NoVEMBlitt 30, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



79 



providing the plants are in first-class 

 condition. If the plants show the least 

 sign of weakening I would advise you 

 to let them bloom and grow naturally 

 and take what cuttings you can from 

 the base of the flower stems. You will 

 gain by it in building up the strength 

 of the variety again to its normal con- 

 dition. 



When taking off cuttings try to 

 select a uniform size as much as you 

 (•an and be sure they are well matured. 

 An extremely large cutting is not de- 

 sirable and the same, of course, is true 

 of a small and weak one. By having a 

 uniform, strong lot of cuttings you will 

 get a uniform lot of plants and nothing 

 is more pleasing to the eye than a fine 

 lot of thrifty plants, one like another, 

 like the peas in a pod. Don't take them 

 off the plants too young and soft, as 

 they will wilt too much, but leave them 

 until the base is solid and the older 

 leaves are solid. You can see when they 

 lose tliat soft young look better than I 

 can tell you. 



When trimming them cut back the 

 leaves that stand outward, taking off 

 one-fourth to one-third of the leaf, but 

 never cut back the tip of young leaves 

 that have not spread apart. Cut the 

 lower end clean wnth a sharp knife. On 

 your propagating bench have about 

 three inches of sand after packing 

 down. Insert the cuttings about three- 

 quarters of an inch and about the same 

 distance between the cuttings in the 

 rows, while the rows should l)e about 

 one and a half to two inches apart, ac- 

 cording to the size of the cuttings. 

 Some growers crowd their cuttings as 

 close together as they can to save bench 

 room, but it is a great mistake. A cut- 

 ting needs room and air just the same 

 as a plant, csptM-ially after it begins to 

 form roots, and to crowd them as some 

 growers do causes them to draw up and 

 become spindly. Keep the sand clean, 

 so there will l)e no decaying matter 

 around to start fungous diseases. 



Next week I will have more to say 

 about propagating houses and care of 

 cuttinys. A. F. J. Baur. 



RUST. 



I send you some leaves of the Cru- 

 sader carnation. Can you tell me what 

 is the matter with them and what to do 

 to stop it.^ None of the other varieties 

 is affected with it. I tried spraying 

 with whale oil soap a week ago, but it 

 is still spreading over the plants. The 

 soil they arc growing in is made up 

 with well-rotted blue grass sod and 

 about one-fifth cow manure, and one 

 inch manure under the soil and about 

 the same amount on top. The plants 

 are very thrifty and just commencing to 

 bloom. M. H. L. 



^'oiir Crusader carnations are troubled 

 with the common rust. On some vari- 

 eties this disease does not seem to do 

 much harm, but last season it became 

 quite a serious matter with our Cru- 

 sader, so this season we have done all 

 we could to keep it off of them and 

 have succeeded fairly well so far. I 

 would advise you to pick off the af- 

 fected leaves, if there are not too many 

 of them. It is seldom wise to strip a 

 plant of all its leaves. Burn these 

 leaves, as the spores are liable to be 

 blown about and find lodgment some- 

 wiiere where the plants might be in 

 condition to suffer. After picking off 

 the leaves, dust the plants with air- 

 slaked lime with about half its bulk of 



Carnation Hannah Hobart. 



•sulphur mixed with it. Leave this on 

 the plants several days before syringing 

 it off. After syringing, when the plants 

 have dried off, repeat the dusting. Keep 

 the plants growing steadily and you 

 will find that they will grow out of it in 

 time. When syringing, do it early 

 enough in the day, so that the plants 

 will dry off well before night, (.rape 

 dust is also excellent to dust on the 

 plants. Whale oil sonp is no good for 

 this disease. A. F. J. Baur. 



liiit'rally, will lie trouliled less than 

 when they are pushed too much during 

 the winter months. (Jive them plenty of 

 ;iir, run a little heat every night and' 

 paint one of the steam pipes with lime 

 and sulphur in equal portions, mixed 

 with enough Avater to make a thick 

 ))aint. Sometimes these spots are caused 

 'ly aphis, so get some tobacco extract 

 and spray them regularly to keep the 

 aphis down. A.'F. J. Baur. 



BACTERIA AND APHIS. 



T enclose some I'-aves taken from our 

 carnations. Will you kindly explain in 

 your next issue what causes tlie spots 

 on the leaves, and the cure for them.' 



J. T. 



Your carnations have a ])retty bnd 

 dose of bacteria. Since J do not kn<»w 

 what varieties you picked these leaves 

 from, I cannot say whether it is alto- 

 gether your fault or not. There are 

 some varieties, like Flora Hill, which 

 show these spots to some extent every 

 winter and it depends on the culture 

 whether or not they will become serious 

 enough to really injure the plant. Our 

 experience has been that when thev 

 are kept in check fairly well, the plant 

 does not seem to suffer much and to- 

 ward spring it grows entirely out of it. 

 However, if it is allowed to get too bad 

 it will seriously weaken the plant and 

 in a few years the variety will break 

 down or run out, as it is often called. 



You will find that varieties which are 

 subject to this disease, if they are kept 

 a little on the dry side and not fed too 



WITHDRAWN. 



The following has been received from 

 W. N. Kudd, dated Xovember l'.j: 



"Tlie carnatio!) i.ady ]\largaret hav- 

 ing shown some defects which make its 

 value questionable, will not be sent out." 



Lady ^Margaret originated at Mount 

 Greenwood and was to have been sent 

 out jointlv this season bv Mr. Rudd and 

 the K. C. Hill Co. ♦ 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY. 



The following special premiums are 

 announced for the exhibition at Boston 

 in .Tamiary: 



A. H. Hews & Co., Cambridge, Mass., 

 offer a silver cup valued at $2.5 for four 

 varieti*^ of carnations, twenty-five 

 blooms to a vase, either seedlings or 

 named sorts, no restrictions as to color. 



Thomas F. Galvin, Boston, offers a sil- 

 ver cup valued at $2.5 for eight varie- 

 ties of carnations, twenty-five blooms to 

 a vase. 



W. W. Rawson & Co., Boston, offer a 

 silver cup valued at $25 for three varie- 

 ties of carnations, fifty blooms to a vase. 



R. <Sr. J. Farquhar & Co., Boston, offer 



