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Dbcbmbkb 16, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



27 



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The Lorraine Begonia in a French Fith Basket. 



anything in the nature of heavy fumi- 

 gating, or poinsettia foliage and begonia 

 flowers will alike bear mute testimony 

 to its baneful effects. 



Dicentra Spectabilis. 



The roots of Dicentra spectabilis, better 

 remembered, perhaps, as dielytra, are now 

 to hand. After potting, they should be 

 placed in a coldframe, with the pots pro- 

 tected, for a few weeks. When housed 

 for forcing, they should not have a 

 strong temperature; 50 to 55 degrees at 

 night is better than 10 degrees higher. 

 Let the flowers, as they start to develop, 

 have a cool house, as they will then 

 have far more substance. Pots eight 

 inches in diameter will be required for 

 average sized pieces of dielytra. 



Stevia. 



The useful little winter flower, stevia, 

 is now coming into season. To keep up 

 a steady succession, a batch of pots or 

 boxes should be placed in moderate 

 warmth each week. Customers buying 

 carnations and roses frequently want a 

 few pieces of stevia put in for good 

 measure, in the same way as many want 

 Asparagus Sprengeri each time they buy 

 a dozen carnations. This opens up the 

 question as to how far the "throwing 

 If" system is one to recommend. Of 

 course, visitors at showy establishments 

 'vouUl be righteously indignant if asked 

 !') pay for either stevia or Sprengeri, but 

 V'f" are of the opinion that the giving 

 •'way of flowers should form no part of 

 'lio florists' business, except in special 

 '-'■ises, 



Christmas Plants. 



Clean pots and neatly painted tubs 



■"'Hild be the rule at Christmas. Bays, 



'"xes, hollies, aucubas, thuyas, retinospo 



'is and other evergreens look vastly bet- 



■r if the tubs containing them get a 



new coat of paint. It is pleasing to note 

 the immense development of the Christ- 

 mas plant trade and to note how much 

 care is now taken to have them spick 

 and span before sending them out. Some 

 Christmases wrapping can practically be 

 dispensed with, but we can never depend 

 on this, so a liberal supply of wrapping 

 paper should be kept on hand in case 

 of emergency. 



Show Pelargoniums. 



Show pelargoniums are now starting to 

 grow freely and will soon require consider- 

 able additional bench space. They like a 

 cool, airy house ; 40 to 45 degrees at night 

 will suffice and prove much better for them 

 than 50 degrees. A spraying overhead 

 with nicotine once a week will keep them 

 clean, and fumigation will answer well 

 where this is not done. On no account 

 allow green aphis to get a secure foot- 

 hold, or the plants will be half ruined. 



for violets, or any cold-house stock. I 

 believe in keeping cold out of a house 

 rather than to drive it out by fire heat, 

 so I made some light shelters and cov- 

 ered them with tar paper. I only had 

 a few new ones made, but after a day 

 or two I found that the celery had ab- 

 sorbed the odor of the tar paper. 



This called to mind another incident. 

 Over fifty years ago I worked under a 

 celebrated plant grower on the old Wil- 

 more place, near Birmingham, England, 

 and he used at times to stage such plants 

 as gloxinias, achimines, cinerarias, be- 

 gonias, and even orchids, over a shallow 

 tank containing manure water, over hot 

 water pipes, and his success was some- 

 thing remarkable with some subjects. Of 

 course, cool treatment was required in 

 the after handling, but it seems to me 

 there was something in it for thought 

 among practical men. F. A. Baller. 



ABSORPTIVE POWER OF PLANTS- 



An idea, occurred to me lately on the 

 power of certain plants to absorb odors. 

 I believe in having plenty of celery for 

 house use all winter and I give you my 

 plan of keeping it. I aim to get a nice 

 growth on it and handle it by pulling 

 off suckers and useless leaves. Towards 

 fall I , tie it up nicely, not too tight, 

 and on the approach of cold weather I 

 clear a space under a greenhouse stage, 

 preferably a center stage. Then I give 

 the ground a good soaking of water, lift 

 the celery with a ball of earth and set 

 close together. It is better if no heat- 

 ing pipes are near them. So lifted, with- 

 out blanching, they continue to grow and 

 even the green stems become mild and 

 palatable after being in the greenhouse 

 a while. 



Now T come back to my odors. This 

 is supposed to be a cold house, suitable 



BLEEDING OF POINSETTIAS. 



What is the best way to keep poin- 

 settias from bleeding or from wilting 

 after cutting them? G. M. N. & S. 



Poinsettias bleed profusely when cut, 

 and placing them in cold water right 

 away does not help them. As soon as 

 you cut your stems, have a can or tub 

 of warm water of a temperature of 125 

 to 150 degrees and stand the stems in it 

 for five minutes. Place them in this 

 water at once and do not leave them lying 

 around until finishing your cut. The hot 

 water stops the bleeding, and by stand- 

 ing them in cold water later they will 

 hold up well for you. The leaves on 

 cut poinsettias always fade before the 

 flowers. The bracts are generally good 

 when the foliage has all fallen. The 

 hot water plan materially lengthens the 

 duration of the foliage. C. 



I 



