JULtll, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



CARE OF BENCHED PLANTS. 



Fight tfie Flies. 



One of the first things to be attended 

 to, as soon as the plants begin to grow 

 in the benches, is the' green and black 

 ■fly. Get your plants absolutely clean and 

 they will often keep entirely clean all 

 aummer, so far as fly is concerned. One 

 or two good fumigatings will, as a rule, 

 be suflBcient. It is a very common thing 

 to see a nice lot of plants badly burned 

 round the edges by fumigating, but per- 

 sonally I have never had any harm come 

 to my stock when I used the tobacco dust 

 made and sold for the purpose. It is 

 much quicker than spraying with a liquid, 

 «osts less and is safer, 



Weeds. 



When your plants are cleaned, attend 

 to the benches. For the first few weeks, 

 weeds will make considerable work. The 

 surface should be frequently rubbed over, 

 and by that means many of the weeds 

 will be killed shortly aftex germination. 

 I like to see soil that produces a good 

 crop of weeds. It shows that the soil 

 is "live" and in good condition. "When 

 a soil is too poor or too sour to grow 

 weeds it will not grow good mums, so 

 I always consider a crop of weeds a 

 healthy sign, but I do not permit my 

 liking for the weeds to go to the point 

 of smothering the young plants and caus- 

 ing them to struggle for a living at the 

 outset. A frequent stirring of the soil 

 soon destroys the weeds. I like to go 

 over the benches once a week all through 

 the season, cleaning out suckers, dead 

 leaves, caterpillars, etc., and consider it 

 , time well spent. 



Buds. 



Many kinds are producing buds and 

 some call for careful handling at this 

 season. A variety like Duckham, which 

 produces a bud and then comes away at 

 once with a clean, kind growth, is no 

 trouble at all, but there are others which, 

 instead of making a growth shoot, will 

 produce just a mass of buds. W. R. 

 Church is perhaps the worst variety 

 grown today, in this respect. Keep the 

 buds closely picked off and eventually 

 you will get a shoot or else a sucker out 

 of the ground that will push along and 

 make a stem. I have heard many theories 

 expressed as to why some plants run all 

 to bud. While some kinds are naturally 

 disposed to do this to a certain extent, 

 the reason for their doing it is a sudden 

 check of some kind. It may be an at- 

 mospheric condition, or the plant may be 

 checked at the root by being dry at 

 various times, or the cutting may have 

 got hide-bound by being too long in the 

 sand before potting. 



Where a cutting is handled as soon 

 as it is ready for handling from the 

 first, and grown along properly, there 

 is rarely any trouble with it. A day 

 of blinding sunshine following a pro- 

 tracted dull spell of weather will check 

 plants, but not enough to cause them to 



go buddy if sufficient moisture is given 

 at the root and in the atmosphere. 



It is Hot wise, no matter how good the 

 shoot looks, to retain the first shoot im- 

 mediately below the bud, as it often 

 makes three or four leaves only and then 

 produces another bud. Do not remove 

 any* of the shoots until you are reason- 

 ably sure that the one you are keeping is 

 good. 



Some growers cut a plant right back to 

 the ground that persists in making buds 

 instead of a growth, but unless a sucker 

 is showing or the plant is very small 

 it means considerable time lost, and when 

 we get into July we have no time to 

 spare. Charles H. Totty. 



BEST MUMS FOR POT CULTURE. 



Please let me know which you think 

 are the best chrysanthemums to grow 

 in pots. I only grow about 600 of them. 

 Please name the best incurved varieties 

 in white, pink, yellow and red. S. S. 



The best incurving varieties to grow 

 for pot culture would include the follow- 

 ing kinds: White — Beatrice May, White 

 Duckham, Merza. Pink — Mary Mann, 

 W. Duckham, Winter Cheer. Yellow — 

 Col. Appleton, Bonnaffon, October Sun- 

 shine. Red— W. R. Church, S. T. Wright, 

 Mrs. H. Partridge. 



I can understand why so many florists 



grow only the incurving types for cut 

 flowers, but 1 do not see why S. S. would 

 have to confine himself to incurved varie- 

 ties for pot plants. The two kinds most 

 widely grown as pot plants are Pacific 

 and its sport, Polly Rose, but I did not 

 list them in the above, as they are not in- 

 curving varieties, though excellent for 

 pot work. 



Other kinds splendidly adapted to pot 

 culture are Cheltoni, Nellie Pockett, 

 Lady Hopetoun, Old Gold and Mrs. T. 

 W. Pockett. S. S., unless he is wedded 

 to his own idea of incurved, would do 

 well to try these. They are very dwarf, 

 with fine foliage and stem, and these are 

 very important essentials for pot plants. 



C. H. TOTTY. 



TROUBLE WITH ASTERS. 



I take the liberty to write to you to 

 ask a little advice concerning cutworms 

 on asters. I would like to know the best 

 remedy for them, if you could tell me 

 what to use. The aster crop is looking 

 first-rate. They had a late start, but are 

 doing nicely. There will be an over- 

 supply of asters in this section. O. G. 



Cutworms usually cease troubling gar- 

 den plants early in July and we do not 

 think you will have much further trouble 

 with them. If they continue to attack 

 your plants, make a mixture of fresh 

 shorts or bran and molasses, adding a 

 spoonful or two of either Paris green or 

 white arsenic, and drop in their haunts. 

 Lime and soot dusted over the plants 

 also helps to keep them in check. Slug- 

 shot has been successfully tried by some 

 growers and is said to kill the pests. 

 If your land is full of cutworms we 

 would advise liming it in the fall, before 

 freezing up weather, and plowing it 

 over. C. W. 



CARNATION NOTES.- WEST. 



Eschew, the Hose. 



During this month and next we are 

 apt to have some prolonged spells of 

 dry weather and one is tempted to run 

 the hose out to the field to water the 

 carnation plants. If large plants were 

 the desired object, this would be the 

 proper thing to do, but for some years 

 we have considered the size of the plants 

 as of minor importance. In fact, we 

 rather prefer a plant of medium size 

 and well matured for housing. This can 

 best be secured in a season of only aver- 

 age rainfall. 



I have always held that in our section 

 we seldom have a summer during which 

 we do not get enough rain to produce 

 splendid plants, if they were strong 

 young plants when set out, at the prbper 

 time. Sometimes they will appear a 

 trifle undersize at a certain date, but 

 if housed at the usual time, they will be 

 found in good condition to take hold, and 

 by the beginning of winter they will be 

 carrying as many buds as usual. 



By this I do not mean plants that 

 were propagated late and were hardly 

 rooted through by the end of the plant- 

 ing season. Such plants will seldom 

 make good stock for early planting and, 

 if such a thing is desired, then some 

 watering must usually be done, but it 

 should be done at the right time in order 

 to get the plants into proper condition 

 for housing. The watering should be be- 

 gun as soon after planting out as the 

 plants seem to need it to give a good 

 start and to get them into a strong 

 growth. When that stage has been 

 reached it should be diminished and 

 gradually withheld until none is given 

 except what falls in the shape of rain, 

 and the less of that the better during the 

 last couple of weeks the plants are in 

 the field. 



Years ago we used to delight in seeing 

 the plants almost double in size every 

 couple of weeks during the last of Aug- 

 ust and September, but not so now. 

 Close observation during dry seasons 

 soon taught us the value of a well hard- 

 ened plant. During such seasons the 

 loss of plants would be light, less diffi- 

 culty would be experienced in preventing 

 wilting and the early crop of blooms 



