APRIL 5, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



J 403 



the ordinary amount of handling, will 

 ruin the bloom. It is this latter class 

 of stock that has made the holiday cut 

 flower trade suffer more than any other. 

 Selling that grade of stock is like sell- 

 ing gold bricks. The public soon be- 

 comes aware of the fact that the stock 

 is not fresh, and rather than run the 

 same risk next time, they will look for 

 something else, and if it is a flower they 

 want, it will likely be a plant, because 

 they know that it is fresh. If the dealer 

 offers his customers blooms that are of 

 inferior quality, they can see what they 

 fire buying, and if they improve in 

 water, which they will do if they are 

 fresh, it will please them greatly. It 

 Avill give the dealer lots of satisfaction, 

 too (to say nothing of increased trade), 

 to have his customers return and tell 

 how well the flowers kept and how large 

 they grew a few days after they were 

 received. 



It will not harm the plants as much 

 to raise the night temperature a few de- 

 grees at this time of the year as it does 

 at Christmas, because there is more sun- 

 shine and you can give them more air. 

 Growth is stronger, too, now and the 

 evils of an excessive night temperature 

 are more easily overcome during the 

 days. However, keep within reason and 

 go about it gradually, else you will split 

 many calyxes. A. F. J. Baur. 



PLANTS NEED FEEDING. 



Our carnations are healthy and luxuri- 

 ant, but the bloom is pretty small. Is 

 there any way of increasing the size of 

 the flower? They were benched too late, 

 as we know, about November 10. Until 

 that time they had grown outside. We 

 are now getting about the first crop of 

 flowers. They budded very freely — per- 

 haps carry too many. Since January 1 

 we have used a little manure water and 

 have twice treated them to nitrate of 

 soda, as our soils, to some extent, lack 

 nitrates. E. & B. 



I would advise you to give your car- 

 nation plants a weekly application of 

 liquid manure. If you are prepared to 

 do so, that will improve the bloom con- 

 siderably. Use about a bushel of toler- 

 ably new cow manure to 100 gallons of 

 water and to every second application 

 add to the solution a half pound of ni- 

 trate of soda. If you are not prepared 

 to do this, I would advise you to give 

 one application of a diluted solution of 

 nitrate of soda — one pound in 100 gal- 

 lons of water. Then about a week later 

 sprinkle on the soil a good coat of 

 bone flour or dried blood, and imme- 

 diately put on a mulch of . half-rotten 

 cow manure about an inch thick. When 

 this is put on give a good watering and 

 after that water when needed. The plan 

 first suggested would perhaps give the 

 quickest results, but the latter plan, no 

 doubt, would prove just as good and 

 would last much longer in its effect. The 

 best time to have done this feeding 

 would have been just before the bu^ 

 began to show. Remember that in the 

 future. A. F. J. Battr. 



SNAILS IN CARNATIONS. 



Snails are making ravages in my car- 

 nation benches, and I would like to 

 know the best method to exterminate 

 them. The benches are all away from 

 the wall. The snails are the worst in 

 the center bench. I am using salt for a 



dead line. Please tell us the best way 

 to use it. R. A. M. 



The snails you complain of are one 

 of the most troublesome pests in the 

 whole business when they once get a 

 foothold, and one of the hardest to get 

 rid of. Salt and lime both have more 

 or less merit in checking them, but it is 

 hard to reach them with those two arti- 

 cles. Either hand picking or poisoning 

 are the most effective methods. Sugar 

 and Paris green should be quite effective. 

 Lay it around the same as you do for 



sow-bugs. Sliced potatoes soaked in 

 arsenic water are also recommended. 

 Dusting the plants with hellebore or 

 slug shot will be found another very 

 effective method. If you employ a night 

 man, have him look over the plants be- 

 tween midnight and morning, and he 

 will find many snails which he can de- 

 stroy. They are very sluggish and slow 

 of movement, and with a strong light 

 he will have no trouble in finding them. 

 Strong salt water will destroy them if 

 you can reach them with it. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



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FOR EXHIBITION. 



While there is yet lots of time for 

 propagating chrysanthemums for cut 

 flower work generally, and average com- 

 mercial culture, it is quite time for the 

 grower intending to exhibit to be get- 

 ting his stock into shape. 



Get in what cuttings you need at once 

 if you have not yet propagated all you 

 need, and just as soon as the cuttings 

 have roots on them half an inch long 

 get them out into soil so that the future 

 plant will not be handicapped at the 

 start by being weakened in the cutting 

 bench. 



Doing things on time and when they 

 need doing applies to growing mums 

 perhaps with more force than in grow- 

 ing any other plant. Leaving the cut- 

 tings in the sand a week after they 

 should have been potted means that the 

 plants will make a very weak, spindly 

 growth, from which they will not re- 

 cover for a long time. ' Get them out 

 just as soon as you can into the light 

 and air, for the cooler and harder you 

 can grow the young plants the better 

 they will be. 



In potting up young stock from the 

 cutting bench use no bone or artificial 

 fertilizer whatever in the soil, as it will 

 only do more harm than good by sour- 

 ing the soil. Get nice fresh loam, and 

 if you can add to it a third of rotted 

 leaf, you would have an ideal compost 

 for a first potting. If leaf-mold cannot 

 be procured, some decayed cow manure 

 is perhaps the next best thing, as it will 

 help to lighten the soil. 



Loam alone, without the addition of 

 any other matter, is crude, and while the 

 young roots will run in it, they will not 

 run nearly so quickly, nor will the plants 

 ever have such a look of perfect health, 

 as they will from the use of a little leaf 

 soil. 



We are apt to laugh sometimes at the 

 old country ideas of compost and secret 

 formulas for growing different kinds of 

 plants, and while much of it was un- 

 doubtedly foolish and unnecessary, the 

 underlying principle of assisting a 

 young and delicate plant alpng by a 

 careful preparation of the soil will al- 

 ways hold good in practice. 



Ventilation. 



We must remember in handling the 

 young plants that we are dealing with 



a plant that is almost hardy, and that 

 air, and an abundance of it, is very 

 necessary as soon as the plants arc suf- 

 ficiently established. Many modern es- 

 tablishments have a house with siile and 

 top air, where young chrysanthenuinis 

 and carnations can be kept down to any 

 temperature desired. 



[f you have not got such a house, a 

 cold frame is almost as good. A cold 

 frame is really the very best place after 

 April 1 for young stock of this descrip- 

 tion, because there the plants are riglit 

 away from fire heat, and on bright, 

 warm days the sash can be taken off en- 

 tirely and the plants will show in a 

 week, by the rich dark color of the 

 leaves, how they appreciate their con- 

 ditions. 



I like to have plants in good shape 

 for planting on the benches by the sec- 

 ond week in May, which is now a mat- 

 ter of some five week's time. If some 

 of the plants were progagated in Febru- 

 ary and are now running up and the 

 pots are full of roots it will be far l)et- 

 ter to pot on into 4-inch or even G-inch 

 pots than to permit the plants to get 

 stunted before planting time. If plants 

 are boxed up instead of being i)otte(l 

 they draw up very quickly and it gen- 

 erally pays to pot each " plant l)efore 

 planting time. 



Dwarf varieties, of which we liave to- 

 day a considerable number, such as 

 Merza, Mrs. W. Duekham, Nellie Pock- 

 ett, Merstham Red, J. H. Doyle, Chel- 

 toni and Lady Ilopetown, should not 

 be topped any more. They will not 

 grow over four feet high anyway, but 

 there are some tall plants thrit may lie 

 kept pinched back till May 1. and by 

 this means can be held down to a reason- 

 able height. Cases in point are Gen- 

 eral Hutton, the Batons, Ben Wells, S. 

 T. Wright, the Carnots and :\lrs. D. V. 

 West. 



The careful exhibitor has a record of 

 heights of his varieties and knows where 

 he is at, and a reliable disseminator of 

 new kinds always gives, so far as he 

 can, the average height and general char- 

 acteristics of a variety, so that a little 

 study of the yearly lists is time well 

 spent. 



Novelties. 



When plants of the new kinds are re- 

 ceived nine growers out of ten take off 

 the top to increase the stock as much as 



