76 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



NOTBMBBB 29, 1006. 



called * ' water heart, ' * fatal to the result 

 we wish. 



The process of making the cutting and 

 inserting it in the bench, while de- 

 manding care and attention, is sim- 

 plicity itself. The after care of the 

 bench and house, being of the utmost 

 importance in successfully raising the 

 stock, will demand a greater amount of 

 care and diligence. 



For ordinary purposes cuttings of 

 tnree eyes make nice, thrifty plants; 

 even cuttings of two eyes, if handled 

 properly, make nice plants in a short 

 time. Having all the cuttings of a uni- 

 form size with the same number of eyes 

 will tend to better success than if the 

 sizes and quality are indiscriminate. 



Use a knife with a keen edge and make 

 a short slice, as the cleaner the cut and 

 the smaller the wound so much quicker 

 will the callus form and the arrange- 

 ment of the young rootlets will be more 

 perfect. 



The cuttings should never be allowed 

 to become dry from the time they are 

 taken from the plant until root forma- 

 tion has taken place, and during the 

 process of making the cuttings frequent 

 sprinkling is necessary in order to keep 

 them in the best condition. The sand 

 or other medium should be pounded mod- 

 erately firm and should not exceed four 

 inches in depth. 



As uniform conditions are more likely 

 to exist half way between the surface 

 and the bottom of the bench, the ends 

 of the cuttings should reach to that 

 depth and should have the material 

 firmly pressed around tnem. The end of 

 every cutting should reach the bottom of 

 the cut made to receive them, as any 

 cutting not so placed will take a longer 

 time to root. 



The bench should then be thoroughly 

 watered and, if exposed to bright sun- 

 shine, should be lightly shaded with 

 cheesecloth, removing the shading just 

 as soon as the sun ceaaes to shine on the 

 bench. The temperature of the material 

 in the bench should be about 62 degrees 

 and the house temperature at least 10 

 degrees lower, so that while root forma- 

 tion is in progress the eyes may be dis- 

 couraged from breaking and making 

 wood. 



By carefully attending watering, shad- 

 ing and temperatures, the cutting will be 

 ready to pot in twenty-eight or thirty 

 aays. Eibes. 



BABY RAMBLER ROSE. 



Have a lot of two-year dormant Baby 

 Bambler roses just potted. A few of 

 these are wanted in bloom just as soon 

 as possible. How far ought they to be 

 cut back? They are in cold houses to 

 start, temperature 45 to 50 degrees. 



E. L. 



Your treatment of roses is all right. 

 Start slowly in a cool house if just lifted 

 from the field. Do not cut back the 

 wood of these roses anything like as 

 severely as you would a hybrid perpet- 

 ual. In fact, only the unripe tops of the 

 stronger growths need be cut back and 

 then only back to the firm ripe wood. 

 Any old wood that flowered last spring 

 should be cut away entirely. W. S. 



MALFORMED BUDS. 



Can you tell us why our Bride and 

 Maid buds come deformed! The center 

 of the flower does not push out, although 

 the outer petals are formed fairly well. 

 The flowers were good up to three or 



four weeks ago; then came a short pe- 

 riod of deformed flowers, say about three 

 or four days, after which they came 

 good for two weeks, then again a few 

 poor cuts. The temperature in the 

 houses had been as low as 56 degrees at 

 night, with warm days. The soil is a 

 heavy loam with one-quarter cow ma- 

 nure. The plants look healthy, the foli- 

 age being a dark green and leathery. 

 The first cold nights had no fires and in 

 the mornings plants would be wet. 



J. N. 



It is possible that the check received 

 by these roses during the first cold spell 

 may have something to do with the mal- 

 formation of the buds, although it would 

 be more likely to first show its effects on 

 the foliage. 



Boses are more apt to act in this man- 

 ner from overfeeding with material con- 

 taining an excess of ammonia, such as 

 using bone meal and lime in combina- 

 tion, or any material that will release 

 the ammonia in the manure or mulch 

 more rapidly than the plants can use it. 



A temperature of 56 degrees, espe- 

 cially with a small crack of air on, while 

 it would retard the development of the 

 blooms and so shorten the cut, would 

 rather tend to improve the quality of 

 the bud than otherwise, so the trouble 

 cannot be attributed to that. 



Make an investigation as to the qual- 

 ity of food supply, as I am convinced 

 the cause originates there. Bibes. 



MILDEW. 



I am troubled with mildew on my 

 roses. I have a house fifty feet long, 

 with about 400 rose plants. The soil 

 is sod plowed up in autumn and piled 

 up until the following spring with one- 

 quarter of cow manure. I have good 

 drainage. The roses were planted in 

 July. The temperature at night runs 

 from 50 to 60 degrees without ventila- 



tion and it runs up to 80 or 90 degrees 

 in the daytime when there is sunshine, 

 with ventilators wide open. When night 

 comes I close the ventilators and the tem- 

 perature drops to 70 degrees. 



My house is a three-quarter-span, Lord 

 & Burnham steel-frame construction, with 

 ventilators on one side. The house is 

 close to the river, which runs north and 

 south, the house east and west. The 

 house is 100 feet long, divided equally, 

 the half for carnations being next the 

 river. During a heavy fog I often dust 

 the pipes with sulphur. "When it rains 

 I close the ventilators. "My roses began 

 to mildew in September. T. B. D. 



The trouble with these roses arises, 

 neither from the quality of the soil, style 

 of house nor its proximity to the river, 

 but is caused solely and entirely by lack 

 of ventilation at night. 



Time and again I have pointed out in 

 these columns that this stagnant atmos- 

 phere is the very condition suited for the 

 germination of the spores of mildew, and 

 so long as this condition prevails mildew 

 will stay in the house, in spite of sul- 

 phur or any other preventive. 



Keep the air in circulation by leaving 

 on a crack of air whenever possible, even 

 at the expense of a few more tons of 

 coal, but close the ventilators if there 

 is danger of rain getting in. Be care- 

 ful to have the watering and syringing 

 done early enough in the day to allow 

 the foliage to become dry before sun- 

 down. When giving ventilation during 

 the morning be careful to raise the sashes 

 a little at a time — never so much at 

 once as to appreciably affect the tem- 

 perature of the house, and reduce during 

 the afternoon with the same care. 



As an aid in banishing this pest keep 

 the pipes painted with the sulphur mix- 

 ture and dust the foliage once a week 

 with a mixture of lime and sulphur, one- 

 third lime and two-tliirds sulphur. Ap- 

 ply with the blower. Bibes. 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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PRIZE DESIGNS. 



It hardly ever fails that where cut 

 flower work is part of a flower show the' 

 retailers' displays are among the most 

 attractive features of the exhibition. The 

 table decorations have a special fascina- 

 tion for the public, but many are the re- 

 tailers who have received orders for fu- 

 neral pieces or a bride's bouquets with 

 the comment, ' * Make one like that you 

 had at the flower show." The retailers' 

 displays are too frequently the only ar- 

 tistic feature of an exhibition. 



At the Ontario horticultural exhibition 

 at Toronto, floral designs always are 

 given a leading place in the schedule. 

 The accompanying illustrations are the 

 three prize-winners at the show held early 

 this month, and they will serve to demon- 

 strate to florists that at Toronto they 

 make as finished floral work as in any 

 metropolitan community south of the Do- 

 minion line. These were the work of J. 

 S. Simmons and it is interesting to note 



that lily of the valley was largely used 

 in each of his pieces. It is, of course, 

 almost the only material at this season, 

 unless orchids are used, for making bridal 

 bouquets. It was necessarily good valley 

 that Simmons used, but it will be noted 

 that in his bridal bunch he employed 

 scarcely any foliage, not nearly so much 

 as would be used by the average maker- 

 up. For his encircling green he used As- 

 paragus plumosus. The shower consists 

 of only a few ribbons, in which valley 

 spikes are tied, as the effect would be too 

 heavy if more were used combined with 

 the lace scarf which is now So popular for 

 tying all sorts of bouquets. 



As at other shows, the table decoration 

 was the center of attraction. Cattleyas, 

 dendrobiums and valley were used, with 

 Asparagus plumosus for the green. The 

 center-piece was in a large silver bowl, 

 which was just a little high for the pur- 

 pose. 



The prize design was a cushion on an 



