'•'^■•—^ r;- --^- 



400 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



July 13, 1905. 



their flowering pots as soon as they are 

 ready. Do not under any circumstances 

 allow them to become pot-bound or dried 

 out in the small pots, as a perfect plant 

 should have all its foliage right down to 

 the pot, and this is impossible if the base 

 of the plant gets hard and woody. 



Charles H. Totty. 



THE BOSTON FERN. 



In spite of the several meritorious new 

 ferns, each offered as a successor of the. 

 Boston, that sterling old variety keeps 

 right on in the forefront of public fa- 

 vor. Each autumn there has been a cry 

 that the Boston has been overdone and 

 stock has been sold at cheap prices in 



fear of a slow market, but it has never 

 yet failed that the end of the winter 

 season, or the early summer, has found 

 good Bostons scarce, the condition which 

 prevails today. Last fall larger stocks 

 were ready than ever before, but every- 

 thing has been disposed of and there is 

 now an unsatisfied demand for good 

 stock in almost every size. 



There are large quantities of Bostons 

 planted out on iJfenches and outdoors, 

 which will be ready for potting this fall, 

 and probably once again the growers who 

 have not glass area to house all their 

 Bostons will be making sacrifice sales, 

 but they ar^'-not otherwise necessary. It 

 may be taken as assured that Bostons 

 will again be good property next spring 



VIOLET GROWING. 



BY B. T. GALLOWAY 



N 



Insects and Diseases. 



Practically the only insects that cause 

 serious damage to the violet grower are 

 the red spider and the black and green 

 aphis. Violets are also seriously dam- 

 aged at times by a nematode worm which 

 attacks the growing buds, causing blind 

 crowns. Of diseases the most destructive 

 are the spot, and the wilt or stem-rot. 



Red Spider. 



Eed spider is easily kept in check by 

 thorough syringing throughout the sea- 

 son. As the growth of the plants in- 

 creases, however, the syringing will have 

 to be done with great care; otherwise, 

 the leaves are left wet at night and dis- 

 eases, especially spot, will result. A thor- 

 ough syringing two or three times a 

 week will keep red spider in check. It 

 sometimes happens that red spider may 

 become quite abundant and injurious on 

 cuttings either on the cutting bench or 

 in the flats. "Where they can be readily 

 syringed one of the most effective means 

 of ridding the plants of the pest is to 

 use a solution of Ivory soap sprayed on. 

 Our practice is to use one ordinary five- 

 cent bar of the soap to four or five gal- 

 lons of water. The soap is shaved up 

 with a small plane, dissolved with about 

 a gallon of hot water, and then diluted 

 to the quantity mentioned. After the 

 soap solution is allowed to stand on the 

 plants for an hour or two it should be 

 syringed off. This solution destroys both 

 the old and ths young spiders, as well as 

 a considerable per cent of the eggs. 

 There is absolutely no danger in the use 

 of the solution ; in fact, we have fre- 

 quently dipped the plants directly into it. 

 This can be very easily done when hand- 

 ling the cuttings out of the bench. 

 Bunches of cuttings can be dipped in the 

 solution and then rinsed off in clear 

 water. 



Aphides. 

 For green and black aphis nothing is 

 more effective than fumigation with cya- 

 nide gas. Fumigation with tobacco is 

 more or less risky, as it is apt to bring 

 on spot or other diseases. The gas treat- 

 ment is so effective that it is now very 

 generally used by violet growers. Care 

 must be exercised in the handling of this 



gas, as it is exceedingly poisonous. The 

 cubic contents of the greenhouse must be 

 carefully worked out and th3 quantity of 

 gas required accurately determined on 

 this basis. Cyanide gas is made by com- 

 bining potassium cyanide, ninety-eight 

 per cent pure, with commercial sulphuric 

 acid. The usual practice is to use fifteen 

 one-hundredths of a gram of the pure 

 cyanide for each cubic foot of house. 

 Quite full and explicit instructions for 

 the making and use of this gas have been 

 published in the Eeview, by a number of 

 the Experiment Stations and by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington, 

 and may be received upon application. 



Bud Nematode. 



During the past seven or eight years 



the bud nematode has become very de- 

 structive in violet houses, especially in 

 the eastern portion of the United States. 

 It must be carefully watched, otherwise 

 it will greatly cut down the profits and 

 in some cases may render worthless prac- 

 tically all the plants. The worm is a 

 microscopic animal living in the tender 

 tissue of the buds. By the destruction of 

 the bud tissu3 the terminal development 

 of the offshoot is prevented and a blind 

 crown results. In the securing of stock 

 every precaution must be exercised in the 

 matter of avoiding the introduction of 

 this pest. When ones introduced there is 

 nothing to do but to eliminate it by the 

 destruction of the infested plants. By 

 carefully watching the stock and propa- 

 gating only from absolutely healthy 

 specimens the nematode worm can in 

 large measure be kept in check. 



The Spot Disease. 



One of the most serious troubles affect- 

 ing the violet is the so-called spot dis- 

 ease. Spot disease is likely to cause in- 

 jury in th3 late summer or early fall. 

 There is little danger to be feared from 

 the trouble while the plants are young. 

 After the plants become large and are 

 growing vigorously the latter part of Au- 

 gust and the first of September, spot is 

 very likely to come on, especially if the 

 leaves are allowed to remain moist over 

 night. Spot disease more than anything 

 else has brought about the growing of 

 violets under glass during tha entire sea- 

 son. By exercising care in the matter of 

 watering and not allowing the water to 

 collect on the foliage in the evening, and 

 by keeping the plants in good vigorous 

 growth but not allowing them to become 

 too soft, spot may be largely prevented. 



As already indicated, excessive fumiga- 

 tion with tobacco will under certain con- 

 ditions almost invariably result in a bad 

 case of spot. Spot is caused by a fungus, 

 the spores or reproductive bodies of which 

 are nearly always present in the green- 

 house. It is only necessary that the 

 plants be weakened in some way when 

 the spores will infect the leaves and spot 



The Lady Hume Campbell Violet. 



