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U64 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Mabch 7, 1907. 



ally a national undertaking, yet Ameri- 

 can gardeners will haw opportunity to 

 exhibit in several departments. Inter- 

 national are the exhibits of orchids, 

 cacti, modern horticulture and the exhib- 

 its of fruits and greens. England, 

 Prance and even the primitive forests of 

 South America will contribute to the ex- 

 hibits of orchids. Besides cultivated 

 plants from England and France there 

 will be exhibited, as curiosities, the 

 strange forms of wild orchids, gathered 

 with difficulty in Mexico, l^r^ail and on 

 the banks of the Orinoco river. 



The cactus exhibit will contain a great 

 number of interesting and peculiar 

 plants, representing a rich collection 

 from all tropical countries. There will 

 be, for instance, gigantic cacti from 

 Mexico and South America. 



The exhibition of horticultural novel- 

 ties, by cultivators from Germany and 

 foreign countries, surely will be of great- 

 est attraction. The progress of Ameri- 

 can horticulture in fruits and plants, as 

 well as in greens, will be shown here. 



Eight special exhibits will give oppor- 

 tunity to all countries of the world to 

 show by their products their degrees of 

 advancement in fruit cultivation. Amer- 

 ica, a country which sends every year 

 many thousands of quintals of fruit to 

 Germany, will take justifiable interest in 

 exhibiting its products at Mannheim and 

 in demonstrating the different methods 

 of preparing them for a long voyage. 

 People will be interested in the differ- 

 ent methods of preserving fruits and 

 greens and the various forms of cool- 

 ing apparatus. 



CARNATION NOTES —VEST. 



Shif ting Young Stock. 



If you propagated a lot of carnation 

 cuttings early and have had them potted 

 six weeks or so you will have to give 

 them a shift within the next few weeks. 

 The first two weeks in March is the best 

 time for this, as a rule, because it gives 

 the plants plenty of time to become re- 

 established and to make a good growth 

 before time for planting out. 



Don't think that because the young 

 plants may look young and tender and 

 not excessively pot-bound that they will 

 stand all right in the small pots. Young 

 carnation plants want to be kept con- 

 tinually on the move. By that I do not 

 mean that they should be induced to 

 make a large, rank growth, but it should 

 be slow and steady' and should not be 

 checked by being pot-bound, which means 

 not only starved, but later on it means 

 frequent drying out at the roots during 

 warm spring days. The latter is as in- 

 jurious as the first named, if not worse. 



We like to plant from pots and prefer 

 shifting the young plants from 2-inch 

 into 3-inch pots and planting from these 

 into the field. There are several reasons 

 for this. When planting from pots you 

 have a good ball of earth and you have 

 every root that belongs to the plant in- 

 tact. Taking the plant from the green- 

 house out into the open field, subjecting 

 it to the strong sunshine and the drying 

 spring winds, is trying enough for the 

 young plants, without having many of the 

 roots torn or cut and, in many cases, 

 most of the soil shaken from them. If 

 there is no rainfall for a few days the 

 suffering is not so intense when a good 

 ball of earth is kept intact, nor will it 

 begin so early as it will when the soil- 

 is shaken from the roots. You will find, 

 too, that this ball of earth will hold to- 

 gether in the fall when you dig the 

 plants for housing and it is a great help 

 at that time. I have also found that 

 the roots on such plants will be more 

 bunchy and you can get more of them 

 with the plants, when digging them. 



Another way, which is practiced by 

 many large growers and which is a modi- 



fication of the above, is to pot the cut- 

 tings into 2-inch pots and about this time 

 plant them in three inches of soil on the 

 bench, setting about three inches apart 

 each way. This method will produce 

 fine, strong ^oung plants and the 3-inch 

 pots are dispensed with. The ball from 

 the 2-inch pot will hold together when 

 taken up- to be planted in the field, but, 

 of course, many roots are broken and 

 the transfer is accompanied with more 

 suffering than when planting is done 

 from pots. The growth is more apt to 

 be rank and soft under this method, too, 

 which is not desirable. There will not 

 be so much drying of the soil as in the 

 pots, which is a good feature and insures 

 a steady growth. Either of these meth- 

 ods is commendable, though we prefer 

 the pot method. We do not approve of 

 planting the rooted cuttings right on the 

 bench. The roots run out too long and 

 are mangled too much when taking up 

 the plants. 



Cuttings taken from the sand after 

 this date can be potted right into 2%.- 

 inch pots and left in those pots until 

 time for planting out. When these are 

 set on a bench near the ventilators, or 

 where! a draught will strike them, the 

 pots should be plunged abafGlNiialf-way 

 in sand. This will retard drying out and 

 will be a great help next month. 



Keep the young plants sprayed with 

 the tobacco extracts, to prevent aphis or 

 thrips from getting a foothold on them, 

 the same as you do the blooming plants. 

 Dusting them with tobacco dust will be 

 found a great help, too, though we pre- 

 fer the spraying as being more effective 

 and cleaner. Syringe them hard, at 

 least once each week, to keep off red 

 spider and to keep off rust, dust them 

 with air-slaked lime. Be sure they have 

 an abundance of sunlight and ventilation 

 to promote sturdiness. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



SOIL FOR CARNATIONS. 



I shall grow carnations in benches next 

 year for the first time, having grown 

 them under glass, but in the ground. I 

 want to get the right kind of soil, but I 

 cannot get rotted sod or cow manure 

 here. I can get a rich, black, sandy 

 loam, almost silt. What shall I put with 

 that? Leaf -mold is obtainable. 



A. L.H. 



There is no use describing what we 

 consider the ideal carnation soil in this 

 locality, since you say you cannot secure 

 the two principal parts that we use. 

 Rotted sod and cow manure will, without 

 any doubt, make the best soil for carna- 

 tions; but we have known fine carnations 

 to be grown where one pr both of these 

 were lacking. Carnations do not like a 

 rough soil like roses do, but, rather, a 

 porous, well-pulverized soil bordering on 

 a sandy loam, though not too light. 

 When cow manure is added in liberal 

 quantities to enrich it, you have a first- 

 class soil. In your case with such a light 

 soil as you have, if your soil is rich, you 

 will likely get a heavy, rank growth and, 

 unless you can make it heavier with clay 

 or cow manure, you will not get the qual- 



Pink Seedling Lawson z Enchantress. 



(Raised by C. Leisy, Wenonah, N. J. 



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