JANUABT 11, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



485 



H. H. Ritter. 



We were told in answer to a mild and 

 business-like complaint to go ahead and 

 grow the roots, "they were all right." 

 To this we were real impudent. To think 

 that we had lived nigh on to 60 years 

 and did not know a rotten, useless lily 

 of the valley pip hurt our feelings. I 

 am told that too low a temperature will 

 gradually sap the vitality of ' the root 

 and embryo flower. They may endure it 

 for several months, but after a time they 

 will collapse. In conclusion, I am afraid 

 your pips were in poor order, and if 

 they were not, you should not have given 

 them anything like such a forcing heat. 



W. S. 



THE USEFUL BOXWOOD. 



The boxwood has proven not only one 

 of the very best of the greens useful to 

 (he cut flower worker, but it has made a 

 hit in many plant arrangements, its dark 

 green foliage contrasting or blending 

 well with many receptacles and associated 

 plants. Another very good use for box- 

 wood is for winter window boxes. A 

 great many of these are now called for in 

 the larger cities and they afford a good 

 profit to the florist who has facilities for 

 liandling this class of trade. A florist 

 can supply window boxes of pine painted 

 green and make a good profit at 50 cents 

 per foot. When filling these with box- 

 wood a first-class store can readily get 

 75 cents per plant, using stock fifteen 

 to eighteen inches high. Such plants 

 wholesale in this country at $25 per hun- 

 dred, coming from Belgium. 



W. KoxBuiiY, Mass. — E. E. Lowe is 

 preparing to discontinue his business. 



you did last year and were successful, 

 then it would be bold for me to say you 

 did wrong, but I will say that there was 

 no need of your putting these cold stor- 

 age pips into any such heat as 80 to 90 

 degrees. That is the treatment for the 

 newly imported roots, which you are 

 forcing into growth and flower three or 

 four months before their normal season 

 of flowering. It is entirely a different 

 story with the cold storage stock. You 

 have arrested their natural growth and 

 at any time after the first of last May, 

 directly they were relieved from the 

 arresting cold, they were ready and 

 anxious to grow, so 60 to 65 degrees was 

 warm enough for their roots or pips. 

 You mention flats as being used. That 

 would be of little consequence, but I 

 would rather hear of six inches of sand 

 on an ordinary bench without bottom 

 heat and only protected from draughts 

 or bright sun. 



It is possible that these pips had re- 

 ceived an injury during their last few 

 weeks in storage. If the pips were not 

 firm, solid and sound it was little use 

 planting them. 



Three years ago we received from a 

 New York firm a few hundred valley 

 roots weekly during the summer and fall, 

 every time in prime condition, and there 

 was no failure in bringing them into 

 flower, until the first of December, when 

 our extra quantity for the holidays ar- 

 rived. They were soft, flabby and use- 

 less. A New York florist returning from 

 Brighton Beach, where he had placed his 

 little wad on the wrong pony, was not 

 half so wilted. We thought the trouble 

 was that they had been exposed to a 

 few degrees above freezing and made a 

 start and then been again frozen bard. 



Frank H. Traendly, 



