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70 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



June 1, 1005. 



heat su£5cient to warm the house will 

 be let out from beneath the benches. 



Shadiag. 



Shading in the spring months is very 

 important. The ideal plan would be 

 some method of applying it on the ex- 

 terior of the roof, lattice work or some 

 textile material that could be readily 

 adjusted in bright days and rolled up 

 on dull days. A very good shade is to 

 take two or four stout wires, according 

 to width of house, running the length of 

 the house and high enough to be above 

 a man's head. Then take two small, 

 strong rods with cheese-cloth tacked to 

 them, any desired width and not long. 

 These resting on the overhead wires 

 could be rolled up quickly or even rough- 

 ly shoved up together. You may think 

 of several methods of adjusting this 

 cheese-cloth overhead. We have simply 

 tacked it to the roof and it is much bet- 

 ter than any whitewash of any kind, but 

 it should be adjustable. Some get along 

 by shading the glass with naphtha and 

 lead. This is all right for a week or 

 so, but when the cuttings begin to callus 

 no such shade is needed. Newspapers 



furnish the crudest of all methods of 

 shading. 



Uses. 



While a house especially adapted to 

 propagating is a great convenience, and 

 for those raising large quantities of 

 roses and carnations a necessity, there 

 are a great lot of popular bedding 

 plants that root readily without the aid 

 of any special house or bottom heat. 

 Geraniums, for instance, at no time of 

 the year need anything but an ordinary 

 bench, and all our soft-wooded plants, 

 such as coleus, achyranthes, salvias, 

 agcratums and dozens more may not 

 root quite so quickly, yet they root as 

 well in two or three inches of sand with- 

 out any bottom heat. However, a cool 

 atmosphere with 10 or 15 degrees warm- 

 er in the sand, are the conditions best 

 suited to root the great majority of 

 soft-wooded plants. 



Such a bench as I have described 

 would be well suited for the erection of 

 a frame and sash for grafted roses, 

 where some bottom heat is absolutely 

 necessary. 



William Scott. 



Spray the Asters. 



Early asters that have started to make 

 a good growth should now be sprayed 

 with Paris green, a teaspoonful in a pail 

 of water; that is, if you have been both- 

 ered with the little striped beetle that is 

 so injurious to the buds. 



Begonia. Gloire de Lorraiae. 



Leaf cuttings that were rooted in 

 November and December and have been 

 kept rather dry should now get a slight 

 shift and more water. They will soon 

 start into growth. Plants that were left 

 over at Christmas and later lost their 

 tops should now be shaken out and 

 started in fresh soil and clean pots and 

 will be soon giving you nice young 

 growths for cuttings. They root readily 

 now and do not want bottom heat but 

 must be shaded from bright sun and not 

 subjected to draughts. For the shifting 

 of the early rooted plants that will now 

 take a 3-inch or 3 ^^^ -inch pot, use a good 

 turfy loam finely broken up, one part 

 sharp sand and a sixth or seventh of well 

 roftcd cow manure. It should be so de- 

 composed that it will run through a half- 

 inch sieve. 



The fall struck plants now started are 

 those that will make you the large plants, 

 as they will grow very fast from now on 

 until flowering time. As they grow rapid- 

 ly they must be occasionally pinched. 

 The summer rooted plants make useful 

 little plants for pans and baskets. If 

 possible, a portable shading should be 

 used, for, while they do not like the un- 

 shaded sun pouring through the glass on 

 them, ""iieither the Lorraine or any be- 

 gonia except the Bex section likes a 

 shade on all occasions. 



Chrysanthemums. 

 Mr. Totty will excuse my reminding 

 you that if in the fall you have a demand 



for well flowered small plants of these 

 in pots you should reserve a light bench 

 with five inches of soil and plant out 

 some thrifty young plants that have just 

 received their first stopping, or will soon 

 need it, and get them on the bench by 

 June 10. They should be fifteen inches 

 apart and will need perhaps two pinch- 

 ings during the summer. By August 15 

 you have a bushy little plant and they 

 then should be lifted. You do not lose 

 a fibre and, given a little shade for a 

 few days, they go on growing and do not 

 lose a leaf. 



Those who have a deep, mucky soil 

 may succeed very well with them planted 

 outdoors, but our soil docs not admit 

 of it. Growing them all summer in pots 

 calls for a great deal of labor and there 

 is great risk of their suffering for water 

 and losing some foliage. These bench- 

 grown plants about double in size after 

 lifting. Only short-jointed, low-growing 

 varieties should be planted for this pur- 

 pose. 



Ferns on Benches. 



Time was when we reckoned to have 

 a good deal of bench room to spare be- 

 tween spring and fall. Nothing is un- 

 occupied now. It don't pay. When we 

 have a bench emptied of cannas and 

 geraniums we can fill it with small plants 

 of some of the nephrolepises. The best 

 plants of these are doubtless grown in 

 pots, but young plants put out now will 

 wonderfully increase in size by October 

 and give you lots of runners for future 

 stock. If you plant them fifteen inches 

 between rows across the bed and seven 

 or eight inches between plants you can 

 lift every other plant in October and let 

 the remainder stop to grow until the fol- 

 lowing New Year's, when you may want 

 the bench for lilies. These ferns are 

 now used 80 largely anywhere and every- 



where that there is yet no sign of their 

 being a drug. 



Some still stick to the Boston variety, 

 but Scottii is undoubtedly a magnificent 

 plant and it has one distinct advantage; 

 It can be grown a specimen in a 4-in{h 

 or 5-inch pot. We thought N. Piersoiii 

 a beautiful plant, and so it is, but 

 Elegantissima is far more graceful. We 

 have sold a plant of Elegantissima for a 

 bigger price than we ever sold any other 

 plant in the same size pot. Plant sonie 

 of all of them. 



Save Some Stock Plants. 



Don't forget, when you are selling olT 

 your bedding plants, to save a few plants 

 of each of those things that do not lilt 

 well in the fall or of which the cuttings 

 will not root from outside, so a few 

 plants must be plunged outside during 

 summer and brought in before frost. 

 Lemon verbena, lantana and heliotrope 

 are three of them. Do this when you 

 are plunging out your azaleas. 



Plant out plenty of that most useful 

 plant, the Stevia serrata. If you ^re a 

 retailer it is indispensable and may give 

 you a bother to get. Little plants in 2- 

 inch pots are plenty big enough, for it is 

 a most rampant grower and it does not 

 want too rich a soil. Plant two feet in 

 the rows and eighteen inches between the 

 plants. It will need at least three pinch- 

 ings during summer. By lifting the first 

 of October and standing outdoors, where 

 it could be protected from slight frost, it 

 only occupies the greenhouse two months 

 and is always in for Christmas. 



Bouvardias can now be planted out in 

 some rich, light loam. If sandy, it is 

 none the worse so long as it is rich. 

 Plant one foot each way. Remember it 

 is not any part of the weak, spindling 

 growth that was made inside that will 

 make the plant, but strong shoots which 

 will start from the root in a few weeks 

 after being in the ground. 



Ardisias. 



It is rather late now, but not too late, 

 to sow seeds of that handsome and neat- 

 est of all berried plants, Ardisia crenul- 

 ata. If sown at once and kept plunged 

 and growing on a light bench they will 

 make nice little plants by next spring ami 

 bo covered with their bright red berries 

 the following Christmas. They are by 

 no means a cheap plant, for they take 

 some time to make nice specimens, but 

 there is nothing so pretty in berrie<l 

 plants, either as a single plant or in ar- 

 rangements of baskets, etc. About 50 t<i 

 55 degrees suits it well in winter time. 

 The white-berried species you can dis- 

 pense with. It is crenulata you want. 

 Sow seeds every spring and you will have 

 shapely, dwarf plants every winter, but 

 not the following Christmas. 



Don't Neglect Heaters. 



Take care of your heaters and boilers. 

 When the hot water heaters are let out 

 for summer they are too often sadly 

 neglected. There are- many exception;; 

 we hope, but too often the heater beinj," 

 out of sight, it is out of mind and i' 

 is left for months just as you let out the 

 last fire. Ashes are left beneath the 

 grate bars and cinders and half burnt 

 coal or coke in the firebox, and the stove- 

 pipe connecting with the chimney is left 

 up to receive the dampness from the 

 chimney. Now this is all good for the 

 boilermaker and tinsmith, but all wrong 

 for your pocket and annoyance. 



Take down the stovepipe and oil it 



M?r< 



