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MAY 25, 1005. 



The Weekly Florists^ Revi^w^ 



Tulips in the Parterre at Lincoln Park, Chicago, May, 1905. 



plants of the newer introductions. A 

 good semi-double i\'y-leaved geranium 

 in a 5-inch pot and supported with two 

 or three slender stakes will sell on our 

 market better than S. A. Nutt. They 

 do not sell for flower gardens, but for 

 the humble cottage windows and, though 

 they may sell singly, there are many 

 tiiousands of windows to receive them. 



Fuchsias. 



In the winter I reminded you to select 

 a few plants of your earliest propagated 

 fuchsias, grow them as large as you 

 «onId and not sell them, for from such 

 plants well ripened in October you must 

 get your cuttings. Now do not sell 

 them. You have plenty of others. Keep 

 "these strong plants and in a few weeks 

 plunge them out of doors and keep them 

 "Well watered and you will have wood on 

 them that will give you strong cuttings. 

 Little, weak plants of fuchsias will never 

 give cuttings that will make the best 

 plants, 



Cannas. 



The canna is now of the first import- 

 ance. Well supplied, as you may think 

 jou are, they will all go and it is far 

 better in every way that you grow your 

 own stock. They are so easily kept dur- 

 ing winter that there" is no exciise for. be- 

 ing short of good foots in March, but you 

 cannot have them unless they are planted 

 out now. 



Like others of our popular flowers, new 

 varieties are not all improvements, but 

 it is most interesting and inexpensive to 

 try a plant or two of the novelties. We 

 often think of many a good thing we 

 have grown just because we have hap- 

 pened to see it. If we had not seen it 

 we might not have possessed it for two 

 or three years and as we cannot see all 

 the good things we must risk buying 

 some that are no improvements to ob- 

 tain a gem or two. 



Hydrangea Otaksa. 



Plants that were propagated in Febru- 

 ary and have been kept in the light 

 would have been better shifted two weeks 

 ago. If you take the good advice of Mr. 

 Peterson you will put three of these 214- 

 inch plants into a 5-inch pot or six 

 plants into a 6-inch pot and now they 

 Should be plunged out of doors in the 

 troad sun, where it is convenient to 

 water them, for they want plenty of 

 ■water from the middle to the end of 

 July. Pinch out the top of each plant 



and they will make side shoots, but two, 

 or at most three, breaks to each plant is 

 enough. They will in early September 

 need another shift of two inches; that is, 

 if in a 5-inch pot shift to a 7-inch and 

 then again plunge them in the sun. At 

 all shifts a heavy, fresh loam with a 

 fourth of rotted cow manure is what 

 they want and they should be potted firm- 

 ly. This is an important point. We 

 iiope to allude? to later treatment at a 

 more seasonable time. Hydrangeas are 

 now imported and give fine flowers, but 

 what we have seen of the imported plants 

 are not as dwarf, handsome plants as 

 the home-grown ones. 



Planting Lawn Beds. 



I want to say a little about the opera- 

 tion of planting our flower beds. As we 

 have had occasion to remark, if it is a 

 bed of geraniums or cannas with some 

 edging and it amomits to $15 or $20, we 

 would rather one of our experienced men 

 should do it for our customers, as results 

 will be better, both for immediate ap- 

 pearance and future welfare. We some- 

 times find that the planting is not the? 

 only thing to do, for the bed is still as 

 it was left last fall. The digging should 

 never be done without charge. 



With small plants like echeverias, san- 

 tolinas and alternantheras it is a simple 

 thing to squeeze' the plants into the soft 

 ground. A good sprinkling with the hose 

 will start them goiiig and a slight stir- 

 ring of the soil before it is quite dry 

 will prevent the soil from baking. This 

 method, however, is not always satisfac- 

 tory with larger plants, such as our fine 

 flowering geraniums. I am sure it is 

 time' and labor well spent to make a hole 

 of ample size, put in the plant and 

 enough soil to surround the ball and give 

 it a good firming, but do not fill up the 

 little excavation. Water each plant 

 thoroughly. You know then that the 

 ball of roots and the ground immedi- 

 ately around the ball are well saturated. 

 In a few minutes the water has soaked 

 away and then fill in with the dry earth 

 you took out with the trowel. That will 

 act as a mulch and be worth five water- 

 ings on the surface. Many flower beds 

 are foolishly rounded up and in that 

 case it is very difficult to water on the 

 surface and get it to penetrate. A soak- 

 ing would wash the loose soil onto thci 

 grass and not thoroughly wet all the 

 roots. This plan may and does take a 

 little longer, but it is work well done. 



William Scott. 



PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. 



Tuesday, May 30, is a holiday, and 

 advertisers and contributors will aid 

 greatly in the work of publishing the 

 Eeview of June 1 if they will make an 

 eftort to place "copy" in our hands on 

 Monday. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



When is it best to cease stopping 

 early chrysanthemum plants, that is to 

 say, pinch them back, and to choose the 

 three desirable shoots? E. V. 



Supposing you have a young plant 

 four or five! inches high and you will 

 plant it about the middle of June: If 

 it is growing tall, stop it now. If later, 

 and only two or three inches high at 

 planting time, let it get a good start 

 in the bed and then pinch the top out. 

 If you get three shoots you have all 

 you want and must keep any morei 

 growths rubbed off. If you should only 

 get two shoots from the stopped plant, 

 then choose the strongest growth and in 

 a few weeks pinch it again. You will 

 then get two shoots. 



Now I want E. V., who must be a 

 reader of the Review, to observe) care- 

 fully each week what C. H. Totty has to 

 say about chrysanthemums. He is an 

 explicit writer and an expert grower and 

 versed in all the lore of the queeti of 

 the autumn, as well as all the wrinkles 

 that produce a commercial flower and an 

 exhibition monster. "Read, mark, learn 

 and inwardly digest" all he says of Mis- 

 tress Mum. W. S. 



LILY OF THE VALLEY. 



Please inform me when and how to 

 thin out permanent lily of the! valley 

 beds. What distance apart should the 

 plants stand? E. V. 



The best month in which to separate 

 your valley roots would be October. The 

 leaf is about gone then and the roota 

 dormant. I should advise you to make 

 at least two grades of the roots: The 

 large pips that will flower the follow- 

 ing spring and the weaker that may not 

 flower for two years. That is, of course, 

 providing you want to increase your 

 stock to that extent. 



Plant six inches between, the rows by 

 two inches between pips. We moved 

 some last year, making new beds of some 

 of the strong roots, and they are no"W 

 flowering finely. Dig the ground deeply 



