The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



Mabch 12, 1908. 



SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



Hydrangeas. 



Hydrangea plants wanted for Easter 

 sales must now have the flower heads 

 two to three inches in diameter if they 

 are to be in flower when wanted. Of 

 course, if given a warm April, even 

 more backward stock may be forced into 

 bloom, but strong heat for hydrangeas 

 produces leggy and soft plants, not at 

 all the kind which is likely to take the 

 eyes of your customers. "We do not like 

 a temperature exceeding 55 degrees at 

 night at any stage of growth, but we 

 sometimes see them sweltering in a house 

 kept 10 degrees higher. Hydrangeas call 

 for abundant supplies of water at all 

 stages of their growth, and a good dry- 

 ing out may mean the ruin of the flower 

 heads. Liquid manure twice a week will 

 benefit them, and if there are any signs 

 of pale foliage, a result of semi-starva- 

 tion at the roots, use a little sulphate of 

 ammonia or nitrate of soda in the water. 

 As the flower heads gain size and weight, 

 use some stakes for them before they 

 can become twisted. If, as suggested 

 some weeks ago, you put in a good batch 

 of cuttings after starting your Easter 

 plants, they should now be nicely rooted. 

 Do not allow them to stay in the propa- 

 gating bench any longer than is neces- 

 sary. These little plants, if set out in 

 nursery rows after danger of frost has 

 gone, and kept well cultivated, will make 

 splendid stock for forcing another season. 



Memorial day is an occasion when 

 there is a heavy call for these plants, and 

 if your stock has not yet been started, 

 get them cleaned over a little and started 

 in a cool house without delay. The in- 

 terval between Easter and Memorial day 

 this year is less than six weeks, and quite 

 a little forethought and scheming will be 

 necessary to provide space for all the 

 plants wanted on the two occasions. 



Pansies and Daisies. 



Pansies and daisies always meet with 

 a ready sale in spring. Your plants are 

 probably either in coldframes or in the 

 open ground. As winter in the more 

 northerly states hates to bid us adieu be- 

 fore April, we can do nothing with the 

 outdoor stock for some time yet, but 

 where the plants are in coldframes they 

 should now have their winter covering 

 removed and any frost we get after the 

 middle of March will hardly injure them 

 through the sashes. Air them freely and 

 with the increasing power of the sun's 

 rays they will soon grow freely. If you 

 want some earlier flowers, lift a quan- 

 tity and plant in the bench in a violet 

 house temperature. Do not on any ac- 

 count try forcing, or you will speedily 

 ruin them. It is not wise to remove 

 the covering on your outside plants with 

 the first signs of spring. Often we get 

 frosts and cold winds during the last 

 half of March, which work havoc with 

 exposed plants. 



Sweet Peas. 



As soon as you can work the soil is 

 the time to prepare a piece of ground 



for your first sowing of sweet peas. Do 

 not make the mistake of waiting until 

 May 1 before doing this, reasoning that 

 the ground must be warm for them or 

 they will not start well. There can be 

 no greater fallacy than this. By getting 

 your sweet peas in while the land is cool 

 and moist, the seed will make strong 

 roots before the tops appear and will give 

 you much finer flowers than can be se- 

 cured from the later sown ones. If you 

 had time to prepare your land late in the 

 fall, all the better, but if not, manure 

 liberally. Use some wood ashes if your 

 ground lacks potash, and plow or spade 

 it deeply. Sow the seed thinly, or have 

 courage to thin the seedlings if you feel 

 you must put thrice as many in the 

 drills as are needed. 



Of course the soil should be dry when 

 seeding is done, but there is no occasion 



i { 



Don't Forget: — 



That bench of slow-moving stock can 

 be promptly turned into Cash (it comes 

 with the order), if offered in the Classi- 

 fied Department of the REVIEW. It 

 costs only 10 cents a line. 



to worry if a foot of snow and stiff 

 freezing weather follow the operation. 

 Such climatic changes will not harm the 

 seeds in the least. Mixed colors of sweet 

 peas do not usually sell well. A few de- 

 sirable sorts for commercial use are: 

 White, Dorothy Eckford, White Wonder; 

 scarlet, Queen Alexandra, King Edward 

 VII; rosy carmine, John Ingman; orange 

 pink, Helen Lewis, Miss Willmott; blue 

 and white. Phenomenal or Helen Pierce; 

 pink or rose. Countess Spencer, Gladys 

 Unwin; lavender, Mrs. Geo. Higginson, 

 Lady Grisel Hamilton; blue. Navy Blue; 

 striped, America. 



The early batch of indoor sweet peas 

 which have flowered practically all winter 

 are now running out, and as they easily 

 become the prey of red spider when push- 

 ing against the glass, it is best to throw 

 them out and give attention to the later 

 sowings, which are just coming into 



flower. As the plants grow very fast 

 now, a good deal of care is needed to 

 give them the supports necessary. When 

 other duties crowd as they do at this 

 busy season, it is easy to overlook these 

 little details, but it does not pay to do 

 so, for if the peas once become bent and 

 twisted they never seem to fully recover 

 from it. 



Cyclamens. 



Easter this year comes too late for 

 cyclamens. While they never cut much 

 of a figure at that festival, we have 

 always thought that nicely flowered 

 plants, especially of the pure white 

 forms, should sell well, but there are so 

 many other plants then in season that 

 growers have always seemed to prefer 

 catering to the Christmas and earlier 

 winter trade rather .than hold their 

 plants back for Easter. Any remaining 

 unsold will now require some shading, 

 or the flowers will soon be ruined. Cy- 

 clamens enjoy a fair amount of sun- 

 shine and plenty of pure air at all times 

 of their growth, barring the seedling 

 stage, but the late February and early 

 March sun is too much for flowering 

 plants. 



Your little seedlings raised last Octo- 

 ber should not be overlooked in the com- 

 ing spring rush. Keep them well up to 

 the light and the surface soil stirred, 

 weeds removed and the plants spread out 

 so that their leaves do not quite touch. 

 If you are fumigating once a week, 

 there will be no likelihood of thrips get- 

 ting a foothold. If they do, spray with 

 tobacco juice and fumigate lightly on 

 three successive evenings. Do not allow 

 the little plants to become potbound. 

 Avoid large shifts when repotting. Ee- 

 member that these plants do not make 

 roots as speedily as hydrangeas, gera- 

 niums or rambler roses. A 1-inch shift 

 is sufficient when in pots below four 

 inches. From the latter size they can 

 go to 5^ -inch, which is better than 

 6-ineh. 



AUamandas. 



AUamandas are not so much grown by 

 florists as their value warrants. Where 

 there is a call for choice summer flowers, 

 they are very useful. The dwarf va- 

 riety, A. Williamsi, makes a splendid pot 

 plant, while A. Schottii, A. Hendersoni 

 and A. grandiflora are all excellent 

 climbers. In Europe they are used to a 

 considerable extent for exhibition pur- 

 poses, trained on balloon-shaped frames, 

 but we have never seen them grown in 

 this way in America, except on one or 

 two occasions. If the plants have been 

 kept fairly dry during the vdnter, any 

 necessary pruning can now be done. 

 Climbers should have the surface soil 

 picked away and a liberal top-dressing 

 applied. Plants in pots of moderate size 

 can have a large part of the old soil 

 shaken away and be started in smaller 

 pots. A compost of fibrous loam, lumpy 

 cow manure well dried, sharp sand and 

 fine charcoal suits them. Pot firmly, 

 water well and then keep rather dry 

 until root growth is active and the plants 

 break freely. Spray several times a day 

 lightly and keep in a warm house. After 

 June allamandas will thrive finely in any 

 ordinary greenhouse. We have found 

 the flowers valuable for table decora- 

 tions at times when choice material was 

 rather scarce. Propagation is easy from 

 soft cuttings. Half ripened wood will 

 also" root, but takes more. time. 



