DECEMBER 28, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



365 



Record Holiday Results. 



A memorandum made which can be re- 

 ivrred to is better than trusting your 

 lucniory, so write down now just how 

 •, )ur crops were balanced. Note that you 

 "jcrhaps could have sold more well flow- 

 vjed azaleas, but you had plenty of 

 i5ogonia Lorraine, etc. These are prom- 

 inent features ' that may be distinctly 

 jeuiembered, yet there will be others 

 ialuable to refer to and not so clearly 

 remembered. It is too soon yet to come 

 to any conclusion, for we have another 

 week of merry-making. Remembrances 

 and decorations and lots of little left- 

 overs will yet be cleanly used up. 



Christmas is but a few hours past, 

 but I want to be the first in the field 

 to say that never in my recollection 

 was there a more happy one. From the 

 waif en the street who was invited to a 

 sumptuous dinner, to the well-to-do it 

 seemed a time of rest, pleasure and con- 

 tentment and I believe saw an increase 

 of thirty to fifty per cent with many a 

 florists' business. 



Stock Left Over. 



It is slightly previous to mention what 

 can be done with stock unsold or cut 

 ^own, yet it is the most seasonable hint 

 I can think of. A greenhouse may have 

 a dilapidated look this morning and ap- 

 pear as if a cyclone had passed through, 

 yet a very few hours' work will have 

 things stood up in much diminished 

 blocks and empty, clean benches 

 ready to receive crops that have been 

 •waiting for a shift or spread out. If 

 you cut a lot of Harrisii lilies dump 

 them out on your old soil pile. Don 't 

 think for a moment that you can do 

 anything with them. Save half a dozen 

 sweet stevia that are cut down and 

 place in a light, cool house for future 

 stock. 



Poinsettias that were cut a foot or 

 eighteen inches from the ground can be 

 laid beneath a warm, dry bench and al- 

 lowed to become perfectly dry at the 

 root. Azaleas are never left over, but 

 will sell at any time, and so will Gloire 

 de Lorraine. A brother florist sent me 

 a splendid plant of the white Lorraine, 

 Turnford Hall, and in spite of its being 

 "iinder the expert care of a florist's wife 

 it has in the course of two weeks dropped 

 all its expanded flowers. It is still thick 

 with its unopened buds and quite orna- 

 mental if you had not seen it when at its 

 zenith of beauty. 



Begonia Incaroata. 



I have had occasion to mention sev- 

 eral times this fall the Begonia in- 

 <;arnata robusta. Mr. Harris, of Phila- 

 delphia, gives us the name robusta, 

 which appeals to us as correct because it 

 is so appropriate. We grew, after an 

 interval of several years, a good many 

 pans of this fine begonia this year, three 

 or four plants in a 12-inch pan, with a 

 pink mat and ribbon. They were very 

 attractive and sold better than Lor- 

 raine. If the rust is avoided they are 

 easy to grow. 



There is now an improvement on ro- 

 busta which I have mentioned under the 

 name of B. incarnata Sanderi and I 

 believe this name will do, because we 

 notice in one of Mr. Pettigrew's in- 

 structive talks of his recent visit to Eu- 

 rope he mentioned that on seeing the 

 wonderful collection of begonias in the 

 Dublin Botanic Gardens how much he 

 would like his friend Mr. Sander to have 

 been with him. So evidently Mr. Sander, 

 of the neighborhood of the Hub, besides 

 being an eminent gardener of that cen- 

 ter of refinement and cultured civiliza- 

 tion and horticulture of the United 

 States, is also a begonia specialist. The 

 friend who gave me the plant last spring 

 received it from Mr. Sander. All florists 

 should grow it, but where they are to 

 get the stock I don't know. Jf not a 

 Christmas plant, it is a wonder a month 

 later and on for many weeks. 



Timing a Rose Crop. 



Some mention for future reference re- 

 garding your cut flower crops will be 

 of more consequence to many than the 

 sales of their plants. One little test this 

 fall may be interesting to some. "Within 

 a year we inquired of two first-class rose 

 growers when you could cut a bud from 

 a strong lateral growth and have the 

 succeeding bud right for Christmas. One 

 said the first week in October. The 

 other thought from October 15 to 30. 

 Remember, this was for our climate, 

 not the bright suns of Denver, Omaha or 

 St. Paul. It was for St. Clouds and re- 

 ferred to Brides and Maids. So, having 

 cut a fairly good bud on October 25, we 

 at once fastened to the stem a tag 

 marked "Cut October 25." That bud 

 was exactly right on Christmas eve. Re- 

 member weather makes all the difference. 

 Our October was glorious, November was 

 mild Mnd cloudy and December was as 

 dark and gloomy as the outlook of the 

 republican party in the Empire state. 



Carnations. 



Carnations will come in for condemna- 

 tion more or less severe. Don't be hasty. 

 It takes more than one year to learn the 

 desires and peculiarities of a variety. 

 Fiancee seems to be disappointing in 

 many places. After it gets over its 

 wo)iderful tendency to flower it may 

 turn out all its early habit promised. 

 A case in point is the fine scarlet well 

 named Flamingo. Last year, with sum- 

 mer growth under glass, it scarcely gave 

 a flower until January. Then there was 

 a crop of fine flowers with stems three 

 feet long, and after that very little. 

 This year, grown in the field and lifted 

 in early August, it began to flower in 

 November and the past month has given 

 an abundance of grand flowers. I know 

 a few good carnation growers who are 

 satisfied that in Flamingo they have all 

 they want for a fine scarlet. 



Not only as to the merits of a new 

 variety, but with standard varieties like 

 the immortal Lawson or Enchantress, 

 take notice when you lifted them, at 

 what date you last pinched them. Much 



depends on all that and makes the dif- 

 ference in getting a crop when they are 

 worth three times what they would be 

 two weeks earlier or later, I have said, 

 make a memorandum because as we ma- 

 ture we think our memory is infallible. 

 It is not, and as our brain gets hard- 

 ened and filled up the lighter is the im- 

 pression made on it and the more diffi- 

 cult to recall a past event. Memory has 

 nothing of the spiritual or mysterious 

 about it. It is as material as the muscle 

 in your arm or the organs of digestion. 

 The lad of ten years has a brain that 

 is soft and plastic and largely unoccu- 

 pied and an event that arrests his atten- 

 tion will make an indelible mark on his 

 brain that will scarcely ever be effaced. 

 At forty your brain, particularly if you 

 have been a thinker, is thickly scored 

 over and only shallow lines can be im- 

 pressed on it; hence events that hap- 

 pened in our youth are much clearer 

 than incidents which- have only six 

 months of history. This is not horti- 

 culture but physiology, which only a few 

 florists indulge in. 



If you have grown any plants this 

 winter that have not paid for bench 

 room or that have been lacking popu- 

 larity, then don't hesitate to throw them 

 away. A good gardener loves his plants 

 and perhaps some particular species or 

 variety is his favorite, but in these 

 speedy days he must not let sentiment 

 interfere with business. Next to the 

 ability to grow well is the pluck to 

 tlirow away or discard the unprofitable. 



William Scott. 



ATTENTION, ADVERTISERS! 



The following very interesting letter 

 from a subscriber touches on an evil in 

 the plant trade, very much regretted and 

 which the Review^ would give much to 

 see corrected: 



' ' We wish to call your attention to 

 the fact that a great many advertisers 

 offer stock and when you send check you 

 find it is returned stating that the stock 

 is all sold. This is all well and good, but 

 when you see the same adv in the next 

 issue of the paper it makes you feel 

 you cannot depend on what you see ad- 

 vertised. For instance, we are in the 

 market for several thousand Beaute 

 Poitevine geraniums; one man advertised 

 them by the thousand and we sent our 

 check, which was returned, stating he 

 was sold out. We wrote to another man 

 who advertised them, but we did not send 

 check for the very reason that he might 

 be sold out, which proved correct. The 

 next issue of the paper contained both 

 these advertisements that they were still 

 able to supply this stock. We of course 

 presume it was either a neglect of with- 

 tlrawing the advertisement or having it 

 changed, or possibly they have time con- 

 tracts and let their advertisements stay 

 in after the stock is sold- for fear they 

 will not get their money's worth of ad- 

 vertising if they withdraw. 



"We think your paper should make a 

 special effort to have every advertiser 

 withdraw or change his advertisement 

 as soon as the stock is sold. Last spring 

 a friend of mine in the trade told nae 

 that he sent five checks out for variegated 

 vincas and every one was returned, yet 

 every one of these advertisers still had 

 vincas to sell for two or three weeks, 

 according to the continued advertise- 

 ments. 



"We would be pleased to have your 

 views on this subject and let us know 



