

'''■^''^%^:~p 



8 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



Januaby 2, 1908. 



so large a stock was worked up. Irvin 

 Bertcrmann, when blooms were first 

 oflfered him, pronounced it an excellent 

 thing and predicted a wide popularity in 

 the trade as soon as the variety should 

 become generally available; he insisted 

 that a large stock of seeds should be 

 worked up before Conway & Co. let the 

 variety go out of their hands. The flower 

 is pure white, of large size and good 

 shape, showing no open centers in a large 

 field of plants. The time of blooming is 

 from midseason to late, and it usually 

 is the late asters that realize the best 

 prices. 



THE NEW DIRECTORS. 



It hardly would be possible for Presi- 

 dent Traendly to have picked out two 

 better known men as his appointees to 

 the executive board at the S. A. F. John 

 Young is as widely known as any man 

 in the trade in the east. Not only has 



he spent many years in active work as 

 a wholesale florist in New York city, but 

 he has served for years and years as 

 secretary of the New York Florists' 

 Club, his popularity being such that, 

 coupled with his eflSciency, the members 

 never have thought of a change. 



George Asmus, the western appointee, 

 has served for the last half dozen years 

 as manager of the Chicago flower shows 

 and as such has made a record for effi- 

 ciency which places him at the head of 

 exhibition managers of this country. He 

 is no less indefatigable in his work for 

 the affairs of the Chicago Florists ' Club, 

 the Illinois State Florists' Association 

 and many of his other trade connections. 

 He not only has been a regular attendant 

 at the S. A. F. convention and partici- 

 pant in it? work, but he has been a lead- 

 ing spirit among the bowling element, 

 which President Stewart in his annual 

 address said was of such paramount im- 

 portance to the society. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS i 



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Popularity of Pot Plants. 



One more Christmas has come and 

 gone. We trust it was a profitable one 

 for the many readers of the Keview and 

 that their benches of salable pot plants 

 were well cleaned out. The great holi- 

 day once more showed the striking popu- 

 larity of pot plants as Christmas gifts. 

 It would certainly seem that Easter and 

 Christmas are becoming the plant grow- 

 ers' two best selling periods, and another 

 year will probably note a still further 

 advance in the popularity of well-grown 

 pot plants. 



The Christmas sales should have made 

 some bench room for bedding and other 

 stock, which has been cramped for some 

 time. Give your little geraniums more 

 space and spread out all plants coming 

 along for spring sales. In the general 

 clearance of left-over stock, be sure to 

 reserve -enough for your needs another 

 season. Poinsettias will be mostly cut. 

 Lay the pots or pans under a bench on 

 their sides, in a house kept at 45 to 50 

 degrees at night. They will need no 

 water or attention until May. If your 

 stock was grown in boxes or benches, 

 take up a number of roots and plant 

 thickly in other boxes and stand in a 

 frost-proof shed or any dry building un- 

 til wanted. Lorraine begonias will be, or 

 should be, sold out pretty well. Do not 

 forget to reserve sufficient plants to pro- 

 Nnde stock for propagation. Do not keep 

 all the poorest stock for this purpose. 

 It pays to take cuttings from strong, 

 healthy plants. Keep these in a tem- 

 perature of 50 degrees. You cannot do 

 any propagating now; later, however, 

 you will get all you want. 



Any azaleas or camellias unsold should 

 have the flowers picked off. Give them 

 a warm, moist house to make their growth 

 in and syringe twice a day in bright 

 weather. Move to cooler quarters as 

 growth advances. These will flower fine- 

 ly for you another season and earlier 

 than what you may import. The com- 

 monplace but ever useful stovia should 



not be forgotten; half a dozen pots will 

 provide all the plants you will need. Cut 

 them down and hold in a cold house for 



at least a couple of months before propa- 

 gating. 



Seed Sowing. 



January is a cold month, but the days 

 are lengthening quite perceptibly and old 

 Sol's power is again slowly increasing. 

 The coldest months in the year are the 

 best for propagating purposes, as there 

 is a steady bottom heat in the benches 

 and less fluctuation in atmospheric con- 

 ditions. While cuttings root better un- 

 der such conditions, seeds of many kinds 

 also germinate very satisfactorily. It is 

 yet too early to start seeds of any bed- 

 ding plants, but if you want to get some 

 fine plants of gloxinias and tuberous be- 

 gonias, a start can be made at once. As 

 the seeds of both of these plants are very 

 tiny, they should be sown on the surface 

 of the soil in pans or flats which had 

 been previously watered. A light scat- 

 tering of fine sand over the seeds is all 

 the covering required. Dracaena congesta 

 and D. Australis, Grevillea robusta and 

 Aralia Sieboldii may all be sown now, 

 and if kept in a warm, moist house, with 

 a temperature of 65 to 70 degrees at 

 night, good seed can hardly fail to germi- 

 nate. Avoid the use of animal or chem- 

 ical manures in soil for seeds. Plenty of 

 leaf-mold is the safest medium. 



Propagation. 



Cuttings of crotons, dracsenas, dieffen- 

 bachias and other fine foliaged plants 

 will now root easily in a brisk bottom 

 heat. If the sand is kept moist and they 

 are screened from the sun's rays, very 

 few will fail. Most of the country flo- 



George Asmus. 



