5)6 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Jdly 19, lOOC. 



crumbles off without tearing the roots, 

 no particular harm is done, but you want 

 to get such plants in the earth as quickly 

 as possible. If your carnation field is 

 close to the houses, do not dip the roots 

 in water, but get them planted just as 

 soon as you can. If, however, they 

 will have to be out of the soil a couple 

 of hours, you had better dip them. Get 

 them under cover as soon as possible 

 after digging, and cover with burlap to 

 keep off sun and wind, one as bad as 

 the other. Divide up your force so that 

 each part (the planting and the digging) 

 will progress at about the same speed. 

 Then the plants will not need to lie 

 around and wilt. When digging, select 

 all good, healthy plants. They need not 

 necessarily be of large size, just so they 

 are healthy and of good form. An ill- 

 shapen, straggly, or £seased plant means 

 only trouble later on. Let me repeat that 

 you should be sure that conditions are 

 favorable when you plant. Early plant- 

 ing pays if conditions are right, but I 

 would rather plant the middle of August 

 under favorable conditions than in July 

 under unfavorable conditions, such as 

 soft plants, etc. So don 't lose your head 

 in wanting to get planted before your 

 neighbor. A. F. J. Baur. 



RED SPIDER ON CARNATIONS. 



My carnations which are in the field 

 are badly infested with red spider. I 

 think the hot and dry weather which we 

 have had is the cause of it. I am get- 

 ting the plants into the benches as fast 

 as possible. Is that the thing to do? 



C. A. M. 



One of the worst things that can hap- 

 pen to your carnation plants in the field 

 is to become infested with red spider. 

 During a dry, hot spell they will sap 

 the life out of the plants in a very short 

 time, a condition from which it will 

 take them a long time to recover, if they 



consider far preferable. Lay the water 

 and put in enough faucets so you can 

 work with a 50-foot length of hose and 

 reach every plant easily. Then take a 

 5-cent bar of any pure soap, shave it into 

 small bits and dissolve in a gallon of 

 hot water. "When dissolved, dilute in ten 

 gallons of clear water. Spray your 

 plants with this early in the morning, 

 and two or three hours afterward wash 

 it off with a sharp spray from the hose. 

 A couple of applications of this kind 

 ought to clear them out. 



This treatment outside is to be pre- 

 ferred to taking the plants inside for 

 several reasons. When you take up a 

 plant and replant inside it is a rather 

 severe ordeal in itself, and the plant is 

 not in condition to stand much in the 

 way of insect extermination without 

 causing extreme suffering. So outside of 

 syringing with clear water, you would 

 hardly dare to do much until the plants 

 had resumed growth. The plants would 

 be much slower to take hold than usual 

 on account of the weakened condition, 

 and all this time the spider would be 

 enjoying a respite. The extra syringing 

 would not do the new soil any good 

 either, and besides all the above reasons 

 it is bad policy to bring spider into 

 your houses if you can possibly prevent 

 it. By destroying the spider outside 

 you can have the plants recuperate be- 

 fore taking them up, and they will not 

 be much worse for their experience. 

 They will take hold as well and do as 

 well as if there had been no spider on 

 them, if left out until they get to grow- 

 ing strong again. A. F. J. Baur. 



FERTILIZERS. 



What is the objection to using horse 

 manure in preparing liquid fertilizer for 

 roses and carnations? S. S. B. 



There is no objection and it is often 

 used. A few years ago Mr. Dorner, of 



Callas in the Shelter of Windbreak in the Azores Islands. 



ever do. The best thing you can do 

 is to arrange to combat them in about 

 the same manner as you would in the 

 house, if such a thing is possible. If 

 you can not lay the water to the carna- 

 tion field and get a fair pressure, then 

 you are doing quite right to rush the 

 plants inside where you can get at them. 

 The following plan, however, I would 



Lafayette, Ind., wrote carnation notes 

 for this journal, and in one article en- 

 larged on the benefits of a change of 

 food for plants, referring, of course, to 

 liquid fertilizer. Horse manure is, I 

 believe, stronger than that from a dairy 

 farm and should be more diluted with 

 water. If a change of diet is good for 

 plants, then stable manure is one of the 



best. Its careless or injudicious use may 

 have spread the fallacy that it is dan- 

 gerous. I say if it is good, for I am not 

 sure that it has been demonstrated that 

 it is of great advantage. 



Two or three years ago there was a 

 sketch of the life and achievements of 

 the wizard, Edison, and he was quoted 

 as saying that a brain worker should 

 feed on a large variety of food. He 

 himself ate the greatest possible variety. 

 You may think this has little to do with 

 the subject, but the animal and vege- 

 table kingdoms are much more closely 

 allied and related than the superficial 

 thinker believes or understands. Now 

 it would not take a very keen observer 

 to refute the argument of Mr. Edison. 

 There is little doubt but what the con- 

 stant food of the parents of a Burns, a 

 Carlyle or Lord Clyde was oatmeal. 



But now the supper crowns their simple board — ■ 

 The balesonie parrlteh, chief of Scotia's food. 



And SO it was the chief food, and in 



many cases the only food, of many an 



illustrious Scotchman; how about the 



thousands of bright Irishmen whose diet 



for months at a time was only the 



humble potato and salt, varied only by 



the change of potatoes without salt? 



Have not genius and brains more often 



emerged from these classes than from the 



pampered and luxurious classes of any 



nation? W. S. 



AZORES ISLANDS LILIES. 



A New Source of Supply. 



The lily-bulb industry in the Azores 

 Islands is still in its infancy, although 

 growers there have been experimenting 

 with lilies for the last eight years. 

 Lilium longiflorum is the crop with which 

 the most important results are in pros- 

 pect, but freesias are already grown 

 there in considerable quantity, also 

 callas, candidums, agapanthus and camel- 

 lias, and the culture of azaleas has been 

 taken up in a limited way. The freesias 

 are especially fine, affording a high per- 

 centage of pure white flowers. 



So little is known of the Azores 

 Islands that when a bulb man speaks of 

 lilies from the Azores ho is almost inva- 

 riably asked where the islands are. The 

 Azores belong to Portugal, from which 

 country they are some 800 miles distant, 

 or rather more than the distance from 

 Cape Hatteras to Bermuda. The labor 

 in the Azores is Portuguese. The lati- 

 tude is 37 degrees north. The latitude 

 of the Bermudas is 32 degrees north. 

 Climatically the islands are much the 

 same and topographically there is also a 

 srmilarity. The Azores are volcanic and 

 mountainous, with extremely fertile val- 

 leys. They are perhaps best known to 

 Europe as a health resort, and as a mat- 

 ter of fact the Bermudas are also best 

 known for the same thing. One name 

 for the Bermudas is the Summer Islands, 

 and most people suppose the name refers 

 to the climate, but it is an English name, 

 the islands having been originally chris- 

 tened after Sir George Somers. The 

 Azores are about 1,000 square miles in 

 area and in 1890 had a population of 

 about 250,000. 



The Lilium longiflorum bulbs are 

 grown in the usual manner and mature 

 at about the same time as Harrisii. Thus 

 far they are practically free from dis- 

 ease and their habit is notable for its 

 uniformity. They produce blooms very 

 freely. The illustrations show plants 

 cut in the field and another in a pot 

 which carried seventeen blooms. Num- 

 bers carry twelve blooms per plant. 



s^.'i^A^i ;. 



