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10 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



October 22, 1908. 



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SUGGESTIONS 



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Lilies. 



Harrisii lilies wanted for Thanksgiv- 

 ing should now have the buds separated 

 so that they can be easily counted. Later 

 plants, for Christmas, are now about a 

 foot high and if buds are showing by 

 the middle of November a good propor- 

 tion will be in season. It is hardly pos- 

 sible to get a whole batch in at any one 

 time. There would appear to be more 

 variation in the flowering of Harrisii 

 than longifloium; still a few lilies come 

 in useful for design work almost any 

 time. Plants showing disease might as 

 well be thrown out at once. The flow- 

 ers will all be malformed and of no 

 value. As the pots j«re iiow full of ac- 

 tive roots, use liquid lAanure once in 

 four or five days and be sure that you do 

 not allow aphis to secure any foothold 

 in the tops of the shoots. 



Japanese longiflorums should be potted 

 a» soon as they, come to hand. Give a 

 good soaking of water and then keep 

 on the dry side until the roots become 

 active. A cellar floor is a good place to 

 stand the pots on; failing this, a bench 

 in a cool house where water is not 

 likely to soak the pots. A mulching of 

 ashes or short straw will prevent the 

 soil from drying out and can be left on 

 until the shoots push through it. Ear- 

 lier longiflorums will now be above the 

 ground and if carried in a house kept 

 at 50 degrees at night wili do nicely. 



Speciosums for winter bloonung, 

 jpotted in late sumn'er, are already show- 

 ing flower buds in some cases. A fair 

 proportion of these will be along for 

 Christmas, when they usually meet with 

 a fairly good sale. We do not subject 

 these to as hard forcing as the Harrisii, 

 55 to 60 degrees at night being better 

 for them than a temperature 10 degrees 

 higher. It will be a month yet before 

 the present season's speciosum and au- 

 ratum bulbs come to hand. No time 

 should be lost in getting them into the 

 soil when they arrive. No bulbous plants 

 suffer more from being out of the soil 

 than liliums. 



Schizanthus. 



Some nice little plants of Schizanthus 

 Wisetonensis were noted in the eastern 

 markets at Christmas a year ago. This 

 schizanthus is destined to become a pop- 

 ular market plant. It is of easy culture, 

 has a neat, stocky habit, blooms for a 

 long time and ships well. The other 

 forms of schizanthus are too tall-grow- 

 ing to make acceptable commercial 

 plants. 



Seed sown in August, as previously 

 suggested, should by this time have pro- 

 duced bushy little stock in 6-inch pots. 

 A little pinching may be needed to keep 

 them shapely, but S. Wisetonensis, ow- 

 ing to its dwarf habit, needs less of this 

 than any other variety. A cool house, 

 with plenty of light, is essential to their 

 well-being; in fact, if the houses are 

 crowded, the plants will do finely in cold- 

 frames for some time yet, if afforded a 



covering on cold nights. Compost such 

 as is used for chrysanthemums will suit 

 schizanthus, and as they are vjigorous 

 rooting subjects plenty of water is re- 

 quired at the roots. They will not stand 

 heavy fumigation. 



For late winter flowering make a suc- 

 cessional sowing now, dropping two or 

 three seeds in small pots. 



Antirrhinums. 



Many of the early chrysanthemums 

 being now out of the way, some of the 

 bench space can be given to antirrhinums. 

 A coating of rotted manure or a dust- 

 ing of bone flour should be worked into 

 the soil before planting. If you want 

 first-class spikes, which will bring the 

 best market price, it is necessary to re- 

 duce the number of shoots on each plant 

 to from three to six. Eub off all others 

 as they appear. These will net you more 

 money than double the number of small 

 ones. 



Early benched antirrhinums are al- 

 ready coming into bloom. There is no 

 s}iecial advantage in flowering them 

 while mums are in season, and it will 

 pay to pinch back these shoots and se- 

 cure a crop during December and Jan- 

 uary, when sales for them will be better. 

 Be sure that you properly support the 

 plants, so as to have straight stems. 

 There will be no sale for those with 

 twisted stems. 



Calceolarias. 



The best place for calceolarias still is 

 a coldframe; one which can be pro- 

 tected from frost until the middle of 

 November is much better for the plants 

 than any greenhouse. You will notice 

 how much faster the calceolarias are 

 growing now that the cooler weather is 

 here. As the sun is still hot during the 

 day, it will be necessary to have a little 

 cheesecloth over the plants for two or 

 three hours daily. Spread the pots out 

 so that the leaves do not crowd and do 

 any necessary potting before the roots 

 become matted. A compost of one-half 

 loam, oue-fourth rotted cow manure and 

 one-fourth leaf-mold will grow good 

 calceolarias. Add some sharp sand and 

 fine charcoal to give it porosity. 



Dahlias. 



Frosts will have cut off the bulk of 

 dahlias now in the northern states. We 

 do not like to be in too big a hurry 

 about cutting the stems down, as hot 

 weather usually follows the first killing 

 frost. Leave enough top to tie labels 

 to securely and after digging let the 

 roots have a thorough drying in the sun 

 before placing under cover. A cellar 

 which will keep potatoes will answer 

 equally well for dahlias. If your stock 

 is not large^ pack them in boxes of dry 

 sand and they will come out nice and 

 plump in spring. Do not carry over any 

 inferior varieties, for to be up-to-date 

 you should secure a few of the newer 

 peony or cactus-flowered sorts another 

 spring. 



Ginnas. 



In the north it is time to lift and store 

 roots of cannas. When cut down let 

 them have a good sun bath to stop any 

 bleeding. Do not shake the soil too 

 much from the roots before housing 

 them. The flowering cannas, French, as 

 (Continued on page 28) 



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THE SOUTHERN 



BULB STOCK.... 



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I ANOTHER GROWER'S VIEW. 



In reply to Edward Eeid's letter, in 

 which he suggests the advisability of our 

 going out of business, let me inform Mr. 

 Eeid that that sort of suggestion would 

 not work, since it has reference to men 

 who have studied the business and looked 

 ahead too far at the probablfe intricacies 

 to be caught in a trap that way. 



What would we do, supposing such a 

 thing were to happen? We would sim- 

 ply come up to your very doors, build 

 greenhouses, force our bulbs, get our 

 own retail stores, and wholesale ones also, 

 if needed, and give you daffodils from 

 Christmas to May, making you feel more 

 dejected than you feel at present. . There 

 are about 30,000,000 bulbs planted down 

 here by only four of the growers, at an 

 outlay to us of some $60,000 or more, 

 and the business is steadily increasing. 

 It is a well-known fact that the daffo- 

 dil 's day is coming, as it is fast grow- 

 ing in favor, and for three to four weeks 

 in the spring it is going to hold its own. 



The best way for you to solve this 

 problem is to get a move on you in the 

 spring and find an outlet in the near-by 

 smaller towns, if Philadelphia cannot 

 handle the 300 or 400 boxes that are 

 sent daily, for if you do not, we will. 

 Also advise your fellowmen to send ad- 

 vices daily, so that we can ease up or 

 send more as the case may be. There 

 need be no glut if you will use system at 

 your end. 



Also remember, friend Beid, that when 

 you talk of our retiring from business, 

 you have to do with men who have got 

 the grit, and got the bulbs, and got the 

 dollars, too. Poat Bros. 



MORE COMPETITION IN SIGHT. 



We have noted the letters in the Re- 

 view regarding daffodils and believe Mr. 

 Reid has done grave injustice to the 

 southern shippers of the cut blooms. It 

 is true that they can be produced more 

 cheaply than those under glass, but it is 

 (Continued on Page 29.) 



