The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



July 16, 1908. 



lot rates as soon as glass or pipe are 

 included. The orders of the majority of 

 florists are not large enough to entitle 

 them to the benefit of the lower rates 

 under these rulings, while if the rail- 

 roads ^ould cliange their rulings and 

 allow a carload to be made up of every- 

 thing going into a greenhouse, even the 

 smaller growers could arrange for car- 

 load shipments and thus enjoy the ad- 

 vantage of the low rates." 



,. • ASTERS WILTING. 



I send an aster plant, which please ex- 

 amine and let me know what is wrong 

 with it. The plants in the field look 

 fine, but they are beginning to droop 

 all over the field. Some of them are 

 drooping over so that the tops come to 



the ground. 



W. U. 



The plant forwarded had absolutely 

 nothing wrong with it in the way of dis- 

 ease 01^ parasite. Ii all your plants were 

 as healthy. as this one, unless something 

 happened to them which the plant did 

 not show, you ought to have a splendid 

 cut of asters. Your description does 

 not suggest the common aster blight, with 

 which you are perhaps familiar. Dig up 



one of the wilted plants and examine the 

 roots carefully. Perhaps aphis is work- 

 ing at the roots. In such case, water 

 with tobacco water to destroy the aphis. 

 Use one of tne tobacco extracts for this, 

 at the strength recommended for spray- 

 ing. You should have forwarded a wilt- 

 ed plant along with the healthy one. 



A. F. J. B. 



SOAP SOLUTION FOR SPIDER. 



We had quite a bit of trouble with 

 red spider on our carnations last win- 

 ter and I was unable to control the pest 

 satisfactorily by syringing, without hurt- 

 ing the plants. I have tried both salt 

 and soap solutions. I found that salt 

 did the work pretty well, but burned 

 some vines we had at the edges of the 

 benches rather badly. 



So I tried soap, and am quite enthu- 

 siastic over the results. I used a regular 

 sized bar of Ivory soap, the 8-cent size, 

 to a gallon and a half or two gallons of 

 water, sprayed it on thoroughly from 

 both sides of the bench, and let it stay 

 on about a day. Two applications com- 

 pletely cleaned the spider out of one 

 bench and about finished the work on the 

 others. Henry P, Button. 



THRIPS IN THE FIELD. 



Please give a way of eradicating 

 thrips on carnations in the field. 



A. R. W. 



The only remedy I could suggest for 

 thrips in the field would be to spray 

 the plants with one of the tobacco ex- 

 tracts or to dust them with tobacco dust. 

 Tobacco in any form seems to be more 

 effective against them than anything else, 

 providing you reach them. While the 

 plants are not blooming you can keep 

 them dusted thoroughly, and with good 

 results. A. F. J. B. 



TOPPING. 



About what time should you stop 

 topping carnations? How do you man- 

 age to have carnations the year around? 

 C. M. H. 



The .proper time to stop topping your 

 carnation plants depends principally on 

 the time you expect to house them. When 

 you bring the plants in they should carry 

 as many shoots as you were able to induce 

 them to make. These should range as 

 widely as possible, from young breaks 

 up to shoots which are ready to run up 

 to bud. To have all your plants in that 

 condition requires a close study of each 

 variety, as to its habit of growth, etc. 

 If you plant early, it is a comparatively 

 simple matter, as in such case you can top 

 regul»tly until about a week before you 

 bring the plants in. But after the mid- 

 dle of August, and the later it gets, the 

 more care must bo exercised and dis- 

 crimination practiced between varieties. 



Varieties which naturally break quickly 

 and run right up to flower are easy to 



handle, but other varieties, and some of 

 them among our best sorts, must not be 

 topped too close late in August. You 

 do not want them to carry any buds 

 at planting time, either, so a good plan 

 is to let the shoots run up until they 

 are about to show bud and then take 

 them off. In this way you avoid getting 

 a mass of short shoots which will come 

 into crop all at the same time. I have 

 known growers to miss even Christmas 

 with such varieties as Enchantress, K. 

 Craig, etc., just by too late topping. 



After you house your plants do not 

 top them as you do in the field, un- 

 less you want them to bloom in crops. 

 To get a steady cut of blooms you will 

 find it better to let the shoots run up 

 to bud and, as long as you do not want 

 the blooms, cut the stems carrying half 

 developed buds the same as you would 

 cut the blooms. Here, varieties differ 

 again. The quick bloomers will throw 

 up their buds at once and, unless they 

 are removed regularly once or twice each 

 week at least, you will throw them into 

 the cropping habit. The more bushy 

 growers will throw up few shoots at first, 

 and these should be allowed to develop 

 blooms in order to get later breaks to 

 follow up the shoots already on the 

 plants. The main crop will naturally 

 come early in the winter. 



Such varieties as Enchantress and its 

 sports can be nicely managed in this re- 

 spect, while Beacon, Robert Craig and 

 such must be given careful study. Many 

 growers failed to get Beacon into heavy 

 cut last Christmas, because they topped 

 too late. On White Perfection, Victory 

 and such quick bloomers, you can always 

 keep your cut within sight by taking off 

 the shoots carrying small buds and they 

 can be thrown into blooms within a few 

 weeks, when wanted. 



In answer to your second question, I 



will say that we do not manage to have 

 carnations the year around, although this 

 can be done if desired. Here is where 

 variety counts more than anything else. 

 Some varieties could not be made to 

 bloom the year around by even the most 

 expert growers, while other varieties, if 

 handled properly, will give you fairly 

 good blooms twelve months in the year. 

 They will not do this, however, from 

 the same batch of plants, although some 

 varieties will give you fairly good blooms 

 well into the hot summer from the old 

 plants. We are now still cutting nice 

 blooms of White Perfection, Lady Boun- 

 tiful, the Enchantress tribe and Victory. 

 Naturally, the blooms are not as good 

 as they were six weeks ago, but until 

 the asters come in they are good prop- 

 erty. 



In order to have carnations through 

 late July, August and early September 

 you must arrange to have them blooming 

 in the field. Propagate such varieties as 

 White Perfection, May and Enchantress 

 in November, and grow them into bushy 

 plants in 4-inch pots by planting out 

 lime. Plant them where you can water 

 them and apply a mulch of loose material 

 early in June. These will give you 

 some good blooms if no topping is re- 

 quired after they are planted out. Plant 

 these in beds about five feet wide and 

 set the plants 8x8 inches apart. Winona 

 looks as if it would make a good one 

 for this purpose. A. F. J. B. 



CYCLAMEN FOR CHRISTMAS. 



I have a number of cyclamen bulbs 

 left from last season. Kindly let me 

 know at what time I have to start them 

 to have them in bloom for next Christ- 

 mas. V. A. P. 



Cyclamen corms or bulbs should never 

 be thoroughly dried off. They require 

 a resting period during the early sum- 

 mer months, but far too often they are 

 thrown aside after blooming and kept in 

 a dust-dry condition until August. 

 Good results cannot be attained by such 

 treatment. I hope your bulbs have not 

 been too much dried up, so aa to en- 

 courage dry rot in them. If still in 

 pots, shake away all the old soil. Clean 

 out any mealy bug or other pests lurking 

 on them and repot in as small receptacles 

 as the bulbs will comfortably go in. 

 Use a mixture of leaf-mold, loam and 

 sand and press the soil moderately firm. 

 Keep the bulbs just above the soil. It is 

 a mistake to bury them. Grow in a 

 coldframe under lath shading, removing 

 the latter when the sun does not shine. 

 Spray once or twice a day when growth 

 starts, but water sparingly until that 

 time. Give a shift in September and 

 move the plants into a temperature of 

 48 to 50 degrees in a light but not too 

 sunny house by October 1, to insure their 

 being in flower for Christmas. If want- 

 ed later, you can, with advantage, leave 

 in frames until November and then grow 

 in a house kept at 40 to 45 degrees 

 at night. C. W. 



Janesville, Wis. — The C. G. Dwight 

 greenhouses have been completed and 

 11,000 roses planted. In the field are 

 10,000 carnations that will be housed be- 

 fore August 1. Charles Wahler is the 

 grower. 



George M. Kellogg, of Pleasant Hill, 

 Mo., has returned home from a sanato- 

 rium at Battle Creek, Mich., in a critical 

 condition. He is suffering with heart 

 failure and has some very bad spells but 

 was resting easily July 15. 



