1714 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



May 3, 1906. 



NOTICE 



B eca u se of the new wage scale which 

 the Printers' Union has enforced upon 

 those employers not willing to stmer 

 interruption of their business^ especially 

 becattse of that part of the scale which 

 makes overtime practically prohibitive, 

 it is of first importance that &e Review 

 obtain its advertising **copy^ earlier. 



It is therefore earnestly requested 

 that all advertisers mail their ''cop/* 

 to reach us by Monday or Tuesday 

 morning, instead of Wethiesday morn- 

 ing, as many have done in the past* 



Contributors also please take heed. 



CONTENTS. 



Great Disaster at San Francisco (lUus.)... 1705 



— The Florists' Predicament 1705 



— First and Best 1706 



Miscellaneous Seasonable Hints 1706 



— Popular Nephrolepls 1706 



— Herbaceous Plants 1700 



— Planting Deciduous Stock 1706 



— Pruning Shrubs 1706 



— Sweet Peas 1707 



Mr. Sim's Candytuft 1707 



Forcing Etherized Plants 1707 



Carnations — Carnation Notes — West 1708 



— Carnation Beds 1708 



Model for Texans (Ulus.) 1700 



lioses — Exchange of Uose Stock 1710 



— Ants on Roses 1710 



— Best Forcing Roses 1710 



— Gasser's Kalserln (lUus.) 1710 



— Pruning Rambler Roses 1710 



Greenhouse Heating — Hot Spring 1711 



— Vacuum Steam Heating 1711 



Oscar Lion (portrait) 1712 



Vegetable Forcing— Electric Lettuces 1712 



— Tomatoes 171;! 



With the Adverllslng Man 171:5 



Zonal Geraniums 1714 



Window Boxes 171-1 



Information Wanted 1714 



Trouble with Geraniums 1714 



Chicago 1715 



New York 1716 



Philadelphia 1718 



Boston 171!) 



New York's Spring Show 1720 



Society of American Florists 1721 



St. Ixtuis 1721 



Primula Kewens'ls 172:5 



Want Advertisements 1724 



Notes from England 1725 



Seed Trade Notes 1726 



— Itee Seeds Perpetuated 1726 



— Frisco Seedsmen's Losses 1727 



— Vetch Seed Duty Free 1727 



A Gardener's Friend li:V) 



Steamer Sailings 17:57 



The Bisgest Clilnniey 17;5S 



Plants Use Free Nitrogen 17:58 



Fumigating 17:5!» 



Nursery News — Dallas Meeting 1740 



— Bloomlngton. ill 1740 



— Leading Nurserymen Gone 174i) 



Pittsburg 1742 



Waslilngton 1744 



Kosehill, N. Y 1746 



Dover, Del 1746 



Twin Cities 1748 



Browallla Speclosa Major 1750 



Denlson. Tex 1752 



Northern Texas 1752 



Cincinnati 1764 



Mignonette for Market 1766 



Streator, 111 1768 



CUT IT OUT. 



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 items of stock on which thej are running 

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 stock iB listed in the advertisement in 

 the next Review, what would you think t 

 Cut it out I "* 



ZONAL GERANIUMS. 



Will you kindly tell me what causes 

 my zonal geraniums to turn red? Hav- 

 ing had the time, we potted them into 

 2 14 -inch pots from sand, then into 3- 

 inch. They are now in S^^-inch pots and 

 seem to be at a standstill. The foliage 

 is turning red instead of being a healthy 

 green color. The soil is old sod with a 

 little sand and one part dried cow ma- 

 nure to four parts of soil. We soak them 

 when we water, but we first let them 

 get a little dry. The plants are not 

 crowded. Jean Viaud and S. A. Nutt 

 seem mostly to be affected. They were 

 shifted as needed. C. U. 



Your treatment of the plants, also the 

 soil could not be improved upon, unless 

 something has happened that you do not 

 state. We have often seen the leaves of 

 some varieties of geraniums turn red 

 and never thought it a sign of ill health. 

 A sudden drop in temperature will pro- 

 duce it. Your treatment, as you state it, 

 is about ideal, and if you keep them 

 steadily at 45 to 50 degrees night tem- 

 perature and with plenty of fresh air 

 and sunlight they will be sure to grow 

 out of it and assume their normal color- 

 ing. W. S. 



WINDOW BOXES. 



The National Council of Ho'rticul- 

 ture says the use of window boxes is 

 not to be recommended extensively ex- 

 cept in crowded down-town districts, 

 apartment houses and hotels, where they 

 are effective in relieving the monotony 

 of otherwise bare windows and verandas. 

 Where it is possible, however, to grow 

 the hardy types of climbers in the 

 ground they will be found far superior 

 to boxes planted in the window or on 

 the veranda. 



A window box is usually eight inches 

 to a foot in depth and the same in 

 width, the length varying. It should 

 never be less than six inches deep. It 

 should be made of seven-eighths-inch lum- 

 ber and should conform in shape to the 

 window or veranda to which it is at- 

 tached. 



It is important to see that the box 

 has good drainage. Holes of good size 

 should be drilled in the bottom about 

 eighteen inches apart and these covered 

 with some loose material before putting 

 in the soil. Use rather light soil, and 

 preferably that which has been made 

 upen with plenty of cow manure. Heavy 

 clay soil has a tendency to become hard 

 and unfit for plants if allowed to become 

 at all dry. 



Two excellent fertilizers for window 

 boxes are bone meal and bone shavings, 

 especially the latter, which should be 

 placed in the bottom of the box and 

 thoroughly mixed with the soil. It will 

 fit the plants later in the season when 

 they most need it. 



INFORMATION WANTED. 



What is the best length, breadth and 

 height for a proposed rose house to be 

 about 28x250, with two feet of glass on 

 lx)th north and south walls? There is to 

 be a lean-to on the north side ten feet 

 wide. Heating is by a battery of steam 

 boilers at the middle of the house on 

 the north. How is it best to pipe the 

 house when it will, on account of water, 

 be impracticable to place the boiler be- 

 low the return! The house to be built 

 contemplates a corridor through the cen- 

 ter for convenience of heating and ready | 



access to this and similar but detached 

 houses to be built in future. 



Can concrete be used to advantage in 

 the construction of walls, and how united 

 with cast-iron gutters? How should the 

 roof be supported and at what angle 

 should the glass be pitched to get the 

 best light at 9 a. m. winter and summer? 

 Would there be enough water shed from 

 such a house, if properly piped, to sup- 

 ply the necessities of plants grown 

 therein? 



The desire of the writer is to obtain 

 such general or expert opinions as will 

 enable him to build a first-class, up-to- 

 date range of glass for rose and carna- 

 tion culture. Also to get an intelligent 

 idea as to arrangement of benches, divis- 

 ion walls, heating and all details con- 

 nected therewith. Is cypress construc- 

 tion or all iron construction, or the two 

 modes combined best? Glass is 16x22. 

 The house must be piped so as to pro- 

 duce a temperature of 65 degrees with 

 20 degrees below zero outside. 



Mason City, la. A. L. Wheelee. 



TROUBLE WITH GERANIUMS. 



T enclose a leaf of one of my plants, 

 with which I am having a good deal of 

 trouble. The name of the variej^ is 

 Bruanti. I would like to have you ex- 

 amine this geranium leaf, as it crimples 

 in its growth. Let me know what is the 

 cause and what the remedy. T. F. 



We have received so many similar 

 queries and been unable to give any 

 specific advice on the subject that we 

 were delighted to get what we think is 

 a little light on the subject. We have 

 been troubled, like other geranium grow- 

 ers, with occasional leaf disease and 

 have had to discard some varieties on 

 that account. We always believed that 

 it Avas produced by improper conditions, 

 especially too much water and insuf- 

 ficient air and sunlight. We have no- • 

 tioed it lately on a quantity of ivy-leafed 

 varieties. They were for two months in 

 a warm but light house and growing vig- 

 orously. The young man in charge 

 moved them to a cooler house, on a 

 shaded bench, and cut them back at 

 least half their growth, so that evapora- 

 tion from their foliage is much less than 

 it was. A very intelligent German gar- 

 dener was looking around with me yes- 

 terday, and noticing the trouble, re- 

 marked that when he saw a zonal 

 geranium troubled with this unhealthy 

 foliage he put it beneath the bench for 

 two weeks and let it get dust dry, and 

 on restoring it to the bench and giving 

 it water the first leaf it made was 

 healthy. Where you had a large quan- 

 tity affected that would be a rather 

 crude method, but it simply means that 

 a thorough drying out is what is wanted. 

 The geranium is a succulent plant, 

 charged at all times with plenty of sap, 

 and if oversupplied with water at the 

 roots will suffer with functional dis- 

 order, and that, I believe, is the cause 

 of the trouble. Sunlight, air and water- 

 ing only when dry is the preventive. 



W. S. 



T WANT to thank the Review for the 

 many orders it has brought me. — S. J. 

 McMiCHAEL, Findlay, O. 



The value of the practical information 

 contained in each copy of the Review 

 is beyond estimate and pays the largest 

 return of any investment we make. — 

 W. W. Brown, Douglass, Mass. 



