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870 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Septemiikk 7, 1905. 



"He has been a sufferer for the last 

 two years from sciatica and diabetes, 

 from which at his advanced age, 75 

 years, he had no hope of recovering. I 

 am sorry to have to inform you that he 

 is on his deathbed and we are hourly 

 expecting his passing away." He died 

 that night. 



Mr. l3ean was ia A^alued contributor to 

 the Eeview, writing on seed trade and 

 florists' plant topiis, subjects on which 

 he was thoroughly informed through long 

 years of activity in the trade, but our 

 loss, great as we feel it to be, is as 

 nothing compared to the loss his death 

 brings to British horticulture. He was 

 a man of ceaseless activity, an authority 

 on seed growing and on florists' flow- 

 ers, being one of the first to be honored 

 with the Victoria Medal in Horticulture. 

 But it was through his secretarial con- 

 nections that he gained an acquaintance 

 with horticulturists as broad as that of 

 any man in England. He was gifted 

 with a peculiar aptitude for secretarial 



duties and for flower show management. 

 For nearly twenty years he was secre- 

 tary of the National Chrysanthemum So- 

 ciety. He served in the same office for 

 the National Dahlia Union, for the 

 sweet pea bicentenary celebration, for 

 two hailstorm relief funds, for the great 

 international exhibition of 1866, for the 

 National Floricultural Society, which 

 was merged into the floral committee of 

 the fioyal Horticultural Society, of 

 which Mr. Dean was for long the oldest 

 member; for many other trade move- 

 ments, including the Postal Reform 

 Committee, which was largely instru- 

 tal in securing the establishment of the 

 parcels post, so great a boon to the nurs- 

 ery and seed trades of Great Britain. He 

 had been a willing and able worker in 

 every trade movement in London for the 

 past forty years. 



Mr. Dean was a keen debater and a 

 ready writer. He was a regular contrib- 

 utor to many horticultural publications 

 in England. 



CARNATION QUERIES. 



What is the right distance for a car- 

 nation bench from the glass where there 

 is no glass in the side walls? How many 

 carnation plants will be required in two 

 houses 18x50 with side benches three and 

 a half feet wide and center benches six 

 and a half feet? What depth should 

 these benches be? Please name the six 

 or eight most profitable carnations to 

 grow, two or three each of white, red 

 and pink. F. & F. 



The properly built carnation house 

 either has no side benches or else it has 

 glass in the side walls, at least the one 

 on the south side of the house. It does 

 not matter so much on the north side, as 

 the wall will not shade the plants. There 

 should be at least two feet of clear space 

 between the top of the soil and the 

 lowest part of the glass. Most varie- 

 ties will need more room, but by select- 

 ing the dwarfer ones, like Lawson and 

 its sports, for these side beds you can 

 get along very well. 



I would not plant very close to the 

 wall on the south side, but stay away at 

 least a foot. That would enable you to 

 plant four rows lengthwise on the south 

 bed, five rows on the north bed and nine 

 or ten rows on the center bed. Set them 

 twelve inches apart in the rows and you 

 can easily figure up what you will need 

 to fill your beds, by measuring your beds 

 in length. 



A 6-inch board on each side, when 

 nailed against the bottom, allowing an 

 inch for nailing, will make the bed five 

 inches deep, inside measurement. Fill 

 the beds scant full of soil, so that when 

 planted and watered it will settle down 

 to four inches or a trifle less. 



You will do well to buy more than six 

 or eight varieties to start with, because 

 you will want more than that many, even 

 of those that thrive for you, and until 

 you find out what varieties will do best 

 for you, you had better get more varie- 



ties and less of each kind. In white, try 

 Queen Louise, Flora Hill, Boston Mar- 

 ket, The Belle, Lady Bountiful, The 

 Queen, White Lawson, Vesper and In- 

 diana Market. In pink, try Mrs. Law- 

 son, Mrs. Nelson, Floriana, Indianapolis, 

 Enchantress and Beatrice. In scarlet, 

 try G. H. Crane, Estelle, Flamingo, 

 Flambeau, Cardinal and Richmond Gem. 

 Here are twenty-one varieties, any of 

 which may be just what ycu want, and 

 I would add Harlowarden as a crimson, 

 ^ou will have to try the newer varie- 

 ties for yourself as they are sent out. 

 A variety that does fine for your neigh- 

 bor may not be satisfactory on your 

 place at all. A. F. J. Baur. 



STEM-ROT AGAIN. 



Will you please let me know what is 

 the cause of stem-rot in carnations? I 

 am only in the business a year, in the 

 south, but was successful with them in 

 the north. The soil is heavy, mixed with 

 bone meal and wood ashes and one load 

 of manure to three of soil. I spread the 

 roots out and planted about an inch and 

 a half deep and nine to ten inches apart 

 each way. I watered heavily after 

 planting and shaded them for three 

 weeks. J. T. F. 



This disease has caused many a gray 

 hair to appear on the heads of old and 

 experienced growers and it is one of the 

 worst diseases to handle that we have in 

 carnations. Our scientists have told us 

 that it is caused by a fungous growth 

 called Fusarium and another called 

 Rhizoctonia! The first is a dry rot, the 

 latter a wet rot. The latter is far the 

 more common and when we speak of 

 stem-rot it is usually the Rhizoctonia 

 we have in mind. The spores of this dis- 

 ease are supposed to be present in great- 

 er or less degree in most soils where 

 there is much decaying matter, such as 

 stable manure, etc. These spores, as 

 long as they are dry, will remain in a 

 dormant, condition, but moisture will 

 start them into activity. That is why so 



often you may not lose a plant in the 

 field during a dry season, but as soon as 

 yon get them into the house they will 

 begin to die oflp. You may bring the 

 spores in with the plants or they might 

 be in the soil on the beds before you 

 plant. A close, damp atmosphere will 

 aggravate the case and so will deep 

 planting. 



One of the best things to prevent this 

 disease is air-slaked lime, or, in fact, 

 lime in any form. Sprinkle it on the 

 soil and stir it in, and dust it on the 

 plants. When you water keep the water 

 away from the stems as much as you can, 

 and do not spray the plants any more 

 than you have to. Give all the air you 

 can and keep the atmosphere as dry as 

 possible. 



There is no reason why you should 

 not be as successful in the south as you 

 were in the north, as far as stem-rot is 

 concerned. Many growers think that the 

 disease is produced by improper treat- 

 ment, etc. Such is not the case. The 

 spores are in the soil and it pnly takes 

 certain conditions to start them into ac- 

 tivity. Just where they come from first 

 of all I cannot say, but I suppose that, " 

 like Topsy, "they just grow." By 

 keeping the plants in good, healthy, ro- 

 bust condition they will be able to help 

 fight it off, too. This does not neces- 

 sarily mean a highly fed or rank-grow- 

 ing condition, but by preventing any 

 slight checks that may be caused, one 

 ^way~T>r another, and by promoting a 

 steady, sturdy growth. A. F. J. Baur. 



VARIETIES FOR SOUTH AFRICA. 



I am doing a general business in cut 

 flowers and plants at Durban, Natal, 

 South Africa, and would like to grow 

 some American varieties of carnations. 

 Will you please tell me what are the 

 best hot weather varieties? We get no 

 frost in winter here, so that the best 

 summer varieties in the United States 

 should do well under our conditions. 



C. G. 



The varieties that seem to stand warm 

 weather best in our climate are about 

 as follows: Flora Hill, Queen Louise, 

 The Belle, Moonlight and Indiana Mar- 

 ket, in white; Mrs. Lawson, Crocker and 

 Floriana, for pink; Flambeau, Estelle 

 and Cardinal for scarlet. Enchantress 

 holds up fine in light pink and Pros- 

 perity comes white in warm weather 

 and holds up well in size. I would not 

 confine myself to these varieties, how- 

 ever, as sometimes we find that varieties 

 do finely where we would expect them to 

 do the least. A. F. J. Baur. 



FERN CULTURE. 



[An essay by Wm. Scott, gardener to Mrs. 

 Joseph Eastman, read before the Tarrytown 

 Horticultural Society at Its August meeting.] 



Fern culture is a subject far too ex- 

 tensive to be treated in anything like 

 a comprehensive manner in an essay such 

 as this, so I will not attempt to go 

 into the matter fully, but will take up 

 that portion relating to greenhouse cul- 

 ture, which, I think, will be of most 

 interest to the majority here. 



Propagating; From Spores. 



The raising of ferns from spores is 

 at once the easiest and most convenient 

 method of increase with varieties that 

 adapt themselves to this means of prop- 

 agation. The selection of the spores is 

 necessarily the first step. , This with 

 some of the varieties requires strict ob- 



