J 350 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Mabch 21. 1907. 



of my hybrids at the Pan-American 

 exposition and St. Louis world's fair. 

 I also met him by invitation at the 

 French pavilion at the latter exposi- 

 tion. He there repeated his remarks on 

 my purpureo-auratus hybrids, better 

 known as the Lemoine section, and said: 

 "Mr. Groff, I am specially interested 

 in your improvement on the Lemoine 

 type, the great number of new varieties, 

 the high quality and beauty of the 

 colors, but above all the strong spikes 

 of handsome, wide-open flowers as com- 

 pared with the usual cowled types of 

 that section." II. H. Gbopf. 



SWEET PEAS. 



It is important for the successful cul- 

 tivation of sweet peas that the seed be 

 sown as early as possible. As it is well 

 known that sweet peas are fond of good 

 food and drink, the best time to lay in 

 a stock of both for them is before the 

 seed is put in the ground. And the way 

 of doing that in the most satisfactory 

 manner I have found to be to dig a 

 trench, at least eighteen inches in depth, 

 filling it in afterward with well-rotted 

 manure and soil in equal parts, with the 

 addition of a sprinkling of bone meal, to 



within about four inches of the grade, 

 whereon I sow the seed. 



Treated in that manner and cared for 

 throughout a prolonged season of flower- 

 ing, I sold $150 worth of flowers from 

 four rows, each twenty-five feet long, 

 selling the flowers at 40 cents per hun- 

 dred. 



When the peas are well up above the 

 ground, a little soil may be drawn up 

 to them and the process repeated at in- 

 tervals as growth proceeds. The sup- 

 porting brush should be put down be- 

 fore the plants show signs of falling 

 over; in fact, the sooner after they are 

 up they are brushed the better. 



The rows of sweet peas should be at 

 least four feet apart, and six inches 

 more will do no harm. Keep the soil, 

 between the rows and right up to the 

 plants, well worked continually and 

 never allow weeds to get a hold, chick- 

 weed in particular, because once it gets 

 a hold it is hard to make it let go. If 

 the season is very dry it will pay to 

 apply good drenchings of water to the 

 soil and this is doubly beneficial if some 

 fertilizer is previously applied to be 

 washed in by the water. 



Keep cutting all the flowers as they 

 appear and expand. E. E. 



CARNATION NOTES— VEST. 



Storing; Easter Stock. 



It ought not to be necessary to say a 

 word about pickling stock, but every 

 year we hear of a few who have made 

 the mistake. To the credit of the craft 

 it can be said, however, that as a rule 

 it is done by inexperienced growers who 

 simply were unable to judge reasonably 

 how long a cut bloom can be kept in a 

 salable condition and how much handling 

 a bloom will stand after being kept a 

 certain length of time. To those I want 

 to say a word about how to handle the 

 cut in order to keep as many blooms as 

 possible in first-class condition. 



To begin with, I will say that there 

 is a great deal of difference in varieties 

 and you can keep some of them several 

 days longer than others and keep them 

 better. For instance. Enchantress can 

 not be kept nearly as long as Lawson 

 and when it is fully developed and water- 

 soaked it will not stand much handling 

 without bruising around the edges and 

 becoming unsalable. You need a place 

 which will run about 48 degrees in which 

 to keep the blooms. In this temperature 

 development will go on slowly and the 

 blooms will be better than if kept too 

 cool. It should be about half dark and 

 well ventilated, though not draughty. 



A vrcek before Easter cut every bloom 

 that is open, whether you need it or not, 

 so that you will not be tempted to put 

 away a lot of blooms that will be sure 

 to be overdone long before you want to 

 use them. Then cut everything that is 

 far enough along to develop in water. 

 Varieties differ some in that respect, too. 

 Grade them into bunches so ' that the 

 blooms in each bunch will be just about 



alike in regard to development. Tie in 

 bunches of twenty-five and put the same 

 number of bunches in each vase. This 

 will save much handling later on, and 

 the less they are handled the better for 

 them. Put a tag on each vase with the 

 date of cutting and when you need 

 blooms during the middle of the week 

 you will have no trouble in finding the 

 oldest ones. Gather the blooms every 

 day, so that all will be in nearly the 

 same state of development, and none 

 will be too far developed to keep well. 

 Cut the stems every second day and 

 don't crowd too many in a vase. 



Most varieties we grow these days 

 have strong enough stems to hold them 

 upright for some time, but those that 

 are inclined to be a trifle weak at the 



time of cutting will not hold the blooms 

 up when fully developed and must be 

 supported. To shove them down into 

 deep vases will crowd the blooms too 

 much, so we have invented a wire con- 

 trivance which has served us well. Make 

 a wire ring that will fit into the inside 

 of your vase; then make another ring 

 about eighteen inches across. Eun three 

 wires about eighteen inches long from 

 the one to the other. Set this support 

 into the vase and the blooms inside of it. 

 You can make the upper ring larger or 

 smaller to suit your case and the up- 

 right wires the same, but we find that a 

 ring the size mentioned will encompass 

 about 150 blooms without crowding 

 them. Your vase can be quite shallow if 

 you use heavy wire and, in fact, we 

 prefer to use vases or buckets which are 

 not over twelve inches deep, as it allows 

 the air to pass between the stems and 

 among the blooms. 



Look the blooms over carefully every 

 time you cut the stems, and if you have 

 any doubt about any of them keeping 

 in first-class condition, get them out and 

 sold while they are yet in good shape. 

 In tying the bunches, wrap the string 

 around the bottom five or six times to 

 hold the bunch; then tie a string loosely 

 around the bunch just below the blooms, 

 to prevent the blooms of one bunch get- 

 ting mixed with those^jof other bunches. 

 This vpill save many broken stems when 

 taking them out of the vases to pack up. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



A MILLION CUTTINGS. 



The illustration on page 1351 will 

 perhaps give some idea of the immense 

 proportions to which Jhe rooted cutting 

 business has attained with western 

 growers. The photograph was made at 

 the establishment of the Chicago Carna- 

 tion Co., at Joliet, 111., and shows the 

 propagating house 30x150 feet filled 

 with its third batch of cuttings. There 

 are 300,000 cuttings in the sand and it 

 is the third time this season the house 

 has been full of stock. A. T. Pyfer, 

 manager of the establishment, states that 

 they have in all propagated over a mil- 

 lion cuttings this season. 



Most of the cuttings in the house at 

 present are Aristocrat and White Per- 

 fection, the latter variety being in their 

 estimation only second to their season's 

 novelty. They say Aristocrat has been 

 a wonderful producer with them all sea- 

 son, that the crop ias been remarkably 



Bench of Carnations with the Heim Support. 



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