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The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Febbuaby 28, 1907. 



beetle. Every one that escapes you 

 means the loss of a rose plant before the 

 summer is over. 



FiUiog the Benches. 



Before filling the benches clear out all 

 rubbish from underneath, and give each 

 house a thorough fumigating with sul- 

 phur. With one man at a bench leveling 

 off and two or three wheeling in the soil, 

 the work of filling the houses goes mer- 

 rily on. Each bench should be filled just 

 barely level, so that after a firming and 

 watering the soil will be about one inch 

 from the top of the sides. I may here 

 say that five inches is deep enough for 

 the benches. When a house has been 

 filled the walks and underneath the 

 benches should again be carefully 

 cleaned. In rose growing cleanliness is 

 godliness. 



Before planting, the benches should 

 have a top dressing of ground bone, 

 about fifty pounds to 500 square feet of 

 surface, and well worked into the soil 

 with the hands or a rake. The standard 

 distance for planting is ten inches in 

 and fifteen inches between the rows; but 

 rank growers, like Beauties and Chate- 

 nays, can be planted wider to advantage. 



Propagatiog. 



It is always ' preferable to propagate 

 your own stock of young roses, but the 

 law of selection must be rigidly ob- 

 served. It is a simple thing to let a 

 good strain deteriorate by indiscriminate 

 propagation, and only judicious selection 

 will keep the stock up to the top notch.' 

 Cuttings may be made from blind wood, 

 as well as from flowering shoots. A heel 

 cutting from blind wood will make a 

 very satisfactory plant in a short time, 

 as it throws up a number of shoots from 

 the bottom and thus makes a splendid 

 foundation for future building. January 

 and February are the best months to root 

 the cuttings. 



A temperature of 60 degrees to 62 de- 

 grees in the sand and 56 degrees in the 

 house at night will be found suitable to 

 their requirements, and in about twenty- 

 five days the cuttings should be rooted 

 enough for potting. Use small pots for 

 the first potting, with little manure in 

 the soil, and keep the young plants grow- 

 ing all the time, using richer soil for 

 each shift. Cuttings struck in January 

 should be strong plants by May 1. 



Buyiag Young Stock. 



Just a word about buying young roses 

 from the north. There is plenty of fine 

 stock in season in northern markets, but, 

 alas, the conditions down here are either 



unknown or ignored by a great many 

 shippers. Young roses for shipment to 

 the south must never be pot-bound at 

 time of shipping, and they must be wet 

 enough to arrive in a nice, moist condi- 

 tion. Pot-bound plants generally arrive 

 denuded of foliage, and those which 

 come too dry soon drop theirs, and the 

 buyer loses at least a month in their best 

 growing period; indeed, he is lucky if 

 he does not lose half the plants as well. 

 These are two points in shipping that 

 purchasers should insist be observed. 

 (To be Continued.) 



AMERICAN ROSE SCXHETY. 



The executive committee of the Amer- 

 ican Eose Society has been favored with 

 more prizes for the coming Washington 

 show, one of $25 for Killarney offered 



by ex-President Fred E. Newbold, of 

 Poughkeepsie, and another from L. A. 

 Noe, of Madison, who offers a prize of 

 $25 for Uncle John. 



An addition to the prize list of the 

 Washington Florists' Club is a premium 

 of $25 for a group of decorative plants 

 covering at least 100 square feet of floor 

 space, offered by Wm. H. Ernest, of 

 Washington. 



A. special report of the society's do- 

 ings, with the constitution and by-laws 

 and a chapter on garden roses, of much 

 interest to amateur growers, is mailed to 

 all members of the society and a number 



of them are being sent out to the gen- 

 eral public. 



Benjamin Hammond, Sec'y. 



NOTHING VRONG IN KANSAS. 



The accompanying illustration is from 

 a photograph of Charles P. Mueller 's 

 new greeahouses at Wichita, Kan. They 

 were erected two years ago and enlarged 

 last summer. The plant now contains 

 about 30,000 square feet of glass and is 

 devoted to roses, carnations and the gen- 

 eral line of stuff used in a first-class re- 

 tail trade. Considerable space is given 

 up to bedding plants, in which Mr. Muel- 

 ler does a large business during the bed- 

 ding season. A. Marquart, for many 

 years with J. F. Wilcox, of Council 

 Bluffs, is in charge. Credit is due him 

 for the showing he has made during the 

 six or seven months he has been ydth the 

 establishment. 



A NEW GREENHOUSE BRACKET. 



In a large proportion of the green- 

 houses there is need for some sort of a 

 bracket fastened upon the pipes which 

 support the roof. Where the heating 

 pipes are carried overhead a pipe hanger 

 is essential and the economy of space 

 often calls for the use of brackets upon 

 which shelves may be placed to carry 

 considerable weight. The bracket shown 

 in the accompanying illustration is used 

 by a large number of New England 

 growers. It is manufactured by Buxton 

 & AUard, Nashua, N. H., and has made 

 its way so far west that the C. C. Poll- 

 worth Co., Milwaukee, has taken it up 

 as general western sales agent. It is 

 said that the iron brackets, when prop- 

 erly clamped to the pipes, will each carry 

 a load of over a ton. 



CRINUM YEMENSE. 



Growers in general are well aware of 

 the merits of Crinum Moorei, C. Powelli, 

 and C. longifolium, plants that haf e been 

 in cultivation for a long time, but the 

 Arabian form of C. latifolium, says a 

 writer in the Gardeners' Magazine, is 

 wholly overlooked, despite its proved 

 hardiness, compact growth, and giant 

 inflorescences out of all proportion to 

 the small size of the plants. 



It belongs to the deciduous section,^ 

 carrying little or no leafage in its native 

 habitat of Yemen for longer than half 

 the year. Under cultivation, it fits the 

 English seasons admirably, growing 

 throughout summer, flowering in August, 

 and resting quietly •throughout winter. 

 The bulb is as round as an onion, with 



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Establishment of Charles P. Mueller, Wichita, Kan. 



