<r.: 



28 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



January 30, 1908. 



yet a little early to make a sowing for 

 outdoor culture. The first week in March 

 will do. 



Cyclamens. 



The little cyclamens raised last fall 

 must not be neglected. They should oc- 

 cupy a light bench in a bouse kept at 50 

 to 55 degrees at night. Do not allow 

 the roots to become too matted in the 

 pots before giving them a shift. Stir 

 the surface soil occasionally, and give 

 them space enough so that the leaves do 

 not touch. Crowded plants now mean in- 

 ferior ones at flowering time. If your 

 old plants have been grown for late win- 

 ter sales, they will now be starting to 

 flower in a cool house. Do not attempt 

 any forcing. If you want nice, stocky 

 plants, which will hold their flowers erect, 

 they must be grown cool; 45 degrees at 

 night is ample. Some good growers run 

 them even cooler. As the pots will now 

 be full of roots, a pinch of Clay's Fer- 



tilizer, alternated with liquid manure, will 

 prove beneficial. Once in ten days is 

 often enough for stimulants. 



Brief Reminders. 



Spiraeas for Easter can now be started. 

 If bench room is scarce, place them under 

 the stages for a week or two. 



A batch of cuttings of sweet alyssum 

 will give you nice plants to propagate 

 from again in March and April. 



Look out for mildew on rambler and 

 hybrid perpetual roses. Keep the steam 

 pipes dusted with sulphur and avoid cold 

 drafts. 



Any of the narcissi can now be started. 

 It will be unnecessary to draw them up 

 in the dark after this time. 



It is much too early to start azaleas, 

 acacias, rhododendrons, lilacs. Azalea 

 mollis, Staphylea Colchica and genistas 

 for Easter. Keep all these as cold as 

 possible. 



Your Easter lilies cannot afford to be 



neglected. Give those which promise to 

 be too early a cooler hduse. If your 

 plants are eight to nine inches high, they 

 are all right. Those less than six inches 

 high will need a warmer house. 



Bambler roses for Easter should have 

 been housed before this time and be 

 breaking freely in a temperature of 50 

 degrees at night. 



If you have neglected to sow smilax, 

 Asparagus Sprengeri and Asparagus plu- 

 mosus nanus, do so at once. 



If you grow tomatoes to follow your 

 violets, it is time to make a sowing in 

 flats in a warm house. 



Put in tops of any geraniums needing 

 a pinch. You cannot have too many of 

 this most valuable of all bedding plants. 



Carefully water the Lorraine begonia 

 leaves in the sand. They should soon be 

 sending out roots now. 



Never neglect fumigation, if you do 

 not wish aphis and thrips to cause you 

 trouble. 



CARNATION NOTES.- WEST. 



Disseminating Novelties. 



Most of the disseminators of new car- 

 nations have begun delivering the young 

 stock, and it is interesting to note the 

 difference in the quality of the cuttings 

 and the way they are handled. The old 

 hands at the disseminating business 

 have long since learned the wisdom of 

 sending out only strictly first-class stock, 

 but there are here and there growers 

 who are having their first experience at 

 the game, to whom the 12 cents apiece 

 is too alluring to let slip if it can pos- 

 sibly be held onto on the least pretext. 

 To them the matter of 12 cents is 

 the paramount issue. This is entirely 

 wrong, as they will learn sooner or later 

 if they continue to raise and dissemi- 

 nate seedlings. To the veteran the first 

 and most important thing is to have his 

 variety "make good" after leaving his 

 place, and he allows nothing to stand 

 in the way, either in painstaking work 

 or in sacrifice of inferior cuttings. To 

 him every snip of a cutting, be it ever 

 so small and weak, does not represent 

 12 cents, nor does he keep counting so 

 many cuttings as so many dollars. Of 

 course, every disseminator should and 

 does want to get as much out of his 

 variety as he can, and he is entitled to 

 all he can get, as long as he delivers 

 honest value for money received. 



Siiipping Inferior Cuttin^fs. 



We will leave out of the discussion, 

 for the present at least, the question of 



cuttings being properly rooted. The of- 

 fense, as far as I have observed, has 

 not been along that line. It has been 

 in the selection of the cuttings. One 

 batch in particular, which came under 

 our notice recently, contained mostly 

 cuttings which must have been taken 

 from the upper part of the flower stems, 

 the very first shoots which did not show 

 a bud, and most of them had blade- 

 less stems from three-fourths of an inch 

 to over one inch long. No experienced 

 grower would expect to keep up the vi- 

 tality of his stock with such cuttings, 

 and no such cuttings ought ever to be 

 put in sand. No buyer should be ex- 

 pected to accept and to pay for such 

 weak cuttings and no variety should 

 be subjected to such abuse. Both are 

 entitled to better treatment. That the 

 disseminator is more or less responsi- 

 ble for the success or failure of his va- 

 riety after dissemination is a fact 

 which cannot be denied. At least he is 

 praised or censured by the trade in ac- 

 cordance with the behavior of his va- 

 riety, and his success with such ven- 

 tures in future depends very largely 

 on it. 



The Right Sort of Cuttings. 



Now, I realize full well that no man 

 can guarantee that a variety will do 

 thus and so for another grower; yet he 

 can do much toward that success by 

 supplying strong, healthy cuttings, cut- 

 tings which will, with ordinary good 

 care, grow into strong, sturdy plants. 

 If a variety, on account of variation in 

 soil or climatic conditions, fails to prove 



satisfactory, he is not to be blamed. 

 But for a grower to propagate just any- 

 thing that will strike roots and to send out 

 such weak cuttings that they cannot 

 possibly make strong plants, even with 

 the best of care, is not only rank folly, 

 but an outrage on both the variety and 

 the purchaser. In such case the failure 

 of a variety must be charged directly 

 to him. 



On the other hand, however, you must 

 not be too exacting when you purchase 

 a new variety. Do not demand that 

 each cutting should be absolutely of the 

 very top grade. If the cutting is fairly 

 well rooted and has good vitality, and 

 if it will grow with ordinary care into 

 a first-class plant, then you should be 

 satisfied. We sometimes hear it said 

 that when one pays 12 cents per cut- 

 ting he should get fine stock. That* is 

 true, but it is no more true in this case 

 than it is when you pay only 2 cents. 

 The extra you pay is not for quality in 

 the cutting, but it is for quality in the 

 new variety. It was earned long before 

 the cuttings were put in the sand. So, 

 if the cuttings are as strong and well 

 rooted as you would demand of the 

 standard varieties, then you have no 

 cause for complaint. A. F. J. Baue. 



SPUT CALYXES. 



We are having trouble with our car- 

 nations and write for information. In 

 almost every instance the calyx bursts. 

 The plants are looking well and the buds 

 are coming freely. They were planted 

 in rich soil and then heavily mulched 



