Afbil 18, 19a5. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



J229 



Bed of Gmna Souvenir de Antoine Gx)zy Edged with Pennisetum Longistylum. 



Many growers of carnations are also 

 growers of geraniums and such stock and 

 this is the time of year when these 

 growers begrudge the young carnation 

 stock every foot of space it takes up. 

 It is a great mistake, of course, but 

 nevertheless one that is made frequently, 

 to the grower's sorrow later. If you 

 have some hotbed sash you can remedy 

 this evil by putting all your young car- 

 nations that are well established in pots 

 out in cold frames. It will not likely 

 freeze hard enough after this date to 

 injure young carnations that have glass 

 or board protection. They will, in fact, 

 be much benefited by being out there, 

 as it ripens the growth somewhat and 

 they will take hold quicker when planted 

 out, and without wilting any. You must 

 take just as good care of them, though, 

 as you would inside. In fact, they will 

 need more attention and work, as you 

 will have to raise all the sash on bright 

 days, or, better still, take them oflf alto- 

 gether and put them back on in the 

 evening if the temperature is likely to 

 go below 40 degrees. Don't shut them 

 down tight, except to keep the frost 

 out. They will take more watering, -too, 

 as they will dry out more rapidly than 

 they do inside. By all means run your 

 water pipes out to the frames, so you 

 can water with the hose. If you plunge 

 the pots to the rim in sand it will help 

 them to hold moisture. 



A. F. J. Bauk. 



APHIDES AND ANTS. 



I am sending a piece of a carnation 

 plant to show the insects on it. Please 

 tell me what to do to get rid of them. 

 We never had any trouble with them 

 until about two weeks ago. Our carna- 

 tions also show the effect of little red 

 ants that get inside the calyxes and 



damage the petals, 

 to themf 



What shall we do 

 P. M. 



The samples you sent were pretty well 

 dried up by the time they reached me 

 and the insects were all dead and pressed 

 flat. I could see, however, that they are 

 no other than aphides and you should 

 experience no difficulty in ridding your 

 place of them. Buy a pint (or a gallon 

 if you care to keep it on hand for con- 

 stant use) of any good extract of nico- 

 tine and spray as per directions on the 

 can every other morning for ten days 

 and you will find no live aphides by that 

 time, even if they are entrenched be- 

 tween the young foliage. After that 

 spray all your plants once a week and 

 you will always have your plants clean. 

 While we are talking insects and spray- 

 ing let me say a word about one of our 

 worst enemies, which is thrips. This is 

 the time of year when they are usually 

 the worst and if allowed to go unchecked 

 they play havoc with your crop of blooms 

 in a hurry. Some varieties are troubled 

 more by them than others, Mrs. Lawson 

 being one of the worst. You will notice 

 their presence by those white spots around 

 the edges of the petals up to now, but 

 as the sun gets stronger these spots turn 

 brown and make the blooms look rusty 

 and bruised. We used to have much 

 trouble with these, but this year we are 

 spraying once each week with the To- 

 bak-ine liquid, and we have not been 

 troubled with thrips at all so far. I 

 am satisfied that this will keep them 

 down when applied regularly. It cer- 

 tainly has kept our plants cleaner this 

 season than we have ever been able to 

 keep them by fumigating. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



Geneseo, III. — Leroy HJU & Bro. are 

 starting in the greenhouse business here. 



PENNISETUM FOR EDGING. 



For the edging of beds of many mod- 

 erately tall growing plants there is 

 no better material than the pennisetum. 

 The name comes from penna, a feather, 

 and seta, a bristle, and is aptly descrip- 

 tive, for at a distance the effect is 

 feather-like, while the spike is composed 

 of bearded bristles. P. longistylum of 

 gardeners is P. villosum, Brown, of bot- 

 any. It is, perhaps the finest grass com- 

 monly grown for its flowers. At Lin- 

 coln park, Chicago, last season the P. 

 longistylum and P. Ruppellii, Steud., 

 Rupelianum in some books, were used to 

 very good effect as edging for beds of 

 cannas. The results would have been 

 even better had it been a season of nor- 

 mal growth for the cannas. It would 

 have carried the flowers a little further 

 above the grass. Egandale in particular 

 failed to reach its usual height by quite 

 a little. 



The plants of pennisetum may be ob- 

 tained from seed each year but early 

 sowing is necessary in order to get a 

 showing before the season is over. The 

 old plants may be taken up and wintered 

 anywhere that frost is not admitted. In 

 the spring divide into pieces for a 3-inch 

 pot, set in flats of soil in a greenhouse 

 to start growth, then pot, later move to 

 a cold frame and you have less need for 

 care and an earlier showering. 



GERANIUM DISEASE. 



I send a geranium. If you can tell me 

 what is the matter with it, and the rem- 

 edy, I will be much obliged. In a lot of 

 500 or 600 about 100 have gone to the 

 bad in this manner. I had a few last 

 year that crinkled up like the one I send 

 you and I kept them and set them out 

 but they produced no blooms but kept on 

 growing. This peculiar growth of dis- 

 ease appears all over the bed. It does 



