"«'-."' 



KKI-rUMBEU 1% 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



plants will be all right in frames for 

 some time. 



Hydrangeas, rambler roses, lilacs and 

 other shrubs for forcing should have all 

 ])Ossible sunshine .outdoors. Each of 

 these needs some frost before housing. 



If you have omitted putting in cut- 

 tings of coleus, alternantheras and simi- 

 lar stocky do so at once. Do not lift old 

 plants, as many do. They will yield you 

 a harvest of mealy bug. Label any 

 cannas, dahlias, gladioli or outdoor 

 stock you want true to name while the 

 llowering season lasts. 



( Heating Apparatus. ' 



We presume your boilers are over- 

 hauled, where such attention was need- 

 ed, and that heating apparatus gener- 

 ally is in good condition. It is poor pol- 

 icy to leave work of this kind until the 

 advent of nipping nights, but year by 

 year it is the same old story — a strenu- 

 ous rush to get necessary repairs made 

 to avoid a freeze-up. We hope you 

 closed your coal contracts some time ago, 

 while fuel was on its summer basis. Get 

 your winter supply in, or as much as you 

 can house, while the weather remains 

 pleasant. 



Propagating Bench. 



The drainage and sand in your propa- 

 gating bench should be removed before 

 the active work of increasing stock com- 

 mences. Clean the bench out thoroughly, 

 washing and scrubbing after the sand is 

 removed. Give the inside of the benches 

 a washing of hot lime before refilling. 

 Use three inches of coarse cinders for 

 drainage. Over this place a good layer 

 of moss, then three inches of sand, well 

 pressed down, and afterwards soaked 

 with the hose. Neither the coarse nor 

 the fine sand should be used. Try to 

 strike the happy medium. To give it 

 more porosity, if fine, add a proportion 

 of finely screened charcoal to it. 



Brief Reminders. 



Keep gloxinias and tuberous-rooted 

 begonias drier at the root as they pass 

 out of flower. Do not make the drying 

 too sudden. 



Poinsettias and Euphorbia jacquiniae- 

 flora should now be housed or loss of 

 foliage may result. Give them full sun- 

 shine. 



Use the hose for overhead syringing 

 with greater judgment now. Plants 

 should have their foliage dry before 

 nightfall. This is particularly true of 

 carnations and chrysanthemums. 



Nerines should now be pushing their 

 flower spikes. Pot over any urgently re- 

 quiring it, remembering that these pret- 

 ty bulbs do best when pots are well 

 matted with roots. 



Give mignonette abundant ventilation 

 and watch for green cabbage worms now 

 getting in their work. 



Finish putting in geranium cuttings. 

 Do not make the mistake of standing the 

 pots outdoors. A soddening rain will 

 cause many to rot. 



Keep azaleas, ericas and other hard- 

 wooded plants outdoors in a sunny loca- 

 tion as late as the weather will permit. 



Lay rambler roses on their sides if 

 they have the wood well matured. A 

 daily spraying overhead will keep them 

 plump. 



Do not allow greenflies to secure a 

 foothold on cinerarias and calceolarias. 

 A fresh layer of tobacco stems among 

 the pots will act as a deterrent. 



Keep the runners, now appearing in 

 goodly numbers, cut off the single vio- 

 lets and ply the cultivator among them. 



Snapdragons on Four-foot Stems* 



GREENS FOR THE RETAILER. 



[A paper by D. J. Sinclair, of Toronto, Ont., 

 read before the Canadian Horticultural Asso- 

 ciation, la convention at London, Ont., August 

 20, 1907.] 



When asked to prepare a paper on this 

 subject, I was much at sea as to what 

 would be expected, and also as to how 

 to treat the subject that the members 

 of this association might receive the 

 most good from any discussion that 

 might follow. 



First, what does the term "greens" 

 imply? I take it for granted that all 

 greenhouse greens, as well as the differ- 

 ent varieties of imported southern 

 greens, are included, which will make a 

 list something like this: Greenhouse 

 greens — smilax. Asparagus plumosus. 

 Asparagus Sprengeri, adiantum, and cut 

 nephrolepis. Hardy greens — native ferns, 

 galax, leucothoe, boxwood, and southern 

 smilax. 



A Perpleziog Question. 



Now, I am not here to tell anything 

 of the merits or demerits of the various 

 greens mentioned, how they can be used, 

 etc., as you are all conversant with that 

 part of it, but what you do want to 

 know is how to sell carnations at 50 

 cents per dozen when they are $3 per 

 hundred wholesale, and put in a nice lot 

 of green (gratis), asparagus preferred, 

 and make money. There is the question 

 that many retail florists have to face 

 today. No florist will do any worrying 

 over what to cover a design with, what 

 to back a spray with, or what to decorate 

 a house or church with. The day for 

 these worries is at an end. With the 

 present system of cold storage, all these 

 southern greens are successfully carried 

 through the whole season, and it is only 

 a matter of time and we will find the 

 Canadian trade using the southern hardy 

 greens as extensively, proportionately, as 

 they do in the United States. 



Greenhouse Stock Crowded Cut. 

 But with the more extensive use of 



imported green, our greenhouse stock 

 will be to a certain extent crowded out. 

 A few years ago smilax was used almost 

 exclusively for covering designs. Now, 

 hardy ferns and galax are used to quite 

 as good effect, and are much cheaper. 

 This makes it more difiicult to get smi- 

 lax when it is wanted, on account of the 

 small quantity grown. Asparagus still 

 holds its own for a cut flower green, 

 and here comes the perplexing question, 

 how to give the asparagus that cost 3 

 cents to 4 cents per spray away with the 

 cut flowers, or, how to charge extra for 

 it without offending the customer. It has 

 been suggested that the retail florists 

 get together and agree upon some kind 

 of imiformity in this, as well as other 

 questions, but the great difference in the 

 location of the stores and in the classes 

 of customers makes it very hard to do 

 this. 



A Choice cf Tacftcs. 



It is simply up to the florist and his 

 clerks to use their heads a little and they 

 will soon get wise to the way some of 

 the shrewd flower buyers are using them. 

 .\s an instance, A sells carnations at 75 

 cents per dozen and gives the green 

 gratis. B sells his at 60 cents per dozen 

 and charges extra for the green. A cus- 

 tomer of A goes to B's store and buys, 

 but is horrified at being charged extra 

 for the green, and informs B that A al- 

 ways gives the loveliest lot of asparagus 

 "fern" with the carnations and does 

 not charge extra. The purchaser, of 

 course, does not for a moment intimate 

 that the price at A's was 75 cents. B 

 will nine times out of ten give the green 

 to get a customer, and save a fuss. Here 

 is the mistake. B has made a precedent 

 and it is impossible to break away from 

 this precedent when this customer comes 

 back again. The best plan is to have a 

 rule and stick to it. Either have the 

 price so as to give green, or, if you 

 decide to charge extra for the green, 

 make that the rule and stick to it. Some 

 florists make it a rule to give hardy 



