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12 







The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Decembeb 24, 1908. 



to have a good midwinter crop when 

 prices rule high. No matter whether 

 grown in pots or benches, watering must 

 be carefully done. If the soil is kept 

 constantly moist, dropping buds and yel- 

 lowing foliage will result. Our experi- 

 ence has been that if kept a little on the 

 dry side and given a steady night tem- 

 perature of 65 to 68 degrees, there will 

 be a small loss of buds. When the 

 benches have dried out well, soak thor- 

 oughly and do not give any dribblings to 

 keep the top moist between waterings. 

 To keep mealy bug in check, one good 

 syringing a week, if carefully directed 

 through a spray nozzle, will suffice. In- 

 judicious feeding is another cause of 

 buds dropping. To keep foliage green, 

 a little surfacing of soot or watering 

 with soot water is useful, but it is better 

 to avoid the use of chemical and animal 

 fertilizers during the dark months. 



Bousainvilleas. 



Where the wood on bougainvilleas was 

 well ripened and the plants have been 

 resting for some time in a cool house, 

 these will now be in a good condition for 

 starting. Do not give too warm a house 

 at first; 50 degrees at night, advancing 

 to 60 degrees as growth proceeds, will 

 suffice. Keep the plants sprayed over, 

 but on the dry side at the root until they 

 have broken freely. B. Sanderiana, of 

 dwarf habit, makes a pretty commercial 

 plant and one selling well at Easter, 

 when nicely flowered. 



THE LOVERIDGE STORE. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 the interior of the store of C. Loveridge, 

 at Peoria, the second city of Illinois. The 

 picture was made about the middle of 

 August, when no retail store appears 

 at its best, but Mr. Loveridge is doing 



which they have been retailed in Peoria 

 left what he thought to be an inade- 

 quate profit. By concentrating his ef- 

 forts upon the retail cut flower end, he 

 has been able to build up that depart- 

 ment and make it satisfactorily profit- 

 able. 



There is no doubt that competition is 

 the life of trade, but it is a mistake to 

 conduct competition along the lines of 

 price cutting; it would far better be in 

 the matter of good service. Cut prices 

 bring no man a profit. 



REFRIGERATION FOR FLORISTS. 



W. L. Kroeschell is one of those happy 

 individuals who have the gift of seeing 

 into the future; his dreams often come 

 true. He gives it as his conviction that 

 before many years artificial refrigeration 

 wiJl be employed instead of ice by all 

 large florists, as it already is by hotels, 

 restaurants, etc. It is true that only 

 a few flower stores now have artificial 

 refrigeration, but the Kroeschell Bros. 

 Ice Machine Co., which is owned by the 

 same men owning the Kroeschell Bros. 

 Co., boiler works, receives frequent in- 

 quiries from florists, and it is thought 

 the day is not far distant when florists' 

 cooling rooms and display cases will regu- 

 larly be equipped with artificial refrigera- 

 tion. Indeed, a few wholesale florists 

 have already installed ice machines, and 

 several retailers use th^ system where it is 

 a part of the equipment of the building 

 they are located in. The Auditorium 

 Annex, Chicago, operates the Kroeschell 

 refrigerating system and a branch of it 

 cools the ice-box in the Hauswirth flower 

 store. Philip Breitmeyer recently ap- 

 proved the installation of a Kroeschell 

 cooling system in Belle Isle park, De- 

 troit. He already has artificial refrigera- 

 tion in his office building, operating the 



Store of C Loveridge. Peoria, III. 



a nice business. In years gone by his 

 principal work was in outdoor planting, 

 in window-boxes, cemetery-vases and 

 bedding, but for the last two years he 

 has done practically none of this work, 

 and has turned his attention to the re- 

 tailing of cut flowers and the better class 

 of plants. He dropped growing bedding 

 plants for the reason that the prices at 



retail flower store cool-rooms in connec- 

 tion with it. 



Most of the artificial refrigerating 

 plants use ammonia, but the Kroeschell 

 system employs carbonic anhydride in 

 place of the ammonia. It is contended 

 that it is more economical than ammonia, 

 and that the dangers of an ammonia 

 plant are eliminated. The Kroeschell 



Bros. Co. has just completed installing 

 a twenty-ton plant at Newport, R. I., 

 for the United States government. The 

 plant is required to cool 300 gallons of 

 drinking water per hour to 40 degrees, to 

 keep the storage-room at 22 to 28 degrees 

 and to freeze two and one-half tons 

 of ice a day, these requirements giving 

 some idea of the many uses to which 

 such a system can be put. The Kroeschell 

 Co. states that it recently has been fig- 

 uring with the Julius Eoehrs Co., Ruther- 

 ford, N. J., and a number of other flo- 

 rists who have ambitions to possess their 

 own cooling facilities independent of the 

 ice-man. -And it is figured to be only a 

 question of time when every large con- 

 cern in the florists' line will be thus 

 equipped, for it is mighty convenient for 

 the florist to have control of low tem- 

 peratures. 



GLADIOLI FOR MEMORIAL DAY. 



. When will it be time to plant gladioli 

 to have them in bloom for Decoration 

 day? A. C. E. 



The large flowering gladioli of the 

 Gandavensis type will be in time for 

 Memorial day if planted early in Febru- 

 ary, in a house kept at 48 to 50 degrees 

 at night. The small flowering gladioli of 

 the Colvillei, cardinalis or nanus section 

 should be planted at once in flats and 

 grown in a cold house until March, when 

 they can be moved into a house such as 

 is recommended for the large flowered 

 type. These small varieties can be kept 

 in a cellar for a few weeks, but as they 

 start to grow, soon after planting, should 

 have a light position. C. W. 



ANTIRRHINUMS. 



Please tell me when I should sow antir- 

 rhinums, to have them in bloom for Me- 

 morial day? O. H. C. 



Get the seed in at once. Sow in flats 

 in a temperature of 60 degrees. When 

 germinated they will do better in some- 

 what cooler quarters; 50 degrees at 

 night is sufficiently warm. Pot off singly 

 when large enough to handle. This is 

 a much better plan than pricking off in 

 boxes and from these transplanting to 

 the benches. Purchase the tall antir- 

 rhinum seed, and you will flnd separate 

 shades of colors take better than mix- 

 tures. C. W. 



USEFUL OUTDOOR FLOWERS. 



We want to sow some flower seeds out- 

 doors next spring, to be used as small 

 flowers in floral designs. Can you give 

 us the names of the best varieties for 

 that purpose? We always use roses and 

 carnations, but it takes a small flower 

 to give it the finish. S. F. C. 



Sweet peas are the best and most 

 persistent flowering of hardy annuals and 

 suitable for design work. Many of the 

 hardy perennials are useful. A few 

 specially valuable ones are: White 

 phloxes of the decussata type, Achillea 

 Ptarmica, the Pearl; Delphinium Chi- 

 nense, blue and white; several of the 

 spiraeas, such as astilboides, compacta^ 

 venusta and the new Queen Alexandra; 

 Physostegia Virginica alba. 



In sowing sweet peas a good selection 

 would be: White, Dorothy Eckford; lav- 

 ender, Lady Grisel Hamilton; orange- 

 pink, Miss Willmott; soft pink, Gladys 

 Unwin; blue. Navy Blue; scarlet, King 

 Edward VII. C. W. 



