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JULI 13, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



399 



CUT-WORMS. 



Enclosed herewith find a sample of 

 a worm that is infesting our carnation 

 benches, eating the heart right out of 

 the blossoms. Will you please tell us 

 what is to be done to get rid of them. 



L. E. C. 



The worm you complain of is a va- 

 riety of cut-worm which is quite com- 

 mon in the carnation houses. They are 

 seldom present in large numbers, so to 

 pick them by hand is the best way to 

 get rid of them. Their feeding time is 

 at night, or early in the morning, be- 

 fore daybreak. Take a good, strong 

 light and go through the houses and 

 you will have little trouble in catching 

 them. They move slowly, compara- 

 tively. If they are present in great 

 numbers you can fight them better with 

 poison. A tablespoonful of Paris green 

 to three gallons of water sprayed on in 

 the evening will be found effective. 

 You will find, however, that water does 

 not readily adhere to the smooth sur- 

 face on carnation growth, so you may 

 have to repeat the application several 

 times before you succeed in getting a 

 fair quantity to stick. During the day 

 these worms bury themselves in the soil 

 and it is difficult to find them. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



THRIPS AND GREEN-FLY. 



We are sending some carnation foli- 

 age and would like to know what is the 

 cause of the trouble you will see and 

 how to combat the disease. F. B. C. 



The trouble you complain of is not a 

 disease primarily. The yellow, dead 

 spots in the leaves are dead plant tis- 

 sue caused by the punctures of greenfly 

 and thrips. If you will pull apart some 

 of the tops you will find away in the 

 heart of them both of these insects. 

 Nicotine in any form will drive them out 

 and you must go for them vigorously, 

 80 your field plants will be clean and 

 started into a new, clean" growth before 

 housing time. 



If they are growing inside I would ad- 

 vise you to spray them with nicotine ex- 

 tract, as I think that is the most effec- 

 tive. Strong, fresh tobacco dust is all 

 right for the field. Dust it on in the 

 evening and the dew will moisten it and 

 it will stick to the foliage longer. Spray- 

 ing can be practiced in the field, too, 

 with success. A. F. J. Baur. 



PLANTS IN THE FIELD. 



There are various reports as to the 

 condition of carnation plants in the field. 

 Housing is beginning in many sections 

 and will be in rapid progress within the 

 next week or two, although many grow- 

 ers find that their plants are not in as 

 good shape as might be for early benching. 

 The eastern growers have not had as much 

 rain as they would like at many points, 

 but they have, as a rule, fared better 



than the western growers, who have in 

 most instances had more rain than was 

 good for the stock. At many places in 

 Michigan, and also in Iowa and Kansas, 

 floods have worked havoc in the carnation 

 fields and growers who had counted on a 

 surplus of good stock to market will, in 

 some instances, find themselves compelled 

 to buy to fill their benches. 



There are probably more plants grown 

 for the trade in the. vicinity of Chicago 

 than at any other point in the country. 

 Chicago has had more rain than normal, a 

 shortage at the first of June having been 

 turned to a half-inch excess by July 10. 

 Those growers who have their stock on 

 high land as a rule have very good plants. 

 Those who are on low land have lost some 

 stock, but not nearly so large a propor- 

 tion as is reported from the Michigan 

 district. It looks as though there would 

 be good business in the line of field 

 grown carnation plants this fall. 



A BIG MIXTURE. 



I would like to know if I could grow 

 the following mixture of plants in one 



house, also what temperature should I 

 run it from fall until spring? Carna- 

 tions, red, white and pink Lawson and 

 Enchantress, Easter lilies, calla lilies, 

 sweet peas, geraniums and spiraea. My 

 house is new, has never been used. I 

 expect to put in fourteen runs of IMi- 

 inch pipe on the side walls and two 

 11/^ -inch pipes under the middle bench. 

 Do you approve the arrangement? 



E. A. M. 



You have named two carnations it 

 would be most undesirable to grow in 

 the same house, as Lawson does best 

 at 55 degrees at night, while Enchan- 

 tress thrives at 46 to 48 degrees. Keep 

 your house about 50 degrees at night 

 and you will get along fairly well with 

 all the other plants you mention. The 

 trouble is while the Lilium longiflorum 

 will grow nicely in a night tempera- 

 ture of 50 degrees, to bring them in 

 by the alMmportant Easter time they 

 may want 10 or 15 degrees higher for 

 several weeks. You must not expect 

 great success, with all your plants at 

 one temperature, but it will be better 

 to let them come along the best they 

 will at a 3teady night temperature of 

 50 degrees than be jumping up the heat 

 to suit any one crop of plants. 



I do not like your l^^-inch pipes. 

 You should not use less than 2-inch 

 and distribute them as much as pos- 

 sible. The farther apart the heating 

 pipes the better the radiation. 



W. S. 



'**''*'***»»'~>"«^ -^■^.-r" """' 



SUPPORTS. 



As the plants grow the question of sup- 

 ports becomes one of importance and 

 should be taken up as soon as possible. 

 There are several ways of supporting the 

 plants, but in my experience the best one 

 is to use wire stakes and steady these by 

 wires running parallel with each row of 

 plants and sufficiently high to catch the 

 stake some two feet from the ground. 

 When the wires are drawn tight, as they 

 should be, and the stakes are tied to the 

 wire, the whole forms a rigid support for 

 the plants and permits heavy syringing 

 of the latter without breaking things to 

 pieces. If one does not have enough wire 

 stakes, bamboo canes are good and cheap 

 and fill the bill almost as well. 



Not a few growers t\ya. a wire fot each 

 row close to the ground and another one 

 high up in the roof and then use a cheap, 

 heavy twine between the wires for a sup- 

 port. This I do not like because it is 

 impossible to get the strings tight enough 

 and the stems cannot be kept so straight 

 as when they are tied to a rigid stake. 



Another way is to run several wires for 

 each row at intervals of a foot or so in 

 height, one above the other, and tie the 

 plants to each wire as they grow upwards. 

 This may have some merit as a time 

 saver, but I would rather have the wire 

 stake. Then each individual plant can be 

 tied just where it happens to need it. 



Get your plants tied up as soon as you 



can and do not let them lay around to get 

 crooked in the stem and otherwise neg- 

 lected. 



Sun Scald. 



Sun scald is likely to occur after a spell 

 of dull, cloudy weather, during which the 

 j)lants make a very soft, sappy growth. 

 Then, when the hot sun strikes the house, 

 the leaves wilt right down and the tips 

 of the plants get injured. The proper 

 thing to do is to keep the plants from 

 wilting, if possible, by using more water, 

 spraying the house more frequently and 

 thus keeping the atmosphere charged with 

 moisture. If the plants are wilting too 

 much a thin coat of whiting can be 

 sprayed over the glass with a syringe and 

 tliis will prevent any injury by the sun 

 and will be washed off again by the first 

 shower. 



It often happens that leaves will be 

 burned in a line right across a house and 

 this it will be. found is caused by a bad 

 spot in the glass, which should be painted 

 out with white lead on the inside of the 

 house. Then trouble will not be ex- 

 perienced again from it. 



Varieties having thick, fleshy foliage 

 are occasionally burned on the old leaves 

 by the sun, but as it only catches odd 

 leaves it does not do much damage and is 

 generally put down as disease. 



Pot Plants. 



Single stem plants that are intended 

 for 6-inch pots should be potted into 



