36 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Afbil 9, 1008. 



succeed best in a night temperature of 

 40 degrees during winter. Carnations 

 require from 48 to 54 degrees, according 

 to the varieties grown. If you tried 

 both and ran a sort of intermediate heat, 

 say, 45 or 46 degrees, you would suc- 

 ceed well with neither. 



You can grow some early varieties 

 of chrysanthemums to precede the single 

 violets. Such sorts as Mme. Bergman, 

 Lady Fitzwygram, Glory of Pacific, Polly 

 Eose, Monrovia, Robert Halliday, Mrs. 

 Coombs, Clementine Touset, Comoleta and 

 others would be out of the way in season 

 for the single violets. 



I would advise you to stick to violets 

 and chrysanthemums and not experiment 

 with carnations until able to give them 



a separate house. It will be better to 

 grow only one or two varieties of chrys- 

 anthemums, say, one good sort each of 

 white, yellow and pink. You will grow 

 better violets in solid beds than in raised 

 benches. Carnations in winter succeed 

 better on benches, as do chrysanthemums. 

 From May to October (if you did not 

 grow any carnations or chrysanthemums) 

 you could have tomatoes in your house. 

 They make a profitable summer crop. 

 Cucumbers can also be grown, but need 

 more heat and closer attention. It is 

 now late to sow seeds of tomatoes, but if 

 your violet crop is now over and you 

 can get plants of a good forcing tomato, 

 why not grow them and let chrysanthe- 

 mums alone for a year? C. W. 



^'ANTS" ON ROSE PLANTS. 



Under separate cover we are mailing 

 you a sample rose plant, and some soil 

 in which same are planted. You will 

 notice that the soil is filled with a sort 

 of small white ant. These ants seem to 

 eat the plants off at the base, and cause 

 them to die. We have just planted a 

 house with these f^r fall fliowering and 

 the ants already" take about one-fourth 

 of them. Can you suggest any means by 

 which we can kill them ? L. 



The insects had all escaped when the 

 box reached me, but I surmise these are 

 the small white termite which often 

 proves destructive to young rose plants, 

 their vocation in life being the disinte- 

 grating, destruction and removal of de- 

 caying wood, but they frequently attack 

 live wood also. The first essential to a 

 successful fight with these pests is to 

 find the location of their nests. If they 

 can be reached it is easy to destroy them 

 by means of benzine, gasoline, bisulphide 

 of carbon or even hot water. Ribes. 



MOTHS IN ROSE HOUSES. 



I am troubled greatly by moths in 

 the rose houses. Have tried kerosene 

 emulsion, nicotine and Paris green in 

 spraying. I am wondering if cyanide of 

 potassium would not destroy them and 

 how strong it should be used. L. G. G. 



If these moths are the common gray 

 moth or saw-fly they can be quickly 

 thinned and eventually destroyed by using 

 pyrethrum powder with a blower. Con- 

 tinue this for a week or so and watch 

 the result. 



If they are white flies, the only remedy 

 is cyanide. The formula for this is: 

 One quart of sulphuric acid; five ounces 

 of cyanide. This is s\ifBcient in ordinary 



cases for a house of 4,000 cubic feet 

 of space. It depends a good deal, how- 

 ever, on the quality of the cyanide. 

 The commercial article varies in strength 

 from thirty per cent to sixty per cent, 

 while the chemically pure can be ob- 

 tained as high as ninety-eight per cent. 

 Of course, a much smaller quantity of 

 the niney-eight per cent would be re- 

 quired for the same space than if the 

 weaker grade is used. It is wise to use 

 a weak dose at first and watch results. 

 Ribes. 



MILDEV ON ROSES. 



Will you oblige me by giving some 

 advice as to how to prevent mildew on 

 roses I I have used sulphur, both for 

 dusting and on hot pipes, but this does 

 not seem to do much good. Would 

 ammoniacal carbonate or Bordeaux mix- 

 ture be more effective! If so, please 

 tell me how to use it. Would keep- 

 ing the roses in a drier state prevent the 

 mildew from gaining a foothold? J. S. . 



The most effective, and I may say the 

 only remedy for mildew that can be in- 

 dulged in with safety, is sulphur. While 

 firing is being practiced, painting the 

 pipes with a mixture of two parts of 

 sulphur to one of air-slaked lime or any 

 other material which will ^ve plasticity 

 to the sulphur, is a sure remedy if fol- 

 lowed up in an intelligent manner. When 

 firing ceases, the blower veill effect the 

 same purpose. By mixing the sulphur 

 with one-third finely sifted air-slaked 

 lime the distribution will be more easily 

 effected. 



There are on the market many devices 

 for releasing tlie fumes from sulphur 

 in a safe and effective way. The best 

 of these are rather expensive, but they 

 do the work. 



I have frequently pointed out in these 

 columns that prevention is much better 

 than cure, and also that where ventila- 

 tion has been neglected to the extent 

 of creating soft foliage, soft wood, and 

 stock of low vitality, no amount of sul- 



phur fumes will prevent the ravages of 

 mildew. Stock grown under proper con- 

 ditions is almost immune from the 

 trouble, and if it does suffer from a 

 slight attack, twenty-four hours of the 

 sulphur treatment will most certainly 

 banish it from the premises. Ribes. 



MAY BEETLES ON ROSES. 



Will you please tell me what the en- 

 closed bugs are and what I can do to 

 exterminate them or drive them off my 

 rose bushes? They appear every spring 

 about this time by the thousands, and 

 during the nights they eat and destroy 

 all the first crop of outdoor rosebuds and 

 damage the bushes quite a little. Some 

 nights I go out with a light and they 

 are attracted by the light and I kill hun- 

 dreds of them, but there is a better and 

 quicker way than this and I thought you 

 could and would give it to me. J. M. 



These specimens are known by the 

 common name of May beetles, or Lach- 

 nosterna fusca. These insects are the 

 parents of the mischievous white grubs 

 that are so frequently destructive to pas- 

 ture lands. The May beetles feed at 

 night and sometimes appear in large 

 numbers and do considerable damage to 

 fruit trees, rose bushes, etc., before their 

 presence is discovered. To spray the 

 bushes with the arsenites, Paris green or 

 London purple, is the surest way of de- 

 stroying them by poison. Spraying with 

 arsenate of lead will quickly destroy 

 them without injuring the most tender 

 foliage. Jarring the bushes early in the 

 morning or late at night, after spread- 

 ing a white cloth under the bushes, will 

 result in a good capture. Ribes. 



THE THOUSAND BEAUTIES. 



It is seldom that a rose has come to 

 this country with so many strong recom- 

 mendations as have accompanied Tau- 

 sendschon, the German hardy climber il- 

 lustrated in this issue. That it will have 

 wide popularity for uses similar to that 

 shown in the illustration is without a 

 question, for it is said to be absolutely 

 hardy, and this year it is being grown 

 in quite a number of greenhouse estab- 

 lishments as an Easter pot-plant. This 

 came about largely through the fact that 

 the Robert Craig Co., Philadelphia, last 

 year forced about 100 plants received 

 from the Dingee & Conard Co., of West 

 Grove, Pa. They were so successful that 

 this year 1,000 large plants are being 

 prepared for Easter trade and give every 

 indication of fully as good results as 

 were obtained last season. Others are 

 equally successful, but are growing small- 

 er plants. It will be a standard Easter 

 sort next year. 



The German name means Thousand 

 Beauties. Whether this refers to the 

 floriferousness of the variety or to the 

 variation in the color of its flowers, is 

 not apparent. Either characteristic jus- 

 tifies the name. The plant blooms pro- 

 fusely in the garden from the begin- 

 ning of June until the latter part of 

 July. The flowers, appearing in large clus- 

 ters, often ten to fifteen flowers in a 

 cluster, are of good size and quite double. 

 The colors run from tender rose through 

 the intermediate shades of bright rose 

 and carmine, with white, yellow and 

 various other delicate tints showing on 

 the same plant. The wood is almost 

 thornless and the foliage strong and 

 impervious to mildew. 



While Tausendsohon is not listed in 

 many catalogues this year, it will be in 

 them all next season. 



