8 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



August 8, 1907. 



it over to prevent rank heating and add 

 one-third as much loam as you have 

 manure. 



Push ahead necessary repairs to 

 houses, boilers and pipes. If you are 

 too careless to make your greenhouse 

 tight during the dry weather, you have 

 no just cause for complaint because your 

 roofs leak when it rains. 



Look out for green worms on mignon- 

 ette, cinerarias and primulas, or they 



will quickly eat off all the foliage. Kill 

 all the white butterflies you can see in 

 the houses and thus lessen the number 

 of pests. 



Lay amaryllis under a bench where 

 they will oe quite dry. They can remain 

 there until time for repotting arrives. 



As you finish planting carnation 

 houses, rake up under the benches thor- 

 oughly. Give 'the floors a coating of 

 clean cinders. 



THE BEST SWEET PEAS. 



A Successful Season. 



The season of 1907 has proved a 

 fairly satisfactory one for sweet peas 

 outdoors. At best they are a somewhat 

 uncertain crop in America, our intense 

 summer heat making a long succession 

 of bloom an impossibility unless the 

 ground is well manured and deeply dug 

 and the plants liberally mulched and 

 watered. In the east the finest flowers, 

 with the richest colors, are to be found 

 in close proximity to the ocean, the 

 moist, salt-laden air and generally cool 

 nights suiting these and other annuals 

 much better than the warmer and drier 

 locations farther inland. It is pleasing 

 to note a continued growth in the popu- 

 larity of this best of all hardy annuals, 

 and the steady improvement in varieties 

 whets the appetites of both professional 

 and amateur growers to try a few novel- 

 ties each season. 



In Boston the sweet pea show was 

 this season the best the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society ever had, while in 

 London the annual exhibition of the 



National Sweet Pea Society entirely 

 filled the new Horticutural Hall in Vin- 

 cent Square, with all the annexes and 

 two rooms upstairs, thousands of vases 

 being staged. Features which attract 

 visitors at the London shows are the 

 decorated tables of sweet peas. Of 

 these there were thirty-two this year, 

 while of novelties no less than 154 were 

 shown. This clearly shows that we have 

 by no means reached the acme of per- 

 fection in sweet peas yet. Only seven, 

 however, of this large number received 

 awards of merit and none certificates, 

 and in the whole exhibit there was noth- 

 ing of outstanding merit. We note that 

 the quality of sweet peas in Great 

 Britain, thanks to the cool, moist sum- 

 mer, has been remarkably high, stems 

 of the leading prize winners' flowers 

 being eighteen inches in length and car- 

 rying three and four flowers each. While 

 we can average that number of blooms 

 here on some of the more robust varie- 

 ties, we cannot get any such stems ex- 

 cept from plants grown under glass by 

 such experts as William Sim, of Clifton- 

 dale. 



Last Year's Novelties. 



It is an interesting fact that several 

 of last season's novelties occupy a high 

 position in the various competitive 

 classes. In a voting contest initiated by 

 ^V. W. Bawson & Co, of Boston, among 

 their visitors, three novelties, Frank 

 Dolby, Nora Unwin and Queen Alexan- 

 dra occupy the leading positions and 

 these same varieties seem to score high 

 at the big English shows. 



At the late London show the class 

 calling for twenty vases of distinct 

 colors went to the noted grower, C. 

 Breadmore, for these varieties: Dora 

 Breadmore, John Ingman, Dorothy Eck- 

 ford, Duke of Westminster, Helen 

 Lewis, Eomola Piazzini, Jeanne Gordon, 

 Helen Pierce, Agnes Johnson, George 

 Gordon, Duchess of Sutherland, Princess 

 of Wales, Countess Spencer, Lady 

 Grisel Hamilton, Jessie Cuthbertson, 

 Black Knight, Mrs. W. Wright, King 

 Edward VII, Lottie Eckford and Coc- 

 cinea. 



Mr. Stevenson, who won the Eckford 

 memorial cup and a gold medal, showed 

 the following dozen varieties: George 

 Herbert, Nora Unwin, Rosie Adams, 

 Mrs. Collier, Helen Lewis, Romola Piaz- 

 zini, Henry Eckford, Black Knight, Mrs. 

 Hardcastle Sykes, Paradise, King Ed- 

 ward VII and Dora Stevenson. 



The One-color Classes. 



It is interesting to note the varieties 

 winning in the strongly competed for 

 classes for vases of one color. Dorothy 

 Eckford swept the deck for whites. We 

 still consider it the best white here, but 

 Nora Unwin will give it a close push for 

 first place in the future. No other 

 whites at all approach these two varie- 

 ties. 



For scarlet. Queen Alexandra was the 

 winner. It is much brighter than King 

 Edward VII, stands our sun without 

 burning, being in fact a sun-proof 

 Scarlet Gem, and though this is not a 

 very popular shade we have not seen 

 anything to beat it here. Blush shades 

 are too near white to be popular. 

 Duchess of Sutherland again beat all 

 competitors in London. The flowers 

 lack size, but the variety is of a vigorous 

 habit and a jtrofuse bloomer. 



John Ingman was inNincible in the 

 rose and carmine classes. It was finely 

 shown in Boston and promises to be 

 popular. There are apparently rogue 

 strains of it in cultivation, a number 

 of off-color vases being disqualified in 

 London. Countess Spencer led in pinks, 

 followed by Bolton's Pink. We have 

 found Gladys Unwin and Countess Spen- 

 cer both fine. The latter is a little 

 deeper in color, but each possesses re- 

 markable vigor and we think, if restrict- 

 ed to a single variety of sweet pea, our 

 choice would be Gladys Unwin. Helen 

 Eckford and Helen Lewis proved the 

 best orange varieties in London. The 

 former is useless here, the blooms being 

 burned J>eyond recognition by the sun. 

 Helen Lewis has proved rather better 

 than that grand variety Miss Willmott, 

 which is saying a good deal. 



Qimate Affects Colors. 



Dora Breadmore proved itself the 

 queen of yellows, Hon. Mrs. E. Kenyon 

 having to take a back seat. In America 

 this color comes too near white to be- 

 come popular; with flowers of a more 

 golden color its value would be enhanced. 

 In London Tjady Grisel Hamilton routed 

 all competitors as a lavender and we see 

 nothing in sight to beat it, unless Frank 



