r- 



Junk 24, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Screen-covered Greenhouses That Passed Safely Through Heavy HaiL 



Genistas. 



Keep late winter rooted cuttings of 

 genistas potted on. They should make 

 nice stock in 5-inch or 6-inch pots before 

 fall. Keep the shoots pinched to give 

 the plants a thick, bushy habit, and 

 plunge them in a bed of ashes in a cold- 

 frame. Older plants, which have been, 

 or should be, plunged outdoors some time 

 ago, will be making plenty of growth 

 now, and it will be necessary to go over 

 them once in three or four weeks with a 



fair of shears and trim them into shape. 

 t is, we often think, a pity that all 

 genistas grown commercially are trimmed 

 in such a topiary-like fashion. Plants 

 naturally grown are much more beauti- 

 ful, and it is a question whether it would 

 not pay some growers to break away 

 from the stereotyped style and let some 

 plants run up a little. Of course, a lit- 

 tle trimming is necessary in all cases, 

 but the tendency is to overdo it. 



Gladioli. 



Gladioli now bloom over quite a long 

 season. Flowers of the Colvillei type are 

 on the markets in February and March, 

 while the last of the Gandavensis type 

 grown outdoors last until the end of Oc- 

 tober. Where the most desirable colors 

 are grown, there is a fairly good demand 

 for the spikes all through the summer 

 months, and with asters and sweet peas 

 they are the most important of outdoor 

 flowers for marketing. 



Late plantings indoors will continue to 

 give some spikes for a while longer, but 

 these are mostly now on the wane. As 

 probably the benches in which they have 

 been grown are wanted for other crops, 

 the bulbs can be dug up and heeled in 

 outdoors to ripen oS. Some gladioli, 

 notably the white varieties, make better 

 bulbs under glass than outdoors, and it 

 pays to carry them over a second season. 

 Of course, it is necessary to carefully 

 ripen the bulbs. If this is done they 

 are excellent for forcing a second season. 

 With America, Snow White and Shake- 



speare we have had better results with 

 bulbs the second season than the first. 



The earliest planted outdoor batch will 

 soon be starting to push up their spikes. 

 These and all succeeding batches are look- 

 ing uncommonly well this season, thanks 

 in a large measure to abundant moisture. 

 The hoe or cultivator should be ruh 

 through the rows after every shower. 

 The more the surface soil is stirred, the 

 faster the plants will grow. Any bulbs 

 still unplanted should go in the ground 

 without delay. Set a little deeper than 

 in the case of spring planted bulbs. Last 



batches, but they work in usefully when 

 outdoor flowers are on the wane and be- 

 fore indoor flowers are plentiful. 



The present season has shown a de- 

 cided partiality on the part of the public 

 for two varieties, both peach pink in 

 color. Gladiolus nanus Peach Blossom and 

 America. The florist who stocks up heav- 

 ily on these two varieties will not go far 

 astray. They are each of a color which 

 the general public is looking for. 



Palms. 



While we have had no intensely hot 



Effect of the Hail on Unprotected Glass. 



season we laid our bulbs in trenches, 

 gave these a soaking with the hose, pulled 

 the soil over the bulbs, and they came up 

 quickly in an extremely hot and dry 

 month. The late planted bulbs do not 

 give as strong spikes as the earlier 



weather this summer, the longest day be- 

 ing reached without 90 degrees in the 

 shade temperature being recorded, it is 

 unlikely that torrid weather will be much 

 longer delayed. Palms have not needed 

 a heavy shading, thanks to the absence 



