8 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



July 18, 1907. 



leaved, warm-house plants, like crotons 

 and dracsenas, root with ease now, as 

 will pandanus and ficus. If you are 

 short of genistas put in some cuttings 

 now. AUamandas from soft cuttings, 

 bougainvilleas, gardenias and cleroden- 

 drons can all be rooted without trouble. 

 At this warm season cuttings need more 

 frequent waterings and spraying over- 

 head. Given attention in these matters, 

 and shade, no trouble will be experi- 

 enced in rooting all of the plants named. 



Brief Reminders. 



Pot Lilium Harrisii as soon as you re- 

 ceive them, single bulbs in 5-inch pots 

 and small ones three in a 6-inch pot. 

 Do not fill the pots too full; leave room 

 for a top dressing. Place on a cellar 

 floor after potting and give a good soak- 

 ing of water, then keep drier until the 

 shoots appear. 



Keep the sweet peas picked clean and 

 do not allow seed pods to form or they 

 will speedily spoil your chances of flow- 

 ers. Pull weeds away from the plants. 



You will be busy preparing to plant 

 carnations. Have you the compost all 

 ready for the benches? If not, mix it 

 without delay, adding a little fine bone 

 to it. 



You will soon be finished planting 

 mums, but disbudding, tying and weed- 

 ing will furnish constant work for some 

 weeks. Use a force pump with a fine 

 spray nozzle and shower plants with 

 nicotine extract once a week to keep 

 aphis in check. Fumigate lightly on 

 warm nights. 



It is rather too early to sow cycla- 

 mens yet. Order seeds and watch these 

 columns for cultural directions later. 



Keep the hoe constantly at work and 

 where rank weeds have secured a foot- 

 hold among young seedlings, hand weed- 

 ing will be necessary. Do not leave the 

 weeds in piles through the field, as is 

 often done. Have an eye to neatness 

 and either bury them in some low ground 

 or cart to the nearest dump. 



Do not forget any repairs to heaters, 

 piping and benches and now is the time 

 to have glazing and painting attended to. 



What about your coal supply? If you 

 have not bought your stock for the com- 

 ing season do so at once, while prices 

 are down, and get all you can in your 

 cellars. 



Cut down digitalis, delphiniums and 

 other perennials as flowers fade. Many 

 will give a good second crop of spikes in 

 September. 



In the pressure of other duties do not 

 allow the strings of smilax and As- 

 paragus plumosus to become entangled. 



Have you ordered your coal supply for 

 next winter? Have a good supply hauled 

 now, while the weather is genial. 



Cuttings of California and other privets 

 will now root readily in an ordinary 

 propagating bench. Keep moist at the 

 root and shade from all direct sunlight. 



Reduce the number of shoots on 

 dahlias, which may be producing a num- 

 ber. 



Cut away seeds from iris, peonies, pop- 

 pies, columbines and other perennials as 

 they appear. 



Fall River, Mass. — Frank Buffing- 

 ton has a century plant in bloom at' his 

 greenhouse on Hanover street. The agave 

 he himself brought from Mexico, when 

 he visited that country several years ago. 

 The blossom stalk projects several feet 

 above the glass roof, a pane having been 

 removed to allow it to run to its natural 

 height. 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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KEEPING CUT FLOWERS. 



M. Mercier, a florist at Dijon, France, 

 has been making a series of experi- 

 ments to determine the conditions. under 

 which cut" flowers keep best and is re- 

 ported to have had the most satisfac- 

 tory results when "the flowers were 

 placed in an ice-box, but at some dis- 

 tance from the ice, and kept at a tem- 

 perature of 36 degrees, with the air 

 showing 90 degrees of moisture. Jn a 

 cold cellar, with a temperature of 41 

 degrees, and 60 degrees of moisture, 

 the results were bad." 



In a general way M. Mercier 's experi- 

 ments are said to prove that keeping 

 flowers fresh necessitates high humidity, 

 but not enough to cause actual wetness 

 — a temperature just above freezing, and 

 darkness. The flowers keep better if 

 the leaves be removed. This refrigera- 

 tion deprives the flowers of their per- 

 fume, which, however, returns in full 

 strength after a few hours in normal 

 temperature, and the flowers last well 

 after being removed from the refriger- 

 ator. 



RETAIL WINDOWS. 



It is often possible to turn local con- 

 ditions to good account in a window dis- 

 play and most florists are quick to take 

 advantage of an " old home week, ' ' a 

 horse or automobile show to vary their 

 displays. Washington is always a seeth- 

 ing caldron politically, as doubtless the 

 whole country will be next year at this 

 date, so anything of political suggest - 

 iveness is always seasonable in Wash- 

 ington, where Gude & Bro. Co. has a 

 window with an old mill and lily pond, 

 possibly a little more elaborate than 

 similar scenes contrived by many flo- 

 rists for summer windows. The water- 

 wheel moves and gold-fish and turtles 

 swim in the pool, but the ingenious 

 feature is taking advantage of the po- 

 litical excitement by labeling the tur- 

 tles. 



One is marked "Teddy," another 

 "Taft. " These are quite large tur- 

 tles, of the skilpot, or red-belly, family 

 of terrapin, with pretty colorings. By 

 watching for a while the observer will 

 see emerge from some dark nook a lit- 

 tle skilpot, whose "back is about the 

 diameter of a silver dollar. He is la- 

 beled "Fairbanks." By closer scrutiny 

 a still smaller skilpot, a wee baby of a 

 thing, whose hard shell is not larger 

 than a silver half-dollar, will be dis- 

 covered disconsolately surveying the 

 great ones moving about him. He is 

 generally peeping from behind a rock. 

 He is labeled "Bryan." Still another 

 skilpot, about the size of "Brvan," is 

 labeled "Hearst." 



"The movements of these turtles 

 arouse the imagination of the observer," 

 says a Washington daily paper that 

 gives the window a column write-up. 

 "There is one big turtle, a vicious old 

 snapper, that bears no name. Some say 



he should represent Col. Henry Watter- 

 son's dark horse, while others insist 

 he should be labeled * Uncle Joe, ' while 

 Pennsylvanians just now think he should 

 be named 'Knox.' The skilpots don't 

 disturb the snapping turtle much. In 

 the course of half an hour none was 

 seen to approach him except 'Teddy.' 

 In that he showed the fearlessness of 

 his human namesake. 



"The antics of 'Fairbanks' are amus- 

 ing. He was seen to swim toward a 

 large roCk on the top of which was 

 another little skilpot just about his size. 

 In fact, they looked to be twins, but the 

 other was not branded. 'Fairbanks' 

 crawled up on top alongside his twin 

 brother. In an instant he stuck out one 

 arm and laid it on what would corre- 

 spond to the shoulder of the other. 

 Simultaneously their necks bent sinuous- 

 ly toward a lily pad, from beneath which 

 the head of one of the larger terrapin 

 protruded. Presently the hidden reptile 

 moved just enough to expose the letter 

 Y, and it was seen they were looking 

 almost wistfully at 'Teddy.' 'Fair- 

 banks' presently released his little 

 friend from the loving embrace and 

 tumbled into the water, swimming out 

 of sight. 



" 'Back to the water wagon for 

 Charlie,' remarked a red-faced man who 

 had joined the group of curious per- 

 sons in front of the window. ' ' 



ENGLISH RETAILERS' TROUBLES. 



Jn Boston and a few New England 

 towns, and occasionally in some city far- 

 ther west, the enforcement of the old- 

 time "blue laws" causes some incon- 

 venience to retail florists, but as a gen- 

 eral thing our laws, national, state or 

 municipal, do not interfere with any 

 man 's liberty to do as he pleases in the 

 matter of keeping his store open just as 

 long as he may see fit. In fact, the long 

 hours required in retail flower stores are 

 recognized as one of the reasons for 

 wages averaging higher than they do for 

 clerks in other kinds of retail stores. 



But in England the retailers not only 

 have the troubles which come to all flo- 

 rists, but they find the hours of service 

 prescribed by the newly enacted Factory 

 Act, which expressly stipulates that "no 

 female assistant to a florist may work 

 between 4 o 'clock on Saturday and Mon- 

 day morning." 



As though it were not bad enough to 

 class retail flower stores as factories (we 

 have been taught to call florist design- 

 ers, "artists," and the shops would, 

 therefore, be "studios"), the law prom- 

 ises to lead to something like a revolu- 

 tion in the trade, unless special arrange- 

 ments can be made with the Home Office 

 for meeting the demands which such a 

 business entails. By far the greater 

 number of florists' employees are ladies. 

 While foreigners are brought up with a 

 practical knowledge of flower arrange- 

 ments, few English boys have the inclina- 

 tion — it may be that they have not tha 



