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12 



The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



Fbbbuaby 18, 1909. 



a little fine sand. All flats or pans 

 should be covered with paper for a few 

 days, gradually removing it'lifc the seed- 

 lings begin to appear. 



A few varieties of seeds which may 

 be sown now are: Verbena, Torenias 

 Bailloni and Fournieri, petunia, datura, 

 asters (a first batch for outdoors), stocks, 

 ricinus, Vinca alba and rosea, lobelia, 

 begonia (all varieties overlooked should 

 be sown at once), gloxinia, cannas, 

 browallia, antirrhinum, heliotropes, ber- 

 ried solanums, musa, amaryllis. Aspara- 

 gus plumosus and Sprengeri and hibiscus. 



Among hardier plants are: Aquilegia 

 (all varieties), single annual hollyhock, 

 Canterbury bells, campanula in variety, 

 pentstemons (desirable plants treated as 

 annuals), antirrhinum, hardy asters, py- 

 rethrum, kochia and trichopilia. Quick 

 growing annuals, like balsan^p, zinnias, 

 cosmos, Coboea scandens, moonflower and 

 marigolds, need not be sown for a few 

 weeks yet. Salvia splendens and its va- 

 rieties, Zurich, Bonfire, compacta, etc., 

 may he started now, but will make suffi- 

 ciently large plants if left until the mid- 

 dle of March. 



Perennial seeds sown now and trans- 

 planted to nursery rows in early May 

 will make quite heavy plants by fall. A 

 few good sorts to sow are: Aquilegias, 

 campanulas of all sorts, Lupinus poly- 

 phyUus, veronicas, delphiniums, pyre- 

 thrums, aubrietias, Alyssum saxatile, 

 kniphofias and hibiscus. Pentstemons 

 of a first-class strain make desirable 

 plants for massing effects. They should 

 be sown during February. 



Beddiog Geraniums. 



Th& increasing power of the sun is 

 sending the geranium plants along much 

 faster now. Never allow them to be- 

 come crowded, or you seriously injure 

 them. It should be the aim of the grow- 

 er to have the plants as bushy and stocky 

 as possible. To achieve these ends, each 

 plant must be kept from crowding its 

 neighbors. The strongest plants will now 

 be in 4-ineh pots, the second size in 

 3-inch pots, and late cuttings should be 

 rooted in a size smaller. It is now rather 

 late to put in cuttings to make suitable 

 plants for bedding out. Do not give the 

 bedding geraniums any shade. Allow 

 them abundant ventilation. Let them dry 

 out well between waterings. Remove all 

 decaying foliage and spread them out a 

 little every few days. The foliage should 

 never be damp at nightfall. This has a 

 tendency to promote leaf blight. 



Stujotockt. 



It is just a month until shamrocks will 

 be wanted. Where they are still growing 

 in flats they should be potted off at once. 

 Pots from 1-inch up to 4-inch, as well as 

 small pans, are commonly used for sham- 

 rocks. A light soil, containing sand and 

 a little well decayed manure, grows good 

 stock. Mildew is liable to attack the 

 plants if exposed to cold draughts. This 

 renders them unsalable. Shamrocks do 

 best in a cool house; 45 degrees at night 

 is about right. 



Lorraine Begonias. 



The earliest batch of Lorraine leaves 

 are now well rooted and quite a few 

 little plants starting from the stalks. 

 These are being placed in 2-inch pots of 

 leaf-mold and sand. The old leaves can 

 be dispensed with. The newly potted lit- 

 tle plants should be kept warm and moist 

 until established, when a rather cooler, 

 sunnier and airy house will do them bet- 

 ter. Cuttings of soft wood from the 

 base of the old plants, when obtain- 

 able, should be inserted. These root much 



more quickly than the leaves and will 

 develop into floriferous plants. Those 

 raised from leaf cuttings make more 

 open heads and the flowers are produced 

 rather less freely, which is a decided 

 advantage. The great objection constant- 

 ly urged against Gloire de Lorraine is 

 that it carries too much bloom and too 

 few leaves. This is undeniably true. 

 There is still ample time to get in more 

 leaf cuttings and, of course, shoots may 

 be rooted for several months yet. 



Genistas. 



To be in season for Easter, genistas 

 may now be brought into a cool house. 

 Genistas resent forcing and go to pieces 

 quickly in a store if they have been 

 grown warm. They require abundant 

 supplies of water. One thorough drying 

 out will destroy the flowers after they 

 have begun to open. See that young 

 stock, rooted last fall, is not allowed to 

 become too potbound. Keep them pinched 

 into shape. Standard genistas are oc- 

 casionally seen. They are easily pro- 

 duced by running up a single shoot to 

 any required height, keeping all side 

 growths removed, and pinching ±he main 

 shoot when it has reached the desired 

 height. The shoot should be securely 

 staked to keep it straight. 



Acacias. 



The various acacias, such as armata, 

 Drummondii, Riceana, Baileyana and het- 

 erophylla, are all desirable Easter plants. 

 They naturally flower in spring and may 



require some retarding to have them in 

 good shape for Easter. It is a great mis- 

 take to have "these fully opened before 

 they are sold. Some varieties, notably 

 armata, which is most in evidence com- 

 mercially, when in full flower will have 

 a considerable percentage of their little 

 circular flowers brown instead of yellow. 

 Customers naturally fight shy of any 

 plant carrying faded-looking flowers. It 

 is, therefore, a good plan not to attempt 

 to have all the flowers open at Easter. 

 If your plants are being held in a cold 

 house or pit, in a semi-dormant condi- 

 tion, you can easily get them into flower 

 in four or five weeks in a temperature 

 of 50 degrees. 



Nephrolepis. 



If you do not grow any stock plants 

 of nephrolepis in benches, it will pay 

 you to reserve a small portion for them. 

 They grow much more vigorously and 

 make an abundance of runners when 

 given a free root run. Any old plants 

 you have standing around will probably 

 be carrying a number of runners now. 

 Cut these off and place in flats in a 

 warm, moist, shaded house, where they 

 will soon establish themselves, and later, 

 when some of the violets or carnations 

 can be dispensed with, plant them out 

 to get good plants for next fall's trade. 

 Nephrolepis are not fastidious as to soil; 

 loam, sand and a little well-spent manure 

 suits them. A mulch of well-decayed 

 manure over those being utilized as stock 

 plants in benches will be found helpful. 



PFEIFER'S CULTURE. 



Mention of the large crop cut last 

 spring, by William P. Pfeifer, of Utica, 

 N. Y., has brought a number of in- 

 quiries as to how it was done. Mr. 

 Pfeifer is a modest man, and just a 

 little reluctant to bring his light out 

 from under its bushel, but makes the 

 following statement to accompany the 

 illustration, showing one of his benches 

 of Enchantress photographed last spring: 



"I do not consider myself an expert 

 carnation grower, by any means, but 

 I always manage to have as good as the 

 other fellow and last spring had a really 

 phenomenal cut. The house shown in 

 the illustration was planted August 14. 

 It is 30x124 feet and can house about 

 3,600 plants. I had two benches of 

 Enchantress, one of Rose-pink Enchant- 

 ress and Winsor, and one of Boston 

 Market. I commenced cutting about 

 September 15 and cut heavily until 

 along in December, when the cut com- 

 menced to get light, although the crop 

 never was entirely off. 



"About December 15 I gave them a 

 good top-dressing of sheep manure, and 

 three weeks later a dressing of wood 

 ashes. After that you ought to have 

 seen them grow! Along in March 

 there were at least 40,000 buds showing 

 up at one time; anyone who saw them 

 will say this was a low estimate. Peter 

 Crowe, the originator of Adiantum 



Croweanum, was up to see the house in 

 April and he said that in all his travels 

 he never had seen a house to equal it. 

 I commenced to cut in March and I 

 never got through cutting untU I threw 

 them out in July. I did not keep count 

 of how many I cut, but I know many a 

 day I cut a thousand or more. 



"Now, in regard to the soil, I used 

 sod one year old, chopped fine. I filled 

 my benches first without using any fer- 

 tilizer and after I had them fiUed I 

 gave them first a coat of bone meal and 

 then one of cow manure and mixed 

 them thoroughly on the bench. This 

 was aU the fertilizer my plants got im- 

 til the top-dressings I spoke of giving 

 them in December and January." 



CUTTINGS ROT IN THE SAND. 



What is the cause of my carnation 

 cuttings rotting in the sand ? I give them 

 little bottom heat, sometimes none at all. 



B. A. E. 



You are asking for a good deal of in- 

 formation on the strength of very little 

 data. It would be difficult to tell what 

 makes your cuttings rot, since I do not 

 know what you do to them. 



If you started with good, clean sand, 

 you have perhaps been overdoing the 

 spraying in the cloudy weather which has 

 prevailed during the last six weeks. We 

 sometimes see it recommended that cut- 

 tings be sprayed every day or oftener, 

 etc. Perhaps you have followed that sort 

 of advice. In our experience in propa- 



