The Weekly Florists' Review* 



JUMB 4, 1908. 



proper time and have it taken off. The 

 farmer does not pay taxes on the grow- 

 ing crop of corn, wheat or oats. On those 

 grounds I always refuse to give in my 

 crop and I have been sustained by our 

 auditors here, in Auglaize county, Ohio. 



J. J. La WHENCE. 



VINCENT IN EUROPE. 



One of the Review's European cor- 

 respondents sends the following: 



R. Vincent, Jr., of White Marsh, Md., 

 who has been touring in Europe for 

 the last six or seven weeks, brought his 

 trip to a close Saturday, May 23, and 

 embarked for New York with his wife 

 and two granddaughters. On the look- 

 out for novelties in zonal and regal pelar- 

 goniums, he has visited the nurseries 

 of the leading French and English hy- 

 bridizers, and his stock will be augment- 

 ed forthwith by the addition of the 

 cream of the newest varieties found on 

 the trip. 



For ten days he was associated with 

 a party of fifty British horticulturists 

 on a trip to the bulb fields of Holland 

 and the leading nurseries in Belgium 

 for azaleas, palms and bay trees. In 

 an after-dinner speech in Ghent he gave 

 an entertaining and interesting account 

 of horticulture in America. He eulogized 

 the great Quinquennial Exhibition in 

 Ghent, disappointing only on account of 

 the meager show of geraniums — but then, 

 Belgium has not taken up geranium 

 culture and several Belgians would scarce- 

 ly credit that it was possible to run 

 geraniums as a profitable line. 



He has looked up many old friends 

 and made hosts of new ones in Belgium, 

 Holland, France, England and Scotland. 

 "Will ye no come back again!" if not 

 always expressed in these words, at all 

 events expressed the sentiments of many 

 when the time for hand-shaking came 

 around, and Mr. Vincent gave many 

 promises that he would. Bee. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



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Stnilaz. 



With the passing of Memorial day 

 and the clearing of houses from bedding 

 plants, we must not forget the little 

 smilax plants which will now be impa- 

 tient for a shift into the beds. As 

 between benches and solid beds, the lat- 

 ter are far preferable for smilax culture. 

 The soil you would use for chrysanthe- 

 mums or carnations will suit them 

 nicely. Houses which are not well 

 adapted for the growing of cut flowers 

 will answer for smilax, provided a tem- 

 perature of 55 degrees in winter can be 

 maintained. Put strings to the little 

 plants as soon after planting as possi- 

 ble. If neglected too long, you will have 

 a veritable jungle of shoots to disentan- 

 gle. 



While it is more profitable to replant 

 smilax every year, it is sometimes grown 

 in the same beds for two or more years. 

 As the demand for strings will be light 

 after the June wedding season ends, any 

 beds which it is intended to carry over 

 can then be kept on the dry side for a 

 couple of months, later removing some 

 of the old surface soil and giving a lib- 

 eral top-dressing before starting them 

 up. The planting of young smilax can 

 be done as late as the middle of July, 

 and we have seen plantings made in 

 August do well. 



Primulas. 



The temperature during May was this 

 season unusually high and, unless the 

 necessary shade was given, the little 

 seedlings of primulas and other plants 

 may have sustained some injury. A cold- 

 frame is decidedly the best place for 

 them for the next ten or twelve weeks. 

 The sashes should be tilted both top and 

 bottom all the time, and instead of 

 whitewashing the glass heavily, as is 

 too often done, use light lath shading, 

 which can be rolled on and off the sashes 

 according to the weather requirements. 



Primulas need shade, but a constant, 

 heavy shade will make them soft and 

 spindling. Using these removable shades 

 means a little more work, but it also 

 gives you far stockier and more satisfac- 

 tory plants at the end of the season. 



Answering several inquiries, we would 

 say that it is now much too late to sow 

 seed of Primula Sinensis or obconica. 

 The seed does not germinate so well in 

 summer as in winter and, under the most 

 favorable conditions, the plants would 

 be very small for winter sales. The 

 first batch should now be in 3-inch pots 

 and successional sowings have been 

 transplanted into flats. Always use a good 

 proportion of leaf-mold, with a smaller 

 quantity of loam and sand, for the 

 plants in the early stages, and do not 

 allow careless hands to use the hose on 

 them. 



Cycas Revoluta. 



Cycas revoluta takes up considerable 

 space, but the fronds are valuable and 

 the plants themselves make useful lawn 

 specimens. Dry stems are now procura- 

 ble and should be potted into as small 

 sized pots as they can be squeezed into, 

 then placed in a warm, moist house where 

 they can be damped over once or twice 

 a day. Sometimes they will start to 

 grow in a month or six weeks, while oc- 

 casionally they will remain dormant for 

 six months. 



Old plants, which you may not have 

 space for in the houses, can be stood 

 outdoors under the shade of trees, where, 

 if they can be reached with the hose, 

 they will make almost as good growths 

 as under glass. In potting up the dry 

 stems, use plenty of drainage and a 

 compost of turfy loam, broken charcoal 

 and sand. 



Pruning Flower Shrubs. 



Too often we still see what would be 

 nice specimens of deciduous flowering 

 shrubs trimmed each fall with an Italian 



garden precision su£Qcient to sicken the 

 heart of any lover of trees and shrubs. 

 The time to prune flowering shrubs is 

 after they have done blooming. If this 

 work is done earlier, much of the flow- 

 ering wood will be cut away and the 

 plants will present forlorn pictures. 



The present is a suitable time to do 

 any necessary trimming to the for- 

 sythias, spireeas, deutzias, loniceras, ex- 

 ochordas and other varieties which have 

 passed out of bloom. Cut away the long 

 shoots which contain little new growth, 

 and all weak wood. Give every chance 

 to the strong young growths coming 

 from the base. In doing this pruning, 

 contrive to leave the plants shapely. It 

 is surprising the growth which they will 

 make during the next few weeks. This 

 summer pruning is too seldom done. If 

 once tried, its advantages will speak 

 forcibly another season. 



Sowing Perennial Seeds. 



Many of the hardy herbaceous plants 

 may be readily increased from seeds at 

 the present time. While aquilegias and 

 delphiniums would have been more vig- 

 orous if sown in March, there is still 

 ample time to secure good, stocky 

 plants of each before fall. As between 

 sowing the seeds outdoors and under 

 glass, it is better to utilize a few of 

 the vacant coldframes for this purpose. 

 Outdoors the weather conditions are 

 very uncertain and, with a long spell of 

 dry weather, many of the little seedlings 

 would probably perish and many never 

 show above the surface. In a frame 

 kept close and shaded until the seed- 

 lings appear, then more freely venti- 

 lated and finally with the sashes re- 

 moved, success is certain. 



In addition to perennials, a number 

 of biennials may also be sown now with 

 advantage. These latter include Cam- 

 panula Medium or Canterbury bells, 

 rockets, sweet-williams and foxgloves. 

 Among herbaceous plants readily raised 

 from seed are Pyrethrum roseum, use- 

 ful for cutting in June; tritomas, stately 

 and showy late fall perennials; Papaver 

 orientale and nudicaule; Pentstemons 

 barbatus Torreyi and Digitalis; lychnis, 

 hibiscus, gypsophila, all the campanulas, 

 anchusas, Alyssum saxatile, aubrietia 

 and any of the hardy asters. Holly- 

 bocks, Coreopsis grandiflora, Gaillardia 

 grandiflora and the several lychnis need 

 not be sown for a month yet. 



Use light soil for these seeds and 

 water through a fine rose. Lay mats 

 over the sashes to prevent drying out 

 until the seedlings appear. Advantage 

 can be taken of showery spells to trans- 

 plant the little seedlings into nursery 

 rows. If transplanting is done when 

 the ground is moist and the weather 

 cloudy, the percentage of loss will be 

 small. 



Brief Reminders. 



Lift tulips, narcissi and hyacinths to 

 make room for bedding plants. Heel 

 them thickly into partially shaded 

 ground, lifting and storing them when 

 the tops have died down. It does not 

 pay to carry over hyacinths, and the 

 early tulips do indifferently a second 

 year. Narcissi, however, last well. 



Get the benches ready for the single- 

 stemmed mums and do not allow them 

 to become hard before planting out. If 

 your bench is not ready, it will be better 

 to shift the mums into a size larger pots. 



Now is the time to plan for painting, 

 glazing and other repairs, rather than 

 just before frost is due. 



Disbud hardy roses. Remove Manetti 



