■••; w.r?"r-~-w!;'.™"' 



10 



p 



It -will be interesting to note how well 

 these plants, which have been long estab- 

 lished in an interior valley, . .will adjust 

 themselves to a situation almost within 

 reach of the spray of the Pacific ocean. 



LIME AND WCX)D ASHES. 



I can get any amount of air-slaked 

 lime and also wood ashes that are partly 

 mixed with coal ashes. Would it benefit 

 the soil that is to be used in the benches 

 this fall, if I apply any of the above 

 now, and • about howN much ought to be 

 used? The soil is somewhat sandy and 

 was sowed in cowpeas last summer and 

 turned down in the fall. C. D. 



If these are passed through a screen 

 to keep out the coarser cinders, they will 

 prove valuable. Light, sandy ground re- 

 quires less lime than clayey soils. It will 

 be safe to scatter a little Jime in your 

 compost heap as you turn it over, al- 

 though we prefer to apply it to the 

 benches during the growing season. The 

 ashes will, we think, do more good if 

 also applied in the form of occasional 

 surface dressings. We cannot advise you 

 as to the quantity to apply, as so much 

 depends on the nature of the soil, the 

 crop to be grown and other conditions. 

 Lime has a sweetening influence oh land 

 inclined to be sour and cannot be dis- 

 pensed with. C. W. 



^ A GOOD NEW CANNA. 



King Humbert is such an improvement 

 over all the other existing bronze-leaf 

 sorts of cannas that^very retail grower 

 should include it in his list of varieties. 

 For years, since 1834, Egandale has held 

 practically the first place in that respect, 

 for it not only had the bronze foliage, 

 but fair sized, showy flowers, and was 

 unsurpassed as a bedder. Many grow- 

 ers looked at any new varieties with sus- 

 picion, as it was hard to imagine any- 

 thing to beat this old standby. But 

 King Humbert does it in every respect. 

 Here we have foliage of a deeper bronze 

 shade, three times the size; flowers of a 

 richer color, fully double the size of 

 Egandale, and the plant has all the quali- 

 ties a good bedder should have, which 

 most of the extra large flowering sorts, 

 especially the \)rchid-flowering ones, do 

 not possess. Ir\there is any room for 

 criticism, it wouloxbe on the rather shy 

 blooming qualities early in the season, 

 but this is to a great extent overcome by 

 using large stock for planting out. 



We are growing about 10,000 cannas 

 for spring sales. The plants are usually 

 ill 3 1^ -inch pots for planting out, pot on 

 pot, in the benches. It would be impos- 

 sible to do this with King Humbert. To 

 have this variety at its best the roots 

 should be started by the end of February 

 and kept growing until the plants are in 

 5-inch pots. By May 10, plants can be 

 had thirty inches tall, with six or seven 

 .18-inch leaves, ten inches wide, with two 

 or three shoots surrounding the plants. 

 This will require soil which had a good 

 dose of bone meal, and watering with 

 light doses of liquid cow manure, say 

 once every two weeks after the plants 

 have been potted. You could not get any 

 of the other bedding varieties to 

 such a size. It is not in them. What 

 a show plants grown in that way make 

 when first planted out! And even if 

 your customer does complain about a 

 scarcity of bloom during the early part 

 of July, this is all forgotten long before 

 the end of the season, for when they do 

 bloom there is no other canna to equal 



Tkc Weekly Florists' Review. 



u 



Makch 5, 1908. 



them. The bed represents one solid mass 

 of flowers, orange scarlet, surrounded by 

 a border of * bronze-colored, musa-like 

 foliage. 



To obtain the best results, the beds for 

 the plants should be well prepared. It 

 seems that overfeeding them is almost 

 impossible. In fact, tliis holds good for 

 all cannas. Common field culture does 

 not do justice to any new variety. Well 

 manured, deeply cultiyated soil is neces' 

 sary to produce large, glossy leaves and 

 good flowers, and it would often avoid 

 disappointment and bad feelings if the 

 attention of a customer was called to 

 these facts, whenever the beds are not in 

 proper condition. F. B. 



JOSEPH VERVAENE. 



George A. Strohlein, of Henry A. 

 Dreer Co., Riverton, N. J., has received 

 from Arthur De Smet, of Louis De 

 Ghent, Belgium, a copy of La 

 Horticole, published in Brussels 

 ite of February 8, 1908, describ- 

 Pete ^ven in honor of Joseph Ver- 

 vsene on the twenty-fifth anniversary of 



Joseph Vervaene. 



his introduction of Azalea Vervseneana. 

 The following is a free translation from 

 the French: 



"The Syndicate Chamber of Belgian 

 Horticulturists entertained on Sunday 

 last, February 2, at Gand, at a handsome 

 banquet commemorating the twenty-fifth 

 anniversary of the introduction into com- 

 merce of Azalea Vervffineana and giving 

 to its introducer, Joseph Vervaene, a 

 medal aS a souvenir of this memorable 

 event. The Tribune, wishing to add 

 its high mark of esteem and admiration 

 for this brilliant hybridizer, is happy to 

 publish his portrait today. A short bio- 

 graphical sketch of the introducer and 

 his creation will certainly give pleasure 

 to numerous readers : 



"Joseph "Vervaene, horticulturist, was 

 born at Ledeberg, Gand, in 1833. He 

 still enjoys, notwithstanding his ad- 

 vanced age, remarkable health. Descend- 

 ed from a line of horticulturists, the 

 Vervaenes, who were, in Belgium, the 

 initiators of the culture of the Azalea 

 Indica, he was the conscientious hybrid- 



izer to whom this species owes its best 

 productions, such as Pharailde Mathilde, 

 Perle de Ledeberg, Dame Mathilde, Perle 

 de Belgic, Mme. Joseph Vervaene, Ru- 

 dolph Siegel, etc. Today we honor the 

 elite of his productions, the Azalea Ver- 

 vseneana. This variety originated from 

 a fixed branch of Azalea Indica. Phara- 

 ilde Mathilde was obtained by M. Ver- 

 vaene from a cross between Azalea Kon- 

 nigin der Weisse and Versicator.- 



* ' All the world " knows Azalea Ver- 

 vaeneana sufficiently to dispense with"~a 

 description from us. Suffice it to say 

 that no variety unites in itself so high 

 a degree of perfection as does this kind. 

 Easy and vigorous growth, traveling 

 readily long distances without injury to 

 leaves or buds, responsive to hastening 

 or retarding of flowering season, with 

 a luxuriance without paraillel, one is 

 astonished at the ^cope that this^variety 

 has given to national horticulture. It 

 is cultivated by the million — and by th^^ 

 million it has been exported to the four 

 corners di. the globe. Horticulturists 

 have found it a fertile source of pros- 

 perity. Horticulture owes to this variety 

 much of its commercial expansioii. It 

 must be said to the honor of M. Ver- 

 vaene that when putting this novelty on 

 the market he had in view only the ad- 

 vancement of our industry. He sold the 

 plant honestly after he had fully tested 

 it; not at a fancy price for his own per- 

 sonal aggrandizement, but at a price 

 within the reach of all, permitting its 

 rapid multiplication and its vigorous 

 pushing to a conquest of the world. 



"It is also by the Azalea Pharailde 

 Mathilde that Joseph Vervaene produced 

 some years ago by a fixed branch the. 

 Azalea Vervaeneana alba, which is be- 

 lieved to surpass all other white varieties 

 and may in the future surpass even Ver- 

 vseneana itself. The same hybridizer com- 

 bining his judicious and successful work, 

 is now making experiments, the result of 

 which he proposes to exhibit at the ap- 

 proaching centennial exposition at Gand. 

 We will close by saying that the name 

 of Joseph Vervaene will be inseparable 

 from the horticultural history of our 

 century, and that the Azalea Vervaeneana 

 will bequeath his name to posterity." 



I assume that by ' ' fixed branch ' ' is 

 meant what we would call sport. 



Phil. 



TROUBLE WITH GERANIUMS. 



Please give me some idea as to how I 

 can know when the soil is too wet for 

 geraniums. The reason I ask this is, I 

 grow about 10,000 each year and those I 

 put in flowering pots in the fall go 

 through the winter in good shape, as also 

 do those in 2 1^ -inch pots until I put them 

 in 31^ -inch pots, and then, when cold 

 weather comes, the leaves turn red and 

 the young roots rot. They are watered 

 once or twice a week, according to the 

 amount of sunshine, and- are in strong 

 light. They are neither drawn nor 

 spindly. The S. A. Nutt is always first 

 to turn. The most of them are on solid 

 beds twelve inches above the walk, and 

 when a strong gale is blowing there 

 seems to be a cold draught going over 

 the plants. The temperature of the 

 houses is 50 degrees. If the plants are 

 in the bed instead of pots, they grow and 

 the draught does not seem to hurt them 

 at all. Only those in pots seem to suffer. 

 Do you think the draught would make 

 the soil too cold and cause the roots to 

 rot? When I used to heat with flues I 

 had all raised benches, and in some cor- 



