

JULT 26, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



581 



TWO SMALL GREENHOUSES. 



I have just built two greenhouses 

 9%xl6 feet. One is for roses and the 

 other for carnations. My object in 

 building them is to gain some practi- 

 cal experience in the growing of these 

 flowers before building larger houses. 

 I have been much interested in green- 

 house work for years, and have kept 

 in touch with operations as far as it 

 was possible without being actually en- 

 gaged in it. The houses are well shel- 

 tered, being built at the south side 

 of my house, and running south. The 

 west or north winds will never reach 

 them. The walls are three and a half 

 feet high and wUl be banked up to the 

 glass on the sides, which wUl be six- 

 teen inches all around. The walks are 

 sunk nearly a foot below the natural 

 surface of the ground, and I should 

 like to get your advice before building 

 benches, about which there is a great 



want to get a practical knowledge of 

 the growihg of these as well, and don't 

 wish to put up a house especially for 

 them at present. I thought of planting 

 grafted Bride, Maid and Richmond, all 

 of which I understand require the same 

 temperature. What is the closest I can 

 plant them for best results? What size 

 of Spence heater will be necessary to 

 heat them? Please explain how to run 

 the pipes to best advantage. The fur- 

 nace will be in the cellar under my 

 house. I wish also to heat my kitchen 

 with the same furnace. It is 9x12x16 

 feet. The cellar floor is about three 

 feet below the floor of the greenhouses. 

 Any other advice you can give a be- 

 ginner (who is in it to stay) will be 

 appreciated. What varieties of carna- 

 tions would be best for a starter? 



W. A. D. 



The aspect of your houses seems all 

 right. Protection from your coldest 



Peony Festiva Maxima. 



diversity of opinion; and also in refer- 

 ence to the heating. I purpose putting 

 down 2x5 planks, filling with soil, on 

 top of these tile pipes, which will form 

 the bottom of the benches, and boards 

 1^x7 inches for the sides, inverted 

 sods over the tiles, and an inch of 

 manure, then filled up with soil. My 

 soil is not what I wish, but is a good, 

 rich garden loam, neither sand nor clay, 

 which has been manured heavily for the 

 past two years. It is three parts soil 

 to one of partly rotted cow manure 

 for the rose benches, and four parts 

 soil to one of manure for carnations, 

 which will have a liberal addition of 

 ground bone mixed in before putting on 

 the benches. Benches are six inches 

 from the walls, to allow for piping 

 behind them. Would it be better for 

 me to have raised benches in the car- 

 nation houses and grow a few violets 

 under the bench near the walk? I 



winds is a great saving to your coal 

 bill. It is not quite clear to me 

 whether your houses are to run east 

 and west or north and south. The for- 

 mer is best, because then you have the 

 south slope to the sun all day, but if 

 you use large glass, 16x24 inches, it 

 will not make much difference. I do 

 not like the sunken paths, and would 

 rather make the walls one foot higher. 

 In case of a freshet or sudden melting 

 of your heavy snows, you may be trou- 

 bled with water. If your side walls 

 are not at least half glass, then the 

 benches as low as you are planning will 

 be shaded too much by the walls, and 

 instead of 2x5 planks I should advise 

 two small concrete walls ten inches 

 high, four inches thick at the base, and 

 tapering to two inches at the top, and 

 the space between the walls filled in 

 with any refuse material— soil, cinders 

 or clinkers. The top two inches should 



be soil, for the roots of roses will go 

 down between the tile. Instead of 

 round drain tile for the bottom of the 

 bed use the hollow tile; it is more 

 convenient to shovel oflF. 



The composition of your bed is all 

 right, although the rich garden loam 

 is not what roses like. A sod from a 

 pasture is the thing if you can possibly 

 get it, and it is worth trouble and ex- 

 pense to obtain, ^he garden loam will 

 do first-rate for the carnations. Tour 

 proportion of manure to soil ia also 

 correct. Let it be more decayed for 

 the carnations than for the roses. For 

 the carnations add a bushel of slaked 

 lime to every cubic yard of soil. Al- 

 though it will curtail the area of your 

 bench space, I would keep away from 

 the pipes one foot, so that you can 

 squeeze along between the pipe and 

 the bench to weed, etc. What you lose 

 in bench room you will make up in 

 health of the plants and production 

 of flowers. 



Your selection of roses is excellent. 

 Ycu will have the leading varieties, 

 white, pink and red; and try a dozen 

 or two of the Killarney also. Plant 

 roses fifteen inches apart; carnations, 

 according to the size of the plants, 

 from eight to twelve inches apart. 

 Don't attempt to grow violets under 

 the bench. Bather make a narrow 

 bench across the farthest end of your 

 carnation house. Don't attempt in your 

 limited room to try too many vari- 

 eties of carnations. If you succeed 

 with two or three varieties you can 

 grow all. Try, above all, Lawson, En- 

 chantress and Lady Bountiful, and EIs- 

 telle for red or scarlet. That is enough 

 for an experiment. 



The writer is not acquainted with the 

 Spence boiler. Put two flows and two 

 returns of 2-inch pipe in the rose house, 

 one foot above the greenhouse floor on 

 the side walls, and one flow and two 

 returns on the side wall for the carna- 

 tion house. Use nothing less than 

 2-inch pipe. Just how connections 

 should be made from the heater would 

 entail too long a story. For the pres- 

 ent you can easily heat your kitehen 

 by tapping the top of the boiler and 

 running a 1-inch pipe up to the kitchen, 

 there to connect with a radiator, and 

 returning with a 1-inch pipe from the 

 other side of the radiator, tapping into 

 the bottom of the boiler or into the 

 return pipe from the greenhouse. Put 

 a valve on the pipe just before it en- 

 ters the radiator. For some time yon 

 may need heat in your greenhouses, 

 while the kitchen may be too warm. 

 The fact that your cellar floor is three 

 feet below the ground level of the 

 greenhouses should give you good cir- 

 culation. Let the pipes rise from where 

 they enter the greenhouse to the far- 

 ther end, two inches in the sixteen feet. 

 Send a rough sketch of the position of 

 the boiler and the openings in the boiler, 

 and we will endeavor to help you out. 



As these are experimental bouses, let 

 the carnation benches be raised and 

 made of lumber; Canadian larch is ex- 

 cellent for the purpose. The height 

 from the floor to the top of the bench 

 should be about thirty inches. W. S. 



Providence, B. I.— W. H. Colwell 

 died at his home here July 10. 



Beading, Pa.— B. Frank Hain haa 

 taken out a permit for building two new 

 houses, one 5x13, and one 16x17 feet. 



