JUNE 3, 1903. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



water. They wintered finely, and gave a 

 great abundance of cuttings. I pre- 

 pared the sand bed in the usual way, and 

 put in the cuttings. They stayed up and 

 looked fine for about two weeks, but just 

 about the time they usiially start to root 

 they completely wilted oflf, and proved a 

 total failure. The varieties were Octo- 

 ber Frost, Polly Rose, Appleton, White 

 Eaton and Yellow Eaton. 



I purchased some unrooted cuttings 

 from a neighbor, which were placed in 

 the same bed, trimmed and put in by the 

 same person, and they rooted finely. My 

 neighbor's stock was housed in a carna- 

 tion house, in boxes on a window sill. He 

 had some stock which was wintered suc- 

 cessfully outside, in the open, but which 

 wilts off and dies in about two weeks 

 after placing in the sand. His varieties 

 are Baby and Jerome Jones. 



Of '^course, my stock plants were never 

 fumigated, but were washed in clean 

 water before placing in the sand. They 

 were very soft, meaty cuttings, some 

 as large as a lead pencil, but were free 

 from bugs. I gave some of my cuttings 

 to two different growers, so that they 

 might try to root them, but they did not 

 have any better success than I did. 



G. S. B. 



If all the facts are just as G. S. B. 

 says, it is hard to determine what is the 

 trouble. If the trouble had been due to 

 fungus in the sand, the unrooted cut- 

 tings mentioned as having been bought 

 from a neighbor would also have damped 

 off. My first thought was that the out- 

 door cuttings were hard, from not receiv- 

 ing sufficient water, but that was dis- 

 pelled by the conclusion of G. S. B.'s 

 note, where he says they were "soft, 

 meaty cuttings." 



There is no reason, so far as the plants 

 are concerned, for this failure. The fact 

 of their having been wintered in a frame 

 should be a help rather than a hindrance, 

 if, as I assume, the frame was kept cold, 

 for such comes much nearer to the nat- 

 ural treatment of the plants than does 

 keeping them growing in a carnation 

 house temperature. 



The only explanation I can give is that 

 the cuttings may have been grown in too 

 rich a soil, and consequently were too 

 gross and sappy, and instead of callousing 

 and forming roots, simply melted away. 

 "While the mum is a gross feeder, it 

 should not receive that feed during the 

 dark winter months. A night tempera- 

 ture of 40 degrees, and fresh loam for 

 the plants to grow in, should eliminate 

 G. S. B.'s difficulties another year, if he 

 gives the stock plants all the air possible 

 and keeps the glass free from snow or 

 other accumulations. 



Chakles H. Totty. 



EARLY GOLDEN GLOV MUMS. 



The photograph here reproduced, show- 

 ing a group of potted Golden Glow chrys- 

 anthemums, was taken at the establish- 

 ment of the C. C. Pollworth Co., Milwau- 

 kee, May 28. The plants were from cut- 

 tings taken in December, and about 200 

 of them were ready for Decoration day 

 trade. 



"It seems," says the firm, "that this 

 variety of mums can be brought into 

 bloqm at almost any time, according to 

 the time the cuttings are Struck and the 

 way they are grown. Most of the plants 

 contained two or three large blossoms, 

 and we have smaller ones with buds and 

 they found a ready sale. It was not in- 

 tended or presumed, at the time these 



Chryianthemum Golden Glow for Memorial Day. 



cuttings were struck, that they were to 

 be brought into flower at this time of 

 the year, but the small plants happened 

 to be in a, house of some belated lilies 

 which required extra forcing and a higher 

 temperature to get them in for Easter; 

 consequently these plants began to make 

 rapid growth and set with bud. They 

 were shifted into larger pots and brought 

 along, and the result is that they came 

 into flower much out of season. 



"There were also a few plants of the 

 Dr. Enguehard which came in at the 

 same time, but the flowers on the Golden 

 Glow were equal to the best flowers that 

 come in at their regular season in the 

 fall. This plainly shows the earliness 

 of this variety." 



CAUFORNIA LILY BULBS. 



Now a Commercial Proposition. 



The first Easter lilies flowered from 

 American grown bulbs which have been 

 marketed in the Chicago wholesale cut 

 flower district were sold, in May by E. C. 

 Amling and attracted much attention 

 among those who knew their history. It 

 put the bulb-growing industry in this 

 eountiy on a commercial basis. 



For several years the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture has been at work on the 

 problem of growing the bulbs of Lilium 

 Harrisii in this country and, while ex- 

 periments have proven more -or less satis- 

 factory, even the most successful ones 

 were slow in developing inta a commer- 

 cial proposition. California proved the 

 best field for lily bulb growing and one 

 or two firms there took hold of the 

 project in the hope of making a profit. 

 So far as recorded, the flowers sold on 



the Chicago market in May were the first 

 to stand the test of the actual sale of 

 the bulbs to a florist who grows for the 

 wholesale trade. 



These lily bulbs are supposed to have 

 been raised from bulbs grown originally 

 from seed. The plants varied consider- 

 ably in character. The earliest lilies were 

 big, hard flowers on long, well clothed 

 stems, but in the tail end of the crops 

 the growth was weak, the foliage irreg- 

 ular, curled and yellow, with the flowers 

 soft, thin and watery. The deterioration 

 was steady from the fine, perfect flowers 

 that were first cut; the strength was in 

 proportion to the time of blooming, or 

 vice versa. ^ 



The lily bulbs in question were grown 

 by the Santa Ana Easter Lily Co., Santa 

 Ana, Cal., who received $65 for 1,000, half 

 5 to 7 and half 7 to 9. Price would be a 

 secondary consideration if every bulb 

 flowered strongly. The bulbs were flow- 

 ered by the Albert F. Amling Co., May- 

 wood, HI. A. F. Amling, president of 

 the company, gave the following account 

 of them: 



Mr. Amiing's Story. 



"About those California lily bulbs, I 

 wish to say that we bought 500 5 to 7's 

 and 500 7 to 9 's, which arrived September 

 28, 1908, and were at once potted into 

 5-inch pots and set in a cool house ; night 

 temperature 50 degrees. This we main- 

 tained throughout their growth. They 

 were about all cut May 24; they came in 

 too late for Easter and too early for 

 Decoration day. We lost about half of 

 the bulbs, as they were too weak and 

 sickly. The other half were fairly good; 

 some nice hard flowers wei-e cut from 

 these, about four to six flowers to the 

 stem. .i,;i.!lkJi 



