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TIic Weekly Florists^ Review* 



OCTOBEB 3, 1907. 



Hyacinths. 



While less popular as a market flower 

 than tulips, there is still a fair demand 

 for nicely flowered pots and pans of hya- 

 cinths. Place one large crock over the 

 drainage, then some of the rougher com- 

 post. Fill about two-thirds full, press 

 moderately, drop some sand over the 

 soil, lay the biilbs in position and cover 

 with compost until the noses of the bulbs 

 just show. When potted the soil should 

 be firm but not hard, and a space of 

 three-fourths of an inch left for water. 

 For cutting, use flats four inches deep 

 and set the bulbs moderately thick. The 

 second size or bedding hyacinths answer 

 well for this purpose. 



A few good sorts are: Red and pink 

 shades — Gertrude, Robert Steiger, Nor- 

 ma. White — Baroness Van Thuyll, 

 Grandeur a Merveille. Blue — Baron Van 

 Thuyll, King of the Blues, Grand Lilas. 



The foregoing are all single varieties 

 and for either indoor or outdoor work 

 are better than tlie double sorts. Place 

 the flats and pans under cover if possible. 

 In a wet fall the soil will become over- 

 wet, get sour and roots decay. 



Tulips. 



Year by year we are told that bulb 

 forcing is unprofitable, that the market 

 is constantly glutted with bulbous stock 



of this beautiful early variety. Whether 

 for use in retail work at home or for 

 market purposes, it is un8urpaii»4d. A 

 few other good forcing tulips are Ver- 

 milion Brilliant, scarlet; Yellow Prince, 

 yellow; Cottage Maid, pink; Keizer- 

 kroon, red and yellow; Proserpine, silky 

 rose; Pottebakker, white, and Chryso- 

 lora, yellow. 



Pans eight inches in diameter will 

 hold about a dozen bulbs. Flats 12x14 

 inches and four inches deep will ac- 

 commodate from seventy-five to 100, ac- 

 cording to the variety. Fill the flat with 

 loose soil, after providing good drain- 

 age; press in the bulbs and leave them 

 .just covered. Make the soil moderately 

 firm. If you do not care to grow any 

 tulips or hyacinths in pots and pans and 

 have any subsequent call for such, you 

 can take the requisite number out of 

 your flats before the flowers open, make 

 up pans and they will look just as 

 well as if they had been grown in them. 

 The tens of thousands of pans grown for 

 the Covent Garden market, London, ^re 

 all grown in flats and a few small ferns 

 are placed among them in the pans. 



In double tulips Murillo and Coronne 

 d'Or are the best sorts to grow. 



Narcissi. 



It is time now to get in a large batch 



Tulip Pink Beauty, Pink and White. 



and that another season fewer growers 

 will handle them, but there is no ap- 

 parent decrease in their production. It 

 is true that there has not been the tre- 

 mendous increase in the forcing of this 

 class of bulbs that there has been in 

 their use for outdoor planting, but never- 

 theless we think there is still a good fu- 

 ture for specialists in this line. 



Tulips are better market bulbs than 

 hyacinths, both in {tans and for cutting. 

 For very early forcing it is not at all 

 easy to handle them successfully. Many 

 will come blind and about all will be 

 dwarf. The earliest of all, the Due Van 

 Tholls, are too short to become useful. 

 They come in more easily at Christmas 

 than any other sort. Following these 

 comes La Reine, the queen of forcing 

 tulips, a delicate pink in winter and pure 

 white later in the season. Xo mistake 

 will be made in ])utting in a large batch 



of the single and double Von Sion nar- 

 cissi. The latter remains a good market 

 variety, although double daffodils look 

 singularly coarse compared to the singles. 

 The single Von Sion is commonly known 

 as Trumpet Major. The best of all the 

 golden trumpet section is the popular 

 (lolden Spur. Princeps is inexpensive. 

 It is about the poorest of the trumpet 

 daffodils, a flimsy flower with little to 

 reconnnend it but its cheapness. It still 

 holds a place where cheap flowers are in 

 request, but cannot be placed in the 

 same class as Golden Spur and Sir Henry 

 Irving. The newer Victoria is a mag- 

 nificent white-winged variety which has 

 now become moderate in price and is 

 worth a trial. Emperor and Empress 

 are favorites and there is a moderate call 

 for the flowers of Sir Watkin, the giant 

 Welsh daffodil. The beautiful Barri 

 Conspicuus is excellent for late work. 



but cannot be forced early. Some of 

 the Leedsii type, such as Mrs. Langtry 

 and Minnie Hume, are occasionally met 

 with and will some day be largely grown 

 for market. 



N. poeticus ornatus is an invaluable 

 sort for early forcing and can be had 

 in bloom by the end of January. The 

 ordinary pheasant's eye narcissus, N. 

 poeticus, is a most useful flower at Eas-' 

 ter, for which date it can readily be re- 

 tarded. The golden, sweet-scented jon- 

 quils are useful either in pans or flats. 

 N. rugulosus is the largest and best, 

 but the smaller N. campernelle blooms 

 a little earlier. These jonquils do not 

 need covering like the other narcissi, as 

 they start to grow very quickly after 

 being planted. , 



Spanish Iris. 



Spanish iris is well adapted for forcing 

 and more are being grown each year. 

 For this purpose flats three inches deep 

 answer well, but better success will re- 

 sult if they are an inch deeper. Cover 

 the bulbs two inches deep and keep in 

 a coldframe until November, when they 

 can be stored in any cool, light pit or 

 kept in the frame if protected until 

 needed for forcing. They resent a high 

 temperature. A carnation house suits 

 them nicely. A few good sorts are Le- 

 onidas, violet blue; Chrysolora, yellow; 

 British Queen, fine white; Louise and 

 Helena, light blue. The flats need no 

 covering with soil or ashes, as the iris 

 starts to grow within two or three weeks 

 after being planted. 



Gladioli. 



That old variety, G, Colvillei The 

 Bride, is an inexpensive and useful sort 

 to grow. The flowers are pure white 

 and borne on compact spikes. The va- 

 riety Blushing Bride, with crimson flakes 

 on the petals, is also a profitable sort 

 to handle. The various forms of G. car- 

 dinalis or nanus are even better than G. 

 Colvillei, having larger flowers, stronger 

 spikes, and l)oing less susceptible to rot 

 at the base of the flower stalk. There 

 is quite a wide range of colors in this 

 comparatively little known race, a few 

 specially good ones being Peach Blos- 

 som, rosy pink; Salmon Queen, salmon 

 pink; PiuK Perfection, rose; Ackerman-- 

 ni, orange, and Mathilde, delicate laven- 

 der. The culture of these gladioli 

 should be the same as that afforded the 

 Spanish iris. The bulbs can be planted 

 quite thickly and may be used a second 

 year with good success. 



ENGLISH THADE SALES. 



The annual auction trade sales in the 

 establishments near London have now 

 been conducted, in the second week of 

 September, by one English firm for thirty- 

 nine years. According to report this sea- 

 son there was a good attendance all 

 round, and in most instances the venders 

 should be well satisfied with the results. 

 There were buyers from all parts of the 

 kingdom, and though no exceptionally 

 high prices were made, in several in- 

 stances they went higher than they have 

 been the last few years. Palms were 

 much in demand, and brought higher 

 prices than usual, kentias especially so. 

 The ferns claimed the attention of most 

 buyers, those of the ordinary market sorts 

 making what were considered excellent 

 prices. There was not so much competi- 

 tion for the choicer sorts, and those who 

 had use for them got them at consider- 

 ably reduced prices. Tlie new plumose 



