10 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



OcxoBEB 8, 1908. 



ought to have more than you do, but 

 your next-door neighbor sees the flow- 

 ers, and incidentally smells them, and 

 straightway thinks you have a little 

 gold mine, and that he ought to open 

 a mine, too. So the next year, or per- 

 haps it was this year, he builds a house 

 and stocks it, and, like nearly every 

 novice, he has good luck with them — all 

 by chance — and the result is there are 

 two violets now to be sold where before 

 there was only one, and you get half 

 the price for your one that you did pre- 

 viously, as he has to have half of the 

 money that there is in your place to be 

 spent for violets. What is the result? 



Oh, you both eat shredded wheat and 

 drink Postum, and one or the other soon 

 looks for some other flower to grow. 

 Hard, do I hear you sayt Well, you 

 ask any grower of several years' ex- 

 perience and see what he says. If he 

 does not agree with me, you can lay it 

 to my sore throat that is with me to- 

 night. 



This was not the strain I was going 

 to write in tonight, but really there is 

 more truth than poetry in what I have 

 said. Violets are a peculiar flower to 

 grow, and never to be trusted if you 

 wish to be successful with them. But 

 more anon. R. E. Shuphelt. 



UeCESSFUL PROPAGATION. 



In two articles which appeared in the 

 Review of September 17, one written by 

 M. M. L. and the other by E. A. Muchow, 

 on the rooting or propagation of gera- 

 niums, there were references to remarks 

 made by me at the Iowa florists' con- 

 vention at Des Moines, August 26, and 

 published in the Review of September 3. 

 As the geranium was not my topic at the 

 convention, and as my time was limited, 

 I did not think it necessary to take up 

 the time of other members. But as Mr. 

 Muchow has requested a more explana- 

 tory discussion on this subject, I find it 

 my duty to answer on a more minute 

 scale. 



As success in the growing of all spe- 

 cies of plants from cuttings is greatly in 

 the hands of the operator, where one 

 fails the others may be successful. And 

 there are methods which, if strictly car- 

 ried out, will hold good anywhere. It is 

 with me immaterial whether I use flats 



of soil and sand outside, or all sand in- 

 side. In either way, I will root from 

 seventy-five to ninety-five per cent of 

 geranium cuttings, and sometimes, if 

 extra care is taken, I get them all. And 

 in this I am not alone, for all the trouble 

 with geranium cuttings damping off is 

 due to water or a leaky roof, or to a 

 tight bench and lack of drainage. 



Geraniums in the field should be 

 planted far enough apart so that they 

 will not crowd each other. They ought 

 to be gone through once or twice during 

 August, and all the straight, tender 

 shoots trimmed back. This will cause 

 them to make more sturdy cuttings later. 



If my cuttings are scarce I commence 

 taking a batch in the last part of 

 August; that gives me a better batch 

 the second week of September. Then, 

 if I am ready two weeks or so later, 

 I prepare my propagation bench inside 

 and root them there. 



The soil I use for flats outside is a 



good fibrous loam, mixed with one-fourth 

 sharp sand an4r sifted ithrough a one- 

 fourth-inch sieve. 



I fill my flat two and one-half inches 

 deep and press down tight with a brick. 

 I dibble the cuttings in two inches apart 

 each way, after trimming all the large 

 leaves, so that light and air can work 

 between them. I then prepare a place 

 either south or north of a greenhouse or 

 wall, so that they get the morning sun 

 and are shaded from the afternoon sun. 

 I make this place level, put my flats 

 there side by side, give one good water- 

 ing and then forget them for ten days. 

 Put your flats, dry, on the cold, level 

 ground, and water them thoroughly aft- 

 erward. The water soaks down through 

 them, and the earth under the flats will 

 keep damp until they are rooted. So it 

 is essential that the roots of all the cut- 

 tings should go down deeply, to the bot- 

 tom of the box, and if the weather is 

 very dry, as it was this fall, it is easy 

 work to water the ground around your 

 flats and a little on the leaf. It is also 

 well to turn the flats around, as the ones 

 nearer the wall will root first. 



You can keep these flats out until 

 quite late and a cold spell will not hurt 

 them, unless there is a hard frost, and 

 from such they can be easily protected. 

 When you do take them in you will have 

 large, stout cuttings, and by pinching at 

 intervals they will make stocky plants 

 with little trouble. When you are ready 

 to pot, you can part these plants in 

 layers from the flats and break the soil 

 in pieces, by giving a little water before 

 removing. They will be ready for 3-inch 

 or 4-inch pots. 



This is the plan usedjby nearly all old 

 country florists, only they do not pot the 

 cuttings, but bed them out in spring 

 from the flats and plant them closer to- 

 gether and slanting. 



I submit herewith a photograph of 

 some geraniums that are rooted. These 

 cuttings were made August 23 or 24. 

 I cannot see any misses to speak of; 

 they are all well rooted. 



In greenhouse propagation I lime and 

 cleanse my bench and put on three inches 

 of clean, sharp sand, sprinkled and beat 

 down with a brick. Each two or three 



Geranium Cuttings Struck in August in Flats, by J. S. PoUand^ Eldora, la. 



