464 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



JULT 12, 1906. 



townards. Here the hybridizing and 

 grafting of roses is done; grapes and 

 fruit trees in large quantities are grown ; 

 ornamental shrubs and perennials are an 

 important feature. Hardy phloxes are 

 rapidly gaining in i)opular favor. A 

 general line of nursery and garden stock 

 is grown. Forest trees are now bought 

 from elsewhere instead of being grown 

 on the place as formerly. 



The second farm consists of seventy 

 acres. It is at Ledbury, Herefordshire, 

 England. Here twenty acres of roses 

 are grown. The third farm is at Black- 

 ford, near Dublin. It consists of twenty 

 acres and has just been acquired this 

 season. 



There 9"»e about a dozen greenhouses 

 at Newtowjards. They aggregate about 

 25,000 square feet of glass and are 

 used merely for grafting roses, for 

 grapes and for general propagating and 

 growing smnll stock. The annual out- 

 put is about 300,000 roses, all budded. 

 The old varieties are dug from the open 

 ground in the fall ; some of the newer 

 varieties are sent out in 5-inch pots in 

 June. 



While Mr, Dickson's visit here is 

 jiurely for recreation, he spent several 

 days at W. Atlee Burpee & Co, 's at 



Fordhook, comparing the growth of dif- 

 ferent varieties with that made at home. 

 He considers Fordhook a most wonder- 

 ful place, its thorough system command- 

 ing admiration. He doubted whether 

 such perfect trial grounds could be 

 found anywhere else. 



A new variety of edible pea originated 

 by Mr, Dickson is now on trial at Ford- 

 hook. It is believed to be an improve- 

 ment on Gradus and if suited to our 

 climate and conditions it will be sent 

 out, probably next season, by W. Atlee 

 Burpee & Co. Mr. Dickson considers 

 Mr, Burpee 's judgment on sweet peas 

 excellent and this, coupled with his wide 

 knowledge of varieties and perfect can- 

 dor, made him an invaluable ally for 

 Mr. Eckford, whose novelties he will 

 again send out simultaneously with their 

 introduction in England. 



Mr, Dickson spoke with pleasure of 

 the reception tendered him by the Flor- 

 ists' Club of Philadelphia, and said to 

 be sure to tell his friends that he still 

 remembers with pleasure his visit of sev- 

 enteen years ago, and how at the 

 Thorndyke hotel in Boston, some of "^em 

 tried to convince him that the Wootton 

 was a red, red rose. 



Phil. 



CARNATION NOTES.-WEST. 



Making I^eady for Planting;. 



By the middle of July there are few 

 beds of carnations that are really worth 

 saving, and it will pay you to throw 

 them all out and get your houses in shape 

 to plant from the field. We like to keep 

 on cutting carnations until the early as- 

 ters make their appearance, but after 

 that time we have little use for them. 

 That time is about here, and the throw- 

 ing out process will soon be completed. 

 We have many beds that have been 

 empty for several weeks, beds that con- 

 tained varieties that will not stand hot 

 weather. Such varieties as Enchantress, 

 Lawson, and The Belle, Flambeau, H.ir- 

 lowarden, Ethel ("rocker, etc., have been 

 giving us fine blooms uj) to now, and we 

 hate to see t'>em go to make room for 

 the new stocl, 



it does not pay to put off the start 

 until the last minute. There is sure to 

 be some repairing of ))pds or benches 

 needed, and usually we find more than 

 we expected. The large carnation spe- 

 cialist, who groAvs but little else, of 

 course has been at this ever since his 

 young stock was all out in the field, but 

 the retail grower, who tries to cover the 

 whole field, from jiansies to American 

 Beauties, has his hands full all the time 

 and must keep his wits about iiim. or he 

 will put off some of these operations un- 

 til they are obliged to forfeit their place 

 in the line of march. When carnation 

 planting was done mostly in September 

 it was not necessary to think of them 

 until all the roses and mums were 

 benched, and all the painting done, be- 

 sides a lot of other things. But times 

 and conditions have changed. Xo soon- 



er are the roses and mums in, than you 

 must be ready to go right at the carna- 

 tion preparations. 



Of course it will depend largely on 

 how many you plant as to the degree 

 of haste required. If you plant only 

 one house it will not take you long to do 

 the job, but if you plant 25,000 plants, 

 or more, it will take some time. The 

 earlier you begin the more thorough you 

 can make the preparations, and they 

 siiouid be completed before you begin 

 planting. It will do no harm if the soil 

 is on the bench a month before planting 

 time, so get in the new soil as soon as 

 you can, 



Cleaniog Up. 



Do not empty a bench and let the 

 sun beat on the boards for days before 

 you refill it, but fill it at once, after 

 cleaning off all the old soil. If the old 

 j)lants were infested with red spider 

 take the hose and wash off all the wood- 

 work and the walls when the beds are 

 empty. You can do it better then than 

 any other time, and it is a good way to 

 destroy many of these pests that may 

 have remaineil when the j)lants were 

 taken out. Jf the house is entirely 

 empty it is a good plan to fumigate 

 it thoroughly with sulphur before re- 

 planting, but b(! sure there are no 

 plants in the liouse which you want to 

 keep. This is perhaps the strongest point 

 in favor of detached houses. You can 

 fumigate one house without doing the 

 same to the whole place. 



Clean up thoroughly under the benches, 

 in the walks, in fact from end to end. 

 If you cannot fumigate with sulphur it 

 is a good plan to smoke heavily with to- 

 bacco stems, Tlie smoke will reach nooks 

 and corners that you never reach when 

 sprajipg with liquid and therefore will 

 reach many insects that succumb to the 



fumes that would never be reached other- 

 wise. 



Soil to be Used. 



When refilling the beds put a layer of 

 half rotted cow manure on the bottom 

 about an inch thick. Some growers ob- 

 ject to this, but we have always found 

 it a good practice. On top of this fill 

 in your soil so as to make the whole 

 about four inches thick. Four inches i» 

 plenty to set the plants in properly with- 

 out spreading the roots out unduly. If 

 it could be done in less depth I would 

 advise less soil, but four inches, count- 

 ing the manure, we find just about right. 

 When planting from small pots we make 

 the soil shallower and we have just as 

 good success, ' 



When filling in the soil break up all 

 the lumps with your shovel, Carnationa 

 do not like a lumpy soil, but it should 

 not be screened as I have seen done. In 

 the latter case it will lie too close and 

 you screen out too much fibre and 

 manure, botl\ of which are rich in plant 

 food. If the soil is to lie a couple of 

 weeks before planting, then let it dry 

 out ; it will do no harm. If you kept it 

 moist that long you would likely have to 

 pull a crop of weeds before you could 

 plant. True, there would be that many 

 less to pull afterward, but it would not 

 amount to the same 'in the end, as you 

 might suppose. 



The Question of Weeds. 



I have never considered a crop of weeds 

 such a curse as many are wont to do, I 

 would rather plant in a batch of soil 

 that has in it in the shape of seed a lot 

 of strong growing weeds than in a soil 

 entirely free from anything of that kind. 

 In the latter case you set your plants and 

 water them; every time you water the 

 soil settles down tighter and tighter, 

 and when it gets dry it bakes and be- 

 comes less fit for plants to grow in every 

 day. On the other hand, you set in 

 your plants and water thoroughly. 

 The weed seeds germinate and throw 

 out their strong young roots, which keep 

 the soil open and alive. By the time 

 they are large enough to pull and the 

 second batch is pulled, your plants have 

 become established and are sending their 

 roots through the soil, which will act in 

 the same way as the weeds did, A soil 

 that has nothing growing in it is dead 

 and the longer it remains that way the 

 worse it ge);8; a dead soil when kept 

 moist soon becomes soured and poisonous 

 to the plants set in it. Of course you 

 don 't want to let the weeds grow long 

 enough to extract most of the plant foo5 

 from the soil; that would be folly, but 

 even that would be preferable to the 

 other, because you can replace that. How- 

 ever, they will not take out much food 

 if j)ulled as soon as they are large 

 enougli. 



Level the soil as you fill the beds and 

 see that the beds are well filled along the 

 edge. If leveled, if the soil dries out 

 it will dry over the whole bed and can 

 bo watered evenly when wanted for 

 j)lanting. Mix in the bone a few days 

 before you plant and water enough to 

 put it in proper shape for planting. 

 Thirty-five pounds of bone to a bed 5x 

 100 is about right, and rake it into the 

 soil well. Leave all other stimulants un- 

 til later on, when you can see by the 

 behavior of the plants what is needed. 



A. F, J. Baur, 



Iron WOOD, Mich. — R. Lutey is build- 

 ing an addition of two houses to his 



