80 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



■ A-^ ^V; ,'-'r:5 



May 31, 1906. 



under glass the more highly and richly 

 colored will be the bloom. 



Retarded lily of the valley now consist 

 principally of second rate spikes. As I 

 predicted, the effect of last season's 

 jtoor crop of first quality crowns is now 

 making itself apparent. The selected 

 grades of spixes are very scarce and 

 dear, while second and third quality is 

 a glut. It is a mistake in any year, 

 Mhether crops are heavy or light, to put 



into the icehouse anything but very 

 finest quality crowns. The process of 

 retarding in all cases reduces the qual- 

 ity of spike. 



Jt may interest sweet pea growers to 

 know the secretary of the National Sweet 

 Pea Society is now Charles H. Curtis, 

 whose address is Adalaide road, Brent- 

 fonl, Middlesex, Mr. Wright having re- 

 signed for personal reasons, after giving 

 ethcient service, B. J. 



COMMERCIAL GROWING. 



Young Stock. 



The bedding plant trade is in full 

 blast just now, and to that large class 

 of florists who run chrysanthemums in 

 conjunction with this crop I would say, 

 don't forget your mum stock. If you 

 have not yet enough stock in the sand, 

 attend to it right away and put in what 

 cuttings you may need. 



Not a few claim that it is cheaper to 

 buy stock than to devote time and space 

 to carrying over old stools. As to that, 

 every one knows his own business best, 

 but orders for stock seem particularly 

 heavy this year, and I would advise 

 prospective buyers to see about their 

 stock without delay, as June planting is 

 late enough for early and midseason 

 kinds. 



If you have a batch of plants that 

 need to be planted, it is better to pinch 

 them back and either pot them on, or 

 lujt thinly into flats, than to have them 

 ><itting around, getting dried out every 

 hour and becoming of small value by 

 the time they are needed for planting. 

 The tops of plants so treated can be 

 • used as cuttings and put in the sand. 

 They will do all right for 6-inch pots, 

 or if they are late varieties, like Nonin, 

 <'hadwick or Swinburne, such cuttings 

 will make plants in good time for July 

 l>lanting for late flowers. 



Watering and Spraying. 



The hot days are once more with us, 

 and the chief trouble now is to keep the 

 4 plants watered. Dry winds, small pots 

 an\l a rapid growth combine to make 

 the mum a very thirsty plant these days, 

 and if stock is allowed to dry out a few 

 times the black fly comes, and comes to 

 stay. Why flies should appear so quick- 

 ly on neglected plants is hard to under- 

 stand, but it is a condition and not a 

 theory and can only be combated with 

 tobacco dust, and plenty of it. In addi- 

 tion to the fly, when the plants get hard 

 and woody at the base from lack of 

 water, they never make the satisfactory 

 growth they should make, and the larg- 

 est measure of success is given to the 

 man who never neglects his stock for 

 one single day. 



There is in many quarters an idea that 

 to spray a house with the hot sun shin- 

 ..ig full on it means scalding and burn- 

 ing of the plants. This idea is entirely 

 erroneous, as any one can see who tries 

 it for himself. Evaporation is so rapid 

 that not the least harm will result, but. 



on the contrary, a whole lot of good. 

 A vigorous spray all over the house sev- 

 eral times a day lowers the temperature 

 many degrees and makes life more en- 

 durable for the chrysanthemum, to which 

 the intense heat of a modern greenhouse 

 is a very unnatural condition. 



One of the chief secrets of fine foliage 

 is judicious and persistent spraying. A 

 sprayer that throws a stream in an up- 

 ward direction to get underneath the 

 leaves is a necessity in a mum house dur- 

 ing the summer months. 



Pot Plants. 



If you are figuring on growing quite 

 a few pot plants this year, a good way 

 to handle them is to plant them closely 

 on a bench and grow them there for two 

 or three months. So grown, they take 

 less time in watering and will not need 

 nearly so much care as they would if in 



pots. If a bench is not available, they 

 may be planted outdoors on a rich plot 

 of soil, handy to the water supply. The 

 only trouble with outdoor culture is that 

 in many sections the chinch bug and 

 other bugs are so numerous and so busy 

 that the grower gets little for his 

 trouble after they get theirs. 



By pot plants in this ease I am refer- 

 ring to plants that are grown with six 

 or more flowers on a plant, not the 

 single-stemmed plants I referred to in 

 my last notes. 



Early planted houses are now making 

 a nice start, and if the soil is kept 

 stirred up once a week at least, it keeps 

 the weeds down with a minimum of 

 labor. On hot days spray the foliage, 

 walls and paths several times a day. 

 Charles H. Totty. 



TRIMMING GOLDEN GLOW. 



Will you be so kind as to tell me, iii 

 your next number, what time to trim Rud- 

 beckia Golden Glow so that it will not 

 grow 80 tall and still not interfere with 

 its blooming? I wish to use it as a 

 hedge. B. P. 



This well-known and popular perennial 

 is naturally a rampant grower, and one 

 which spreads very rapidly. If taken up 

 at once, divided and replanted, it will 

 still bloom quite freely, but will not grow 

 to the objectionable height referred to. 

 This is really the only way to reduce its 

 height and still allow it to flower satis- 

 factorily. Starving it at the /oots is not • 

 desirable, as the flowers produced under 

 such conditions would not be creditable. 

 Fall is the best time to do the traiis- 

 planting, any time during the months of 

 September and October being suitable. 

 Better do this, dividing annually at that 

 season, to shorten the stature of the 

 plants. W. N. C. 





ii>:,^ 



VALLEY FOR STORAGE. 



In my letter of February, published 

 in the Review, I gave a detailed article 

 to American lily of the valley growers 

 on cohl storage lily of the valley, point- 

 ing out that the results which a retarded 

 valley crown gives are subject to its 

 selection, and especially advised Ameri- 

 can growers to take the Berlin early- 

 forcing valley pips for cold storage pur- 

 poses. 



This letter has induced Mr. Hansen, 

 valley grower at the Harry Dale Estate, 

 Brampton, Ont., to give a controversial 

 statement, and to call my notes mislead- 

 ing. 



Mr. Hansen wishes me to distinguish 

 between cold storage lily of the valley 

 and retarded cold storage valley. I do 

 not think it necessary that the lilies of 

 the valley on arrival in your country bo 

 placed immediately in cold storage if 

 you want them for forcing from the be- 

 ginning of January until March. This 

 use is surel}' a matter of comfort, and 

 prevents lass of time. A careful stor- 

 age outeide, in the sand, would undoubt- 



edly be better for those which you do not 

 wish to use until spring. 



In my recent letter I spoke only of 

 retarded cold storage lily of the valley, 

 and the gentlemen who wrote the let- 

 ters which induced me to speak of cold 

 storage valley also spoke of valley 

 grown late in summer and harvest. 



I also said that lily of the valley with 

 fibrous, bunchy roots would give as good 

 results as retarded cold storage pips, 

 but drew attention of the growers to 

 the fact that this result depended upon 

 the state of maturity of such stock at 

 the harvest time. 



After a dry, warm summer, these so- 

 called Berlin crowns, grown on light, 

 sandy soil, which usually keeps dry, will, 

 of course, mature very early, and give 

 excellent results when grown for Christ- 

 mas use but will not at all be fit for re- 

 tarded <'old storage purposes. 



After a dull, wet summer, which does 

 not allow them to ripen in October, so 

 that artificial means must be used to 

 make them fit for early Christmas forc- 

 ing, they will slowly ripen in cold stor- 



