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82 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



Mat si, 1906. 



off the victory, promiging the members 

 an interesting meeting and a jolly good 

 time in the old Crescent City. 



The annual dues were fixed at $1, 

 there being no initiation fee. The char- 

 ter roll will be left open yet awhile, so as 

 to permit all florists to join the society 

 at this nominal rate. 



The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p. m. 

 with mutual congratulations and the 

 promise to work for the welfare of the 

 new society. 



ANTS. 



Will you please inform me how I can 

 get rid of ants outdoors? C. J. E. 



Ants are very troublesome garden 

 pests, and when present in large num- 



bers are about the hardest thing I 

 know of to eradicate. Several plans are 

 adopted. Bailey, in the "Horticultur- 

 ists' Rule Book," recommends bisul- 

 phide of carbon. This is poured into 

 holes six inches deep and a foot apart, 

 the holes being immediately filled up. 



An old method of trapping them is to 

 use bones from which the meat has just 

 been cut. Laid near to where the ants 

 are, these will soon be covered with the 

 busy little fellows. The best means of 

 killing is to immerse in boiling water. 

 After the bones have • dried off, they 

 again may be placed as before, where the 

 ants are working; and with a little at- 

 tention to the dipping of the bones as 

 they are covered, large quantities are 

 soon caught and destroyed. 



W, S. Croydon. 



Saving Tulip Bulbs. 



There are many of our thrifty cus- 

 tomers who think they can save the old 

 tulip bulbs and replant in the fall and 

 expect as fine a show as the first year. 

 The way the tulips are treated it cannot 

 be done. If the bulbs were undisturbed 

 until the Fourth of July, they then 

 would have the month of June to ma- 

 ture and ripen the young bulb that is to 

 flower next spring. As it is, the tulips 

 have only just dropped their petals when 

 our customers want the beds replenished 

 with geraniums, cannas or some other 

 summer bedding plant, so the bulbs are 

 ruthlessly dug up, just when they are 

 making the growth of bulb for another 

 year. If you attempt to save the bulbs 

 for another year, leave the tops entire. 

 Cut nothing away, and store them where 

 they will be dry, but in the shade. 



An amateur in our city, who has a 

 large garden of splendid late tulips, 

 was asked if he disturbed his tulips 

 often. He replied that he only dug 

 them once in three years, and if the 

 ground is good I think that is good ad- 

 vice, and they then should be dug only 



in September, when the bulb is perfectly 

 dormant. 



Late Tulips Profitable. 



A bed of late tulips would pay any 

 florist who has the ground to spare. The 

 early varieties that force so well make 

 a gorgeous show in the month of May, 

 but are over and gone before Memorial 

 day. The late varieties, like the Parrot 

 and Gesneriana, are in their prime at 

 that important floral day. Most of the 

 late tulips are very inexpensive, and it 

 would not cost much to plant half an 

 acre. All the labor would be to keep 

 the ground free of weeds and give a 

 good dressing of manure every fall, and 

 every third or fourth year Uft, divide 

 and replant. 



. Planting a BccU 



Yearly I have something to say about 

 how to plant a flower bed, say of zonal 

 geraniums, cannas or any other flower- 

 ing plants. Most of the flower beds we 

 are asked to plant are rounded up. This 

 may be all right for appearance, but it 

 certainly is not healthy for the plants, 

 for a shower, or even a heavy rain, has 



little chance to penetrate the soil, but 

 washes off to the edges. Even with a 

 hose you have to water a long time to 

 get the moisture where it will do good. 



Make liberal holes and set the plants 

 in position, putting in only soil enough 

 around the balls to keep the plants in 

 position. When all are planted get the 

 hose and fill copiously each hole the 

 plants are sitting in. Not only will you 

 be thoroughly watering the roots, but 

 the adjacent soil will be soaked, from 

 which the roots can absorb moisture for 

 a long time. 



After the water has soaked away it 

 takes only a few seconds to fill the holes 

 with dry soil. This can be done quickly 

 with a rake and the dry soil acts as a 

 mulch and does not bake, as it would 

 if you watered on the surface. If sim- 

 ply put into the ground, and two weeks 

 of dry weather set in, the roots roast 

 and perish, leaves turn yellow, and it's 

 a poor start. This method takes a little 

 more time, but what is that compared 

 to the welfare of the plants the whole 

 summer ? 



Hose vs. Hoe. ' 



There is much harm done in the gar- 

 den by the senseless use of the hose. 

 Seldom do the zonal geraniums 'need any 

 artificial watering. The finest I have 

 ever seen never had a drop but what 

 fell from the dov "s, except that first 

 thorough watering Plants with large 

 foliage, like Qann' ■ and caladiums, will 

 take lots of watei. Some small plants, 

 like pansies and verbenas, must be 

 watered in dry times, and dahlias enjoy 

 a soaking occasionally, but this promis- 

 cuous sprinkling every evening, just suffi- 

 cient to bake the surface, is not only 

 useless, but an actual injury. If you 

 can thoroughly soak a flower bed once 

 a week, in the absence of rain, and then 

 be sure to hoe the next day, you have 

 done some good, but if you can't find 

 time to hoe, then don't water. Hoeing, 

 or keeping the surface loose and porous, 

 is of far more importance than water- 

 ing. 



Plant Plenty Mums. 



In a week's time you will be over the 

 rush and have an opportunity to attend 

 to some important work at home. Get- 

 ting the chrysanthemums on the bench 

 will be one of the first jobs. There is 

 another scribe who tells you most ably 

 all about the mums, and I only want to 



Lily of the Valley at the Establishment of E. Neubert, Wandsback, Germany. 



