JANUABV 25, lOOG. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



637 



Ijler, Mme. Norbert Levavasseur, also 

 makes a good pot plant. 



If the basement is warmer than neces- 

 sary for stock named it might do well 

 ;is a mushroom house. A dark, rather 

 clamp atmosphere and a temperature 

 from 50 degrees to 60 degrees suits the 

 jatter. W. N. Craig. 



NOTES FROM ENGLAND. 



The motor vehicle has now invaded 

 the ranks of the horticultural trade and 

 the heavy road wagon is now a common 

 sight on the highroads leading in to the 

 Covent Garden market, from the great 

 market gardening centers around Lon- 

 don. The most general type setms to be 

 the motor and wagon combined and one 

 or more large ears linked on behind as 

 trailers. 



Now that the cut bloom from the Dutch 

 bulb forcing trade is coming in it will 

 be interesting to note the prices realized. 

 During buying and boxing time it was 

 freely predicted by the growers that the 

 prices would reach very low figures. 

 Last season exceptionally good prices 

 were realized, for cut tulips especially. 

 In consequence the Dutch export- 

 ing firms on their English trav- 

 els last spring, in the majority of 

 cases booked largely increased orders. 

 This increased business was pretty gen-, 

 erally attributed to the frost cutting off 

 the early bloom in France that generally 

 floods the English markets early in the 

 new year. 



There is one very decided opinion 

 about the English forcing of Dutch 

 bulbs: If the prices go up much beyond 

 what many of the later orders were 

 booked at last season, it will mean a de- 

 creased rather than an increased trade 

 to the Holland grower, as the prices have 

 already reached a level above which 

 they cannot go if a profit is to be left to 

 the forcer. Of course if the Dutch grow- 

 er found he could not book sufficient 

 orders on account of too high prices, 

 down would come his quotations. There 

 are now so many smaller growers who 

 export and travel in England that once 

 they reach England and have spent a 

 considerable amount on the journey they 

 must take some orders home even if at 

 lower figures; consequently there is not 

 much fear of prices getting far beyond 

 the forcers' figure. In fact, the signs 

 are apparent that with an ever increas- 

 ing production in Holland and the growth 

 of stocks in other parts of the world, 

 and various other causes, prices proba- 

 bly will in the not far distant future 

 decline very considerably. J. B. 



STORAGE OF BAY TREES. 



Will you kindly ask some of your nu- 

 merous writers to tell us how to take 

 care of bay trees? I have four large ones 

 in the north end of my store. They have 

 plenty of air; windows always down at 

 the top. The plants are losing their 

 leaves. M. E. E. 



We used to be puzzled what to do with 

 bay trees over winter, not that we did 

 not know what they wanted, but did not 

 have the place, so four years ago we 

 built a wooden shed with large windows 

 on the sides and roof, and a hot-water 

 pipe running around the sides. In mild 

 weather we have no need of turning on 

 the heat and in severe weather we only 

 try to keep the temperature a degree or 

 two above freezing; that is an ideal 

 place. Without that convenience you 



can keep them in the coolest part of the 

 potting shed, and years ago we had no 

 better place than the coolest end of the 

 greenhouse. Wherever they are, espe- 

 cially if in the greenhouse shed, where 

 they would be under the influence of dry 

 heat, you must never let them get very 

 dry at the roots. Hundreds of sweet 

 bays are lost every winter and blamed to 

 cold when dryness is the real cause. 



A little experience may be of value. 

 We went to the house of a Avealthy patron 

 to look at a number of sweet bays in 

 tubs which were stored in the basement. 

 Some three or four of them stood close 

 to an area window which had been left 

 open during zero weather; still, as the 

 whole basement ' * except where the cham- 

 pagne rested" was steam heated, we 

 could not believe the temperature could 

 get low enough to hurt the trees. Then 

 we found the soil in the tubs as dry as 

 dust, and that explained the trouble, but 

 the trees were ruined. 



The writer spent his youth in the land 

 where the sweet bay grows unprotected 

 to a large- bush, almost a tree, and has 

 seen them pass through winters that went 

 as low as 20 degrees of frost, but there 

 the roots Avere moist, the leaves and wood 

 full of sap, and they could stand it. It 

 is quite different where the roots are 

 cramped and starved in a tub. Anywhere 

 that does not go below 5 degrees of frost, 

 if the roots are kept wet, will do for 

 sweet bays. W. S. 



GERANIUM CUTTINGS. 



What is the latest date geraniums can 

 be rooted so that they will flower in 

 4-inch pots by May 30? C. A. H. 



I would like to say March 1, for there 

 would be little difference between that 

 date and February 1. It all depends 

 how you hurry them along. We have 

 rooted thousands of zonal geraniums on 

 February 1 ; that is, we put the un- 

 rooted cuttings into 2-inch pots on that 

 date. They were rooted in four or five 

 weeks; then for want of room on the 

 benches, or want of time, they were left 

 in the little pots till May 1. They be- 

 came stunted and most of the roots 

 perished; then it was impossible to make 

 good plants by May 30. It would be 

 wiser for me to say that the middle of 

 February is as late as you should propa- 

 gate, and just as soon as they are well 

 rooted shift into 4-ineh pots and you 

 should have a nice plant in bloom by 

 the end of May. In shifting from 2- 

 inch to 4-inch, use a strong, heavy loam, 

 pot firmly, and instead of animal manure 

 to enrich your soil use a 5-inch pot of 

 bone flour with every bushel of soil. 



W. S. 



FORCING SPIRAEA. 



Will you please give cultural direc- 

 tions for forcing Spiraea floribunda and 

 S. Gladstone, in order to have them in 

 bloom for Easter and Decoration dav? 



W. J. O. 



Start the roots at the end of January, 

 and give thcni, at the start, a tempera- 

 ture of 50 degrees. They can be re- 

 tarded or forced by raising or lowering 

 the temperature, as circumstances may 

 require. Don't subject them to the 

 fumes of tobacco. The last two weeks 

 before you expect to sell them stand 

 each plant in a saucer, in which keep 

 an inch of weak li<^uid maiiure. It will 

 greatlv iniproxe the plant and flower. 



W. S. 



DAPHNE ODORA. 



Under separate cover you will find a 

 spray from a plant which I wisli to know 

 the name of, also when and tlie best way 

 of propagating. C. A. D. 



The specimen shoot is from Daphne 

 odora, also sometimes called D. odorata. 

 This is a cool greenhouse variety, not 

 nearly so much seen as its merits would 

 seem to warrant. Propagation may be ef- 

 fected either by grafting or cuttings. The 

 first method will sooner produce salable 

 stock, as the plant is naturally of slow 

 growth. Plants of one of the hardier daph- 

 nes, like D. Laureola, are generally used as 

 stocks. If cuttings are used they should 

 be rubbed off with a heel, or at least be 

 from well ripened shoots. If inserted in 

 pots or flats of sandy peat or loam and 

 kept in a cold house over winter they 

 will callous and send out roots in spring, 

 when they may be potted off singly. The 

 cuttings root slowly and should be kept 

 in a cold house. They will not stand 

 anything like the average propagating 

 house temperature. W. N. C. 



MUM MRS. THIRKELL. 



Will you please tell me if it is tlie 

 nature of chrysanthemum Mrs. E. Thir- 

 kell to have a weak stem? Mine were 

 very weak the past season. What can 

 be done to correct it? I did not find 

 this variety on exhibition at the Kan- 

 sas City show. P. S. 



The stem of Thirkell is rather weak 

 in some sections unless it is grown par- 

 ticularly well. Exhibitors who grow it 

 largely, owing to its enormous size, 

 plant a foot apart early in May and 

 take a crown bud as soon as one ap- 

 pears after August 12. The stem at 

 Ijcst is hardly strong enough for the 

 enormous flower and the foliage in 

 many sections last year was diseased. 

 Select your stock very carefully and 

 don't grow too many of it unless you 

 need it for exhibiting. C. H. T. 



A HNE CLIMBER. 



Will Mr. Scott kindly tell me the name 

 of the enclosed? It is a beautiful plant 

 here in Alabama, covered with clusters 

 of small red berries. M. T. G. 



The leaf and little cluster of orange 

 and red berries sent is Celastrus scan- 

 dens. There are many species, widely 

 scattered, but scandens is our native, 

 strong-growing climber and is found 

 from Dakota to New Mexico, and in the 

 eastern states is very commonly known 

 as the bittersweet. It is one of our very 

 best hardy climbers and for covering 

 the sides and roof of rustic arbors or 

 summer-houses it has no equal. I don't 

 think we of the cold and snowy north- 

 east sae as much of the pretty blossoms 

 and handsome fruit as you do in the 

 sunny and milder south. W. S. 



Baltimore, Md. — The marriage of 

 Alverda Mary Easter to Robert Halliday 

 January 24 has been announced. Mr. 

 and Mrs. Halliday will be at home after 

 February 20 at 1024 Bolton street. 



New Galilee, Pa. — William F. Lauch 

 has removed all his greenhouses from 

 Carrick, Pa., and is now rebuilding his 

 plant here. The business is conducted 

 under the style of W. F. Lauch Flo- 

 rist Co. 



