26 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



jANUAnx 28, 1909, 



Carnation Ruby. 



suits with Enchantress and Victory at the 

 establishment of E. T. Wanzer, Wheaton, 

 111. When they consulted their own 

 record for Enchantress they found that 

 they have obtained more than fifty per 

 cent more blooms per plant than Mr. 

 Wanzer has cut so far this season. But 

 when they turned to their figures for 

 Mrs. Lawson, they found it showed prac- 

 tically only half the production of their 

 Enchantress. 



The firm has on its benches 6,318 

 plants of Enchantress and in the three 

 months to January 1, 1909, the cut was 

 29,155, or an average of 4.61 blooms per 

 plant. Of Lawson they had 12,048 plants 

 and the cut in three months was 27,892, 

 or an average of 2.31 blooms per plant. 

 Mr. Wanzer kept a separate record of 

 his perfect flowers and his splits, but the 

 Hkes Peak Floral Co. puts their cut all 

 in together as follows: 



Encbantress. Blooms Cut. 



October 7,412 



November 10, 174 



December 11,560 



Total 29,lf)5 



Lawson. Blooms Cut. 



October 7,929 



November 7,730 



December 12,233 



Total 27,892 



Other growers are invited to send in 

 the record of the cuts from a given num- 

 ber of plants of any variety. The com- 

 parisons will be interesting. 



BLOOMS DO NOT OPEN. 



After reading such glowing accounts 

 of White Perfection, I am wondering 

 what is the trouble with my own. I 

 have about 1,200 plants. They were good 

 plants when housed, about September 1. 

 They are in a good house, with plenty 

 of head room, and have had a tempera- 

 ture of about 50 to 54 degrees at night. 



The soil is new and is a medium black 

 loam. They have had no feeding ex- 

 cept the manure that was put in the soil. 

 They are in full crop at present, hun- 



dreds of buds showing color, but the 

 trouble I wish to refer to is, that they 

 do not open. They do well until the 

 flowers are about half open; then they 

 stop and go to sleep, or, if they do 

 mature, they will not keep. I have grown 

 them three years now and have always 

 had the same trouble. White Cloud 

 would do the same thing. F. B. 



That your White Perfection do not 

 open their blooms properly is certainly 

 not the fault of the variety. It 

 must be some local cause. This variety 

 is giving splendid satisfaction here, with 

 no faults except here and there a split 

 calyx. The blooms open up full, and 

 do it quickly. Its keeping qualities, too, 

 are good here. 



I am wondering whether or not there 

 might be seepage of gas into your house 

 where this variety is growing. Would 

 advise you to investigate along this line. 

 If your plants grow well and other vari- 

 eties thrive in it, your soil can hardly 

 be at fault. Insufficient ventilation would 

 aggravate the trouble, especially if there 

 are traces of gas. If the soil is dry at 

 the bottom, that would make it worse, 

 too. A. r. J. B. 



TOBACCO ASHES AS FERTILIZER. 



I should like to inquire as to the 

 value, as a fertilizer for carnations, of 

 the ash of tobacco powder after fumi- 

 gating. A. S. C. 



The ashes from any burnt vegetable 

 matter are more or less valuable as a 

 fertilizer, on account of the potash they 

 contain. The per cent of potash, how- 

 ever, will vary a great deal. According to 

 what kind of material the ashes came 

 from. It seems a safe rule to suppose 

 that the slower the growth of the article 



Carnation No. 50, Pierson's Scott Shade of Pink. 



