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604 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



AooDST 10, 1908. 



be well managed in a cold-frame. The 

 sash can be raised back and front so 

 that there is a constant current of fresh 

 air and there is the great advantage of 

 being able to shade from the mid-day 

 sun with lattice or cheese-cloth shading 

 and clear light the rest of the daylight 

 hours. "William Scott. 



JOHN VESTCOTT. 



John Westcott, president of the Phila- 

 delphia Florists' Club, is one of the 

 most popular men in our profession. He 

 has been a successful business man for 

 the past thirty years, first as a member 



of the firm of Pennock Bros., later as a 

 member of the firm of John & W. H. 

 Westcott. Mr. Westcott 's genial disposi- 

 tion and unfailing interest in all his fel- 

 low florists have won for him hosts of 

 friends, invitations to his fishing parties 

 at Waretown being highly prized. Mr. 

 Westcott has done excellent work for the 

 Philadelphia Florists' Club and to his 

 efforts are in a measure due the good 

 size delegations that Philadelphia sends, 

 even to distant convention cities. Mr. 

 Westcott will head the Philadelphia dele- 

 gation leaving Broad street station for 

 Washington at 8:32 a. m. next Tuesday. 

 His portrait is on page 603. Phil. 



CARNATION NOTES.- WEST. 



Freshly Planted Stock. 



The first two weeks after your car- 

 nations are planted are perhaps the most 

 trying of all to your patience and skill 

 as a grower. During that time you can 

 either make or ruin at least your early 

 crop of blooms. If you are careful and 

 faithful you will get your plants started 

 in their new quarters with but a slight 

 check, and they will go right on grow- 

 ing and your early blooms wUl be of 

 good quality. On the other hand, if you 

 are careless and neglect your plants even 

 a single warm day they will suffer se- 

 verely and even if you succeed in keep- 

 ing them all alive you will be able to see 

 the effects for a long time in dead foli- 

 age and poor blooms. 



The greatest aids in helping to get the 

 plants re-established are shade and water, 

 but while they are aids they can also eas- 

 ily be made a detriment. Too much shade 

 and too much water are as bad as too 

 little, and to give just enough of each 

 and no more is where your judgment and 

 experience are called into play. During 

 the first two days the shade can hardly 

 be too heavy if the days are warm, but 

 as soon as the roots take hold and begin 

 to supply the plants with moisture the 

 plants want light and as the roots be- 

 come more and more active in the same 

 degree the plants will want more light 

 until they have the full sunlight to feed 

 upon. 



To keep the same heavy shade on the 

 glass until the roots are thoroughly active 

 is to unbalance the plants' growth. The 

 plants in the absence of light cannot 

 develop a healthy tissue and a weak, 

 soft, spindly growth is the result, which 

 wilts when exposed to the strong light. 

 So we try to remove the shade by de- 

 grees as the plants show signs of recover- 

 ing. After they have been planted about 

 one week you should remove about one- 

 third of the shade, either by washing it 

 off or with a brush. We like to have it 

 done by a rain, if possible, because 

 usually after a rain we have a few cooler 

 days, but don't wait too long for the 

 rain. In another week remove another 

 third, and as soon as the plants will 

 stand it remove all the shade, which will 

 usually be after about three weeks. 



All this time the hose is playing a 

 very important part in the operation. 

 After the first watering, which is to set- 

 tle the soil around the roots, the soil 

 will need little or no water for a week 

 or so, except what it gets when syring- 

 ing. While the roots are becoming re- 

 established and are unable to supply the 

 plants with any, or sufficient water, you 

 must use the hose and by syringing the 

 plants overhead sustain them in a fresh 

 condition, ready to draw on the roots as 

 soon as they are able to supply them. 

 But it must not be overdone. All you 

 want is to keep the plants fresh. Encour- 

 age them all you can to draw on the 

 roots; it will cause activity in the roots. 



Each time you remove some of the 

 shade you will have to syringe oftener 

 for a day or two, but discontinue it just 

 as soon as the plants will stand up with- 

 out it. For a few weeks keep the soil 

 just fairly moist, but do not let it get 

 dry and crusty on the surface. Stir it 

 often and before it gets very dry water 

 just enough to keep it damp. Give all 

 the air you can at all times. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



PLANTS FROM THE FIELD. 



In the Eeview of July 27 Mr. Baur 

 writes that carnation plants from the 

 field "should be kept covered closely to 

 keep the sun and wind from them until 

 planted." I have aDout 10,000 carna- 

 tions to plant. The field they are in is 

 a mile from the greenhouses. It takes 

 three men two hours to dig up a load of 

 plants and haul it to the greenhouses, 

 using a one-horse wagon carrying about 

 750 plants at a load. Is it necessary to 

 cover the plants when they are not out 

 of the soil longer than two or three 

 hours f If so, what should I cover them 

 witht If they are not covered will they 

 recover quickly or is the check severe 

 enough to affect next year's crop? Would 

 you advise dipping? G. F. 



I certainly would advise you to cover 

 your carnation plants while digging and 

 hauling them if they are out of the 

 soil as much as two hours. Just how 

 much the plants would suffer would, of 

 course, depend on the weather and the 

 condition of the plants. For instance, 

 if your plants have had frequent rains 

 and are just a little soft in growth, and 

 you happen to be digging them on a hot, 



bright day, two hours out in the hot sun 

 and air would give them such a check 

 that it would take them a long time to 

 get over it and you would likely lose 

 a good many altogether. If your plants 

 are well matured, and I may say, hard, 

 they would not suffer so much, but it 

 would not do them any good and it 

 would have its effect on the time it 

 would take them to start to growing. 

 You would lose more foliage, too, than 

 where there was no wilting of the plants. 



When you consider how little trouble 

 it is to cover them you can readily see 

 that if it helps the plants even the least 

 bit in this trying ordeal it will pay to 

 do it. Take some burlap and roughly 

 stitch it together to make a piece large 

 enough to cover your wagon and drop 

 down over the sides, and throw it over 

 the plants as you load in the boxes. This 

 will keep off the sun and the wind. The 

 one is as bad as the other. If you load 

 in each box as soon as it is filled with 

 plants, they need never be exposed longer 

 than twenty minutes at the most. If you 

 will keep the burlap wet it will be all the 

 better, besides being heavier and blowing 

 less with the wind. 



Just how much such exposure as you 

 describe would affect next season's crop 

 would, of course, depend on how much 

 the plants suffered. Many growers fol- 

 low the mistaken idea that it does not 

 do any damage to the crop to allow the 

 plants to suffer occasionally, as long as 

 the plants seem to recover in time. More 

 careful growers will tell you that any 

 check to the growth of a plant will have 

 more or less effect on the crop later on, 

 according to the time or severity of the 

 suffering. A plant that is healthy at the 

 start and is kept in a growing condi- 

 tion, will always produce better results 

 than a plant that either starts out as a 

 runt or meets with a severe check at 

 some later time. This transplanting of 

 the carnation plants is not natural to 

 them, nor is it of any benefit to them 

 whatever, though of course it must be 

 done to get them under cover for winter 

 blooming. The fact that they recover 

 quickly and go on growing is no argu- 

 ment. Look at those you planted in the 

 house in the spring. How much better 

 they are early in the season and how 

 much cleaner in the way of dead foliage, 

 yes, and disease, too. Of course in time 

 these transplanted ones catch up with 

 them. If they were handled carefully, 

 so that little or no wilting occurred, they 

 will overtake them before Christmas, but 

 in many cases the quality remains lower 

 until the spring crop comes, or even later. 

 Usually the greatest difference will be 

 noticed in the earlier crops, up to Janu- 

 ary. By that time, if the treatment has 

 been good, the plants will overcome the 

 effects of any ordinary check. 



As I said in the same number of the 

 Eeview, we used to practice dipping the 

 roots as they were dug, but this year we 

 are not dipping them. Our plants are 

 taking hold nicely, although I cannot 

 say that the dispensing with dipping is 

 causing it, because we have had no rain 

 to speak of for four weeks and our plants 

 are in fine shape to transplant. Anyway 

 it does not seem to make them take hold 

 less readily. If your plants are large 

 and the least bit soft on account of abun- 

 dant rains I would advise you to dip 

 them when they must remain out of the 

 ground several hours. It will prevent 

 wilting and that is the first thing to 

 look to. During this operation the first 

 sign of the plant's suffering is in wilting. 



