May 3, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



1707 



but just notice which flower on last 

 year's wood and those which flower on 

 the growth made the present summer, 

 and you will have learned a whole lot. 



Sweet Peas. 



With all our phenomenally mild win- 

 ter we are not more advanced than 

 after a severe winter. Winter not only 

 lingers in the lap of spring, but has 

 one arm tightly around her waist, as 

 much as to say, "I love you, dear 

 spring; do stop and coo with me a little 

 while. * ' / — 



And this reminds me that I hope you 

 sowed sweet peas just as soon as the 

 ground was dry and workable. A little 

 frost does not hurt sweet peas. As 

 soon as they ^re up put brush on both 

 sides of the iow. There is nothing 

 equal to brush. Spread two inches of 

 stable litter on the ground between the 

 rows. It will not only be a fertilizer, but 

 it answers other purposes. You will not 

 tread the ground down to a hard sur- 

 face while picking the flowers, and you 

 can soak the ground without baking it, 

 and the two great essentials in making 

 sweet peas pay is to keep them well 

 vratered and keep the flowers constantly 

 picked. 



With all annual plants, including our 

 great cereals, flowering and fruit bear- 

 ing is the final function of existence, 

 and when that is accomplished they per- 

 form the final duty of life, which is 

 death. William Scott. 



MR. SIM^S CANDYTUFT. 



Referring to Mr. Scott's note on 

 candytuft in the April 12 issue, I think 

 candytuft might be profitably grown in 

 winter in a house by itself, but not in 

 a house where other plants are grown, 

 as there is no other plant, to my knowl- 

 edge, that requires the same treatment. 



To have candytuft in bloom through 

 the winter, I think that the middle of 

 August would be the best time to sow 

 the seed. I have always found that 

 the seed does best in a solid bed. 



I have had the best results by trans- 

 planting the seedlings while very small, 

 with just the seed leaves, into a solid 

 bed, and then potting into 2%-inch pots 

 before they get much headway, as they 

 are hard to transplant unless done at 

 just the right time, and they should 

 be grown as cool as possible at that 

 stage. When well filled with roots they 

 can be planted out on a bench or solid 

 bed. I would prefer a bench for winter. 

 They stand quite a warm temperature 

 while making growth. When they show 

 color they can be grown quite cool 

 again. They require a very light house. 

 They will not do anything in a poor 

 house. 



As far as variety goes, I have been 

 unable to see any difference between 

 The Empress, Giant White, hyacinth- 

 flowered, etc., such as are offered by 

 seedsmen. Buy any of these varieties 

 and grow them separate, and you will 

 not find any difference between them. 



To get a good forcing candytuft re- 

 quires very careful selection, and this 

 does not pay at the price the seed is 

 offered. You will find that some 

 )\ill bloom quite early and others will 

 be four months later in blooming; but 

 with carefully selected seed, almost 

 every plant will come along about the 

 same time. 



I have always grown a lot of candy- 

 tuft for Memorial day trade, and have 

 •lever found any trouble in selling an 



A Corner of the Store of Mrs. M. M. Ayres, St. Louis, at Easter. 



enormous lot of it. I have never any 

 trouble in timing the whole crop to a 

 day. 



The variety which I have grown I ob- 

 tained originally in some seed of Empress 

 from a Boston seedsman. I have not tried 

 to sell the seed because a dollar's worth 

 to another grower in any other vicinity 

 would make it not worth while to grow. 

 In other words, I can sell all I can 

 grow at a fair price. With competition 

 it would have to be cut about half, 

 making it unprofitable all around. At 

 the time I sent Mr, Scott the plants 

 he mentions in the issue of April 12, 

 T had in mind the idea of sending it 

 out, and wanted the expression of some 

 growers as to its merits. 



William Sim. 



FORCING ETHERIZED PLANTS. 



During the past winter C. I. Lewis 

 and J. E. Hewett have been carrying on 

 experiments in the horticultural depart- 

 ment at Cornell University to determine 

 the eflBciency of ether as a forcing agent. 

 Ether was tested by the Connecticut Ex- 

 periment Station in the forcing of rhu- 

 barb last year, and gave such promising 

 results that it was decided to test many 

 other varieties of plants. 



Bulbs, shrubs and herbaceous plants 

 were tested. Some of the points to be 

 determined by these experiments were: 

 How long to expose the plants to the 

 action of the ether to obtain the best re- 

 sults; what plants can be successfully 

 etherized, and the use of ether in the 



commercial forcing of the rhubarb and 

 asparagus for the early markets. 



The plants for forcing should be ob- 

 tained in the fall, and should be placed 

 in a room where the temperature is as 

 near freezing as possible. Just before 

 it is time to etherize them, they should 

 be taken out and placed in a warm room 

 for a few hours, in order that they may 

 be as dry as possible. 



Such bulbs as narcissi, tulips, hya- 

 cinths, Easter lilies and others, which 

 are in demand for cut flowers in the 

 winter, were tested. It was found that 

 the Easter lily bloomed three weeks be- 

 fore the plants which were not treated 

 with ether. The daffodils were in full 

 bloom before the unetherized plants 

 showed the buds. 



Of the shrubs, the lilac gave the most 

 favorable results, as the plants exposed 

 to the ether bloomed a week or ten days 

 before those which were untreated. The 

 Japanese quince and the deutzias did not 

 give very marked results in favor of the 

 etherization, showing that there is a dif- 

 ference in the value of the treatment 

 according to the kind of plant, some 

 plants responding much more readily to 

 the treatment than others. 



The Golden Glow and the aquilegias 

 were scarcely affected by the treatment, 

 but the spira;as showed a remarkable 

 effect. Some of the spiraeas exposed to 

 the ether came into bloom three weeks 

 before the ones forced by ordinary 

 method. 



It will be of especial interest to the 

 market gardeners to know that etherized 



