624 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Jaxlauv 25, lOOC. 



conducted by the Department of Agri- 

 culture aud the various experiment sta- 

 tions. Certainly all of us have much to 

 learn and our progress is so slow as to 

 be disheartening. 



Advantages in Arid Region. 



When we come to consider the matter 

 of propagation, I am inclined to think 

 that the iiorist in the arid region has sev- 

 eral advantages over his eastern brother, 

 but the advantages are not all on one 

 side. When the cuttings are taken, the 

 parent plants have been growing in 

 bright sunlight and the foliage is crisp 

 and erect. The plants have not had to 

 struggle through weeks of cloudy 

 weather with the snow on the roof j)er- 

 haps for days at a time. I think I have 

 never seen our houses darkened by snow 

 more than two days in succession, and 

 probabl}^ not more than half a dozen 

 times in ten years. But when the cut- 

 tings are taken from the plant, the dry 

 air immediately begins to attack them 

 and they must be put into sand promptly 

 or they are ruined. After they are in 



sweet air must be provided, yet the least 

 draught means death to the cuttings be- 

 fore they have roots to replace evapora- 

 tion. Often in winter the temperature 

 of the air in the house will run too high, 

 and ventilation must be given. In mild 

 winters like the present one the bright 

 sun on the glass raises tlie temperature 

 too high, and when air is given, the dry 

 wind (lutside rushes in and does its fatal 

 work. 



Early in October last we had a light 

 fall of snow, which quickly disappeared, 

 and not until January 7 did any more 

 moisture fall. The benches have been 

 sliielded from draughts by curtains, and 

 every precaution taken, yet the story is 

 the same on every place — ' ' Our carna- 

 tions are not rooting well." Had the 

 winter been a severe one, with cold 

 weatlier and frequent light falls of snow, 

 tiie results would have been very different. 



Considerable trouble is at times ex- 

 perienced with stem-rot and cutting bed 

 fungus, but I think not to the same 

 extent as in localities farther east. 



Some of you will probauly think me 



Carnation Winsor. 



(Kxhit)itC(l ],y K. K. Piersoii Co., Tanytown, N. Y. 



the sand they must be watered, generally 

 once a day and often twice. A low 

 house is the most satisfactory for propa- 

 gating because artificial humidity can be 

 created. Cloth curtains under the glass 

 and in front of the bench help to prevent 

 wilting. I do not think propagating 

 could be successfully carried on in high, 

 airy houses such as one sees in use in the 

 vicinity of Chicago and elsewhere. Clean 



mentally unbalanced when I say that 

 Avhile sunshine and dry air are fatal to 

 fungi, they do not tend to promote lux- 

 uriant growth in anything unless it may 

 be a cactus or some other plant whose 

 natural habitat is the arid region. Yet 

 stop and consider as to what countries 

 produce what we are accustomed to speak 

 of as a luxuriant growth of vegetation, 

 and vour mind will revert to a climate 



with frequent rainfalls and a humid at- 

 mosphere. I hope I may be pardoned 

 for again referring to roses in a meet- 

 ing of carnationists but they seem to 

 forcibly illustrate some of the points I 

 wish to emphasize. I have never seen 

 more than three or four really bad cases 

 of black spot on Beauties in Colorado, 

 and they were probably due to careless- 

 ness, for it is a trouble that we have not 

 learned to dread as you do here. So 

 much must be placed to the credit of 

 these drying influences but they tend to 

 ripen each shoot too quickly and induce 

 too quick setting of the bud, with wood 

 close jointed and wiry. I think I am 

 safe in saying that every progressive 

 florist in the arid region grows his tea 

 roses grafted on Manetti, because this 

 tends to make a more rapid growth, a 

 longer and a heavier stem. 



Start Early in Propagating. 



During the period when the young car- 

 nations are in pots they make but a slow 

 growth and this compels us to start 

 early in propagating, as the young stock 

 must have a longer time in which to 

 make plants of suitable size for field 

 planting. Our late frosts compel us to 

 wait until about May 10 before planting 

 in the field. Some plant out by May 1, 

 taking chances on a heavy frost in order 

 to gain time, and I must admit that 

 some of the young plants endure a pret- 

 ty severe frost without permanent in- 

 jury. The tips of the leaves suffer, but 

 no permanent damage is done; in fact, 

 if the frost is only a very light one, it 

 seems a positive benefit, checking the 

 soft growth and inducing the plants to 

 break more freely. Before planting is 

 begun the field must have a thorough 

 soaking, either from surface ditches or 

 with the hose, and after planting we 

 generally water with a lawn sprinkler 

 every night while the plants are in the 

 field. With plenty of water and a rea- 

 sonably good soil the plants make a 

 healthy growth in the field, though they 

 do not attain great size. The days are 

 hot and sunny, but if well watered, the 

 plants do not flag, and at night the air 

 is cool and refreshing. It is not uncom- 

 mon for the mercury to drop to 50 de- 

 grees or even to 45 degrees at night, fol- 

 lowing a day temperature of 90 degrees 

 in the shade, and the carnations seem 

 to enjoy this. 



Should the plants escape the hail 

 storms which scnnetimes nearly ruin them, 

 they ought to bo of satisfactory size by 

 the first or middle of August. Lifting 

 from the field and replanting in the 

 houses is the operation requiring the 

 most care of anything during the life of 

 the plant, and plants of moderate size 

 endure the transplanting better than very 

 large ones. Those that were grown in 

 pots prior to field planting endure the 

 removal from the field to the bench much 

 better than those that were grown in 

 flats. 



The custom of preparing the soil for 

 the benches a long time in advance does 

 not prevail very generally, and beyond 

 insuring a thorough mixing by frequent 

 turning, there is not much to be gained 

 by it. Where soil piles are wet through 

 by frequent rains, there is a constant 

 change going on and the component parts 

 are blended by the rotting or fermenta- 

 tion; but where the pile is dry, the mass 

 is inert. We are compelled to use manure 

 with caution, because age does not 

 seem to render it harmless to the same 

 extent that it does in sections visited by 

 frequent rains. 



