

8 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



October 3, 1907. 



SEASONABLE CULTURE. 



When to Feed. 



The questions of when to feed the 

 plants, how long to continue the proc- 

 ess and when to stop feeding altogether, 

 often prove a stumbling block to the 

 grower of limited experience, and one 

 cannot well, from his own experience, in- 

 struct others • without seeing the plants 

 and knowing the general conditionfk 

 Many good flowers are spoiled every 

 year by well-meaning but too enthusias- 

 tic growers, who are determined to 

 "have some exhibition flowers thjj*-. 

 year," and overshoot the mark in their 

 * eagerness. 



Pot plants can be fed with liquid at 

 any time that the pot is well filled with 

 roots, and plants set out in benches will 

 take feeding after they have been set 

 out from eight to ten weeks. It is en- 

 tirely wrong to feed any plant that is 

 not well established, no matter where it 

 is growing. 



Assuming, then, that we have com- 

 menced feeding, how long should it be 

 continued and how much should be used? 

 Once I commence feeding, the plants do 

 not have any more clear water except 

 when, once in a while, a section of bench 

 dries out oftener than another. By keep- 

 ing the strength of the liquid well with- 

 in the lines of safety — the proportions 

 were given in these notes in the Review 

 of September 5— the feeding root hairs 

 are not destroyed, and the plant can be 

 seen to be improving every day by the 

 thickening of the main stem and the 

 increasing size and richer color of the 

 leaves. It is better to feed liquid solu- 

 tions after September 1, because what 

 we need is immediate results and the 

 chemist teaches us that what is water- 

 soluble is immediately available for the 

 use of the plant. 



When to Stop Feeding. 



There are several ways of seeing when 

 the plants have had about enough feed- 

 ing. When the foliage is large and of 

 a black-green color and rustles as you 

 brush your arm along it, the plant is 

 getting all the feed it needs. When the 

 foliage is so brittle that it snaps off the 

 stalk when touched and the leaf will snap 

 into pieces when folded up, instead of 

 bending to the fold, your plants have 

 had all the nitrogen they need and feed- 

 ing should be stopped altogether. 



Plants that have the wood well 

 ripened, as shown by the bark appear- 

 ing all up the main stem, will stand 

 much more feeding and produce a much 

 larger flower than later planted stock 

 that is fleshy and gross looking, with 

 stems still green. 



Occasionally you will see buds that 

 look as though some one had taken a 

 knife and cut the stem halfwav through 

 immediately below the bud. This is an- 

 other of nature 's methods of telling" you 

 to stop feeding. The roots are pump- 

 ing up more sap than the bud can as- 

 similate, and under the pressure the 

 weakest spot snaps first. The Duck- 

 hams, owing to their strong root action, 



often show this trouble, and to a greater 

 or less degree any variety will show it 

 if overfed. When it appears, shut off 

 the feed altogether and also most of the 

 water supply, and let the plants go hun- 

 gry for a time. 



Red varieties should not be fed after 

 the bud splits its covering, as they are 

 very sensitive to damping of the petals 

 and melt away in the sun in a heart- 

 breaking manner. The crimson color is 

 in some way responsible for this, be- 

 cause the reds shading to purple or 

 bronze do not show this trouble, while 

 G. W. Childs, perhaps one of the most 

 beautiful crimsons ever sent out, used to 

 be sometimes a total loss and several of 

 our present-day crimsons are not much 

 better. 



It is best to stop feeding on any va- 

 riety when the petals are advanced far 

 enough to show the color well, because 

 unless one is well versed, it is easy to 

 spoil everything after this time and one 

 should not take too many chances. 

 Charles H. Totty. 



effectual remedy will be *to procure some 

 bisulphide of carbon at a drug store. 

 Make holes with a sharp-pointed stick, 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches apart 

 each way. Pour a few drops of the car- 

 bon in each hole, immediately covering 

 it with soil. Be sure not to strike any 

 matches while using the liquid, as the 

 powerful fumes are explosive, and 

 moisten the soil in the benches well be- 

 fore applying it, if thev are at all dry. 



C. W. 



THRIPS ON VIOLETS. 



We have an abundance of thrips in our 

 violet soil and some in our rose and car- 

 nation soil. We spray with tobacco ex- 

 tract on roses and carnations, but as to 

 violets, we are doubtful whether they 

 will stand spraying with this, so we 

 sprinkle tobacco dust, but cannot get rid 

 of the pest. We use compost from the 

 cow lot, and bone meal. J. L. O. 



For thrips on roses and carnations I 

 know of nothing better than the tobacco 

 extracts, but they must not be used on 

 violets, as they will burn the foliage. 

 Tobacco dust, or the fumes from tobacco 

 powder or the extracts, ought to destroy 

 the aphis and thrips without injuring 

 the plants. Thrips are hard to get rid of 

 during warm weather, but as it gets 

 cooler you will have less trouble in keep- 

 ing them in check. A. F. J. B. 



WORMS IN MUM BENCHES. 



I send under separate cover some soil 

 from a bench of mums. There are numer- 

 ous spots on the bench where the soil is 

 ' ' alive, ' ' like the sample sent. Can you 

 tell whether these worms are injurious 

 and what to do in order to exterminate 

 them? F. A. W. 



The worms were dead and so shriveled 

 when received that we could not identify 

 them. They appear to be a small edition 

 of a very bad pest in the east, viz., the 

 latrse of the May beetle, which devour 

 the roots of many plants. Probably 

 many of these pests will come to the sur- 

 face and could be poisoned, but the most 



NARCISSI IN VIRGINIA. 



The illustration, on page 9 shows a 

 field of Narcissus Barri conspicuus, or 

 Virginian Beauty, in the grounds of the 

 Hubert Bulb Co., at Portsmouth, Va. 

 This firm claims to be not only the larg- 

 est grower of bulbs in the south, but also 

 the pioneer in that rapidly growing and 

 already important industry in that part 

 of the south. The figure in the extreme 

 left of the picture is F. J. Hubert, the 

 managing director of the firm. 



It was only after years of careful 

 watching and experimauting that the 

 Hubert Bulb (.'o. selected its present loca- 

 tion, having learned from tliese investiga- 

 tions that the soil and climate of the 



Tulip White Hawk, Pure White. 



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