May 14, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



the roots cooler and moister, and there 

 is a striking contrast between plants so 

 treated and those stood on a hard bot- 

 tom. Be sure not to sell all available 

 stock of your favorite geraniums. Re- 

 serve a sufficient number of each kind to 

 be planted outdoors for your own use. 



Brief Reminders. 



Tf Hyacinthus candicans is not yet 

 planted outside, get the bulbs in the 

 ground as soon as possible. 



Look over the bulb displays in tlie 

 public parks and gardens. Jot down the 

 names of desirable varieties. 



Discontinue planting deciduous stock 

 and finish setting out evergreens, except 

 it may be in damp, cloudy weather. 



Make another sowing of asters. This 

 will do well either in a frame or the 

 open. 



Continue to gradually harden off bed- 

 ding plants. Be sure to keep them moist 

 at the root. 



Cut gladiolus spikes when the first 

 flowers open. They will expand freely 

 in water and can be retarded in this 

 way considerably. 



Shake out and store your freesia bulbs. 

 They will not require to be started be- 

 fore August. 



A batch of fancy leaved caladiums and 

 tuberous rooted begonias, started now, 

 will prove useful in late summer. 



THE FERTILIZER MARKET. 



Growers who use large quantities of 

 manufactured fertilizers have found that 

 in spite of existing business conditions 

 there is this season a marked advance in 

 the price of leading items in this line. 

 For instance, among Chicago growers 

 large users oif raw bone are paying $30 

 per ton, as against $22 per ton at this 

 date last year. There also has been an 

 advance in the price of blood and bone. 

 The manufacturers of these fertilizers 



at the Union Stock Yards explain that 

 the advance is due to the light receipts 

 of cattle at the yards, which is reducing 

 the output of all by-products of the 

 slaughter houses. The big packing con- 

 cerns assert that the light receipts of 

 cattle are to blame for the advance in 

 the price of fresh meats, and t4ie fer- 

 tilizer people say that in their line the 

 advance is not held in check by a reduc- 

 tion in demand, as it is with fresh meats. 

 In practically all parts of the country 

 except the south, it is said the demand 

 for fertilizers is greater than it ever 

 has been before and that there is no 

 trouble in disposing of the output. Fer- 

 tilizer manufacturers assert, and it prob- 

 ably is with truth, that the demand for 

 fertilizers is only just beginning to be 

 felt in this country, where the natural 

 supply has sufficed heretofore, and that 

 as years go by manufactured fertilizers 

 will become much more largely used and 

 possibly harder to obtain. 



CUTWORMS. 



Growers of carnations, especially in 

 the east, have much trouble each spring 

 through the depredations of cutworms 

 among the young plants in the field. 

 These will be interested in a new product 

 named Vaporite, manufactured by 

 Strawson's, 71a Queen Victoria street, 

 London, England. One of the members 

 of the firm was in the United States last 

 season and asserts that Vaporite, which 

 is a nonpoisonous powder, sprinkled on 

 the soil and dug in, will destroy cut- 

 worms and other plant pests of that 

 character. The average grower is slow 

 to take up such an article, but several of 

 the experiment station people have tried 

 it with good results and it is worth ex- 

 perimenting with on a commercial scale. 



RUST ON CARNATIONS. 



Please tell us what is the matter with 

 the leaves enclosed. They are off young 

 plants of Victory carnations. We have 

 never before had anything like it on 

 our carnations. Please advise us if it 

 will be safe to leave them among the 

 other plants. J. B. 



The specimen leaves forwarded are 

 full of the common carnation rust. As 

 I have said in reply to a similar inquiry 

 recently, this disease, while usually not 

 dreaded now as it was a few years ago, 

 sometimes becomes quite serious and de- 

 structive. On the older plants, and even 

 on the young plants which are estab- 

 lished, it can usually be controlled by 

 keeping the foliage dry, and occasionally 



dusting them -with dry-slaked lime or 

 grape dust. 



Some varieties, however, arc more sub- 

 ject to this disease than others, and Vic- 

 tory is one of these. Some varieties 

 will be attacked by this disease every 

 time the plants receive much of a check, 

 such as replanting from the field, pot- 

 ting out of the potting bench or even 

 while undergoing the rooting process. 

 After getting reestablished, however, the 

 plants will, under good culture, fight the 

 disease off again and be clean until the 

 next severe check, when the disease will 

 reappear. Victory is not so trouble- 

 some, however, as the only time we have 

 any trouble is about the time they are 

 resjdy to come out of the cutting bench 

 and until the young plants are establish- 

 ed enough to bear the full sunlight. The 

 reason for this is the fact that the 

 spores of this disease require moisture 

 to become active; while they are per- 

 fectly dry they remain inactive and harm- 

 less. Any variety which reestablishes 

 itself less readily than the average in 

 times of replanting will naturally be kept 

 in a moister atmosphere and in such con- 

 dition longer than the others, and, be- 

 ing also more weakened through the 

 operation, they are unable to fight off 

 the disease. 



Victory is a strong grower after it is 

 established and it is seldom we see any 

 rust on it except after it has been sub- 

 jected to some great disturbance. So I 

 would not blame the party from whom 

 you received the cuttings too severely, 

 especially if they were clean when you 

 received them. In such case, he should 



be complimented for having rooted this 

 variety without its getting rusty. 



r would advise you to pick off the 

 diseased leaves and burn them. Then 

 dust the plants, as suggested above, and 

 water carefully. After you plant them 

 in the field they will soon grow out of 

 it and no more trouble should be ex- 

 perienced. While this disease will spread 

 through these spores being carried along, 

 yet that does not mean that it will spread 

 like fairy-ring or other spot diseases; 

 it is quite different. If the variety next 

 to the rusty one is in condition to take 

 the disease it will be attacked, but fre- 

 quently you will see a batch eaten up by 

 it and next to it a batch entirely free 

 and clean. Some varieties are never 

 attacked; while others are attacked oc- 

 casionally. A. F. J. B. 



DETERIORATED STOCK. 



I am sending you some carnation plants 

 and also a sample of the soil, hoping 

 that you can tell me what the trouble 

 is. About fifty per cent of the blooms 

 have been split all through the season 

 and the stems have been short. Also 

 they have been troubled w-ith stem-rot 

 all the winter, there being some to throw 

 out nearly every day. There is quite 

 a difference in the shade of the Pink 

 Lawson, some of them coming very light. 

 I hope you can tell me something about 

 the soil. How about young stock propa- 

 gated from these plants? The ventila- 

 tion has been watched closely, the house 

 being kept at 54 degrees at' night, with 



