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Mat 20, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



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23 



CAHNATION NOTES— WEST. 



Car< of the Stock in Bloom. 



In the rush of spring work I hope you 

 have not neglected your blooming stock 

 too much. If you were wise, you got it 

 into shape to run with little attention for 

 a while, before the planting out com- 

 menced. Even during this busy time 

 there are occasional rainy spells when the 

 outside Avork must be suspended for a 

 day or two. On all such occasions, all 

 hands should be put to work to keep the 

 stock in trim. You will want to cut from 

 these plants at least six weeks yet, and 

 on the care you give them now will de- 

 pend the quality of the blooms you will 

 cut. At this time of the year it is im- 

 possible to improve the quality much, if 

 once they are allowed to deteriorate. The 

 warm weather and dry winds tax the 

 plants heavily to hold their own, even 

 when given every encouragement. 



If you had been feeding regularly with 

 liquid manure during the spring and you 

 cannot spare the time now, you should 

 provide some other means of supplying 

 the plants with their accustomed nourish- 

 ment. A good mulch of cattle manure 

 is about the best thing obtainable, and 

 put it on thick enough so it will prevent 

 too rapid evaporation. If this is not on 

 hand, then put on a liberal mulch of 

 rotted stable manure and add to it pul- 

 verized sheep manure at the rate of 100 

 pounds to 500 square feet of bench 

 space. This will run the plants nicely 

 for several weeks and, if plenty of water 

 is given, the blooms should be of good 

 quality for a long time yet. It is scarcely 

 necessary to add that disbudding must 

 be kept up just as closely as in winter. 

 Also, the stems must be kept growing 

 straight. 



Shade for the Colored Varieties. 



Have you put any shade on the glass 

 yet? Most of the colored varieties will 

 now be benefited by a light shade. Es- 

 pecially is this true of about all the 

 flesh-pink and the rose-pink sorts. Rose- 

 pink Enchantress takes on a lovely shade 

 of shell-pink from now on if there is 

 just enough shade to prevent bleaching. 

 Of all the pink varieties, about the best 

 one to hold its color under strong sun- 

 light is Aristocrat. While the color of 

 this variety is far from ideal in winter, 

 yet it sells well, and at this time of the 

 year it is just as even in color as in win- 

 ter. 



There are a number of ways of apply- 

 ing the shade. All are effective, though 

 there is a wide difference between them 

 in the amount of work involved. Per- 

 haps the oldest and the most laborious is 



to brush it on with a common whitewash 

 brush, running a strip down the center 

 of the glas5. There are those who de- 

 clare this to be the only proper way. 

 Others, ourselves included, spray the 

 shading material on with an ordinary 

 hand syringe. This way is quick and 

 does a good job, covering the entire roof 

 with countless spots that average about 

 the size of a nickel. 



Don't Do Too Good a Job. 



When putting shade on carnation 

 houses, don't do too good a job. That 

 is, don't put it on so that only a brush 

 and lye water will take it off. Rubbing 

 shade off the glass is a big job and, more- 

 over, it is a needless one in most cases. 

 Remember that you will want your roof 

 quite clean again by early September. 

 Would it not pay better to put it on two 

 or three times, if necessary, than to have 

 to rub it off in the fall? Instead of 

 using fresh lime slaked with hot water 

 and adding salt to make it stick, we 

 consider it better to let the lime shake 

 slowly in a damp place and add enough 

 water to make the proper mixture. It 

 will take several hard rains to wash this 

 oft', and, by renewing it where it is 

 washed off most, the shade can be kept 

 just right all summer. Then, if found 

 necessary to remove it in the fall, it will 

 come off easily. When we shaded heavily 

 during planting time, it was just as well 

 to put it on more permanently, as it had 

 to be rubbed off anyway, but conditions 

 are different now. 



Potted Stock versus Bench Stock. 



While it is yet fresh in our memory, I 

 want to say that we do not expect ever 

 again to jdant carnations except from 

 pots. Last year we benched a large part 

 of our young plants. The plants grew 

 nicely and wore strong young plants, 

 when transferred to the field, but, unless 

 a good rain fell within a day or two 

 after planting, they suffered consider- 

 ably. This year we handled all our 

 young stock in pots, and while the plants 

 are not quite so large, they are firm and 

 full of breaks where they were topped, 

 and — oh, how much better they are to 

 handle! We think there is no compari- 

 son between the two methods. 



Are you cultivating the young plants 

 in the field right along now? Now is the 

 time to get the ground into good condi- 

 tion, or rather to keep it so. A few 

 hard rains without cultivating between 

 will beat the ground down hard, and 

 make it almost impervious to the culti- 

 vator. So do not neglect the cultivating 

 under any circumstances; the more, the 

 better. A. F. J. Baur. 



FIGURES FROM A GARDENER.J 



I have read with much interest the 

 articles which have appeared in the Re- 

 view from time to time on the different 

 cuts of carnations by growers in differ- 

 ent localities. I would like to give my 

 experience as a private gardener, with 

 only 150 plants, in six different varie- 

 ties, namely, Beacon, Harlowarden, En- 

 chantress, Britannia, White Perfection 

 and Winsor. Unfortunately, I did not 

 keep separate count of the different va- 

 rieties cut, but Harlowarden, Britannia 

 and Enchantress have given the most 

 perfect flowers and Winsor has been the 

 poorest. 



I started to cut October 1, and up to 

 April 30 I had altogether 3,350 blooms, 

 all of good size and a great majority 

 of them extra good, with few splits in 

 the lot. You will see Tjy the above fig- 

 ures that I had an average for the seven 

 months of 22% blooms per plant. The 

 cut by months was as follows: 



October 253 



November 753 



December 768 



January 411 



Februarv 327 



March '. 368 



April 470 



The largest cut for one day was in 

 December, namely, 155 flowers. The 

 plants are still in good condition and 

 look as if they might give us lots of 

 bloom for four or five weeks yet. 



Peter B. Robb. 



Jamestown, N. D. — A fire which is 

 supposed to have originated in the boiler 

 room of the Wheeler Floral Co., in the 

 rear of the Daily Capital building, re- 

 cently destroved property to the value 

 i^of, '$2,000. 



Newark. N. J. — The Prudential In- 

 surance building, at Broad and Bank 

 streets, in the basement of which Peter 

 Penek has a flower store, is being torn 

 down, in spite of the fact that no agree- 

 ment has yet been reached with Mr. 

 Penek in regard to the compensation for 

 his lease, which has a year yet to run. 

 All the other tenants in the building have 

 accepted the insurance company's terms 

 and have secured other quarters, but 

 there is said to be a difference of several 

 thousand dollars between the Prudential 

 offer and the amount that Mr. Penek 

 wants in lieu of his lease. The work of 

 tearing down can continue for some time 

 without molesting Mr. Penek 's store. A 

 later report, however, states that Mr. 

 Penek has compromised with the insur- 

 ance company and consented to move out. 



