,717'. 



Dkckmbeu 10, lOOS. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



3J 



are not rooted in the open ground in 

 California to any extent. If the grower 

 has not facilities for rooting in sand 

 under glass, they are handled in cold- 

 frames in flats. There are a few sorts 

 that are diflScult to root in this way, 

 but the ordinary varieties are easily 

 grown in a few weeks for forcing or gar- 



den planting. Cuttings are made from 

 the first to the middle of December and 

 are ready for transplanting from four 

 to six weeks afterward. By the first of 

 May a healthy young plant should be 

 developed, fufly able to hold its own, 

 whether placed under glass or in the 

 garden. G. 



THE ROOTED CUTTING TRADE, 



Kindly give us instructions regarding 

 the commercial handling of rooted cut- 

 tings. What varieties of bedding and 

 other plants are most in demand and 

 what is the cost of carrying stock plants 

 and rooting the cuttings? We note that 

 coleus is advertised as low as 25 cents 

 per hundred. How can they be grown 

 so cheaply and leave any margin of 

 profit? Suppose a grower should have 

 10,000 cuttings in the sand and no call 

 for them when they were ready to come 

 out, what then? Must soft stock be 

 rooted with bottom heat or can they be 

 put in flats and placed anywhere in the 

 greenhouse? Could they be rooted in 

 flats under the benches where there is 

 a fair degree of light? All the infor- 

 mation that you can give us on this sub- 

 ject will be gratefully received. I am 

 located in a mild climate. H. T. 



The correspondent asks a good many 

 questions, each one of which, if dealt 

 with in full, would require considerable 

 time and space. I shall only attempt to 

 answer them briefly. 



I presume from his first question that 

 he wishes to engage in the rooted cut- 

 ting business for the wholesale trade. 

 If so, I should proceed by procuring in 

 the spring a small quantity of small 

 plants of such varieties as I intended to 

 grow, and plant them in the field, propa- 

 gating from them during the summer 

 months to increase the stock, so that I 

 would have a quantity of each variety 

 to plant in greenhouse benches to propa- 

 gate from during the winter. 



The number of stock plants of each 

 variety required would depend on how 

 extensively the grower expected to oper- 

 ate, and that would depend on how much 

 he advertised. 



The young plants propagated from the 

 field stock during the summer should be 

 planted in the greenhouse benches about 

 September 1 and the old plants also from 

 the field should be lifted about that time 

 and treated the same way. They will 

 soon become established and by Novem- 

 ber 1 should be in good growth. You 

 can' then begin propagating and offer 

 them to the trade as soon as rooted. Of 

 course, orders will be only limited at this 

 time, but during January, February and 

 March they should be coming in lively. 



To the beginner, I would give a word 

 of warning regarding taking cuttings. 

 Do not cut the stock plants too hard 

 early in the season. Leave enough leaves 

 and young wood to keep up good root 



action. It will repay you well in the 

 end. 



I consider geraniums the most im- 

 portant of all bedding plants and fully 

 two-thirds of those used are red of vari- 

 ous shades, and in Iowa S. A. Nutt is 

 most popular. Following is a list of the 

 most popular bedding plants produced 

 from cuttings, and in about their order 

 of importance : 



Flowering plants — Geraniums, crimson, 

 scarlet, salmon, pink, white, all double; 



Tbe editor is pleased 

 when a Reader 

 presents Ills Ideas 

 on any sublect treated In 



tV/^ 



As experience Is tlie best 

 teacher, so do ^e 

 leam fastest by aa 

 exchanee of experiences. 

 Many valuable points 

 are brought out 

 by discussion. 



Good penmanship, spelling and gram* 

 mar, though desirable, are not neces- 

 sary. Write as you would talk when 

 doing your best. 



WK SHALL BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR rROM TOU. 



salvias, dwarf varieties, such as St. 

 Louis, Mrs. Page and others; -verbenas 

 in variety ; ageratum, blue, Stella Gurney 

 as good as any ; petunias, double, in va- 

 riety ; feverfew ; sweet alyssum, double ; 

 lantanas in variety; marguerites. Queen 

 Alexandra and yellow ; dahlias and hardy 

 phlox, thousands of small plants from 

 cuttings are sold of these. 



Foliage plants' — Alternanthera, red and 

 yellow; coleus in variety. 



There are many more items a rooted 

 cutting specialist should handle, a good 

 guide to which will be a study of the 

 advertising pages of the Eeview or the 

 catalogues of a firm in the same business. 



Eegarding the cost of carrying stock 

 plants and rooted cuttings, it is a ques- 

 tion whether or not this can be definitely 



arrived at. There is a difference of opin- 

 ion as to the value of greenhouse space. 

 Some consider 50 cents, some 75 cents, 

 and others $1 per square foot profitable 

 returns. The average florist knows little 

 about costs in detail. I wish someone 

 well posted would discuss the subject. 



The correspondent asks what he should 

 do with 10,000 rooted cuttings in the 

 sand and no call. When he began to 

 propagate the cuttings, he should have 

 begun to propagate in the mind of the 

 prospective buyer the idea that he had 

 cuttings to sell, and about the time the 

 cuttings were ready the buyer would have 

 his order in. 



I cannot see how coleus or any other 

 plants can be rooted, handled and ad- 

 vertising paid for, and sold profitably for 

 25 cents per hundred, unless they were 

 handled by the million, which they are- 

 not. I do not believe they are profitable 

 at less than 75 cents to $1 per hundred 

 in the limited quantities in which they 

 are sold. 



Referring to the question, must soft 

 stock be rooted with bottom heat or can 

 they be put in flats and placed anywhere 

 in the greenhouse, I will state that dur- 

 ing the winter months all cuttings are as- 

 sisted in rooting by a little gentle bottom 

 heat, which means keeping the tempera- 

 ture of the sand at about 65 to 70 de- 

 grees, which is an easy matter when 

 there are two or three 1-inch pipes under 

 the benches. 



There is one essential point to be ob- 

 served in rooting cuttings and that is, 

 shade from direct sunshine by the use of 

 paper placed directly on top of the cut- 

 tings. This also holds the moisture 

 around the cuttings and prevents wUting, 

 but as soon as the strong sunlight leaves 

 the house or the bench in which the cut- 

 tings are, then the shade should be re- 

 moved or fungus may set in and sweep 

 off the entire batch. 



It is possible that with care, some suc- 

 cess might be had in rooting cuttings 

 under the benches where the light is fair, 

 but personally I would be driven to the 

 last extremity before I put it into prac- 

 tice. I cannot see any economy in put- 

 ting cuttings in flats at all. If my 

 houses faced south I would select the 

 south side bench, put in four inches of 

 clean sand, firm it down with a brick or 

 any suitable pounder, and give a thor- 

 ough watering. Then take a common 

 lath the length of the bench width, lay 

 firmly on the sand across the bench and 

 cut a slit in the sand along the side of 

 the lath with an old knife or any suitable 

 Implement. In this slit insert the cut- 

 tings about one inch apart. When the 

 row is finished, lay the lath close to it 

 and cut another slit, and so on until the 

 batch of cuttings is all in. The width of 

 the lath will determine the distance the 

 rows are to be apart, which will be 

 about one and one-fourth inches. W^hen 

 you have inserted a few rows of cuttings, 

 give a thorough watering to settle the 

 sand and, if the sun shines, cover with 

 paper. 



Most cuttings root in from ten to 

 twenty-one days, when they can be potted 

 or put in flats, unless they are to be sold 

 from the sand. If the latter, you can 

 carry a batch of cuttings in the sand 

 two weeks or over a month after they 

 are ready to sell without injury, provided 

 they are kept moderately dry, to keep 

 them from making too soft a growth. 

 William Tbillow. 



