280 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



;_.S',xyf ■: 





June 21,. 1906. 



SEASONABLE NOTES. 



There is yet time to put in cuttings of 

 late varieties to be used for late plant- 

 ings, but it is about the hardest time of 

 year to get them to root, as the heat 

 dries up the sap in the cuttings so 

 quickly. A moist atmosphere, heavy 

 shade and continual spraying are neces- 

 sary, and with all precautions the man 

 who roots fifty per cent is doing pretty 

 well at this time of year. Varieties that 

 are naturally late are best to use for late 

 planting. Chadwick, Yellow Chadwick, 

 Mrs. Swinburne, Jeanne Nonin and Mrs. 

 Geo. Beeeh being all excellent late kinds. 



Just as soon as the benches can be 

 filled, the main crop should now be 

 planted, if not already done, as every 

 day that the young stock is neglected 

 means so much less in the net results. 



Every year this question is asked me 

 in one form or another : * * What is the 

 nearest one can plant to make the most 

 money from a bench of a given length?" 

 If one has a market for extra special 

 blooms 8x10 inches is not too much space 

 to allow for each single-stemmed plant, 

 and with some heavy-foliaged varieties 

 even more is better. These flowers 

 should bring the grower half a dolhir 

 each, and if your market will not stand 

 for that price, you might run two stems 

 to each plant instead of one and figure 

 on $3 per dozen as your selling price. 

 Personally, I believe that there are many 

 towns in this country where the ' local 

 florist could make twice as much money 

 on his chrysanthemum crop as he now 

 does make if he grew at least a part of 

 his crop to the highest possible quality, 

 instead of trying to make every plant 

 produce sa many flowers as possible and 

 trusting to providence to provide him 

 with enough funeral work to use them up. 



The florist himself is often to blame 

 for the price he gets for his flowers. 

 Without any but the most vague idea 

 of the cost of producing a crop, he looks 

 on the mum as a space-filler for summer 

 and figures on the winter crop to make 

 his money. Good chrysanthemums are 

 almost as easily grown as poor ones, 



and there is a whole lot more satisfac- 

 tion in marketing the product. If a 

 florist has the reputation of growing the 

 best stock in town it will naturally fol- 

 low that he will pick up the best trade, 

 since well-grown stock in any line is the 

 best advertisement a man can have; and 

 when one is catering to a high-class 

 trade better prices follow as a natural 

 consequence. 



Gluts and low prices always occur in 

 the chrysanthemum season in the large 

 cities, but that condition should not 

 necessarily apply in thousands of 

 smaller towns that boast of one or per- 

 haps two florists' establishments. There 

 the population is steady and demand 

 even, while in large cities the demand 

 fluctuates with the incoming or outgoing 

 of large masses of people. Again, the 

 larger city is used as a dumping ground 

 by local growers when home trade is 

 slack, the natural consequence being 

 that the market gets demoralized. 



One often hears in the fall that ' ' there 

 are too many chrysanthemums grown." I 

 would amend by saying that there are 

 too many poor chrysanthemums grown. 

 Often when I have looked over a batch 



of pooi white and pink Pacific, compet- 

 ing for a buyer with fine late asters, I 

 could not blame the buyer for preferring 

 the asters. Yet, if the former had been 

 well grown, there should be no compari- 

 son between the two. The mum is here 

 to stay, no question about that. Nothing 

 will ever supplant it in its season, and 

 I think if the mum growers had kept 

 everlastingly at it, as the carnation men 

 have, in improving the quality of the 

 flowers, it could be made a much more 

 lucrative business. 



Charles H. Totty. 



PINCHING BAOt \ 



] have several hundred mums potted 

 into 3%-inch and pinched back. Most 

 of them have made three nice shoots. 

 I like to have three flowers on a plant. 

 Must I again pinch these shoots back, 

 or can I leave them? How late can I 

 pinch back chrysanthemums to get a 

 good seasonable crop? A. F. 



It is not necessary to pinch the plants 

 back any more if you have three shoots 

 on each plant and only figure on taking 

 three flowers from each plant, as each 

 shoot will produce a flower, barring acci- 

 dents. I would not advise you to pinch 

 any more now, as unless the plants are 

 very tall, they will not run on an average 

 over three to foai^ feet high and one 

 needs a reasonable length of stem. If 

 plants are tall and thin, they can be 

 pinched once more, solely with the idea 

 of reducing the height at flowering time, 

 but if they are in good shape, dwarf and 

 sturdy, I would say, do not pinch any 

 more. C, H. T. 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS. 



Now the summer flowers are coming 

 on, pretty groups can be arranged for 

 the store in new effects. Have a yellow 

 corner for a change. Choose yellow 

 greens like Boston ferns and Sprengeri 

 for foliage, and snapdragons in yellow, 

 white and bronze in a generous basket- 



Houses of J. L. Stones, Trumansburg:> N. Y^ After the Storm of June 9. 



ful with a full rosette of yellow gauze. 

 At a respectful distance introduce a 

 vase or bowl of Coreopsis lanceolata 

 among a mass of foliage. A lower place 

 will suggest itself as convenient for a 

 fernery containing yellow pansies, or 

 bright salmon sweet peas softened with 

 white. Off at a distance use your full 

 blown Chatenay and Kaiserin in a tall 

 handled basket in close proximity to the 

 red and rose-colored sweet peas. 

 Lavender peas with white are much im- 

 proved by the introduction of a delicate 

 warm pink in small touches. 



An interesting group of Crimson 

 Rambler plants may be arranged some- 

 thing like this: Set one good tall speci- 

 men on a flat stand well up. Group other 

 plants of the same size around it on the 

 floor in a circular shape. Make several 

 groups of its kind at convenient dis- 

 tances apart and fence in the whole dis- 

 play with smaller plants of the same or 

 of Baby Ramblers arranged to resemble 

 a hedge. 



A fine specimen of palm or fern may 

 be mounted in the same way and banked 

 around by several vases of one kind of 

 flowers from the floor up. 



Daisies, to be most effective, should 

 be massed, and massed, and then some, 

 without very much additional foliage. 



