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Mabch 14, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



1245 



they can be set out in the beds during 

 June or July. They should have not 

 less than six inches of good soil and if 

 liberally treated will yield several crops 

 of strings during the season. A top- 

 dressing of well-rotted manure and occa- 

 sional soakings of liquid stimulants will 

 materially improve them. Eed spider 

 disfigures the foliage if not kept well 

 syringed, especially where the plants 

 are near the heating pipes. The demand 

 for smilax is not what it used to be 

 before the advent of Asparagus plumo- 

 sus, but we find a bench of it always 

 pays well. 



Variegated Viocas. 



For vases, veranda or window-boxes 

 Vinca variegata is indispensable. If 

 you want a good supply of strong plants 

 for another year it is not yet too late to 

 put in a good batch of cuttings. Rub 

 these off with heels from the base of 

 the plants and they will soon root in 

 sand. Do not cut the tops from the 

 long, trailing shoots. They are slower 

 and more uncertain of propagation. Pot 

 off the little cuttings when nicely rooted 

 and plant out in the open ground. Cul- 

 tivate well all summer and by fall you 

 will have fine stock which you can 

 squeeze into 4-inch pots and stand in 

 single rows along the edges of your 

 cool house benches. This will make the 

 finest possible material for use the fol- 

 lowing bedding season. There never 

 seems to be any surplus of this pretty 

 and most useful plant and if you chance 

 to grow more than you need yourself 

 you will always find it easy to dispose 

 of. Vincas need a cool house and, be- 

 ing hardy, an occasional freezing does 

 not harm them. Fall cuttings, taken 

 about the last of September, will make 

 nice plants for use the following May. 



Lorraine Begoaiis, 



If you are in the habit of raising your 

 own stock of this most useful of all 

 begonias you will now be able to se- 

 cure some nice base cuttings from old, 

 cut-back plants which have been rested 

 a little but kept lightly syringed. These 

 cuttings, as soon as two inches long, 

 should be taken off with a sharp knife 

 and inserted in clean, sharp sand, where 

 they can have a bottom heat of 70 de- 

 grees to 75 degrees and a top heat of 

 60 degrees to 65 degrees. Use care in 

 watering and nearly all will root. 



If leaf cuttings were used and put in 

 sand some six weeks ago they will now 

 be rooted nicely and young growths will 

 be making their appearance. Pot them 

 up in light, sandy compost and keep a 

 little on the dry side until the roots 

 are running around the sides of the pots. 



Some growers propagate the shoots 

 coming from these leaf cuttings and con- 

 sider that so treated they make better 

 plants. Our experience has been that 

 plants from leaf cuttings are more ro- 

 bust, make larger leaves and have larger 

 flowers than those raised from cuttings, 

 but flowers are more loosely scattered 

 on the plant. This is rather an advan- 

 tage, however, as Lorraines really carry 

 too many flowers in proportion to the 

 foliage they carry. 



Preparations for Easter. 



The early buds on many of the lilies 

 will now be showing white. These can 

 now safely be given a cooler house and 

 will be out in good season. While the 

 principal call for lilies is for single 

 stalks in pots, made up plants carrying 



three to five each make very handsome 

 specimens and always sell well. It is 

 possible now to make up these plants 

 by selecting those which will flower to- 

 gether. No compunction need be used 

 about shaking away or chopping off 

 some of the balls to make them fit into 

 the new receptacles. They will flower 

 just as well if kept well watered. Prob- 

 ably you have noticed how stalks cut 

 off containing only buds open out finely 

 in water. The same applies to the made- 

 up plants. 



Tulips and narcissi which are usually 

 grown in flats can be taken out and 

 placed in pans now. They will open just 

 as well and last as long as if grown 

 in them. Do not attempt this unless 

 the plants are short and stocky and do 

 it just before the flowers open. Hya- 

 cinths can be treated in the same way. 

 It is inadvisable to pull apart the very 

 vigorous narcissi, like Emperor, Sir 

 Watkin and Horsfieldii, in this way, but 

 Golden Spur we find stands it well. 



Pansies and double daisies sold well 

 in little baskets last Easter. If you 

 have these in a cold house and they are 



coming into flower make up some pans 

 or baskets of them. English primroses 

 are also salable if treated in the same 

 way. Many customers prefer these little 

 harbingers of spring to the larger and 

 more showy plants associated with Eas- 

 ter. 



Flowering shrubs, such as lilac, deut- 

 zias, cherries, double plums, etc., should 

 now be coming into flower and ought to 

 be opened in a cooler house. Wistarias 

 also need similar treatment. Do not 

 allow the latter to become too fully ex- 

 panded. 



Rambler roses, hydrangeas, spirseas 

 and in fact all flowering stock will now 

 be matted with roots and copious sup- 

 plies of water are necessary to keep 

 them in good condition. A little care- 

 lessness now may mean a heavy pe- 

 cuniary loss. What a treasure a man 

 is who is a really careful hand at water- 

 ing. He who does not skip a few plants 

 on a bench every time he waters it is 

 the exception, not the rule. Nothing so 

 stamps the successful grower as one 

 who knows how to use the hose ai 

 watering pot. 



CARNATION NOTES.— VEST. 



Forcing an Easter Crop. 



Two weeks after you get these notes 

 you will be in the thick of the Easter 

 rush, the biggest day of the year for 

 the trade. No doubt you are trying even 

 now to estimate what your cut of blooms 

 will be for that week and wondering 

 whether you will be able to deliver as 

 many as you may have already prom- 

 ised. If you could count on bright 

 weather you could make a close esti- 

 mate, but when you have to run the risk 

 of a bad week it becomes an uncertain 

 proposition, and here is where trouble 

 commences. You accept orders for as 

 many blooms as you cut during the 

 heaviest weeks, and when the sun refuses 

 to show itself, and the blooms fail to 

 materialize, you shove on the heat to 

 force them out. Consequently you weaken 

 your plants so much that for some weeks 

 your cut will be away below its usual 

 quality. 



The danger at this time of the year is 

 not so great as it is at Christmas and 

 with a little foresight the plants can 

 be forced to give a few extra blooms 

 without danger, but be reasonable. The 

 sun is stronger now aijd more ventila- 

 tion can be given, thus causing the 

 plants to grow stronger and to build up 

 and overcome the effects of a slight 

 strain quicker than in midwinter. By 

 starting the temperature upward a 

 week before you deliver tlie blooms and 

 raising the temperature a degree each 

 night until you have raised 6 degrees, 

 and after you are through cutting drop 

 again in the same manner, you can make 

 it comparatively easy for the plants. 

 But under no conditions should you 

 jump the temperature all at one time, 

 or drop it, especially if the weather is 



bad. Do not raise it more than f de- 

 grees. That is enough to push out as 

 many blooms as will be forced out with- 

 out injury to the plants. Remember 

 that the time of gluts and oversupply 

 is not far away. During those times 

 only the best of stock is wanted and 

 you cannot afford to do anything now 

 that will lower your quality at that 

 time. 



Next week I will tell you what may 

 safely be done in the matter of storing 

 up your cut to provide a holiday supply. 



A. F. J. BAint. 



EXPERIENCE VITH CARNATIONS. 



[A paper by A. J. Stalielln. of Redford. Mlfh.. 

 rond before the Detroit Florists' Club, March 6. 

 1907.] 



With my short and limited experience 

 in carnation growing I do not feel that 

 I am competent to write anything new 

 or of instructive value to our carnation 

 growers, especially when our trade 

 papers are continually printing all the 

 information that any one possibly could 

 desire. Nevertheless, what little expe- 

 rience I have had I will only be too glad 

 to give. 



Getting; a Start. 



In the spring of 1903 I concluded that 

 every young man at the age of 25 should 

 decide what his future vocation should 

 be — then get busy at it. Especially did 

 I think this time of myself, so I at once 

 secured a position with the Chicago Car- 

 nation Co., Joliet, 111., one of the largest 

 and most up-to-date carnation growing 

 establishments in this country, where 

 many important ideas in greenhouse con- 

 struction, as well as carnation growing, 

 were easily picked up. 



In the fall of 190.*? I returned home, 

 built one evonspan house .30x200, with 

 gutters six feet high and raised benches, 

 installing a Superior hot water boiler. 



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