July 18, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



natural gifts — to become expert in the 

 business. 



"It is essential," a West End, Lon- 

 don, florist pointed out, ' ' that our young 

 ladies should be available at the time 

 when the greatest pressure of trade 

 comes, and undoubtedly the call for floral 

 decorations on Saturdays and Sundays 

 has grown enormously of recent years. 

 How are we to deal with the demand for 

 table decorations, theater bouquets, sud- 



den funeral orders, and the various 

 other matters that crop up during the 

 week-end if we are not to be permitted 

 to employ our young ladies at late hours 

 on Saturday?" 



Many of the young women employed 

 in the flower stores appear to appreciate 

 the position of the florists, and petitions 

 for a reconsideration of the case by the 

 Home Secretary are being signed rap- 

 idly. 



TREATMENT IN HOT WEATHER 



Wzterinz and Syrincfingf. 



During such hot weather as we have 

 been having lately, stock will require 

 copious supplies of water to keep it 

 moving, and also frequent syringing to 

 keep spider in check. Newly planted 

 stock should be carefully looked after in 

 this respect, as the wood and foliage, 

 being so soft, suffers severely if allowed 

 to become dry or become infested with 

 spider. 



Because of the large quantity of 

 water necessary, the soil in the benches 

 will require frequent stirring to keep 

 the surface open and in good condition, 

 80 that evaporation may be perfect and 

 avoid sourness. 



Care of Grafted Stock. 



"Where grafted stock has been planted 

 it should be closely examined at least 

 once a week, to see that the tying ma- 

 terial is not getting embedded in the 

 bark and that all suckers may be re- 

 moved. 



When this class of stock is planted it 

 ought to be staked and tied up at once, 

 so that no injury may happen to the 

 scion by syringing or when other oper- 

 ations are being carried on, such as cul- 

 tivating, etc. 



Staking and Training. 



Staking and training will occupy a 

 lot of time, but if success is wished for, 

 it must be attended to before the plants 

 have time to make much wood, so that 

 no injury may happen to it from wires 

 that are dragged over it while being 

 stretched. 



In order to have good, hardy foliage, 

 that will have substance to withstand 

 mildew and be less easily chewed up by 

 insect enemies," the young plants should 

 have all the air possible, both by night 

 and day. 



In the earlier planted houses disbud- 

 ding should be looked to and the bushes 

 given shape by carefully tying and 

 training previous to a first cut. 



In most houses there are some de- 

 fective panes of glass, causing burning 

 spots; these should be located and the 

 specks in the glass touched with boiled 

 oil, which will obliterate the burning 

 without causing an unsightly blotch on 

 the glass. 



The busy season being practically over, 

 there may be time for a little cleaning 

 up, which will certainly give the houses 

 a tidier appearance, besides being con- 

 ducive to health of the stock. 



RiBES. 



THE WORK OF LARVAE. 



The soil in my rose benches, planted 

 three weeks ago, is full of small grub- 

 worms that came from the cow manure. 

 They are small, but plentiful. Is there 

 any way of destroying them? Will soot 

 or lime water be of any help, or would 

 these be injurious to the roses? T. N. 



Grub or maggot is the name by which 

 an insect is described when in the state 

 between the egg and the chrysalis form. 

 This term is usually applied to the larvae 

 of flies and beetles; the larvae of butter- 

 flies and moths are ttsoaliy designatetl aa 

 caterpillars. 



Grubs are not all plant destroyers. In 

 the economy of nature the great ma- 

 jority of larvae are actually essential 

 to the complete decomposition of ma- 

 nures, and without proper identification 

 it would be folly to destroy them. Their 

 action on manures encourages decompo- 

 sition, releasing the elements necessary 

 to plant life and converting them into a 

 form easily assimilable. 



Some grubs, however, are noxious and 

 should be destroyed as soon as their pres- 

 ence is detected. These, fortunately, are 

 few as compared with the larvae which 

 are doing the good work designed for 

 them by nature. 



It should not be overlooked that the 

 special province of the larvae of insects 

 is to act as scavengers, and very fre- 

 quently they are not the initial cause of 

 damage, which is rather to be sought in 

 a previously unhealthy condition of the 

 plant. They simply step in to complete 

 the work of destruction commenced by 

 disease or by a low state of the vital 

 functions. Ribes. 



SEASONABLE DETAILS. 



Supports. 



I'he plants should be staked before 

 they have a chance to get crooked in the 

 stem from lying around over the bench. 

 There are several ways to accomplish 

 this, my own way being to use wire 

 stakes from three to five feet in height. 

 These, if not long enough in any case, 

 can easily be lengthened by slipping a 

 piece of bamboo over the top of the 

 stake — capping it, in other words. 



The wire stakes are supported by 

 being tied to wires stretched along, one 

 for each row, and if the wires are made 

 tight and the supports properly braced 

 it makes a neat job. 



Some florists use string tied to two 

 wires, one overhead and one low down, 

 for each row. This works well enough 

 for late dwarf stock or where one is 

 running several shoots to a plant, but 

 for exhibition stock, where the stem 

 nuist be perfectly straight, give me the 

 wire stakes. They cost a little, but with 

 care are practically everlasting and re- 

 pay their original cost many times over. 



Exhibition Plants. 



Exhibition plants, if not yet potted 

 into their last pots, should be attended 



to at once. Remember that a plant fin- 

 ished in a lO-inch pot shows a higher 

 degree of cultural skill than does the 

 same size plant in a 12-inch pot. The 

 question of drainage has not figured so 

 much in earlier potting, but it should 

 this time, because the plants will have 

 to remain nearly five months in this pot. 

 Use broken pots for drainage, with some 

 charcoal; then, with a layer of sod on 

 top before the soil is put in, there is 

 little chance for the plant to get water- 

 logged unless worms are very numerous 

 in the soil. The ingredients for the last 

 potting need not diflfer much from ear- 

 lier soil. If one has lots of rotted cow 

 manure it may be used more freely this 

 time in the soil, say a proportion of two 

 of soil to one of manure. Make the soil 

 firm by ramming and leave room on top 

 for a mulching later on. 



Charles H. Totty. 



Aurora, III. — The site of the old W. 

 L. Smith greenhouse property, now va- 

 cant, is to be occupied by a flat build- 

 ing and a residence. 



New Orleans, La. — About all the 

 greenhouse material manufacturers in 

 the country have submitted bids on a 

 greenhouse 40x150 to be built in City 

 park. 



