The Weekly Florists' Review* 



r-' 



Jandaby 23, 1808. 



sible that the variety is Princess of 

 Wales. Are you quite sure that you are 

 not growing some small and inferior va- 

 riety! Your night temperature should 

 be all right and the rise in the daytime 

 is not excessive, with sun heat. It is a 

 great mistake to keep your plants on 

 the dry side. Violets, like pansies, want 

 to be cool and moist at the root, and if 

 you have good drainage, my advice would 

 be to soak your beds or benches thor- 

 oughly, making sure the water has 

 reached the bottoms of the roots. Choose 

 a sunny day for watering and do it early 

 in the day, so that the foliage may dry 

 before nightfall. Violets want a light, 

 sunny house, a compost of three parts 

 loam and one part rotted cow manure. 



well mixed, and must never be allowed 

 to become dry at the root. Some grow- 

 ers use even more manure than I have 

 suggested, but you can provide extra 

 food when needed in the form of top 

 dressings or liquid manure. C. W. 



THE METAL TIE. 



At the Philadelphia convention of the 

 S. A. F; a young man sat on a table 

 diligently wiring a plant to a stake. 

 He was using an invention for which he 

 had applied for a patent. He called it 

 Carpenter's Eapid Tie and he had a 

 circular on which was reproduced a let- 

 ter from A. N. Pierson, Cromwell, 

 Conn., dated June 22, in which Mr. Pier- 



son said, "I believe your device to be 

 a labor saver and feel enough satisfied 

 with it to give you an order for 100,000 

 as a trial." Carpenter & Co., Cohoes, 

 N. Y., who were making the exhibit at 

 Philadelphia, say they have had a large 

 business as a result of their display. The 

 tie is simply a narrow strip of flat cop- 

 per, looped in the center where it natu- 

 rally clasps the stake. It is soft and 

 easily bends around the plant and will 

 neither rust nor cut into the plant. 

 While thousands %upon thousands were 

 used by chrysanthemum growers and 

 poinsettia growers, the approaching bulb 

 season gives Carpenter & Co. their busi- 

 est time, for millions will be used on 

 these plants. 



CARNATION NOTES.-EAST. 



Night Temperature. 



From a letter recently received, there 

 appears to be some difference of opin- 

 ion regarding the graduation from day 

 to night temperature. 



Some growers advise keeping the day 

 temperature at 60 to 65 degrees on bright 

 days, reducing it to 58 or 60 degrees at 

 dark, then gradually allowing it to fall 

 to the proper night temperature for each 

 variety by midnight and keeping it there 

 until the outside temperature begins to 

 rise, which will be about 8 or 9 a. m. 

 Others reduce to the proper night tem- 

 perature soon after dark and try to 

 keep it there until after daylight, while 

 there are those who allow the mercury to 

 drop several degrees below regular night 

 temperature after 4 a. m. 



In changing from day to night tem- 

 perature we are striving to imitate na- 

 ture by adhering to the principle that 

 light and temperature go hand in hand, 

 and I imagine the plan of gradually re- 

 ducing the temperature until midnight 

 is an attempt to follow nature more 

 closely. To say this method is the ideal 

 one, would be making a very broad state- 

 ment; still, one would not be justified 

 in declaring it altogether wrong, as there 

 is a certain element of merit in it, for 

 one of the fundamental principles of 

 carnation culture is to avoid sudden fluc- 

 tuations in temperature, especially a de- 

 scending one. But, with all this, it is 

 doubtful if such mode of procedure 

 would-be practical from a commercial 

 standpoint. 



A small addition to details often in- 

 volves an additional expense wholly out 

 of proportion to the advantage gained, 

 and the small grower might well hesitate 

 to increase his personal cares, for with 

 him a night fireman is out of the ques- 

 tion. My experience is that by proper 



manipulation of the ventilators and 

 heating apparatus, we can bring about 

 the desired change in temperature by 

 dark, without in the least injuring the 

 plants or lowering the quality of bloom. 



Taking, for example, a bright day in 

 January, when the sun sets between 4:30 

 and 5 p. m., the ventilators will need 

 lowering more or less, according to out- 

 side temperature, from 2:30 to 4 p. m., 

 at which time all would, under ordinary 

 circumstances, be tightly closed. Mean- 

 while the heating apparatus should have 

 been gotten in condition to respond when 

 called upon, as the sun's influence les- 

 sens rapidly as its rays begin to leave the 

 glass. Increase the inside heat as the 

 outside temperature falls, but instead of 

 maintaining the regular day temperature, 

 allow it to fall gradually from 4 to 6 

 p. m., when the regular night tempera- 

 ture is reached. 



Growers who claim to allow a drop 

 of several degrees after 4 p. m. may be 

 unwilling to admit that such a circum- 

 stance is beyond their control. I should 

 be pleased to learn of any benefits to 

 be derived from such a practice. 



Geo. S. Osborn. 



CARNATION NOTES.- WEST. 



Splittinsrand Wilting. 



During the last few days we have had 

 the most trying weather of the season on 

 the carnation calyxes. After consider- 

 able cloudy weather we had some mild, 

 bright days, followed again by several 

 cloudy days and so on, changing back 

 and forth every few days. TWs has 

 caused the blooms to develop in spurts 

 and much complaint is heard about split- 

 ting of calyxes. If you are having trou- 

 ble, do not blame the night man ; he can- 

 not help it. You will find that in most 

 cases the variable weather is at the bot- 

 tom of the trouble. 



The worst of it is that you can do but 

 little to prevent the bursting. If you 

 have been feeding strong and pushing 

 your plants to the utmost, you will have 

 much more trouble than if you have been 

 growing them moderately. The same 

 may be said in regard to the plants wilt- 

 ing. Plants that are soft from having 

 been overfed will wilt so they will lie 

 down on the wires, and spraying must 

 be resorted to to keep them up. A light 

 spraying overhead before noon will help 

 them considerably, but make it light and 

 be sure the plants are dry by night. In 

 a few days they should hold up well. 



In such weather it will pay you to cut 

 the blooms quite close on most varieties. 

 A stem which supports a bloom two- 

 thirds developed, if it wilts down, will 

 never straighten up as it should. The 

 weight of the bloom will hold it down. 

 If you are propagating now, take cut- 

 tings from the plants only in the morn- 

 ing while such weather prevails. The 

 cuttings are nice and fresh then and will 

 hold up better in the sand. 



The Washington Convention. 



I hope you intend to be in attendance 

 at the carnation convention at Washing- 

 ton, D. C, next week. From all accounts 

 it ought to be a hummer. Every grower 

 of carnations, whether on a large or 

 smaU scale, ought to make an effort to 

 attend and encourage this society in its 

 good work. Do not harbor the idea that 

 these meetings benefit only the carnation 

 specialists and breeders. Of course they 

 are the greatest beneficiaries, but every 

 man who grows any carnations at all is 

 benefited by the work this society is do- 

 ing. If it were not for these meetings, 

 etc., the society would not be doing this 

 work, and the least you can do is to en- 

 courage it by being a member, even if 

 you cannot be a very active one. If you 

 are not a member, I feel sure that you 



