure on the fat 

 prairies of Illinois or the spruce cov- 

 ered rocks of Colorado, but I cannot 

 think of anything equal for supporting 

 peas. 



Pansies. 



This has been a most favorable win- 

 ter for those universal favorites, the 

 pansies. Many of the beds in the Buf- 

 falo parks were filled with pansies last 

 October and with a light covering of 

 straw the plants are now large and 

 thrifty and soon will be showing their 

 saucy faces to the public. Usually, if 

 not hurt by the winter blasts, the plants 

 are heaved up, and sometimes there is 

 an inch or two of wiry stem. As soon 

 as the ground is at all dry go over all 

 the plants in your beds and with two 

 fingers and one thumb press the little 

 plants firmly into the ground. It will 

 be the making of them. 



Pruning Shrubs. 



About now the florist who does a 

 general business and wishes to accom- 

 modate his good customers in all their 

 reasonable demands is called upon to 

 prune shrubs. They are often victims 

 of men who go around asking for the 

 job, "professors" with a pair of gloves, 

 a knife and saw, who know as much 

 about it as they do of the flora of Nep- 

 tune. Anybody can cut two feet off 

 the shoot of last year's growth, but 

 that is not pruning. Anywhere towards 

 spring, or before the leaf or flower buds 

 start, is the time and in our latitude 

 now or for the next few weeks is the 

 ideal time. 



While on this subject let me say that 

 deciduous trees can seldom be improved 

 with pruning and do not need it. Their 

 natural form is their beauty and, unless 

 imperative, leave pruning of these until 

 they have made their growth. If grow- 



