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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Shftsmbbb 24, 1908. 



I 



SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^s^^^^ 



Hydrangeas. 



It is now time to gradually withhold 

 water supplies from hydrangeas in pots, 

 not to the extent of causing serious wilt- 

 ing of the foliage, but rather to check 

 further growth and ripen up the wood. 

 Hydrangeas should be stood on a bed of 

 coal ashes in an open, sunny spot, and 

 be spaced so that every shoot can get its 

 full quota of sun and air. This gradual 

 ripening of the wood is especially nec- 

 essary in the case of plants you may 

 want to force soon after Christmas. We 

 always like to leave our hydrangeas out 

 to get a few degrees of frost. This 

 takes off some of the Jfoliage and, unless 

 the growth is extremely soft, will not 

 hurt them. A plant well ripened, with 

 nutty-brown wood, will withstand a tem- 

 perature of 20 degrees above zero with- 

 out injury, while one full of soft, green 

 leaves would have all flowering buds 

 killed. 



It is a common practice to head back 

 and plant out a quantity of left-over 

 plants after Memorial day. These may 

 now be lifted and potted. Be sure to 

 get a nice ball and reduce it so that 

 pots of moderate size will hold them. 

 Keep well soaked with water and spray- 

 ed for a few days, and they will soon 

 recover from their lifting. In case of 

 threatened frosts, it would be well to 

 have a sheet of canvas to throw over the 

 plants. They will be better outdoors 

 until frost, likely to injure them, neces- 

 sitates housing. 



G>smos. 



The cosmos is just coming into nice 

 bloom. It is customary to lift a few 

 plants and stand at the end of a cool 

 house to expand, for the lightest frost 

 kills them. 



Cuttings taken in June are now nice, 

 bushy plants in 7-inch pots and are use- 

 ful before the- mum season opens. The 

 new variety. Lady Lenox, seems unusual- 

 ly late in opening, but its beautiful, 

 large, pink flowers make it a decided ac- 

 quisition. 



There are always customers who pre- 

 fer cosmos to asters, gladioli and other 

 outdoor flowers, and it is always well 

 for the retailer to cater to these aesthetic 

 buyers. 



Poinsettias. 



■ Rapid growth is now noticeable on 

 poinsettias. In the northern states, it is 

 not safe to leave them in frames after 

 this date. We do not consider a higher 

 temperature than 50 degrees at night nec- 

 essary until bracts are showing, when a 

 rise of 10 degrees until they are ex- 

 panded should be given, slowly reducing 

 it after that time. The beauty of the 

 brilliant poinsettia is lost if it is not 

 furnished with dark green foliage to the 

 bottom of its stem. How many pans do 

 we see that have practically no leaves 

 except a few below the bracts, but 

 have ferns, dracaenas and other green 

 plants to hide the nakedness I The use 

 of these intermixed foliage plants in 



pans is to be commended, but far too 

 often in the make-up the poor poin- 

 settia 's roots are hopelessly damaged, re- 

 sulting in a heavy loss of foliage. 



With no flowering plant is careful 

 watering more important than in the case 

 of poinsettias. Too much or too little 

 will alike cause yellowing of the foli- 

 age, but an overplus is the more danger- 

 ous of the two. Any feeding must be 

 done carefully and in light doses. The 

 real titiie to feed is when the bracts 

 are developing. Plants should not be 

 sprayed overhead now, but if mealy bug 

 asserts itself, the spray nozzle should 

 be utilized. Bracts are badly disfigured 

 if the bugs get a foothold on them. 



Azaleas. 



The Belgian azaleas are due soon to 

 arrive, and will demand some of our time 

 and attention. Frequently the balls be- 

 come somewhat dry en route from Europe 

 and it is a good plan to soak all in tubs 

 of water before potting. Use pots just 

 large enough to comfortably hold the 

 balls and be specially careful to firm the 

 soil thoroughly with a flat-pointed ram- 



mer. The best place for the plants after 

 potting is in a frame or pit, where they 

 can be kept just clear of freezing. A 

 few sprayings will be helpful during 

 bright weather. For compost, it is not 

 necessary to use peat, as the Belgians 

 do. Fibrous loam, leaf-mold and sand 

 answer well. 



Antirrhinums. 



It will not be long before the Pacifies, 

 Monrovias, Hallidays and other benches 

 of early mums are cut and their places 

 can be taken by antirrhinums. If the 

 latter are in pots, give them a shift 

 rather than let them become matted with 

 roots, and keep the flowering shoots 

 pinched back. Some successful growers 

 of antirrhinums plant out their stock as 

 they do carnations, keep it headed back 

 and lift at the proper planting time. We 

 have seen much flner spikes produced in 

 this way than when the snapdragons were 

 pot-grown all the time before benching. 



Cinerarias. 



With cool nights, the growth the cinera- 

 rias are making is surprising. They re- 

 quire spacing once a week, and do not 

 forget a fresh packing of tobacco stems 

 occasionally among the pots. There can 

 'be no better place for them until the 

 mum season is over than a coldframe. 

 Give them an abundance of air, leaving 

 the sashes off entirely on warm nights. 

 Look out for green worms, the larvae of 

 the white butterfly, which often attack 

 the foliage at this season. Careful hand 

 picking is necessary for these. Do not 

 do any potting before the roots become 

 matted. Use a good proportion of old, 

 well-decayed manure in the final pottings. 



CAHNATION NOTES.- VEST. 



Supports. 



The next thing to claim your attention 

 will be to get your supports into place, 

 and you must not allow this to go too 

 long. Even the straight, upright grow- 

 ing varieties will become top-heavy if 

 they carry several buds to the plant, and 

 every time you syringe them you knock 

 many of them over. Soon the whole 

 bed is in a tangled up mess, and in 

 straightening up the plants more stems 

 are broken off than would pay for the 

 supports if used in time. Every fall 

 we see a number of such cases. 



The question of what kind of support 

 to use naturally presents itself to those 

 who are beginning their first season. Per- 

 haps you have made your choice and 

 know what you want to use. There are 

 many kinds on the market and a few 

 methods not on sale. Nearly all are good 

 and will answer the purpose if adjusted 

 properly. It remains for you to choose 

 the one which strikes your fancy, and 

 with which you can do the work well 

 with the least amount of labor and 

 worry. To say that one will do the work 

 better than any of the others eould be 

 made to do it would probably be silly, 

 and the assertion that a certain support 



would enable the grower to cut more or 

 better blooms from a bench would prob- 

 ably be absurd and far-fetched, to say 

 the least, and should not carry any 

 weight with any intelligent grower. 



While, of course, the first cost will 

 naturally enter into the question, yet it 

 should be kept subordinate to the ques- 

 tion of eflSciency and labor-saving ca- 

 pacity. If you can save two dollars by 

 spending one, you would better spend it, 

 and as many more as you can on the same 

 basis. But, on the other hand, it is 

 poor business to spend money on one 

 method for doing a certain thing when 

 a less expensive method will be just as 

 eflficient in every way. 



There are a number of patent wire 

 supports on the market, all of which are 

 good, some having one good feature and 

 others another. Whichever one strikes 

 your fancy is the one that is best for 

 you. Many large growers have installed 

 these in at least a part of their places, 

 and altogether they give good satisfac- 

 tion. Many use a combination of the 

 wire ring support and the wire and 

 string netting method, by using the wire 

 ring for the body of the plant and the 

 other method for the flower stems. Still 

 others use the wire and string netting ex- 

 clusively, and apparently do not care for 

 the ^wire supports at all. Any one of 

 these methods will prove efficient if in- 

 stalled properly. A. F. J. Baue. 



