Fkbbuaky 15, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



845 



View in the New Florists' Supply Department of the A. L. Randall Co., Chicago. 



the curtain will be suflScient. When you 

 open the ventilators will be time enough 

 to lay on the papers. 



Watch the sand closely, so it does not 

 dry out too much. If the sand is not 

 fairly moist the cuttings will suffer se- 

 verely on such a day. It should not be 

 any more moist, however, than you keep 

 it in the winter. Heavy watering will 

 not prevent wilting. You must be more 

 careful to keep the cuttings fresh all the 

 way through than you were up to now, 

 if that IS possible. Take otf all your 

 cuttings early in the morning while they 

 are fresh and crisp. Wet them with cool 

 water and trim them in a cool place. 

 These things will count later on, when the 

 cutting is battling for its life. Do not 

 take cuttings that are too young and 

 soft, as they will wilt easily. A well- 

 niatured, fair size cutting will prove 

 most satisfactory. Wetting do^vu the 

 walks, the bench boards, etc., Avill help 

 to keep the atmosphere moist, too. It is 

 too early yet to put a heavy permanent 

 shade on the glass. There will be many 

 days when you will want all the light 

 you can get on tne cuttings. 



A. F. J. BwR. 



two blooms and twenty-five cuttings are 

 a good lot to cut from one plant and if 

 it does that well for you right along it 

 will be a very profitable sort, though the 

 blooms may not grade as fancy. Nelson 

 never did that well for us, but was rather 

 inclined to run to grass; that is the only 

 thing that causes me to doubt about 

 your plant being that variety. I would 

 like to see a good bloom of it. 



A. r. J. Baur. 



A FREE BLOOMER. 



I am sending a carnation l)K»(»in and 

 would like to Know what variety it is. 

 There was one plant of it mixed witli 

 some stock I bought last season. It has 

 given more flowers than any other plant 

 in the house. Up to February .") 1 have 

 cut twenty-one blooms, taken off twenty- 

 five cuttings and there are now eleven 

 buds on the plant, which will bloom be- 

 fore March. I would like to get some 

 more plants that will do as well. J. C. 



The carnation bloom you sent was 

 badly frozen when it reached me and I 

 could not say with any certainty what 

 the variety is. The stem, calyx and the 

 color and one or two petals looked very 

 much like Mrs. E. A. Nelson. Thirty- 



THE CENTRAL MARKET. 



for a long time it was the popular be- 

 lief that the large eastern cities were 

 in a position to claim an hereditary right 

 to the business in florists' supplies for 

 this country. This did not cause them 

 to relax their vigilance in any particular, 

 for competition has been keen between 

 cities as well as between the several firms. 

 < 'hicago has boon one of their most closely 

 I'ontested battle-gro\inds and they were 

 for years without local competition. 



But it lias gradually come to be tho 

 belief that Chicago is as well endowed 

 with natural advantages as any other 

 city in this country for the handling of 

 florists' supplies in a large way. E. IT. 

 Hunt has built up a large business in this 

 department and lately considerably ex- 

 tended its scope by handling various 

 novelties. Winterson and McKellar are 

 factors, L. Baumann & Co. are doing a 

 good business with certain specialties, and 

 tho A. L. Randall Co. has now embarked 

 in the field with a large, well selected 

 and complete stock of florists' supplies 

 and every facility and intention of build- 

 ing up a far-reaching mail order busi- 

 ness. The Chicago Rose Co. is just fitting 

 up and stocking an establishment in I 

 which florists' supplies will be a large 

 feature, and it appears that Chicago men 

 mean to have their city take rank with 

 New York and Philadelphia as a distrib- 

 uting point for the innumerable requisites 

 which have become so important fi feat- 



ure of every up-to-date cut flower busi- 

 ness. At least competition will be suf- 

 ficiently keen so that the trade will have 

 no fear that undue profits are being 

 made on the staples. 



BEST AZALEAS. 



A writer in the Gardeners' Magazine 

 suggests the following as a list of azaleas 

 * ' remarkable for their distinctness and 

 high quality: Alice, rose, blotched with 

 red, double; ApoUon, white, flaked with 

 rose; Carl Encke, bright salmon, mar- 

 gined with white, and striped with pur- 

 ple: Deutsche Perle, pure white, semi- 

 double, invaluable for forcing; Eugene 

 Mazol, rose-lilac; Jean Vervaene, bright 

 rose-pink, tipped with white; Kaiser Wil- 

 helm, rich rose, double ; Leon Pynaert, 

 rose-carmino. marked with purple on the 

 upper segments; Madame Charles van 

 Kcckhaulc, pure white, dou))le ; Madame 

 Dominique Vervaene, rose, marked on the 

 upper segments with roso-purple; Mdlle. 

 ^iaril■ van lloutto, white, feathered with 

 rose-salmon ; President Oswald de Ker- 

 cliove, rose-pink, margined with white ; 

 Roi d'llollande, rich scarlet; Souvenir 

 (le Francois Vervaene, white, flaked with 

 rose ; and Temperance, rich mauve-purple, 

 a very pleasing shade of color, and valu- 

 al)le for its distinctness. I have not seen 

 this variety catalogued, and I would 

 therefore mention that it was shown by 

 Mr. Charles Turner, of Slough, at one 

 of the spring exhibitions of the Royal 

 Botanic Society." 



POSTS SET IN CEMENT. 



[ have a lot of good sound white oak 

 posts that I want to use for the side 

 walls of a house. The posts are four 

 inches square. How deep should these 

 posts be set in the ground? Would there 

 be any advantage in setting them in ce- 

 ment; that is, putting three or four 

 inches of cement in bottom of hrlr 



