May 24, 1906. 



TheWcckly Florists' Review. 



Bed of Canna Souvenir de Antoine Crozy Edged with Pennisetiim Longiitylum. 



A good size for a box is ten inches 

 wide at the top, nine inches at the bot- 

 tom and six inches deep, with several 

 augur holes in the bottom to afford a 

 drainage. Have tnem made in six-foot 

 lengths, so that they can be handled by 

 two men and can be filled at the green- 

 house. Such a box, painted dark green, 

 or the same color as the veranda, is worth 

 about 35 cents per lineal foot. The fill- 

 ing may vary according to quality, but 

 a fair price is 75 cents per foot. 



1 meant to add in connection with 

 cemetery talk that too many people 

 think it essential that their iron vase 

 must be painted white, and this adds to 

 the monotonous glare of scarlet and 

 white. There should be more dark green, 

 drab or stone color. They soil and show 

 much less rust than when white, and it 

 is a pleasant change to the everlasting 

 white now so generally used. 



Filliag the Vases. 



You should not fill these boxes or 

 vases and let them stand in a green- 

 house, for they quickly make a forced 

 growth, which suffers greatly when ex- 

 posed to outside elements. Fill them in 

 your back yard and, after one thorough 

 watering and time allowed to settle and 

 dry, ship them off to their destination. 



The last word is — remember that after 

 they make roots they will not have a 

 seventh of the space in which to grow 

 that plants have in a sensibly planted 

 flower bed, and therefore not only should 

 the soil be fresh and good, but in addi- 

 tion to a fourth of animal manure you 

 should add a quart of bone meal to every 

 bushel of soil. 



Unreasonable people, and that means 

 the great majority, especially the dear 

 ladies, expect a verandr- box to look as 

 full and blooming on the day it arrives 

 as on the first day of August, so it is 

 necessary that you put in the plants 

 twice as thick as they should be and a 



crowding takes place later, when thin- 

 ning out must be done. Instruct your 

 patrons on this point if you want a con- 

 tinuance of their patronage. 



William Scott. 



PENNISETUM FOR EDGING. 



For the edging of beds of many mod- 

 erately tall-growing plants there is no 

 better material than the pennisetum. It 

 is now late for growing one's own stock, 

 but all dealers in herbaceous plants will 

 supply the two common varieties at a 

 price which makes them not expensive. 

 The name comes from penna, a feather, 

 and seta, a bristle, and is aptly descrip- 

 tive, for at a distance the euect is 

 feather-like, while the spike is composed 

 of bearded bristles. P. longistylum is, 

 perhaps, the finest grass commonly grown 

 for its flowers. At Lincoln park, Chi- 

 cago, each season P. longistylum is used 

 to very good effect as edging for beds of 

 cannas. 



The propagation of the pennisetum is 

 very simple. Take up three or four 

 clumps in the fall, trim off the foliage, 

 etc., place in a box and set them under 

 the bench in a house with a tempera- 

 ture of 40 or 45 degrees. In Marcb 

 shake out the soil, tear the clumps to 

 pieces and pot the 'pieces in a 3-inch or 

 4-inch pot. They are then placed in a 

 house with a temperature of 60 degrees 

 and an even moisture maintained. They 

 make plants in a short time and are 

 bedded out the latter part of May or 

 early in June. 



The plants can also be grown from 

 seed, but the above method makes plants 

 quicker. To start a stock seed could be 

 used. Early sowing is always necessary 

 in order to get a showing before the 

 season is over. The old plants may be 

 taken up and wintered anywhere that 

 frost is not admitted. In the spring 

 some growers divide into pieces for a 

 3-in('li pot, set in flats of soil in a 



greenhouse to start growth, then pot, 

 later move to a cold frame and they have 

 less need for care and an earlier showing. 



THE BUILDING BOOM. 



Referring to recent comments on the 

 extent of this year's boom in greenhouse 

 building, A. Dietsch Co., Chicago, through 

 Carl Ickes, supplies some interesting par- 

 ticulars. The increase in their business 

 the present season has been much the 

 greatest in the history of the concern, 

 which was one of the first in the west to 

 take up the supplying of greenhouse ma- 

 terial. Years ago Mr. Dietsch did a gen- 

 eral milling business in what was then 

 the outskirts of Chicago. He supplied 

 all sorts of lumber milled for all sorts 

 of uses. Nothing was more natural than 

 that, when greenhouse building began 

 north of Chicago, he should be called on 

 for roof material. It was not long be- 

 fore this became the principal depart- 

 ment of the business. Mr. Dietsch al- 

 ways has enjoyed the full confidence of 

 the largest growers for the Chicago mar- 

 ket and Mr. Ickes says that it is be- 

 cause three or four of them are building 

 big ranges that their business shows such 

 a phenomenal increase this year. He 

 has special reference to Budlong and the 

 Reinbergs, but their largest order, for 

 material for a plant of 110,400 square 

 feet of glass, came from a concern in 

 Ohio. 



Up to May 12 the season's orders to- 

 taled 166 greenhouses of varying dimen- 

 sions. Of these all but sixteen houses 

 had been shipped and quite a number 

 were up and planted. Of these 150 

 houses Mr. Ickes figured that the aver- 

 age width was twenty-one feet two inches 

 and the average length 171 feet three 

 inches. However, of the total, 7,208 lineal 

 feet wrere of their patent short-roof con- 

 struction, which considerably reduces the 

 average width. These short-roof houses 

 average 144 feet in length. They find 



