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The Weekly Florists' Review* 



867 



Propagating. 



This month of September will be a 

 very busy time, if all is done that could 

 be done. Several things could wait a 

 few weeks, but may as well be done at 

 once, because the end of the month 

 finds us more than busy. 



Vincas. 



Put in a large lot of the variegated 

 and Harrisonii vincas. Take the long 

 growths that have spread along the 

 ground. Don't use the very tender tops, 

 for they are too soft; neither the first 

 few joints, for they are hard and woody. 

 Let there be one pair of leaves above 

 the sand and one eye beneath. Keep 

 the sand well wet and shaded from the 

 bright sun and in four weeks they will 

 be rooted. 



Never in our years of experience with 

 vases, etc., have we had enough of this 

 pretty, so-called vine. It is much pret- 

 tier than the English ivy, not so stiff 

 and yet endures neglect about as well. 



Ivy Geraniums. 



This is also a good time to put in your 

 stock of ivy geraniums. Of these there 

 are seldom too many when the end of 

 May arrives. You need not use your 

 propagating bench for these cuttings, as 

 bottom heat is not necessary. Fill some 

 of your tulip flats with two or three 

 inches of sand and make them your 

 propagating beds. It gives precisely the 

 same conditions for the next five or six 

 weeks and you can move the flats to any 

 convenient place, to a cool house, for in- 

 stance, and delay potting off until time 

 and room are at hand. 



In advising the taking of cuttings of 

 all zonal geraniums last week I said 

 that the sweet-scented, variegated, 

 bronze and tricolor varieties we pre- 

 ferred to put in the propagating bed or 

 sand, so don 't delay in getting them in, 

 and putting them in these flats is rather 

 better than the bed, for after being 

 rooted they will do another month very 

 well in a cool, light house without pot- 

 ting off. 



Lifting Bouvardias. 



Bouvardias should be lifted and re- 

 moved to the house without delay. They 

 make roots in the pots or bench quieter 

 when surroundings are*warm than when 

 chilly. These bouvardias need very care- 

 ful lifting. Their roots are very deli- 

 cate and success in lifting them will de- 

 pend on how few of these roots you lose. 

 If they have been planted in a sandy 

 loam they will lift well at any time, but 

 if in a clay loam and the weather has 

 been dry you will have to give them a 

 good soaking over night and lift the 

 next day. 



If you care only for one crop of flow- 

 ers from these bouvardias, which is al- 

 v?ays easily had for Christmas, then they 

 will do very well in G-inch pots. But if 

 you have a house that you can keep at 

 60 degrees, then five inches of soil on a 

 bench is much the best place for them, 

 for after a good crop of flowers around 



the holidays they will make a strong 

 growth and you will get flowers again 

 ^n March and on. 



In lifting these tropical plants save 

 all the roots you can and spray them five 

 or six times a day, for the first week, 

 but the need of that will depend largely 

 on the weather. If they have been 

 stopped or pinched within a week or two 

 they won't need any iffiore, but if that 

 has been neglected, then pinch the 

 strong, leading ehoots as soon as they 

 are established after lifting. 



Stevia Serrata. 



Another plant of a very different na- 

 ture which can soon be lifted and potted 

 is the sweet stevia, or Stevia serrata, the 

 only one of its tribe worth growing. 

 Many florists, perhaps, think this not 

 profitable to grow, but charge enough 

 for its spikes of feathery flowers and it 

 is as well worth houseroom as are sev- 

 eral other things and we are repeatedly 

 asked for it. It is a rampant grower 

 and little plants planted out in early 

 June are now eighteen inches high and 

 as much across. 



Although it should not see the inside 



of a greenhouse for a month, it is well 

 to pot it now, in 6-inch or 7-inch pots, 

 and stand in a shady place a few days. 

 After its recovery from the lifting stand 

 or plunge them in the full sun and 

 leave them there until signs of a frost. 

 You can hustle in a great many plants 

 if they are in pots, even by moonlight, 

 at short notice, but if to be dug it is a 

 different chore. Of all times that this 

 flower is appreciated it is at the holi- 

 days, so keep them out of doors as long 

 as possible, for if too early under glass 

 they are out of flower before the sea- 

 son. 



Don't Delay. 



There may be other plants you wish 

 to save for the winter and which must 

 be lifted. Do not delay. They root 

 quicker while the soil and atmosphere 

 are warm than in chilly October. I no- 

 ticed in Philadelphia a large grower of 

 Deutzia gracilis, which he grows on 

 his own grounds and does not import. 

 He had his stock of these lifted by the 

 middle of August. This was new to me, 

 for all deciduous hardy shrubs are 

 moved after the foliage is dropped. I 

 readily saw the object of lifting and 

 potting these deutzias so early. They 

 were kept sprayed and shaded for a 

 week or two and then went on making 

 roots and became established in the pots 

 and were in very much better order to 

 force for Easter than plants lifted after 

 all root growth had stopped and too 

 often dried out during winter. Think 

 this over. It may apply to many other 

 plants that we are too late in lifting. 



"William Scott. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



It is high time now that any stock 

 that may have been planted outside 

 should be lifted and potted. This should 

 be done at once, so that the plants can 

 get well rooted in the pots before the 

 flower buds are swelling. Give them a 

 large enough pot so that the roots are 

 not crowded or broken. Shade them for 

 a week or so, keep frequently sprayed 

 over and these plants will hardly know 

 that they were shifted. 



The plants on tl^e benches should be 

 kept tied up straight, because, after the 

 bud is taken and the stem is getting 

 harder and more woody every day, un- 

 less the shoots are straight they will be 

 apt to snap off where they are tied, and 

 a crooked stem detracts from the value of 

 the flower. 



Side shoots and suckers multiply with 

 amazing rapidity after the bud is taken 

 and these should be kept pulled off if 

 one is desirous of concentrating all the 

 energies of the plant in the proper di- 

 rection of flower production. 



Buds should now be taken right along 

 as they appear, as there is no longer any 

 question of not getting the right bud. 

 Any bud that appears from now on will 

 develop a perfect flower without any 

 trouble. In the case of stock that is 

 being run with the idea of getting flow- 

 ers as lute as possible this woiilt} not, 



of course, apply, as the idea in that case 

 is to wait until the last bud appears, 

 which will not be for some weeks yet. 



Now is the time to see that the early 

 buds (which, in the case of Merstham 

 YelloAv and odd ones of other kinds, are 

 just showing the first tinge of color) are 

 absolutely free from black or green fly 

 or red spider. Fumigate lightly, but 

 persistently, until you are satisfied that 

 the buds are absolutely clean, as one fly 

 left now means a numerous progeny be- 

 fore ■ the flower is developed. In cases 

 where the green fly is numerous I have 

 dusted the bud very heavily with to- 

 bacco dust, which is generally effective 

 in its operation. 



Many flowers are annually spoiled by 

 red spider and not infrequently its pres- 

 ence is entirely unknown to the grower, 

 unless he watches his plants closely, and 

 knows red spider when he sees it. One 

 grower last year sent me samples of his 

 flowers that had been "struck by 

 blight" which, on a close investigation, 

 proved to be nothing more or less than 

 red spider. It seems to suck all the 

 substance out of the petal, leaving it 

 limp and worse than useless, and spoils 

 the whole flower in a few days. 



Look under the foliage, up near the 

 bud, and if any spider is present put a 

 sprayer on the hose and wash each plant 

 indivichially. All this may, perhaps, 



