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The Weekly Florists' Review* 



February 20, 1908. 



tobacco dust over them. Fumigation is 

 the best of all remedies. 



Rambler Roses. 



Rambler roses intended for Easter 

 should now have shoots well developed, 

 and if you can see the little buds in the 

 ends by the beginning of March, you are 

 all right. Give the plants all possible 

 sunshine. When you syringe, let it be 

 on a clear, sunny day, so that the foliage 

 will be dry early in the afternoon. Do 

 not let mildew make its appearance, or 

 the plants will soon be ruined. Keep 

 some flowers of sulphur on the heating 

 pipes as a preventive. Avoid cold drafts 

 and a cold, clammy atmosphere. As the 

 pots are probably a network of roots 

 where the plants have been growing in 

 them since last spring, give them some 

 liquid stimulants. A surfacing of fine 

 bone, mixed with loam, is also good. 

 Avoid surfacing with green cow manure, 

 too often practiced with evil effects. 

 Plants potted last fall must not be fed 

 for a while yet, as the roots will not 

 have become matted in the pots. It is 

 always well to allow the pink ramblers a 

 week or ten days longer to develop than 

 the Crimson Rambler. The latter rose is 

 becoming somewhat overdone and the 

 pink plants,, when well done, are in bet- 

 ter demand at more lucrative prices. 



Hybrid Roses. 



While the hybrid roses are not grown 

 to anything like the extent of some years 

 ago, they make acceptable Easter plants. 

 It is no easy matter to time them ex- 

 actly right, as a few warm days will 

 upset all your calculations, and hybrid 

 roses, to be really salable, should have 

 the buds showing color and one or two 

 expanding. Full-blown ones are not 

 wanted. You cannot retard these plants 

 when once in flower, as you can lilies, 

 azaleas, acacias or many other plants, so 

 be careful not to get them along too 

 early. Hybrid roses should be sufficiently 

 advanced so that the buds will show from 

 March 10 to 15. The temperature, which 

 should always be Iott when starting hy- 

 brid roses, may now be increased to 50 

 degrees at night, and 5 degrees more 

 may be added after buds show. Treat- 

 ment such as recomnicuded for ramblers 

 will suit them. 



Azaleas. 



There is no need to rush azaleas along 

 yet for Easter, for six weeks will suffice 

 to flower them in. It would be well, 

 nevertheless, to get them into a cool 

 house; one kept at 45 degrees at night 

 will be sufficiently warm. Plants brought 

 along and flowered in a cool house are 

 much more lasting and satisfactory than 

 those subjected to hard forcing. While 

 red azaleas are in strong call at Christ- 

 mas, white ones are quite popular at 

 Easter, pink shades also taking well. 



Spiraeas. 



Spiraeas or astilbes should all be 

 started before this time. Not less than 

 eight weeks should be allowed for even 

 the common S. Japonica, and the newer 

 forms take ten to fourteen days longer 

 to develop. Give them a brisk heat to 

 start with. Water very liberally; no 

 other plants 'need so much ; it is almost 

 impossible to oversupply them. Spread 

 them out as they grow. You can move 

 them into a cooler house as the flowers 

 show color, if you have ample time for 

 their development. 



Rhododendrons. 



Similar treatment to that suggested 



for azaleas will answer for rhododen- 

 drons. They can be rushed along in a 

 forcing house, but such plants will not 

 keep long enough in bloom and can but 

 give disappointment to purchasers. The 

 beautiful variety. Pink Pearl, sold well 

 a year ago and promises to be again a 

 leader this season. Its comparative 

 scarcity and higher price prevent the 

 average country florist from trying it. 

 In potting up your rhododendrons, be 

 sure the balls are well soaked first. Those 

 potted in a dry state will drop most of 

 their buds. No amount of watering will 

 soak a ball which has been potted in a 

 dust-dry state. 



Schizanthus. 



The pretty annual, schizanthus, is ' 

 worthy of more extended culture in pots. 

 It was pleasing to see it in the hands of 

 a number of progressive florists a year 

 ago. Its culture is of the simplest and, 

 as it may be had in flower over all ex- 

 tended season, 'it' .■wauld> Beetn.*-'to be 

 worthy of greater attention. /Easter 

 plants shoiil(f'-be;kept well , pinched fpr 

 a while yet; Grow th^m iii^a eoW house; 

 If in 4-inch' pots at present, they^c^n b^ 

 flowered in (i-inch;' Discontinue in^cfiing 

 after March \. Grow t]ietn. in a sunay, 

 airy house. Stake before the shoots be- 

 come ungainly. As a nile^ a single ptake 

 will answer for a weUTgrown plant'^iii a 

 6-inch pot, and three or four fbr lafger 

 sizes. The varietyxWisetonehsis is best 

 for pots; other sorts .grow So tall "As, to 

 be ungainly. * * "i 



Gladiolus The Bride. ' 



Gladiolus The Bride succeeds better 

 in flats than in benches. It dislikes any- 

 thing like forcing, but does well grown 

 in a temperature of 50 degrees at night. 

 Keep it well up to the light. It prefers 



a shelf or a bench without bottom heat. 

 In a high temperature many of the stems 

 will rot off at the tops of the bulbs. By 

 keeping them well aired and in a strong 

 light, much of this trouble will be over^ 

 come. The variety Blushing Bride is of 

 more vigorous habit than The Bride and 

 is well wnrthy a place in every commer- 

 cial plape' where such flowers are in de- 

 mand. '.L 



' •«»,.,, ; Timely Reminders. 



PreJ)ate a good quantity of soil for 

 seed /Sjp wing. Let two-thirds of it be 

 leJ^riiold, and if sterilized to kill all 

 w^d geeds, larvae, etc., all the better. 



• Gpotinue to house batches of Dutch 

 btdWf.' ~ They should all go directly to the 

 bench now and will require no drawing 

 la the dark. 



©row anemones and ranunculi cool. A 

 violet temperature is about ideal. 



' ' Give any f reesias you are carrying over 

 git^df -light until the foliage becomes yel- 

 low.' • 



A ^ulching of coarse manure or some 

 other jnaterial is necessary for peren- 

 nials and bulbous plants. Alternate 

 tteeziijg. and thawing of unmulched 



'ground will soon' cause much destruction. 



■; Keep_ shamrocks, moist at the root. 

 They are only in Remand for March 17, 

 80 get your plants in as good a condition 



.^s possible beforethat date. 



" ■ As Cypripedium insigne passes out of 

 flowerj any necessary repotting can be 



4CTe- '-•„,;' 



ylKjseP' ,^]ie propagating bench well filled 



with cfjjittings. The percentage of loss 



will be much lighter now than a month 



hence. 



Do not be in too big a hurry to put 

 shading on the glass. Make it light, even 

 on palms and ferns. 



ROSES FOR WINTER BLOOMING. 



I have an even-span greenhouse, run- 

 ning east and west, without heat. It has 

 solid beds, containing the following vari- 

 eties of roses: White and Pink Cochet, 

 La France and Kaiserin. These roses are 

 one year old and bloomed some last 

 summer. If I heat this house next win- 

 ter, will these rose bushes be of any 

 value for blooming during the winter, or 

 had I better throw them out and put in 

 the regular forcing roses I If I can use 

 them, please tell me how to handle them 

 next summer and fall. H. W. E. 



As these roses have never been sub- 

 jected to heat, if they are in a healthy 

 condition they should be good subjects 

 for your purpose. The varieties, how- 



ever, are not the best, either for the work 

 or for marketing of the blooms. It would 

 be move profitable to throw them out 

 either in the end of May or beginning of 

 June, and plant standard varieties for 

 winter blooming, such as Bride, Maid, 

 Richmond and Golden Gate. 



The proper treatment for your present 

 stock, to put it into condition for winter 

 blooming, would be to begin withhold- 

 ing water in July and continue this for 

 at least four weeks, keeping the syringe 

 going and giving abundance of fresh air. 

 Then prune out all the small wood and 

 shorten down the strong growths to three 

 or four eyes. Remove three inches of the 

 old soil, or as much of it as can be safely 

 removed without injuring the roots. Give 

 the surface a sprinkling of air-slaked 

 lime, and then replace with a mixture of 

 good loam and well rotted manure, in the 

 proportions of two parts of loam to one 

 part of manure. An addition of one 

 4-inch potful of good bone meal to each 

 bushel of the compost will be of great 



