1188 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Sgptembbr 27, 1900. 



(dpal object then the whole stool should 

 be lifted, not the largest clump you 

 have, • rather the moderate size, but 

 sufficiently large and well established 

 that eviery dormant bud will siend up a 

 flowering stem. 



The size of pots will depend entirely 

 on the size of the clump of roots. Some 

 home-made, rough boxes would be much 

 cheaper than pots and answer the pur- 

 pose better. As for soil, that is of little 

 consequence, providing you add to it a 

 fourth of animal manure. If extra fine 

 flowers are expected the feeding with 

 liquid manure, as Mr. Peterson recom- 

 mends, will be of benefit. The time it 

 takes to develop flowers will depend on 

 the temperature. Instead of eight weeks 

 I would prefer to allow ten weeks. 



The Moutan or tree peony is quite an- 

 other proposition. If you have a num- 

 ber of these beautiful plants, branched 



and set with strong buds, they will force 

 well and make beautiful decorative 

 plants, but should command a large 

 price. Instead of sacrificing my own 

 plants, I would buy from some import- 

 ing house European plants specially pre- 

 pared for forcing. We have done this 

 several times and always found the 

 price large and the plant small. In our 

 large cities, where price is of little mo- 

 ment, if the eye and taste are satisfied, 

 really fine plants of the tree peony 

 would sell well, but in most localities 

 they would never pay. If you want to 

 supply your local customers with tree 

 peonies, then get a supply from a peony 

 specialist. As you should be aware, the 

 Moutan peony has no roots of its own 

 and cannot be increased with ease, be- 

 cause it is grafted on roots of the Chi- 

 nese species. 



William Scott. 



The Gtbbafe Vorm. 



A feature of greenhouse Avork that 

 ft'stfl the energy and industry of the gar- 

 dener, equal if not superior to any of 

 his other duties, is the incessant fight 

 against the multitude and apparently 

 fver-iucreasing army of enemies in the 

 shape of insects, worms, fungus, bacte- 

 ria, etc. At present the larva of the 

 yellow butterflj, known as the cabbage- 

 worm, is most destructive to the young 

 mignonette sown the end of July, wliich 

 is now growing raj)idly. This worm is 

 80 identically the <'<)lor of the foliage on 

 which it feeds that to trust to hand-pick- 

 ing is out of the question. Powdered 

 hellebore is a sure remedy. It should 

 have been applied two or three weeks 

 earlier, but the worm is likely to be 

 troublesome for some time, or until we 

 get a sharp frost. It should be dusted 

 on the plants when the leaves are dry 

 and do not spray the plants for a few 

 (lays or you may accumulate too much 

 hellebore in one spot, and then it would 

 be injurious. It is best applied with a 

 ))owdet' blower, a small hand bellows 

 used for dusting insect powder and sold 

 by all druggists. You will only be trou- 

 bled with these green worms for a tew 

 weeks longer, but great damage can be 

 done in a few days. These creatures 

 can, I think devour fifty times their own 

 weight in twenty-four hours. 



Thrips. 



Another pest just now troublesome, 

 and much more difficult to destroy than 

 the worm on our mignonette, is thrips. 

 It has long been known as a scourge to 

 American Beauty and other roses, but it 

 is only of late years that it has troubled 

 carnations. Thrips seems particularly 

 partial to the Lawson carnation and its 

 varieties. I am aware that some men of 

 large experience have recommended a 

 spray of nicotine, yet I think a fumiga- 

 tion of cayenne pepper is better, because 

 these minute but lively insects so bury 

 themselves in the thick folds of the pet- 

 als that a liquid spray would scarcely 

 reach them. Especially is this the case 

 with the closely folded petals of the rose 



buds. By the crumpled up and mal- 

 formed shape of the bud their presence 

 is easily detected on a rose, but not so 

 readily on a carnation. When you see 

 the expanded flower of a Lawson with 

 its largest petals dotted with white 

 specks you can be sure you have thrips 

 in the hou8(!. If left alone you will have 

 few perfect flowers. Cayenne pepper is 

 their destroyer. For a house 20x100 we 

 U8<} three common bricks heated red-hot 

 and as quickly as possible spread on each 

 brick the contents of a 2i/^-inch pot of 

 tho jK-pper. See that you get fresh 

 ])epper, not that which has been on the 

 shelf of the village store for several 

 years. 



Wo never have noticed any ill eifects 

 on the foliage of any plant from the 

 fumes of the pepper, and three doses of 

 it in one week will make the thrips very 

 sick. Don 't stay in the house too long 

 yourself or it will make your eyes blink. 



^Tinter-FIowerifis Peas. 



In looking through the neat little pam- 

 phlet sent out by A. C. Zvolanek, "Cul- 

 ture and History of Winter-Flowering 

 Sweet Peas," 1 see Mr. Zvolanek says 

 a green worm similar to the cabbage- 

 worm troubles them. These must be 

 daily looked for and picked off. Green- 

 fly also is troublesome to the sweet peas. 

 Frequent light fumigations with tobacco 

 dust will hold it in check, or a spraying 

 with a weak solution of nicotine. It is 

 best applied with a knapsack air pressure 

 sprayer, which every florist should have 

 on his place, because it is such a splen- 

 did apparatus for spraying the nicotine 

 solution on the chrysanthemums for 

 black-fly. 



The winter-flowering peas, Christmas 

 Pink and Florence Denzer, white, sown 

 August 20 in the beds where they are 

 to flower, are now up seven or eight 

 inches and should have some support at 

 once. A wire stretched across the sur- 

 face of the bed close to each row of 

 plants, and a corresponding wire six 

 or seven feet above the bed is the first 

 thing to arrange. From the bottom to 

 the top wire attach two strings a few 

 inches apart at each hill of plants. The 

 best string for this purpose is binding 

 twine, used by the farmers to bind their 

 sheaves of wheat. It is coarse, strong, 

 and cheap. 



Keep your peas well supplied with wa- 

 ter. Allow no check in their growth. 

 vVhen fire is necessary, 47 degrees or 48 

 degrees is high enough for night temper- 

 ature, and always give plenty of ventila- 

 tion. Keep this treatment up, and if 

 your house is light and you get full sun- 

 shine, you will pick peas of these vari- 

 eties in November. 



Cyclamen. 



Two weeks ago I wrote of what I con- 

 sidered a new method of culture of that 

 important winter plant, the cyclamen. It 

 was something entirely new to me, and 

 I fancj it will be to some others. Since 

 I said sow the seeds one inch apart, I 

 have, through the courtesy of G. A. Rob- 

 inson, of Montreal, received from him 

 his treatment of these plants from seed- 

 sowing to flowering, which I hope with 

 much pleasure to give to the readers of 

 tho Review. If I gave it to you all 



Mixed Canoas and Pink Impaticns. 



