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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



June 14, 1000. 



Stock Requiring Pot Culture. 



There are a few important commercial 

 plants that do not lift at all well in the 

 fall; neither do they propagate by cut- 

 tings taken from plants in the open 

 ground. The lemon verbena (aloysia) 

 and the lantana are two of these. Giv© 

 them a small shift and plunge outdoors; 

 then after a few months' rest in the 

 houses during Avinter they give you the 

 right sort of cuttings. 



Fuchsias. 



The fuchsias also belong to plants that 

 want this treatment. If you have not 

 already selected a few plants of all 

 varieties that are desirable, you should 

 do so at once and grow them under glass 

 or outside in the shade and produce as 

 large plants as you can, plants that have 

 good strong wood. By August they 

 should be placed where they will get 

 the full sun, so that the wood will ripen. 

 Before hard frost store them beneath a 

 bench, with little water for a month or 

 more, and then after the unripened ends 

 of the shoots are cut back and they are 

 started growing again you will get cut- 

 tings that will make vigorous plants. 



The principal thing is to select a few 

 of your strongest plants at once. The 

 same old plants that you treated this 

 way last spring will do service as stock 

 plants for several years. 



Heliotrope is another plant that 

 neither lifts well nor gives you cuttings 

 in the fall, and a few plants should be 

 carried over in pots. When cut back in 

 midwinter they will give you plenty of 

 cuttings. 



Poinsettias. 



Polnsettias that were started growing 

 about May 1 will now have sent out 

 plenty of young growths, which root 

 readily, but if you do not want as early 

 plants as these cuttings would make, 

 then cut them off one or two eyeff above 

 the old wood and they will break and 

 give you two or three cuttings instead 

 of one. Poinsettias root at any time 

 from spring until fall, provided they 

 are not allowed to wilt from sun or neg- 

 lect of water. They must be shaded in 

 all bright hours and faithfully kept wet 

 in the propagating sand. In very hot 

 or bright weather, once a day may not 

 be enough. Water the sand copiously 

 twice a day. Don't be afraid. 



Another critical time with the poin- 

 settias is just after potting off from 

 the propagating bed. For the first two 

 weeks there must be no neglect. Be as 

 careful with shading and watering as 

 you were while the cuttings were in 

 the sand. After once making roots in 

 the pots they endure the brightest sun 

 and must have it. 



The Rambler Roses. 



Crimson Rambler and other ramblers 

 want watchful care just now. That is, 

 those grown in pots under glass during 

 summer, the method I still believe the 

 best to make plants well flowered from 

 pot to summit of growth. We often get 

 our hottest weather at the end of June 



and if the tender and unripened shoots 

 of these roses are neglected for water, 

 mildew will set in, which much weakens 

 the growth and the strength of the eyes, 

 which will now be forming. From these 

 eyes come the trusses of bloom that 

 you are looking forward to next spring. 

 Copious waterings and daily heavy 

 syringings must be given the rambler 

 roses. By the end of August they will 

 have made all the growth desirable' and 

 can then be stood outdoors to ripen their 

 wood. You then have canes and eyes 

 that are bound to give you a truss of 

 bloom at every eye. 



Mildew. 



Many may think that mildew is pro- 

 duced only by a draught of cold air or 

 sudden change of temperature. Other 

 causes account for it. Any condition 

 that causes a check to the vitality of 

 the plant will account for the appear- 

 ance of mildew, and surely a severe dry- 

 ing at the root and consequent loss of 

 sap in stem and leaf lays the plant open 

 to the attacks of this minute fungus. 

 The plant's resistant powers are gone 

 and the spores of the fungus find con- 

 genial conditions for work. 



An illustration of this may be noticed 

 in the attempt to grow the European 

 gooseberry, such a delicious fruit in tem- 

 perate and northern Europe, especially 

 in the north of England and Scotland. 

 In North America they are attacked by 

 mildew. Cold days of spring are not 

 responsible, but rather the tropical days 

 of June. 



Cyclamen. 



An important plant that is often neg- 

 lected at this busy season is the beauti- 

 ful cyclamen. These plants now are 

 mostly in 2%-inch pots and the strong- 

 est in 3-inch pots, growing fast and 

 easily hurt by neglect. They will now 

 be ready to go into 4-inch pots and into 

 quarters where they will spend the next 

 four months. They are, I think safest 

 in a small house facing south, with the 

 bench well elevated near the glass, and 

 above all the pots surrounded by ^tobacco 

 stems. If this is done there will be little 

 need of fumigation. The house should 

 have an abundance of ventilation. 



I am aware that some experts on this 

 pretty plant use mild hotbeds for the 

 sake of bottom heat, while still others 

 employ cold frames. This is all right 

 where the firm makes a specialty of this 

 plant, but there is a risk of neglect 

 where things are not continually under 

 your eye and that is why I recommend 

 the small house for the small grower. 



Cyclamens like abundance of light, yet 

 the full blaze of a July sun is too ex- 

 hausting for them and exposed to it they 

 become stunted and crippled, so no 

 trouble should be spared to shade them 

 during the hot, bright hours of the day,, 



tf«.;n. . 



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An Easter Basket by Muir, Chicago. 



