October 18, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



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1399 



Storing Outdoor Stock. 



Snow and frost have visited most 

 parts of our northern states and the 

 storing of plants and roots must now 

 be seen to. Bay trees need not yet be 

 taken indoors. They will be better out- 

 side for another month and will stand 

 10 degrees of frost without harm if the 

 rpots are not dry. 



Palms nearly all are natives of a 

 tropical clime, yet it is not necessary 

 with large plants, which should have 

 been outdoors during summer, that you 

 winter them in a high temperature. Ken- 

 tias and latanias will do quite well if 

 never dropped below 45 degrees. Of 

 course, this is much too low for small 

 palms that you want to grow during 

 winter, but large plants that have at- 

 tained a size as large as convenient to 

 handle you don't want to grow, and if 

 wintered cool they will better endure a 

 chill when you have occasion to use 

 them. Arecas will not winter sq cool. 

 The lowest temperature they should be 

 exposed to ought not to be less than 55 

 degrees. Hydrangea Otaksa in tubs will 

 not be hurt by 2 degrees or 3 degrees of 

 frost. It may take off the leaves, but 

 will ripen the wood, and that is what 

 you want. . 



A Good Storage Shed* 



This wintering of large plants for 

 your customers is a thankless job and 

 you cannot do it unless you charge a 

 good price, or what it is worth. Some 

 years ago it became such a nuisance 

 with us, for a greenhouse, even if you 

 have the room, is not the place, that we 

 built a wooden shed some 30x50, put in 

 plenty of big windows, and ran "a 2-inch 

 hot water pipe around the shed. That 

 was just sufficient to keep out the frost, 

 and that is all that is wanted. This has 

 proved an excellent place for sweet bays, 

 hydrangeas and other stock that only 

 needs to be kept from freezing. 



About the charge. You should charge 

 $1 per foot for every foot of space the 

 plant covers, either on a greenhouse 

 bench or floor space in a shed. Kemem- 

 ber, you have to send for the plants in 

 the fall and deliver them again next 

 summer, and in the case of large plants 

 this takes teams and men. 



Gtnnas. 



If we get a few weeks' fine weather 

 there is no hurry about lifting canna 

 roots, but they will winter all right if 

 lifted at once. Shake off the soil from 

 the roots and, after cutting off the 

 stems seven or eight inches above the 

 roots, if it is a fine day, let them lie 

 out in the beds. The sun and air will 

 <lry the soil that adheres to the roots and 

 they will winter all the better. Large 

 growers doubtless have root houses or 

 cool cellars to store these roots in, but 

 you can get along very well by putting 

 them beneath a bench where there will 

 be little drip. Be sure to put down a 

 floor of boards to place the roots on. 

 Tf placed on the damp ground the eyes 

 surely will start in January and Febru- 



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ary and be a loss. We find the temper- 

 ature of a carnation house warm enough 

 for canna roots, and carnation benches 

 should not be watered so heavily that 

 they drip through, at least not until 

 April 1, by which tiAie your canna roots 

 are divided and started for another year. 



Azaleas. .'•- 



The importations of Azalea Indiea 

 are arriving in good order. Unpack at 

 once and get them potted. The ball of 

 roots is often larger than will go into 

 a pot that will look well pr be neces- 

 sary for the size of plant. It does not 

 seem to hurt the plants in the least to 

 reduce the ball by cutting away,'^«vith a 

 big, sharp knife, sufficient soil and 

 roots to allow them to go into a suitable 

 size of pot. Often, the soil and roots, 

 when they arrive, are quite dry. If so, 

 after the necessary reduction of the ball 

 dip the roots in a tub of water for a 

 few seconds. We often have found this 

 thorough wetting of the roots very nec- 

 essary and have seen where neglect to do 

 so has led to the loss of many plants, 

 and the importer got blamed for what 

 was not at all his fault. 



These imported azaleas make little if 



any new root, at least not for six months, 

 and, therefore, soil is not an important 

 consideration. European gardeners used 

 to think peat was absolutely necessary 

 to grow azaleas. We don't have the 

 peat here, and neither is it essential. A 

 fibrous, turfy loam with the addition of 

 some leaf-mold and a little coarse, clean 

 sand will grow them first rate. When 

 potting, get the new soil packed firmly. 

 You cannot do this with your fingers 

 and thumbs, but must use a flat stick. 

 The necessity of this is obvious. If not 

 packed in firmly the future waterings 

 will let the water through the loose soil 

 and leave the more compact ball of roots 

 dry. TheiSe remarks about azaleas will 

 apply to other hard-wooded plants that 

 you import, Acacia armata, etc. 



Shrubs for Forcing. 



Lilac, viburnum, deutzia and other 

 hardy shrubs for forcing will not be 

 here just yet. When they do arrive, 

 don't expose them. They are hardy 

 and stand our severe winters, but in the 

 ground they are under very different 

 conditions. These • imported plants have 

 been boxed up, and perhaps heated in 

 warehouses and the holds of vessels, and 

 are in no condition to be at once ex- 

 posed to a severe frost. Get them out 

 and their roots into moist soil as soon 

 as possible and protect from severe cold 

 with sashes or boards. There is no need 

 of potting these deciduous shrubs. You 

 can pot them as you bring them in to 

 force, but if the roots are dry when 

 unpacked dip them in water before you 

 put them in frames. 



• / William Scott. 



LAST YEAR'S NOVELTIES. 



Many of the last year novelties are 

 now sufficiently far advanced to enable 

 one to see how they are going to turn 

 out, and that they will figure very 

 largely on the show boards in the com- 

 ing few weeks is a certainty. Beatrice 

 May, on the early crown, is building up 

 some magnificent flowers of the purest 

 white. The later buds are flushed with 

 pink, but even they are beautiful. The 

 foliage is somewhat spotty, but one loses 

 sight of that in the splendid head that 

 is coming. While Beatrice May may not 

 pan out in all sections as it is doing in 

 New Jersey, I think, on the whole, it will 

 fully line up to all I have said about it. 



Morton F. Plant also is coming splen- 

 didly, opening in the full sunlight with- 

 out any damping or spotting of the 

 petals, and giving abundant signs of 

 again producing one of the largest flow- 

 ers ever staged. Even June rooted cut- 

 tings, which I caught on the first bud 

 they showed, late in August, are making 

 splendid flowers. Plant has foliage and 

 stem to correspond with its enormous 

 flower and should be a fine thing for 

 years to come. 



Mrs. Geo. Heaume is almost ready to 

 cut, and while ail may not care for its 

 color, it will produce a larger percentage 



of high grade flowers than any variety I 

 know of, there ueing no loss excepting 

 such as might have been destroyed by 

 insects. 



E. J. Brooks is also showing signs of 

 making a phenomenal flower, and ia 

 grand in foliage and stem. The flower 

 is a trifle soft, and needs shading from 

 hot sun, but the variety will repay a 

 little care expefnded on it. The color, a 

 rich purple crimson, is a telling one for 

 a class calling for, say, six flowers each 

 of six varieties. There seems to be 

 nothing in its color to touch it. 



Mrs. W. Knox, as a yellow, is too 

 early for competition, being fully open 

 by October 6. ' It has its faults, being 

 rather long-necked and spotty in the 

 foliage, but anyone who had it in quan- 

 tity reaped a golden harvest, for early 

 chrysanthemums sold better this year 

 than for some years past. 



Others of the new varieties are not 

 far enough advanced to see what the 

 true character will be, but W. Wells is 

 maKing enormous buds, and Mrs. John 

 E. Dunne is the admiration of everyone 

 who is growing it, with its great, mass- 

 ive leaves and splendid stem. The Aus- 

 tralians seem determined to keep in the 

 front rank. And now for some of the 

 older varieties: 





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