The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



August 6, 1908. 



of these at once, if you have not yet 

 done so, in order to secure a crop of 

 strong, healthy cuttings. Get these into 

 the propagating bench as soon as you 

 can, to grow along into specimens for 

 Easter, 1909. 



Seed Sowing. 



If you have omitted sowing seeds of 

 any of the useful biennials and peren- 

 nials, lose no time in doing so. There is 

 still time to get nice plants of pansies, 

 myosotis, digitalis, hollyhocks, delphin- 

 iums, gypsophila and other hardy stock. 

 As the seedlings become large enough to 

 transplant, remove them to nursery rows. 

 The soil should be well loosened up for 

 them, and select cloudy days, if possible, 

 for the work. 



French Bulbs. 



The earliest arrivals of such French 

 bulbs as Rom^n hyacinths, Paper White 

 narcissi and Trumpet Major narcissi are 

 about due and, as these are all useful 

 early winter flowers, a good batch should 

 be gotten into flats as soon as received. 

 Four inches of soil is ample for any of 

 these bulbs. Give a, good watering and 

 place on the -floor in a dark cellar. The 

 Paper Whites will be the first to sprout 

 and these cttn easily be had in flower for 

 Thanksgivi;ig. The number of bulbs 

 forced in ^inerica this year will be con- 

 siderably If^B than were grown last sea- 

 son. It is to be hoped that prices will 

 be more satisfactory and with a heavily 

 reduced output this is more than prob- 

 able. 



Propas:atiii£. 



While there is still plenty of solar heat 

 and cutting benches are largely unoccu- 

 pied, it is a good plan to root a quantity 

 of crotons, dracaenas, dieffenbachias, 

 ficus and other ornamental-leaved plants. 

 Kept constantly moist, they root much 

 more quickly than in winter with bottom 

 heat. 



If the stock of that ever useful plant, 

 the variegated vinca, is a little short, 

 look over the plants in the field and rub 

 off a number of the short, succulent 

 shoots with a heel. Started thus early, 

 they can be grown into fair-sized, salable 

 plants by next May. There is rarely any 

 overstock of this vinca and for filling 

 vases or window and piazza-boxes it is 

 indispensable. 



BOSTON FERNS. 



There are few places of retail grow- 

 ers where there is not a side bench some- 

 where, maybe a little too shady for 

 carnations, but just the place to bench 

 out at once a few hundred 2 1^ -inch Bos- 

 tons. What fine stock this will make 

 by October — away ahead of any pot cul- 

 ture that could be given them! The soil 

 you use does not need to be just so, as 

 long as it is sweet and porous. They 

 can stand any amount of ajjfi. ; that is, 

 if they have been used to it. Only the 

 other day, while visiting one of the places 

 near Chicago, the owner showed me a 

 200-foot bench of freshly planted Bos- 

 tons — every leaf burned brown. This 

 happened on the day the stock was 

 planted out. There was no shade given 

 — the temperature was 93 degrees out- 

 side and the young stock came from 

 a rather dark side bench of a palm 

 house. 



When one considers that the Boston 

 fern is one of the most desirable of 

 house plants, with which so many have 

 success, and quite often one sees fine, 

 large specimens, which have made their 

 growth in a bay window, it would seem 

 that with all the thousands and thousands 

 which have been sold in the last twelve 

 years, every family would have at least 

 four of its own, and yet the demand is 

 constantly on the increase, and, as Louis 

 Wittbold says, "It simply seems impos- 

 sible to have too many good Bostons." 



After all, there seem to be none of the 



beautiful sports which have been intro- 

 duced from time to time as hardy as a 

 house plant as is the Boston, and since its 

 introduction I doubt whether any other 

 novelty has been more profitable to a 

 greater number of us than the Boston, 

 and there will not be any let-up in the 

 demand next winter. So get busy. 



F. B. 



REPAIRING THE ROOFS. 



In this time of house-cleaning it may 

 not be out of place to remind you of the 

 going over of the roofs of the ' houses. 

 It is not a bit too early to do it^ for it 

 will not be any cooler this month,' and in 

 September fall work begins to take away 

 our time, and heavy night de^s will 

 often keep the sashbars of the: houses 

 damp for a couple of hours in the morn- 

 ing. There is no better time thian now 

 to do all such repairing as is needed to 

 put the roof into first-class shape 'for the 

 coming winter. ) 



The putty bulb, with liquid; putty, 

 eithier bought ready-made or prepared out 

 of whiting and oil, will be a coal saver 

 next January if properly appliejd now, 

 just enough to fill the space between the 

 glass and the bar; any more w6uld be 

 wasted. If everything is ready and one 

 man goes oyer the rows of glass t0 see to 

 it that every pane is properly kept in 

 place by the glazing points, or whatever 

 is made use of to hold the glass, and an- 

 other man follows him with the putty 

 bulb, it only takes a short time to go 

 over a 100-foot house. 



If the bars are in such condition as to 

 require a coat of paint, this should be at- 

 tended to first and it takes a good man 

 to do it. To paint with white lead and 

 oil on top of putty, or to mix even the 

 least white lead with putty, always causes 

 trouble whenever the putty is to be re- 

 moved from the woodwork, as is the case 

 when broken panes are to be repaired. 



Fritz Bahr. 



CARNATION NOTES.- VEST. 



The Plants in the House. 



As soon as the plants are reestablished 

 enough to have resumed growing and 

 when frequent syringing can be dispensed 

 with, it will be time to go over the beds 

 and break up the surface of the soil, pul- 

 verizing the lumps and leveling it off. 

 The first crop of weeds will be coming 

 up and, if this is done in time, most of 

 these weeds can be killed by being 

 worked into the soil while breaking it 

 up. Those that do take hold and grow 

 again can be pulled up a week or two 

 later with far less labor. The sooner 



this is done after planting the better, 

 because after planting the soil is usually 

 left uneven, with low places around the 

 plants. If the soil is allowed to crust 

 around the plants and then soaked con- 

 tinually when watering, it is sure to cause 

 stem-rot and souring of the soil. Break- 

 ing it up so the air can get into it keeps 

 it mellow and sweet. 



Mulching and Syringing. 



Do not be in too great a hurry to apply 

 any mulch, as that tends to keep out the 

 air as well as to keep in the moisture. 

 Better water more frequently and stir the 

 soil when it crusts over for at least a 



month after planting. After the roots 

 get to working through the soil is time 

 enough for the mulch. Reduce the syr- 

 inging to about twice a day. When you 

 water in the forenoon, spray the plants 

 overhead and again after dinner. Damp 

 down the walks at the same time. This 

 should be done, of course, only on bright, „^ 

 warm days, when the doors and venti- * 

 lators are wide open, and in no case after 

 the plants have taken hold should they 

 stand wet on the foliage over night. 



Removing Dead Foliage. 



While stirring the soil is a good time 

 to take off what dead foliage may be on 



