The Weekly Flofrists^ Review* 



September 3, 1908. 



out iiiajestically below the pine-clad bills, 

 where sleeps the hero of Queenstown 

 Heights. And we can scarcely believe 

 we are Rooking at the same river, so 

 changed is it in every way. Frowning 

 cliffs, bare and rugfged, have given way 

 on one side to the army of pines march- 

 ing up and down, and on the other side 

 fields and orchards hieet our gaze. 



Tlien beautiful Toronto. What a mod- 

 el of the city beautiful was the portion 

 of it that we saw! Ivy-covered churches, 

 whose chimes pealed merrily out and 

 Avhose spires pierced the blue of the 

 sky. Velvet lawns, surrounding magnifi- 

 cent residences that seemed to fit that 

 particular part of the picture. Busy 



men and women, but none too busy to be 

 courteous to strangers. 



And on our homeward way, as we 

 stopped over at Detroit, we should have 

 felt repaid had we heard nothing else 

 than the sermon, whose central thought 

 keeps repeating itself to us. However, 

 friends took us in charge and we in- 

 deed saw the beauties of boulevard, 

 avenue, park, river and islands. 



As the train sped on between fields of 

 tasseled corn or roadways paved with 

 gold, I felt as though "truly our lines 

 are fallen in pleasant places," and the 

 joys of this trip will serve as bright 

 memories throughout the year's work, 

 whatever and wherever it may be. 



P. B. F. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



Cinerarias. 



With the arrival of cooler nights the 

 little cinerarias are now making much 

 more rapid growth. We have moved our 

 earliest batch into 4-inch pots. These 

 will give ^excellent stock for blooming 

 early in the new year. The later sow- 

 ings have just been transplanted and 

 can be grown along cool during the win- 

 ter, so as to make salable plants during 

 March and April. The only place for 

 cinerarias for the next two months is a 

 coldframe, where they can be afforded 

 lath shade covering on bright days, the 

 plants being exposed to the heavy night 

 dews, which seem much to their liking. 

 Some tobacco stems are renewed once a 

 fortnight among the pots, so that green 

 aphis can get no foothold. Keep a sharp 

 lookout for green caterpillars on the 

 cineraria foliage. A day's neglect in 

 hand-picking may mean that your entire 

 batch of plants will be destroyed. 



Hydrangeas. 



It is time to lift and pot hydrangea 

 plants which have been growing in the 

 open ground during the summer. Do 

 not be afraid to shake a good portion of 

 the soil away from the roots; so long as 

 you keep the latter intact, you are all 

 right, for with a slight shade for a few 

 days and frequent light sprayings the 

 roots will soon find their way around 

 the sides of tlie pots. Press the soil 

 firmly in the pots and stand the plants 

 in an open, sunny spot ^fter the first 

 week, so that the sun can warm the pots 

 and make root action active. By keep- 

 ing the soil moist it is surprising how 

 fast the pots will fill with roots. 



Plants you have grown along from 

 spring cuttings should receive their final 

 shift at once. Give them all possible 

 light and sun. They will .do better out- 

 side than under glass for a few weeks 

 longer. If you want some plants for 

 early forcing, these, being well pot- 

 bound, can gradually have their water 

 supply reduced from th^s time, to ripen 

 the wood well. 



Genistas. 



Use the shears on the genistas to keep 

 them shapely. It is true there are some 



growers who seem to prefer naturally 

 grown plants, but nine-tenths of your 

 customers will prefer a plant with a 

 nice, round, shapely head to one with 

 two or three long shoots. We hope you 

 have not made the mistake of planting 

 out your genistas, for these plants lift 

 poorly. If you want some nice little 

 plants in 3-inch or 4-inch pots for spring 

 sales, put in a batch of cuttingje now. 

 Many customers take a liking to these 

 miniature specimens. They are ^rtainly 

 pretty and invariably sell well. 



Calceolaria Rugosa. 



Plants of Calceolaria rugosa do not 

 commence to make suitable propagating 

 wood until cool weather, usually by the 

 first week in September. If your stock 

 plants were headed back, they will by 

 this time have sent out a crop of nice 

 succulent cuttings, which will root freely 

 in a coldframe or greenhouse with a 

 north aspect. Calceolarias are always 

 impatient of heat, so do not attempt 

 rooting them in bottom heat or a steamy 

 propagating house. For late spring and 

 Memorial day trade. Calceolaria rugosa 

 is becoming increasingly popular. 



Bedding Geraniums. 



The first week in September is suffi- 

 ciently early to start the propagation of 

 geraniums in the southern states. The 

 time might well be delayed a week or 

 ten days with advantage. Geraniums 

 root much better in cool than warm 

 weather. The percentage of loss is 

 usually heavy if an outdoor temperature 

 of 90 degrees in the shade arrives after 

 the cuttings are inserted. Cuttings fi;om 

 the open ground are much softer and 

 more liable to damp off than those pro- 

 duced under glass. If you have an 

 abundance of stock to choose from, 

 reject those with thick, soft, fleshy 

 shoots, preferring those with shorter and 

 wirier wood. As to making your cut- 

 tings, they will root whether cut under 

 a pair of leaves or not, but our experi- 

 ence has been that the percentage of 

 damping off has been much heavier from 

 tliose not cut directly below tne leaves. 

 You can easily prove this for yourself 

 by trying a batch under each' method. 



If you can give them the necessary 



space and want first-class plants for 

 spring sales, put each cutting singly in 

 2-inch pots of sandy loam and stand on 

 the bench of a house where the cuttings 

 can have the fullest sunlight. Shade at 

 any time is unnecessary and harmful 

 for geranium cuttings. It superinduces 

 a soft, flabby growth and stock grown 

 in this way becomes an easy prey to 

 blight. In making your cuttings, trim 

 off the side scales clean and cut off all 

 leaves larger -than a half-dollar in size. 

 Eemember that your young stock will 

 make leaf growth rapidly and, unless 

 they are well trimmed* off at the start, 

 they will soon become crowded. 



If lack of space makes it impossible to 

 give the cuttings individual pots, place 

 them in well drained flats of sharp sand. 

 One 30x12x4 will hold 150 to 200 cut- 

 tings. After one thorough soaking, allow 

 the sand or soil to become fairly dry 

 before applying any more water. 



"there are this season many complaints 

 of plants being badly affected with 

 blight. It is much better not to propa- 

 gate from such stock. There are a num- 

 ber of reliable geranium specialists who 

 will sell you clean stock at low rates. 

 Get in new stock now and, if you want 

 to keep fully up to date, try one or two 

 oft the newer varieties of merit. 



Amaryllis. 



It is time to gradually reduce the 

 water supply on amaryllis, and within a 

 couple of weeks they may be laid under 

 a bench in a greenhouse where they will 

 be tolerably dry. Failing such a loca- 

 tion, stand them on a bench in your 

 potting-shed, where they can be out of 

 the way. With seedlings there must be 

 no resting period until the plants bloom. 

 This may take place in eighteen months 

 or it may be three years. Keep them 

 potted and growing along. If a good 

 batch is needed and you can plant them 

 in a piece of bench in a carnation tem^ 

 perature, you will be surprised at the 

 remarkable growth they will make in 

 one season. When benched they should 

 be spaced sufficiently far apart so that 

 they can remain undisturbed until tjiey 

 flower. 



Freesias. 



It is timexto get in another good-sized 

 batch of freesias. It is well to make 

 successional plantings once in two weeks 

 until the beginning of October. The 

 earliest lot will now have made consid- 

 erable growth. Except for the damage 

 caused by dtenching rains, these would 

 be better outdoors for a few weeks. Sash 

 protection should be afforded during 

 heavy cloud-bursts. Keep the surface 

 soil loosened and allow the soil to dry 

 out well before soaking it. An excess 

 of moisture in hot weather will start rot- 

 ting of the stems. 



Lilies. 



Pot the lily bulbs as soon as received. 

 It is poor policy to leave them packed 

 tightly in boxes, where they will prob- 

 ably make a network of roots if left a 

 few days. Easter comes eight days 

 earlier in 1909 than in 1908. There is 

 still ample time to pot up bulbs for that 

 great festive occasion, but if you have 

 potted good bulbs now there will be less 

 trouble retarding these for Easter than 

 in forcing late potted ones for the same 

 holiday. The early potted lot of Har- 

 risii are rooting freely, and here and 

 there shoots are appearing. Do not be 

 in too big a hurry about rushing these 

 into the greenhouse. Let the pots be- 

 come \^cTr^lled with roots and be sure 



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