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June 22. 1005. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



245 



Peony Mont Blanc, Shown by the G>tta2e Gardens. 



(Alba Sulphurea or SoUaterre in some collections.) 



that. We have refreshed the foliage, it 

 is true, but we have only wet the soil 

 enough to run the particles together and 

 the next day's sun puts it into the shape 

 of a dry paste, or crust, and prevents 

 evaporation, and without moisture es- 

 caping from the surface none will rise 

 from below. So this little dribble only 

 cements the surface and is a real detri- 

 ment to the plants you intended to 

 benefit. When the foliage of a flower 

 bed covers and shades the ground less 

 water is needed and less harm would be 

 done by one of these superficial water- 

 ings. 



The way to do it is to give a thorough 

 watering, one that will go down five or 

 six inches, and then, when the soil is 

 friable, which even a clay is if taken at 

 the right time, between the wet and the 

 •^Tj give a good hoeing. 



Asters. 



Asters suffer very much in a dry time. 

 Especially if the ground has been 

 plowed shallow they should be watered 

 copiously at least once a week and as 

 late as you can get between them. When 

 so large and branched that the ground is 

 covered, a good soaking without the hoe- 

 ing won't hurt, but their success is as- 

 sured by that time. 



Sweet Peas. 



Sweet peas delight us for the first two 

 weeks of their flowering and would con- 

 tinue to do so if kept watered, but if 

 the ground is tramped down, as it soon 

 becomes with the daily picking, and little 

 rain falls, they soon play out. 



It is worth mentioning here, inciden- 

 tally, that often the cause of our sweet 

 peas giving us few if any blooms, after a 

 snort period of flowering, is because we 

 uo not pick them clean. What flowers 

 you leave go quickly to seed, the plant 

 nas performed its principal function, and 

 tnat IS the end of growth. Keep every 

 V''"^'" picked off. If you can not sell 

 inem throw them away, and, when pick- 



Now here, with sweet peas, is where 

 mulching comes in with much benefit. 

 Hoe the ground deeply between the rows 

 and on all sides of them and then cover 

 the whole eurface with at least two 

 inches of mulch. There is nothing finer 

 for a mulch than decayed refuse hops, 

 but John D. Rockefeller, John Westcott 

 and those who vote the prohibition tickef 

 might have scruples about using this ma- 

 terial from its associations with a cer- 

 tain unspeakable industry. Long stable 

 litter does finely. 



Mulching Roses. 



Rose and carnation growers mulch, 

 particularly in fall and winter, not to 

 keep their beds moist but for a fertilizer 

 or stimulant. We mulch outdoors in 

 summer to keep the soil moist and to be 

 able to water without baking or crusting 

 over the surface. Mulching is of the 

 greatest benefit to all plants in summer 

 but neither convenient nor necessary with 

 all. Nowhere is it of more benefit than 

 with our summer roses. Not only with 

 the tea and hybrid tea and Bourbon 

 classes, but with the strong growing 

 hybrid perpetual roses is mulching a 

 necessity, for you cannot get the best re- 

 sults without copious waterings, and then 

 you must either hoe or mulch, and mulch- 

 ing will save labor. Some dozen or more 

 beds of H. P. roses under my care, which 

 I shall always think of with a slight tem- 

 porary enlargement of the cranium, were 

 kept clean, vigorous and a mass of bloom 

 for two months by three inches of a rich 

 mulch and copious applications of Lake 

 Erie. "How do ye keep the bugs off!" 

 was asked a thousand times. "With 

 cold water at thirty-five pounds pressure, 

 madam," was the short but truthful an- 

 swer. And who would expect a fine bed 

 of Maman Cochet, or Carnot, or other 

 summer tea roses, without a mulch and 

 frequent watering? 



Gladioli* 



These splendid flowers are lovers of 

 water and growers of ten or thirty acres 

 have ample hose facility to flood them 

 and later run the cultivators through 

 them. If not possible to water yours, 

 then cultivate or hoe frequently. 



Don't Water. 

 While I have tried to mention a few 

 of the important florists' flowers that 

 must be watered in dry weather, and all 

 experienced gardeners know all this, there 

 is with the average owner of some flower 

 beds, and especially with the person 



Peony M. Jules Elie, Shown by the G>tta£c Gardens. 



