The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JotY 22, 1600. 



POMPONS FOR BOUQUETS. 



Will you please tell me what are the 

 best pompon chrysanthemums to grow in 

 Rhode Island for bouquet work? 



W.B. 



A good selection of varieties would be 

 as follows: 



White — Baby Margaret, Jas. Boone, 

 Lulu, Diana. 



Yellow — Alice Carey, Sunshine, Klon- 

 dike, Baby. 



Pink — Delicatissima, Nelly Bly, Edna, 

 Eynesford Gem. 



Bronze — Fred J., Elsie Walker, Pet. 



Red — Lagravere, Erminie, Little Pet. 



There are many other kinds, but the 

 above are good and representative in 

 their colors. 



Many people who have never grown 

 pompons under glass are not enthusiastic 

 over their possibilities, but the pompon 

 as a cut flower subject, when well grown, 

 is increasing rapidly in popularity. 



C. H. TOTTY. 



HOT VEATHER NOTES. 



Spiayinj; in Sun. 



The present hot weather tries the soul 

 of man and animal alike, and we may 

 safely say it tries the mum also, for it 

 is a cold-blooded plant and is not at 

 home in a tropical atmosphere. Some 

 growers shade their houses, but, while 

 this saves work in spraying the plants, I 

 never liked to do it, as the plants never 

 seemed so hard and finished as when kept 

 in the sunlight and frequently syringed. 



There exists an old idea in the minds 

 of some people that plants should not be 

 sprayed in a hot sun, or burning or other 

 injurious effects will follow. It is an 

 absolute fallacy, as anyone can prove for 

 himself who wishes to. Evaporation is so 

 rapid that the leaves are dry again before 

 they can possibly burn. Spray your house 

 and spray it often, if you want to have 

 fine foliage and keep your plants in per- 

 fect health. 



Taking the Buds. 



With -the advent of Golden Glow, flow- 

 ering almost any time, it is a little diffi- 

 cult for some growers to get their bear- 

 ings as to the proper time to take buds 

 on this and other varieties. There is 

 little or no call for mums during the 

 month of August and early part of Sep- 

 tember, and there is no money in trying 

 to get flowers so early. 



Buds taken now will produce flowers 

 about September 20, as it takes some 

 eight weeks at this season to perfect the 

 flowers. This is early enough, in my ex- 

 perience, to expect any adequate return 

 from the flowers, but if the last week in 

 September brings an early frost, as it 

 sometimes does, the early mums bring big 

 money. 



In addition to Golden Glow, it is quite 

 safe to take any buds on Monrovia that 



appear at this date, if you wish flowers 

 at the end of September. My experience 

 with Monrovia is that a late July bud 

 produces a far heavier and better flower 

 than an August bud, even though they 

 are both crowns. 



If Rosiere, October Frost or Opah are 

 showing buds by the last week in July, it 

 is better to keep those buds and take 

 chances on losing a few, as they are use- 

 less on late buds, the flowers being so 

 deficient in petalage. If a bud is rubbed 

 out August 1 the next bud that the plant 

 will produce will be too late to make a 

 heavy flower. 



A large part of the success of a mum 

 crop depends on the knowledge the culti- 

 vator has of the behavior of buds of the 

 different varieties and the proper time 

 to take them. Chabx,es H. Totty. 



LATANIA BORBONICA. 



Some Latania Borbonica in my green- 

 house make leaf stems six inches long, 

 but in private collections kept in dwell- 

 ings I have noticed some that are less 



than one-half the length. Is this a dwarf ' 

 I should like to keep them more dwarf it 

 there is a way to do so. F. J. U. 



Strong heat draws up the leaf stalks o): 

 Latania Borbonica and plants grown in a 

 cool house are always shorter stemmed 

 than such as are kept in a close, stuff} 

 house. I am not aware that there arc 

 two forms of this palm. Light and cooler 

 treatment will give you a short stem, and 

 those which are stood outdoors in sum 

 mer will always be found to be much 

 stockier than such as are left in a warm, 

 shaded house, some distance from the 

 glass. C. W. 



TILE FOR EDGING PATHS. 



Kindly give me the name and address 

 of a firm handling the blue fluted tile 

 used extensively in the vicinity of Lon- 

 don for edging paths. H. S. M. 



[The Review will be pleased to hear 

 from any reader who can give H. S. M. 

 the desired information. — Ed.] 



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THE PEONY 



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PAEONIA WITTMANNIANA. 



In the Review of July 15 there was a 

 note on that little known peony, Witt- 

 manniana, and we doubt if many here at 

 the north have been successful with it. If 

 so, we would, for the benefit of the pub- 

 lic, like them to give their experience 

 with it. Away back in 1894, on seeing 

 it advertised in Europe, we ordered two 

 dozen plants of it, at a then good price 

 for them. We had then been growing a 

 collection of peonies for many years, and 

 wished for a yellow variety, and we 

 thought we could use P. Wittmanniana as 

 a male flower to produce it. In our ex- 

 perience it is the earliest of all to bloom. 

 Its flowers are smaller than anticipated, 

 and from what we remember of it, its 

 petals were thin and not of good texture. 

 It bloomed so early we did not succeed 

 in saving any pollen, and if we had we 

 would have had to keep it a long time to 

 use it on some of the white varieties. We 

 grew and increased it until we had 143 

 plants. These we replanted in the fall of 

 1898, succeeded by an open, wet winter; 

 and, to our surprise in spring, we had lost 

 every plant of them. Consequently, with 

 this experience, we did not, and do not 

 consider it hardy, for general cultivation, 

 and as a result we have not cared to 



grow it again, and do not have a plant 

 of it. John Charlton & Sons. 



LIVINGSTON'S PEONIES. 



The accompanying illustration is from 

 a photograph made late in May at the 

 trial grounds of the Livingston Seed Co., 

 Columbus, O., showing a section of the 

 peony plantation and the ends of some 

 of the greenhouses. The peony in the 

 foreground is Edulis Superba, one of the 

 best of the soft pink varieties, an early 

 bloomer, large in flower and extremely 

 fragrant. The Livingstons grow peonies 

 for two purposes: For blooms for cut- 

 ting for their retail cut flower store and 

 for roots for fall sales, both at the store 

 and through their catalogue. They have 

 quite a patch of peonies and find them 

 among the best of the many specialties 

 they handle. 



The greenhouse establishment consists 

 of 60,000 feet of glass. A good part of 

 the area is in carnations to supply the 

 retail cut flower department and En- 

 chantress has been their banner variety, 

 both in quality and in productiveness. 

 The greenhouse establishment also is used 

 for the production of plants for the cata- 

 logue trade. 



