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The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



811 



Startins French Bulbs. 



The arrival of the Boman hyacinth 

 and Paper White narcissus bulbs re- 

 minds us that summer is drawing to a 

 close; as we get older it seems to take 

 less time for the seasons to revolve. 



We are glad of the flowers of these 

 bulbs, so box some of each at once. 

 Use boxes of a uniform size because it 

 is economy of space. We find 12x24 

 inches, and three inches deep, a con- 

 venient size and they are not back- 

 breaking to carry in and out of the 

 houses. You can put the bulbs quite 

 close. Sixty Eoman hyacinths or fifty 

 Paper Whites will go in a flat of the 

 size mentioned. Let the top of each 

 bulb be even with the surface of the soil 

 or top of the box. The soil should be 

 moderately firm beneath and around the 

 bulbs. There is no better place for the 

 flats than outdoors. We like to lay down 

 some old boards for the ends of the 

 flats to rest on, because they lift clean 

 when bringing them in to force. 



Root Action Necessary. 



Before covering the flats with three 

 inches of earth, or tan bark, or what- 

 ever material you use, give the flats a 

 most thorough watering. Now, we shall 

 get lots of warm, dry weather before 

 these bulbs are brought into the green- 

 house, and the object of putting them in 

 flats so early and covering them with 

 earth is to get a good root growth 

 without starting the bulb. They must 

 not be neglected for water. When you 

 plant a tulip or hyacinth in the ground 

 in October or November, it not only 

 receives moisture from the rains, but 

 moisture is continually rising from the 

 subsoil to the surface, which is suffi- 

 cient to nourish the roots. The bulbs 

 in the flats, with board bottoms, get 

 none of this and are dependent entire- 

 ly on rains or artificial watering and it 

 takes a heavy rain to penetrate four or 

 five inches into the ground. Besides 

 this first good watering, unless we have 

 frequent rains, the beds containing the 

 flats of bulbs should have a good soak- 

 ing once a week. 



1 have dwelt at some length on this 

 because it applies to all the bulbs that 

 we grow in flats and which must be 

 well rooted before forcing. We have 

 seen hundreds of flats of tulips brought 

 in during the winter with scarcely any 

 roots, and insufficient water was the 

 cause. As September is often a hot, dry 

 month, choose a spot for the flats that 

 is shaded by a wall or building. There 

 will be less drying out. 



Propagating; Geraniums. 



As cool weather approaches propagat- 

 ing will begin. For years we have made 

 the first week in September our time 

 for putting in our first big batch of 

 zonal geraniums. Cuttings taken from 

 a crowded flower bed are liable to be 

 long-jointed and soft. Every florist 

 should have his stock plants that have 

 been given plenty of room. These plants 

 give the best of cuttings. There is no 



need of a propagating house for these 

 early cuttings. We pot them in good 

 loam at once into 2-inch pots, or, for 

 strong growing varieties, 2% -inch pots. 

 The pots can be stood on any light 

 bench, almost touching. Pot firmly. 



Now what does this mean? It does 

 not mean that after you have held the 

 cutting in your left hand and filled 

 the little pot with the soil, that you be- 

 gin a performance of thumbing the sur- 

 face of the soil. That only makes the 

 surface firm and leaves the soil loose 

 at the bottom of the pot, where the end 

 of the cutting is. Get two or three 

 fingers down .straight in the soil so that 

 the soil is firm around the base of the 

 cutting. The watering will make the 

 rest firm enough. Give the cuttings a 

 thorough watering when first potted. 

 That will do for several days and after 

 that water only when they are quite 

 dry. You could leave this early propa- 

 gation until the end of the month if 

 you have cuttings enough for all you 

 require, but with most of us we have 

 not and by taking a good batch now the 

 old plants break and give you another 

 lot of cuttings before they are injured 

 by frost. 



The variegated and tricolor varieties 

 do better put into flats of sand, and the 

 useful little Mme. Salleroi do not touch. 

 Plants lifted just before frost will give 

 you all the cuttings you need in Janu- 

 ary. 



Transplant the Pansies. 



Pansies that were sown in July and 

 that are destined to winter outside, with 

 only a covering of straw or evergreen 

 boughs, should now be transplanted 

 from the seed bed to the winter beds. 

 They are too often sown very thickly 

 and quickly become drawn. Plant four 

 inches apart or, if space is abundant, 

 five inches, and occasionally give them 

 a good soaking in dry weather. There 

 are many fine strains of pansies, but no 

 variety will give you fine flowers with- 

 out rich soil, so the beds you transplant 

 the seedlings in should be about one- 

 third manure. Dig in a lot of it and 

 you will reap the benefit next spring. 



Crimson Rambkrs in Pots. 



Crimson Eambler and other ramblers 

 grown in pots from dormant plants last 

 Spring, if properly cared for, will have 

 made all the growth desirable and should 

 now be 8t9od outdoors to ripen the 

 growth. See that they are on a place 

 where water cannot stand around the 

 pots, for you do not want them to make 

 any more growth, and warm weather 

 and moisture will make the canes break 

 into lateral growth, which is not desir- 

 able. 



I see the Philadelphia growers depend 

 entirely on plants of this Easter favor- 

 ite that are planted out during summer 

 and lifted and potted in November. This 

 is correct for experts who have the 

 means of caring for them during that 

 crucial period between lifting and start- 

 ing into growth, but, although we must 

 admit they arc the freshest in foliage 



and largest in flower, they are, with 

 northern growers, a total failure and 

 the pot-grown plants need never be a 

 failure. 



Ripening Hydrangea Growths. 



You cannot travel with your eyes open 

 without getting a hint. I noticed that 

 the Philadelphia growers of Hydrangea 

 Otaksa, which had been plunged in 

 frames in 6-inch pots and had made- 

 four or five strong shoots, had their 

 plants lifted from the frames and stood 

 out on dry ground, which would arrest 

 their vigorous growth and ripen their 

 wood and buds. This plant will endure 

 strong frost in winter, when it comes 

 gradually, and the wood is ripe, but if 

 kept growing with us until late in the 

 fall and then subjected to three or four 

 degrees of frost, the flower buds are 

 ruined. The Philadelphians do not want 

 any frost to ripen up their hydrangeas, 

 but do it by a gradual withholding of 

 water. , 



Larvae on Mignonette* 



Just about now is the time the larvasj 

 of the yellow butterfly will infest the 

 mignonette. It is so exactly the color 

 of the plants it feeds on that you do 

 not easily discover it. A dusting of 

 hellebore on the plants will make the 

 larvse sick, or a teaspoonful of Paris 

 green in a pail of water and syringed 

 over the plants will do the trick. 



Winter Sweet Peas. 



It will soon be time to sow sweet 

 peas for those who want them in De- 

 cember and January. It makes little 

 difference whether they are grown ou a 

 raised bench in six inches of soil or on 

 a bed on the ground with a foot of soil. 

 On a raised bench with less depth of 

 soil they may be a few days earlier and 

 in a deeper soil the flowers will be 

 rather finer and the vines last longer. 

 Let there be three feet between the 

 rows, so that there is plenty of day- 

 light, and do not sow or plant too 

 thickly. 



If you have no bench or bed vacant 

 just now you can sow three or four seeds 

 in a 3-inch pot and plant in a bed a 

 month later. If you follow the latter 

 plan a small twig of some sort should 

 be given the plants in the pots for the 

 vines to climb on. 



Many attempts to produce sweet peas 

 in winter have been a failure, mostly on 

 account of the varieties planted. We 

 know of two varieties that will flower 

 in midwinter. Earliest of All, blush 

 white and rose, and the fine white, Mont 

 Blanc. Won't some specialist tell us of 

 a blue or lavender and a red that are 

 also good for forcing t Soil that is 

 moderately rich is better than much 

 manure. For a fertilizer use bone meal. 



William Scott. 



TROUBLE WITH BOSTONS. 



I send some fronds of Boston fern 

 and would like to know what is the 

 trouble with them. You will see the 

 white streaks under the leaves. They 

 have the appearance of eggs of some 

 kind but start at the pot and gradually 

 spread over the whole plant. I have a 

 heavy stock of ferns which are growing 

 very fast and look perfectly healthy ex- 

 cept for this trouble. What shall I do 

 for it? O. E. 



The fern fronds in question were 

 rather badly decayed when received, 



