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NOTBMBEB 29. 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



75 



Poinsettias. 



Our beautiful mums will soon be 

 things of the past and then for many 

 long months we will have only their lit- 

 erature and memory to remind us of the 

 gorgeous blossoms of the last two 

 months. With plenty of benchroom our 

 attention will be centered on the flower- 

 ing plants that we expect to sell at 

 Christmas, for that holiday, like Easter, 

 has gradually been growing more of a 

 plant event. 



How are your leading crops looking? 

 Will they be just right for Christmas? 

 Keep your pans and pots of poinsettias 

 in a night temperature of 60 degrees. 

 If not kept lower than that there should 

 be no losing their foliage. Lack of heat 

 is not the cause of loss of foliage so 

 often as is exhaustion of the soil or too 

 much water, which causes the roots to 

 perish. Weak liquid manure occasion- 

 ally may help to preserve the leaves, 

 but if the roots, or the majority of 

 them, are decayed, there is nothing to 

 be done but resolve to do better next 

 year. 



If you think you have not enough 

 pans made up and should be lucky 

 enough to have plants in 4-inch pots, 

 don't attempt to put them in the pans 

 now, for the slight disturbance of roots 

 that will occur even with a careful trans- 

 planting will bring off every leaf. Wait 

 until they are ordered and then your 

 customer will have the plant at least 

 for a few days. 



About this time is pretty sure to ap- 

 pear the dirty, greasy, mealy bug. It 

 clusters among the nectar cups and at 

 the base of the bracts. It is not only 

 offensive to the sight, but if allowed to 

 vegetate will impair the development of 

 the bracts, which many people think are 

 the flower. In most flowers the nectar 

 cup is absent or very ouscure, but in the 

 poinsettia it may be said that they are 

 abnormal in development, and this ac- 

 counts for the brilliant bracts to at- 

 tract the insects to feed on the abun- 

 dance of nectar. 



Last year we tried to kill the bugs 

 with a spray of nicotine, a rather strong 

 decoction, but these dirty creatures only 

 considered it a free lunch. The only 

 thing we know of to do, if this pest 

 appears, is to take each plant and, while 

 one man holds the plant, another directs 

 a strong, sharp stream from the hose into 

 the center of the head. Do this on the 

 path of the greenhouse or the bugs may 

 crawl back. 



Azaleas for Christmas. 



I advised some weeks ago that shortly 

 after the arrival of your imported azaleas 

 you should put into a temperature of 

 60 to 65 degrees a few varieties that 

 wiU flower at Christmas. They are 

 Deutsche Perle, Hexe, Simon Mardner 

 and Vervaeneana. The first two are such 

 excellent varieties to force that they may 

 be slightly early. If showing color now, 

 remove to a temperature of 55 degrees 

 and no harm will be done. I again call 

 your attention to that grand variety, 



Hexe. The habit of the plant, its bril- 

 liant color, a dark red, and the ease 

 with which it forces makes it one of our 

 most valuable Christmas plants. Simon 

 Mardner and Vervaeneana are not likely 

 to be any too early. 



Early Lilies. 



The Bermuda lily is a very important 

 flower to us from Christmas on, both for 

 decorating and designs. It requires a 

 strong heat. On a visit last year from 

 Charles H. Eoney, of the Lake View Rose 

 Gardens, Jamestown, N. Y., which was 

 a week or two before Thanksgiving, he 

 told me he would have 15,000 flowers 

 ready for that important date. I re- 

 marked, "You must have given them a 

 high temperature." He replied, "Yes. 

 Don 't be afraid of that. They will stand 

 90 degrees." We will have a few for 

 Thanksgiving, but look for a good cut 

 at the holidays. 



Just before the buds are visible is the 

 time when the greenfly gets in its work. 

 Do not wait to see these minute crea- 

 tures, but syringe into the center of the 

 rosette of leaves a weak solution of some 

 tobacco extract. Instructions as to the 

 strength come with them all. In apply- 

 ing any of the insecticides is where the 

 compressed air sprayer comes in useful. 

 Keep your lilies going and rather in- 

 crease than decrease the temperature. 



Cyclamen. 



The cyclamen has of late become a 

 popular Christmas plant, and very worth- 

 ily so, for there are few better house 

 piants and in the better strains now on 



the market the foliage is as attractive as 

 in many of our so-called ornamental- 

 leaved plants. We have tested rather 

 accurately the temperature that best suits 

 the cyclamen when about to bloom. We 

 found that at 50 degrees they were rather 

 slow to flower, and at 60 degrees they 

 drew up rather weak; then giving them 

 55 degrees with full light we found what 

 we considered the ideal. The writer is 

 not a believer in such fine distinctions in 

 temperature, especially with different va- 

 rieties of one species, like the carnation. 

 Nevertheless, that was our experience 

 with the cyclamen. As the pretty foli- 

 age of the cyclamen is now a desirable 

 attribute of the plant, they should be 

 given plenty of space to develop, not 

 only their attractive foliage, but also 

 the symmetrical form of the plant, and, 

 therefore, when you select plants for 

 flowering at Christmas, for which the 

 earliest flowers should now be showing 

 color, it is worth while to put itese se- 

 lected plants on inverted 6-inch pots. If 

 tobacco stems are plentitul with you, 

 spread two or three inches between the 

 pots. It will keep down aphis and there 

 will not be the necessity of that disagree- 

 able duty of smoking. The average 

 florist likes best to smoke out of a 

 briarroot or meerschaum, as, when irri- 

 gation is necessary in dry seasons, he 

 thinks his own throat needs it worst. 



Other Christmas Stock. 



You know all about that most useful 

 cheap plant, the sweet stevia, Stevia ser- 

 rata. We never have enough to last over 

 to New Year's. Don't cut it now for 

 anyone and keep it down close to the 

 freezing point. Have a good lot of 

 Paper White and Soman hyacinths in 

 for Christmas. If there is any money 

 in these bulbs it is at that joyous time. 

 If you brought in your Paper Whites 

 three or four weeks ago, don't think 

 they are going to be too early. Keep 

 them cool and let every flower be de- 

 veloped and then this inexpensive bulb 

 is of great value to the florist. 



William Scott. 



PROPAGATING. 



In selecting wood for propagating pur- 

 poses some growers advocate taking flow- 

 ering stems in preference to blind wood, 

 under the impression that this class of 

 wood will produce a heavier cut of 

 blooms of a higher grade. Having ex- 

 perimented carefully along these lines 

 tor some years I found so little differ- 

 ence in the quantity and quality of cut 

 that I am content to use good blind wood 

 ^^ — 



trom near the top of the bush, where 

 it has been exposed to the rays of the 

 sun and where it could enjoy a free cir- 

 culation of air. 



Using flowering wood is also rather an 

 expensive experiment, as during the sea- 

 son of propagation blooms command the 

 best price and few of us care to curtail 

 our cut during short days, when even 

 the best of cuts produce fewer blooms 

 than we wish. 



The wood should be put into water 

 as soon as possible after being taken 

 from the plant, not merely dipping the 

 ends into the water, but immersing it 

 deeply. The wood should not be allowed 

 to stand too long in the water, as this 

 will produce that weak condition 



