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January 23, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



13 



ready stated, Fred Eaflferty, of Santa 

 Ana, Cal., bad seedlings with twenty- 

 eight flowers. Such plants can be de- 

 pended on to give bulbs of 8alal:>Ie size 

 the first year. Comparatively few of 

 the 9 to 11 inch size are produced. The 

 usual sizes are from 5 to 7 inches, but 

 a considerable percentage of the 7 to 9 

 inch size is found in lots which have 

 received good attention. The crop is 

 ready for harvesting by the beginning 

 of August. The smaller bulbs when re- 

 planted soon after being harvested 

 grow much better than imported mate- 

 rial. 



[To be continued.] ' 



LOUIS P. FAULK. 



West View, Pa., is the home of Louis 

 P. Faulk, who is well known as a grower 

 of bedding plants for the spring trade 

 in Pittsburg, Allegheny and vicinity. He 

 is a grower of more than thirty years' 

 experience, for his first venture in the 

 greenhouse business was in 1876. As a 

 boy he had learned the painting trade 

 and in 1889 he returned to it for eleven 

 years, but in 1900 he went back to grow- 

 ing pot plants and has made this his spe- 

 cialty for the last seven seasons. 



Mr, Faulk has tried out about every- 

 thing that has come to his attention in 

 the bedding plant line. His trade calls 

 for the best and he has been constantly 

 on the lookout for improvements on the 

 standard varieties, having found that his 

 trade will willingly pay for an article a 

 little better than the ordinary. In the 

 course of Mr. Faulk's work he has taken 

 up some varieties of our ordinary bed- 

 ding plants which not every grower has 

 been able to do as successfully as he, and 

 he also has raised several novelties on 

 his own place. He has a new lantana 

 which he calls Violet King, from its 

 peculiar color, which he says is the 

 greatest thing in lantanas he ever has 

 seen and which he intends to disseminate 

 in the trade. Another of his novelties 

 is Petunia American Favorite, and he 

 has a pure white moonvine which he 

 raised from a seedling and named Mid- 

 night Beauty. Among coleuses he has a 

 new one named Banner of Japan, and 

 Blue Jay is the name given to a new 

 heliotrope which he thinks will be wel- 

 comed by the trade. He has quite a 

 number of other new sorts of verbena, 

 heliotrope and coleus undergoing test. 



Geraniums are, of course, his principal 

 item. After trying practically every- 

 thing in geraniums he has selected the 

 following as the baker's dozen of best 

 sorts: Madam Buchner, Jean de la 

 Bret, Mrs. E. G. Hill, Mme. Jaulin, 

 Castries, Kleber, Jean Viaud, Beaute 

 Poitevine, Marvel, S. A. Nutt, Beauty, 

 A. Ricard and H. L. Hartman, the latter 

 a deep rose-pink variety which he says 

 is unsurpassed by any other sort except 

 Alphonse Ricard, to which it is a close 

 second. 



TROUBLE WITH CYCLAMENS. 



I have a batch of cyclamens that was 

 received a month ago in good condi- 

 tion. From 2 V^ -inch pots I potted them 

 into fours, not having anything smaller. 

 They have not done well. The leaves 

 curl up, turn brown at the edges, wilt 

 and drop off. I have not kept them over- 

 wet. I potted them into new pots, hav- 

 ing soaked the pots first. I used good, 

 fresh loam, mixed with some fine rotted 

 manure. The temperature at night has 

 been about 50 degrees, 55 to 60 degrees 



Louis P. Faulk. 



in cloudy weather, 5 degrees higher in 

 sunshine. Does it damage them to have 

 the bulb covered? J. & B. 



The shift from 2V^-inch to 4-inch 

 pots was about right, provided the cy- 

 clamens were nicely rooted in the smaller 

 pots. It was a mistake to cover the 

 corms or bulbs; these should always be 

 above ground. The temperatures given 

 were all right and the chief trouble un- 

 doubtedly lay in too deep potting. 1 

 would recommend repotting them into 

 3^-inch or 4-inch pots. Use a compost 

 of fibrous loam, old cow manure and 

 sharp sand. If your loam is naturally 

 heavy, a little leaf-mold will be bene- 

 ficial. In potting let the soil come to 

 the base of the corm. Stand your plants 

 on a shelf or bench,* well up to the 

 light. They require no shade for some 

 time. Water carefully and if the plants 

 are not irretrievably injured, you should 

 soon note an improvement. C. W. 



PROPAGATING HOUSE. 



What is the best temperature to keep 

 a propagating house, where I root car- 

 nations, roses, geraniums and other 

 spring cuttings? What ought the bottom 

 heat be and the top heat? L. E. B. 



Carnations will root well in a bench 

 where the bottom heat is 55 degrees. 

 Geraniums will root in a similar bench, 

 but 5 degrees higher will suit them bet- 

 ter. Geranium cuttings inserted in late 

 winter or early spring will, however, root 

 more satisfactorily placed singly in small 

 pots and stood in full sunshine. The 

 carnations, and about all other cuttings, 

 require shade until they are rooted. Can 

 you not divide your house and keep one- 

 half 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the 

 other! In the cool end, which can be 



kept about 50 degrees at night, carna- 

 tions, genistas, chrysanthemums, pelar- 

 goniums, verbenas and cuttings of any 

 plants requiring cool culture can be 

 rooted, while in the warmer division, to 

 be kept at 60 to 65 degrees at night, 

 with a bottom heat of 70 to 75 degrees, 

 coleus, altemanthera, heliotrope and 

 more tender subjects can be accommo- 

 dated. 



Roses will root better at the cool end 

 of the warm division. If you cannot 

 well divide your house, try and arrange 

 it so that more bottom heat can be given 

 at the warmer end. Of course, after 

 May 1 any plants will root freely enough 

 in the same temperature, but as the bulk 

 of propagating is usually done while a 

 good deal of fire-heat is used, you should 

 endeavor to arrange your house to ac- 

 commodate cuttings requiring a brisk 

 bottom heat and those needing but little. 



C.W. 



PLUMOSUS WITH CARNATIONS. 



Can Asparagus plumosus be grown suc- 

 cessfully in a carnation house? 



R. E, G. 



Asparagus plumosus should have a 

 warmer temperature than carnations are 

 grown in, to be really profitable. They 

 will grow and make splendid stock, but 

 not as rapidly as in a temperature ten 

 degrees higher. A. F. J, B. 



Erie, Pa. — It is announced that on 

 January 1 the old firm of Schluraff 

 Floral Co., doing business for the last 

 twenty-three years, passed out of exist- 

 ence, all its assets being taken over by 

 Vem L. Schluraff, junior partner of the 

 old firm, who will continue the busi- 

 ness at the new greenhouses at Floral 

 park, Erie, Pa. 



