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July 26, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



t75 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Migoonetlc. 



Those who want to cut good mignon- 

 ette should not delay in sowing the 

 seed. As is well known, the mignonette 

 is a difficult plant to transplant, and 

 if the soil drops off the roots the little 

 plants are a long time in making a 

 start. A very successful grower of 

 mignonette sows the seed in 3-inch pots, 

 ;i tew seeds in three little groups in 

 cacli pot, so that they can be divided 

 without losing the soil from the roots 

 when transplanting to the bench. It is 

 safer, hoMever, to sow a pinch of seed 

 (111 the bench or bea where they are to 

 lemaiu and flower. If you want strong, 

 stout spikes, then one foot each way 

 is not too much room to give the plants. 

 A dozen plants may come up where you 

 sowed your pinch of seed, and will not 

 harm anything till the little seedlings 

 are an inch high; then you must pull 

 up all but the strongest plant. 



The chief enemy of the young mig- 

 nonette plants is the larva? of the sul- 

 phur-colored cabbage butterfly, which 

 lays its eggs in the months of August 

 and September. The worms or larva* 

 are so identically the color of the mig- 

 nonette foliage that it takes good eyes 

 to discern them, but they are easily con- 

 quered. As soon as you see that the 

 butterfly is abroad, spray your plants 

 lightly and then dust them with 

 powdered hellebore. This will produce 

 such cramps in the worms that they 

 will wish tney never had been born. 



Mignonette should have the fullest 

 light as soon as the seed germinates, 

 abundance of ventilation and a tempera- 

 ture of 40 degrees at night in winter. 

 Some prefer a bench to a solid l)ed. The 

 bed will grow larger spikes, yet a bench 

 of five inches of soil will grow it well. 

 Most growers have their own strain, and 

 save their seed from year to year by 

 selecting plants of the best habit and 

 with perfect spikes. If you have not 

 •saved any of last spring's growth, De- 

 fiance and Golden Machet are both fine 

 forms. A rather heavy loam with a 

 fourth of animal manure is a good com- 

 post for these old favorites. 



Smilax. 



Don't neglect to train up your smilax 

 ■?f '*■ Sf^'^s. Never was the old saying, 



A stitch in time saves nine," more 

 applicable to any of our florists' opera- 

 tions than to "the care and cultiva- 

 tion of this plant. A few weeks' 

 neglect will cause you endless labor, 

 !i"d sometimes the destruction of this 

 oeautiful vine. 



O>smo8. 



I noticed that a friend who is a good 

 gardener took my advice and filled a 

 number of boxes with cosmos. They are 

 outdoors now, but will be removed to 

 the house before frost arrives. This 

 IS the only way we of the frigid north 

 ^an produce this most decorative flower, 

 tt 18 late now to sow seed, but you may 

 nave some flats of seedlings left over, 

 ^et them into boxes of convenient size 



and you will bo proud of them in the 

 middle of October. There is no flower 

 more liked by people of good taste. 



Azaleas. 



In these steaming hot days don 't neg- 

 lect your azaleas and other hard-wooded 

 plants, that should be plunged outdoors 

 in the broad sun. The azaleas will now 

 be crowding, and while giving them more 

 room put on an inch of rather fresh 

 dairy manure. It will help greatly in 

 the formation of flower buds and even- 

 tually the flowers themselves. 



Gardenias. 



Gardenias planted on the benches in 

 June will be growing fast just now. 

 Shoots that are making a vigorous 

 growth can be pinched to produce lateral 

 growth. They delight in our warm sum- 

 mer weather, but unless frequent and 

 vigorous syringing is applied, they will 

 soon be a host for that worst of all 

 bugs, the mealy bug. In our common 

 vernacular there is an endless variety 

 of so-called bugs. Some you can ex- 

 terminate with finger and thumb; others 

 make only nocturnal visits; one species 

 has partly robbed the white man of one 

 of his important articles of subsistence, 

 and a large number live on the inside 

 of the cranium and cannot be reached 

 by cold water or kerosene emulsion. 

 They can only be cured by a vacation in 

 the bughouse, but water properly ap- 

 plied will keep down the horticultural 

 or mealy bug. Remember that while 

 the gardenia delights in a high tempera- 

 ture, it should be given the most abun- 

 dant ventilation when under glass. 



Hydrangeas. 



Should your hydrangeas intended for 

 flowering next spring not have had their 

 last shift, which should be to a 6-inch 

 pot, now is the time to give it. If 

 well supplied with water, they are mak- 

 ing their most vigorous growth, and will 

 be forming their flower buds, so they 

 must be kept growing unchecked for 

 another six weeks. A neglect of water 

 now would be serious. 



Roguing Stock Plants. 



Just now when your geraniums and 

 cannas are all blooming at their best, 

 you should walk around and see if there 

 are any rogues among them. In techni- 

 cal garden phraseology, the name rogue 

 is applied to plants that have not come 

 true to color or form. It can also be 

 applied to your rows or beds of stock 

 plants, where by accident a plant or 

 two of a ditferent variety is mixed in. 

 Much future annoyance can be saved. 

 The merest novice can distinguish them 

 now, but only an expert can separate 

 them when the flower is gone and the 

 foliage is impaired by our early frosts. 

 This occurred to me on seeing a plant 

 of Florence Vaughan canna in a bed 

 we thought was all Souvenir de Antoine 

 Crozy. It is easy now to label or tag 

 the few intruders. 



Painting. 



Possibly there is no time of year when 

 the plant growers' benches are so vacant 

 as this month and the next. There 

 should, with an up-to-date florist, never 

 bo empty benches, but our Boston ferns, 

 summer-gro^\n carnations and chrysan- 

 themums are yet small, and it is easy 

 to build a scaffold over them and paint 

 the inside of your houses. It is warm 

 work, to be sure, but it is well worth 

 the perspiration and labor involved. 

 Don 't expect the boys to work in a 

 temperature of 111 degrees with the sun 

 glaring through the glass in their eyes. 

 A movable shade of canvas easily can 

 be moved along as the work progresses. 

 A house newly painted inside is prac- 

 tically a new house, as regards light 

 and health of plants, as well as destroy- 

 ing the resting spores of fungi and hosts 

 of eggs of destructive insects. Alto- 

 gether it is worth far more than the 

 cost in material and labor. 



William Scott. 



SOUTHERN SUMMER FLOWERS. 



We should be glad to have some in- 

 formation and suggestions regarding the 

 housing and growing of profitable sum- 

 mer stock. We are interested chiefly 

 from the retailer's point of view. Could 

 you not get expressions from some of 

 the successful southern growers that 

 would be of general help to the pro- 

 fession? It strikes us as a very ap- 

 propriate season to discuss this topic. 

 We have been short of good flowers since 

 our sweet peas gave out about four 

 weeks ago. 



We should like to know if any one in 

 the south has made a success of a 

 summer crop of carnations and roses, 

 and if so, of what varieties? The de- 

 mand is growing so that it is necessary 

 to have good stuff the year around, and 

 shipping in from the north at this sea- 

 son is far from satisfactory. 



How late may sweet peas be kept 

 Iwaring in the Gulf states? S. B. S. 



S. B. S. is up against a pretty tough 

 proposition, as it is taken for granted 

 he wants roses and carnations during 

 the long, hot days of summer. Most of 

 the retailers are satisfied to make out 

 on balsams, zinnias and asters, but the 

 Horist who wishes to be up-to-date must 

 have carnations and roses. 



Shipping in from the west is simply 

 out of the question. For carnations 

 you must have a batch of late Pros- 

 perity, and pinch them back until Febru- 

 ary. As the long summer days approach, 

 you must shade the house lightly, and 

 give lots of clear water. From the 

 middle of April until June you will be 

 rewarded with a good crop of fine, white 

 flowers. White is the color most needed. 

 Take off a good lot of Moonlight cut- 

 tings in November, keep, them going 

 until the middle of February in pots, 

 and then put them out in the field on 

 high hills as you would sweet potatoes. 

 They will be giving fairly good blooms 

 about the time that Prosperity quits, 

 and if kept clean of grass and frequent- 

 ly plowed will go on blooming until 

 fall. Thtips will divide the cut with 

 the grower, and they present the yet un- 

 solved problem. 



Summer roses call for much time, 

 space and labor. One must begin 

 eighteen months ahead. Put a lot of 

 young Kaiserin and Cochet (pink) in the 

 field in April, and keep them clean and 



