410 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Dbcbmbeb 27, 1906. 



THE ROEHRS' WAGONS. 



The accompanying illustration is from 

 a photograph of the teams of the Julius 

 Roehrs Co., Rutherford, N. J., taken just 

 outside the greenhouses on the day be- 



fore Thanksgiving. It will give growers 

 of cut flowers who have no greater ranges 

 of glass some idea of the delivery facil- 

 ities required by a plantsman growing 

 for the New York markst.. 



CARNATION NOTES.— W^t, 



Potting the Cuttities. *» ' ' 



Having succeeded in getting a .good 

 percentage of .the cuttings to take root, 

 they should be potted as soon as they 

 have formed a nice tuft of rootlets. You 

 will find that by the time the most tardy 

 ones are rooted the majority of the batch 

 will be in proper shape for potting. They 

 should not be allowed to remain in the, 

 sand long after they are ready to pot 



The one thing you must bear in mind, 

 from the time you put the cuttings into 

 the sand until you plant them into the 

 houses next summer, is that these,: cat- 

 tings are your next season's stock ana 

 nothing is too good for them. Many 

 growers are inclined , to harbor the idea 

 that anything is good enough for the 

 young plants and that if they can plant 

 fairly good plants into the field they can 

 make up any deficiency during the sum- 

 mer. When late planting was the rule 

 and the plants had a long growing sea- 

 son this could often be done to some ex- 

 tent. But these days, when the plants 

 remain in the field a bare three months 

 and every day should be taken up by de- 

 velopment rather than recuperation, it 

 becomes imperative that you plant out 

 strong, sturdy plants that are ready to 

 go right ahead. During the next four 

 months the tendency to neglect is 

 stronger than at any other period of the 

 plant's development. 



Use Good SoiL 



To begin with, use good soil to pot 

 the cuttings into. Don't use old chrys- 

 anthemum soil, as we see done so often. 

 Just because this soil has lots of manure 

 in it and it looks light and mellow is no 

 reason why it is good. Use the same 



soil ybji.u^ed on your carnation benches, 

 or as gogd, and mix in about one-fifth 

 rtiore or w^l'-rStted manure, and a shovel- 

 ful of sharp ^and to each bushel of the 

 , mixture V Soreien this through a %-inch 

 mesh as you use it. Don't screen a big 

 lot and let' tt He, but screen what your 

 potting bench will hold and will be used 

 up In a few days. It will be in better 

 mechanical condition. 



Cuttings that are potted during the 

 next six weeks should be potted into 2- 

 inoh pots and shifted later into a larger 

 size, according to the strength of the 

 plants. If potted into 2% -inch pots this 

 early ancj left in those pots until planted 

 in the field they would be stunted and 

 hard and • would never make high-grade 

 stock. The one thing to strive for is a 

 moderate, sturdy, steady growth from 

 beginning to end. 



Potting an Art. 



There is more art in potting plants 

 than appears on the surface, and espe- 

 cially if speed is desired as well as good 

 work. All expert potters have a system 

 by which they work and when everything 

 is as it should be a good potter will 

 work like a clock and as smoothly. Every 

 move he makes has its place in the sys- 

 tem, and no unnecessary move is made 

 to cause a loss of time. Speed does not 

 necessarily mean a low grade of work. 

 In fact, you will frequently find that 

 the fastest one in a bunch of potters 

 will be doing the best grade of work. 

 The man who keeps both hands busy all 

 the time and moves his hands quickly, 

 eliminating all unnecessary movements, 

 will do just as good work as the slower 

 mover and will do more of it. 



The Routine of Potting. 



The system we teach every man who 

 pots on our place is as follows: Place 



the pots at the left hand and have the 

 soil in a convenient pile close against the 

 pots and to the right. Place the tray 

 on top of the soil and close to the pots^ 

 and let the end next to the pots be a few 

 inches lower than the other end. This 

 is done to aid in setting the pots inta 

 the tray quickly and to prevent falling 

 over. You will quickly see the advan- 

 tage in this. As to the cuttings, a con- 

 venient handful at a time is placed next 

 to the pots in the triangle of space, made- 

 by clearing a small space for working,, 

 directly in front of the potter. You wili 

 notice that everything is in close prox- 

 imity, to make every movement as short 

 as possible. Every time you have to- 

 lean over to reach or to turn around it 

 causes a waste of time and it tires you,, 

 but under this system the potter stand» 

 erect and moves only his arms and 

 hands. 



Now to pot the cuttings: Grasp a pot 

 in the left hand and simultaneously 

 brush the loose soil away with the back 

 of your right hand, then pick up a cut- 

 ting with the left hand and at the same 

 time scoop up a handful of soil in the 

 right hand. Both hands come together at 

 the pot, the left hand a trifle in advance 

 and holding the roots in the pot as deep 

 as they are to be and giving a slight 

 shake to make them hang naturally. The 

 soil is filled in around them and a thumb 

 on each side presses the soil down, and 

 by a quick change the remaining two- 

 sid^s are pressed, also with the thumbs,, 

 without moving the pot. In picking up 

 the pot with the right hand it is given a 

 slight twirl and knock on the bench and 

 quickly placed in the tray. While the 

 right hand is doing this the left hand! 

 is reaching for another pot, ready to set 

 down as soon as the right has cleared- a 

 space. Under this system the work is 

 so well divided that, except for mis- 

 hap, neither hand will need to wait for 

 the other at any time, and that is where 

 the saving in time comes in. 



The Question of Speed. 



We have seen men pot in many dif- 

 ferent ways, but have never seen a sys- 

 tem that would allow such speed and 

 clean work as this one. How many 

 plants can a good potter pot in a day 

 under this system, do you ask? To be- 

 gin with, I would say that expert pot- 

 ters who have speed, etc., usually have 

 their pots brought to them and the plants 

 set away for them and when several are 

 potting even the cuttings are taken up 

 for them. All they need to do is to pot 



The Delivery Teams of the Julius Roehrs G)., Rutherford, N. J. 



