JAXI'ARY 11, lyOU. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



457 



has been added some sand and leaf-mold 

 and keep in a temperature of 60 de- 

 grees at night. They will soon take hold 

 nnd continue to grow and that is all that 

 need be said for another two months. 



Lilies for Easter. 



It may seem a little previous to begin 

 (HI Easter plants so soon, yet what makes 

 florists thinkers is that they have to think 

 months ahead of events and see the 

 fruits of their efforts in full maturity 

 \\hile their plants are yet in a very 

 embryonic state. 



Your Japan lilies intended for Easter 

 sliouid now be in a light house at a night 

 temperature of 55 degrees. It is too 

 (■arly to say anything about how ad- 

 vanced they should be. If five or six 

 inches above the soil you are all right, 

 l.ongiflorum multiflorum seems to make 

 an earlier, freer growth at starting than 

 longiflorum giganteum, but this may not 

 l)e so with other growers. Fifty-five de- 

 grees is not forcing, it is only growing. 

 Some recent experience has still more 

 <onvinced me that you may without harm 

 <lo more real forcing the last four weeks 

 |)reviou3 to flowering, than you can in 

 three months in midwinter. It seems 

 that up to the time of their showing 

 buds clearly these lilies come along grad- 

 ually and progress in a temperature of 

 55 to 60 degrees; when buds show well 

 they want an increase of 10 degrees. 

 This is usually not difficult to afford at 

 Kaster time, but when it cannot be given 

 in November and December your early 

 Bermudas will just stand still or turn 

 into a leafy growth and put oft' their 

 flowering period. 



Perhaps in the native clime of Lilium 

 longiflorum there is, at about the time 

 of their nmking buds, a marked rise in 

 temperature. If so, they expect it, and 

 must have it under artificial cultivation. 

 This may be only a theory, but we ob- 

 served tliat one lot where the tempera- 

 ture was raised the middle of November 

 flowered finely and are cut and gone, 

 while another lot in similar condition 

 at that date and left in the same night 

 temperature of 60 degrees are now in 

 all stages of development and the ma- 

 jority not yet showing buds. 



So don't get alarmed if the lilies are 

 above the soil. Don't force them for the 

 next month. Save your coal until the 

 ])lant8 will respond. We force tulips 

 and lily of the valley. Roses and carna- 

 tions we do not forc-e; we merely trans- 

 pose the season. 



Lilies for Memorial Day. 



Don't forget to provide a nice lot of 

 •Japan lilies for Memorial day. Nothing 

 sells better on that occasion and you can 

 ^et about the same price as you can at 

 Kaster. You can procure the bulbs now 

 iiiid pot and put in a very cool house. 

 Without the slightest forcing they will 

 <ome in for the end of ^lay. If you do 

 not wish to buy more, then select a few 

 of the very latest that you intended for 

 I'^aster and remove to a cool house. Last 

 year we tried to impress this on some 

 younger years and ears, but it was not 

 done, and two or three weeks after Easter 

 there were hundreds of fine lilies going 

 to waste. There was no demand for 

 them, except that they were sold to a 

 butcher who had just opened a shop, 

 which enabled him to present a lily spike 

 with every pound of liverwurst, so they 

 were not entirely wasted. 



Verbenas. 



About the end of the month sow ver- 

 benas and procure the seed from the 

 most reliable source. They are slow 

 in their early stages. By sowing early 

 you will get a cutting off each plant. 

 There are still verbena specialists and 

 a choice variety can, of course, be only 

 perpetuated by cuttings, but fine varieties 

 and perfectly healthy plants are easily 

 raised from seed. Sow in shallow flats 

 of light soil, only just covering the 

 seeds and Ix; sure at that critical time 

 when the seed is germinating not to let 

 the surface of the soil becohid baked. 

 Then is when the little plants of most 

 of the small seeds perish. 



The Euphorbia. 



That beautiful plant. Euphorbia jac- 

 quinia'flora, has been mentioned occa- 

 sionally this winter. Twenty years ago 

 we thought this almost as important a 

 plant as the now much talked of Euphor- 

 bia Poinsettiana, which it does not in 

 the least resemble and needs very dif- 

 ferent treatment. It propagates like the 

 poinsettia, from either the old, ripened 

 wood or the young, succulent growth. We 

 grew it entirely for its curved, graceful 

 sprays studded at the axil of every leaf 

 with its vermilion-scarlet little blossoms, 

 but we readily believe that a number of 

 plants in 8-incli or 10-inch pans would 

 be very attractive. They can, if you 

 have i)]enty of stock, be propagated a 

 month or two later, but the wood that 

 has flowered can now be cut up to three 

 or four eyes and will root readily and 

 the young lateral growths from these 

 cuttings can later be propagated. I will 

 endeavor to say more of this pretty 

 plant later, regarding spring and sum- 

 mer care. Like its cousin, the poinsettia, 

 when once rooted and established in pots 

 it wants the lightest aspect and is a 

 tropical plant and wants heat at all 

 times. 



Euphorbia Splendens. 



Please don't be attracted by the name 



of another euphorbia which bears the 

 misleading appellation of splendens. If 

 you had walked into an old-fashioned 

 greenhouse, where the boss was fond of 

 plants, in the year 1799, probably the 

 first plant you would notice would be Eu- 

 phorbia splendens. It is a veritable vege- 

 table porcupine and not so amusing and 

 of no earthly use commercially. I know 

 there are several old ladies of both sexes 

 who like to try their hands at everything 

 and are fascinated and misled by names 

 and catalog descriptions, and the above 

 is for their benefit. I am going to 

 spell catalog the sensible way, and if the 

 compositor introduces three or four use- 

 less and superfluous vowels I shan 't 

 spell it any more for anybody, so there I 



Fuchsias. 



I have neglected for many weeks past 

 to mention a seasonable hint about 

 fuchsias. The writer was once credited 

 with being an expert on these old fa- 

 miliar domestic plants, but fuchsias 

 change and old favorites are dropped to 

 pick up with new acquaintances. We 

 treat the fuchsia too much as an ever- 

 green. With our greenhouse correct 

 treatment it should be deciduous. Plants 

 that grew to a good size during the 

 summer should have been resting beneath 

 a bench very much on the dry side since 

 October. They could have been started 

 growing again in a few weeks and you 

 could have Lad plants in 3-inch pots by 

 this time, but it is not late yet, an<l 

 if you have any plants still at rest get 

 thenv up, shake off the old soil, repot 

 and shorten back the unripe tips of the 

 growths, and they will break and give 

 you strong, succulent cuttings, which 

 will make stronger plants than those 

 started earlier. Some wholesale firms 

 send out little fuchsias that have been 

 propagated from the green tips of lateral 

 flowering branches. They are useless, 

 and will be stunted and runts during the 

 remainder of their existence. It is only 

 the cuttings from the ripened wood that 

 are of any use. William Scott. 



CARNATION NOTES-WEST. 



Buying New Varieties. 



If there is one thing that gives the 

 grower more hard thinking than another, 

 it is the question of selecting the new va- 

 rieties he Avants to invest his money in 

 and how heavy he ought to invest in each. 

 The up-to-date grower wants every va- 

 riety that is an improvement over the 

 varieties he is growing, as he cannot af- 

 ford to let a chance go by to better his 

 stock. The first question is which va- 

 rieties shall he buy, and to solve that 

 problem requires not only thought but 

 alertness and shrewdness. If every variety 

 would behave for us as it does for its 

 originator there would be little trouble 

 in choosing. Differences in soil, climate 

 and method of culture have 'St^'much ef- 

 fect on varieties that it is hard to say 



what a variety will do when taken away 

 from home, perhaps only to the other 

 side of the town. 



There are few varieties introduced 

 that have not been good on the origina- 

 tor's place, and so, when a variety fails 

 to make good on your place do not judge 

 him harshly, but rather try and find ont 

 where you made your mistake. Natur- 

 ally you want to find out as much about 

 a variety as you can before you buy, and 

 while there are many ways of getting a 

 line on a variety, yet there is no better 

 way than to go and see the variety grow- 

 ing. If you are unable to do this vcju 

 will have to depend on the reports you 

 can gather from the shows from time to 

 time. This, again, is not altogether 

 satisfactory, because the very point yon 

 want most to get at cannot be brought 

 out at any exhibition of cut blooms. 

 True, you can see how the blooms co;n- 

 pare with others in quality, in keeping, 



