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8 



The Weekly Florists^ RevieWi 



ARRANGEMENT OF SOLID BEDS. 



Can new varieties of earnations be 

 successfully propagated during the sum- 

 mer, no cuttings being obtainable earlier! 



In using soUd beds where there is poor 

 natural drainage, what depth of drain- 

 age and soil should be used? 



Please advise the most economical ar- 

 rangement of benches in a lean-to 

 fifteen feet wide. I have it planned for 

 a bench three feet wide against the south 

 wall, then a walk sixteen inches wide, 

 then a bench six feet wide, another six- 

 teen inches for walk and a bench three 

 feet wide against the north wall. Will 

 this be all right? 



I have two connected houses so low 

 that I must use low solid beds to get 

 headroom. Each house is twelve feet 

 nine inches from wall to gutter supports, 

 the wide gutter being carried on parallel 

 lines of pipe supports two feet apart, 

 to permit of a walk of that width under 

 the gutter. The pipes being on the side 

 walls, I allow nine inches of space there, 

 then a bed two feet ten inches wide, two 

 feet for a walk, a bed three feet two 

 inches, ten inches for a walk under the 

 ridge, and then three feet two inches for 

 another bed, which brings me to the 

 supports along the walk under the gut- 

 ter. The other house is the same way. 

 Can this be improved? J. M. 



Carnations cannot be propagated very 

 successfully during the summer months, 

 on account of the heat. If you can sup- 

 ply a cool place to root them in, it could 

 be done, though not so well as in win- 

 ter. The growth during the summer is 

 such that rooting would not be as ready 

 as on winter wood ; especially is this true 

 with outside growth. The greatest ob- 

 stacle, however, is the heat. 



When solid or semi-solid beds are built 

 on ground that does not drain readily, 

 the filling material should be of such a 

 nature and of sufficient depth so that the 

 water can sink away far enough to be re- 

 moved beyond the reach of the roots. 

 The roots will work down into the filling 

 material some distance, especially if 

 cinders are used. In such case, fourteen 

 to sixteen inches of cinders is not at all 

 too deep. If you use boards for siding, 

 then use a 12-inch board with a 6-inch 

 board on top of it, and use pecky cypress. 

 That will give you fourteen inches of 

 cinders and four inches of soil. If you 

 make concrete sides you can make them 

 any height you may want, but allow for 

 at "least that much filling and four inches 

 for soil. 



The most economical way of arranging 

 the benches in a house does not always 

 show the most square feet of bench 

 space. Your plan for benching the lean- 

 to shows twelve feet across the three 

 benches, but you will find that if you 

 will make a 15-inch walk against each 

 side of the house, and build two benches, 

 each five feet six inches wide, thus leav- 

 ing room for an 18-inch walk in the mid- 

 dle of the house, it will grow more high- 



grade stock than the other way. Under 

 your plan you are using thirty-two 

 inches of the best space for walks and 

 twenty-four inches of the poorest space 

 for bench room, while under the plan I 

 propose you use only eighteen inches of 

 this desirable space for your center walk 

 and you use the most undesirable space, 

 which is along the walls, for your walks. 

 Your other two houses are benched 

 and piped poorly, t would run the walks 

 and benches thus, beginning against the 

 south wall: Walk, fifteen inches; bench, 

 five feet; walk, twenty inches; bench, 

 four feet ten inches ; walk under gutter, 

 sixteen inches; bench, five feet; walk, 

 twenty inches; bench, four feet ten 

 inches; walk, fifteen inches. That will 

 give you four benches of good average 

 width, placed in the best part of the 

 house, and five walks of good width for 

 working, and placed so as to use the 

 poorest room, and so that every bench 

 can be reached from either side. You 

 need only two wide walks for refilling 

 the benches, and, in fact, you can do 

 your wheeling on top of the benches to 

 good advantage. The wide walk under 



the gutter is entirely unnecessary. The 

 only undesirable feature of this plan is 

 that your ridge and gutter supports will 

 not be free, as they are now. You can 

 overcome that, however, by incasing them 

 with concrete if you make solid beds, or 

 boxing around them if you use raised 

 benches. To incase them with concrete 

 use heavy tarred paper to make the forms 

 around the supports. Make a tube of 

 the desired size and fasten with two or 

 three cords, according to the length of 

 the tube, and fill up with the concrete. 

 In twenty-four hours you can remove 

 the tube and the casing will be perfect. 

 Use sand rather than gravel in making 

 the concrete, as it will make a closer 

 job. 



In piping a house we usually arrange 

 the pipes to conform with the arrange- 

 ment of the beds. If the benches are 

 raised, most of the pipes can be placed 

 underneath them and be entirely out of 

 the way. With solid beds, we. find it 

 best to put part overhead and part along- 

 side of the beds in the walks, and raised 

 a few inches off the ground in order to 

 get the full amount of radiation. We 

 like at least one or two pipes overhead 

 in each house. The theory that all heat 

 rises, and that the top will be warm if 

 the bottom is kept warm, may be cor- 

 rect; yet we find that with part of the 

 pipes overhead we can keep the houses 

 more uniform, especially during severe 

 cold and in windy weather. We have 

 demonstrated this in our own houses. 



A. F. J. Baue. 

 "^ l s — 



ROSES IN THE SOUTH. 



June 9 I planted a side table of 

 Brides and Maids in an even-span house 

 running east and west, with side ventila- 

 tors between every other post. There 

 are doors at both ends of the house and 

 ventilator sashes on both sides of the 

 ridge. Will the side ventilation during 

 the summer, in a southern climate, cause 

 mildew, and should the doors be kept 

 open or closed? Would it be better to 

 take the glass out of the fixed space 

 between the ventilators in the side wall? 

 The plants were slightly affected with 

 mildew when put in the bench. I cannot 

 see that they have improved or become 

 more affected since they were planted. 



C. A. M. 



Side ventilation for roses has not 

 proved a success, and especially so 

 where these have been removed during 

 the summer months, as the temperature 



during the night hours is so subject to 

 fluctuation and the conditions of the at- 

 mosphere as regards moisture are so 

 changeable, even in the southern states, 

 that it is much safer to have them under 

 control. During hot spells the doors can 

 be left open, if they do not cause too 

 much draught. Where the glass is en- 

 tirely removed from the sides of* the 

 houses there is no way of controlling 

 mildew, as the fumes requisite to check 

 this pest cannot be confined within the 

 enclosure, thus causing a deal of trouble. 



RiBES. 



DORMANT JACQS. 



About May 25 we planted 100 two- 

 year-old cold storage General Jacque- 

 minot roses. They were good, strong 

 plants. We dug a trench and put in 

 about three inches of old, well rotted 

 barn manure. About two weeks later 

 nearly every one of the plants was 

 dead; some almost, others completely to 

 the ground. Will you kindly tell us the 

 reason for this? W. E. D. 



We have all had our troubles with 

 this class of roses. The trouble usually 

 arises from the fact that the roses, in- 



