AuetsT 6, 1914. 



The Florists' Review 



15 



TAKING BUDS FOB EXHIBITION. 



Will you kindly advise me as to the 

 time to take the best bud of. the varie- 

 ties of chrysanthemums on the enclosed 

 listt I suppose there are a few on this 

 list of which I can take the bud at the 

 same time, but I want good exhibition 

 blooms. Last year I had five varieties, 

 but could not plant my benches before 

 September, and the result was inferior 

 and small blooms. E. W. B. 



The following dates are what we con- 

 sider the earliest that a bud should be 

 taken in this section. Just what dif- 

 ference there is between the conditions 

 here and at Cleveland I cannot say, but 

 1 should not imagine it was much. 



Mrs. Wm. Duckham August 20 



Chieftain September 10 



Mary Donnellan September 1 



Pioneer September 1 



Mrs. Wm. Arnold August 5 



Susie r August 10 



Miss Clara Banghart. August 15 



Maud Dean September 10 



Wm. Turner August 25 



Lady Hopetonn August 15 



Dr. Enguebard September 15 and later 



Golden Jones September 1 to 10 



Amorlta August 25 



Golden King August 2S 



Golden Wedding August 25 



Naomah August 20 



Mrs. Kelly August 25 



Dolly Dimple September 10 or later 



Golden Eagle September 1 to 10 



E. W. B. will note a considerable dif- 

 ference in the dates of some varieties, 

 but that is partly accounted for by the 

 fact that they are pretty late varieties. 

 It is impossible to fix an arbitrary date 

 that will apply to all seasons alike and 

 to all varieties and all conditions under 

 which plants are being handled. A 

 grower, for instance, who propagates his 

 stock in January will, in many cases, 

 the first week in August be running 

 what is known as a third crown, where- 

 as a grower who propagates his stock in 

 April, or early in May, perhaps, does 

 not have a single bud yet showing on 

 his plants. In such a case, where I 

 would recommend, for instance, August 5 

 as the best date for Mrs. W. Arnold, if 

 the plants had the requisite age and had 

 produced one or two buds, it may be 

 practically safe; whereas, if the bud 

 showing by August 5 was the first bud 

 the plant had produced, it is problemat- 

 ical whether it would produce a perfect 

 fiower or not. 



I am, of course, in the dark as to 

 when E. W. B. propagated the plants 

 and what condition they are in at this 

 time. It is perfectly well understood 

 among growers today that to get exhi- 

 bition flowers one must have stock prop- 

 agated from January to March to get 

 the best results. Later propagated stock, 

 while it will produce good flowers, will, 

 as a rule, lack just the least fraction 

 of size or depth to enable the grower to 

 compete successfully with the flowers 

 cut from plants that have been propa- 

 gated early and kept growing steadily 

 right along. 



R. W. B. says last year he did not 



get his plants benched until September; 

 plants so treated cannot be expected to 

 give good results, as by that time the 

 growth should have been made, the bud 

 taken and the energy of the plant 

 diverted to the development of the fu- 

 ture flowers. 



in the case of such varieties as Dr. 

 Enguehard, which 1 have marked Sep- 

 tember 15 and later, it does not neces- 

 sarily follow that a bud showing earlier 

 than this would not produce a good flow- 

 er, but the average experience with En- 

 guehard shows that a bud taken much 

 earlier than this date results in a flower 

 quite pale in color. 



Charles H. Totty. 



FEBTIUZEBS FOB MUMS. 



I would like to use liquid chicken 

 manure on chrysanthemums after the 

 bud has been taken. Kindly inform me 

 if one part of manure to six parts of 

 water would be sufficiently strong. Also, 



Peterson's Rainbow Sprinkler. 



if sixteen ounces of nitrate of soda, 

 ten ounces of sulphate of potash and 

 thirty-three ounces of acid phosphate 

 could be used in alternation at the rate 

 of one pound of mixture to fifty gallons 

 of water. p q 



The only trouble with chicken manure 

 IS that when fresh it is caustic and apt 

 to burn the root hairs, which are the 

 feeding fibers of the plant. The sug- 

 gestion of one part to six of watef is all 

 right if I understand it correctly— that 

 IS one pail of the liquid in which the 

 chicken fertilizer has been soaking to 

 SIX pails of clear water. It is not neces- 

 sary always to wait for the bud to show 

 before feeding the plants. If they are 

 strong and healthy they are greatly 

 benefited by feeding earlier, if they 

 have been planted seven or eight weeks 

 in order to make them throw up a 

 stronger bud. The old maxim not to feed 

 till the bud shows is all twaddle. The 

 expert grower watches over his plants 

 and tries to keep them in perfect health 



from the first, feeding them as soon as 

 his experience tells him they have ex- 

 hausted most of the nutriment in the 

 soil. A light soil "runs out" much 

 more quickly than a heavy soil, as it 

 washes away so quickly. A large per- 

 centage of fertilizer washes through the 

 benches anyway and is lost, but that 

 we cannot help unless we all adopt the 

 clever scheme of Poehlmann Bros. Co. 

 and drain the walks into a reservoir to 

 be used again. 



The chemical mixture suggested is all 

 right, as it furnishes a complete fer- 

 tilizer, in the usual acceptance of the 

 term. Personally, I would use sulphate 

 of ammonia in preference to nitrate of 

 soda. My experiments under glass are 

 all in favor of the sulphate, particularly 

 when one is using other chemicals in 

 conjunction with it. If the use of 

 nitrate of soda on chrysanthemums is at 

 all excessive, it will be noticed that 

 warty growths will appear on the stems 

 of the plants and the leaves will run 

 small, and the plant, in fact, will get a 

 serious check. A scientific friend tells 

 me this is due to the denitrification of 

 the soil; in other words, the excess of 

 nitrogen has killed the nitrifying bac- 

 teria present in the soil and the plant 

 is unable to take up the feed. What- 

 ever the explanation, the fact remains, 

 as anyone may see for himself by ex- 

 perimentation. 



Intensive cultivation, as practiced in 

 a greenhouse in four or five inches of 

 soil, is quite different from cultivation 

 out in the open air, with natural condi- 

 tions of heat and moisture and the 

 broad bosom of mother earth to work 

 on. Charles H. Totty. 



THE BAINBOW SPBINKLEB. 



A sprinkler that combines other 

 qualities with its utility as a means 

 of spraying lawns and shrubbery is the 

 Eainbow sprinkler. Owing to its con- 

 struction, this sprinkler shows a full 

 rainbow and rainbow circle when con- 

 ditions are favorable. The require- 

 ments, says John Peterson, of Lake 

 George, N. Y., whose photograph of the 

 sprinkler in action is reproduced here- 

 with, are sunshine, proper exposure and 

 a good water supply — the stronger the 

 pressure the better the rainbow. The 

 sprinkler is attached to an ordinary 

 garden hose, and needs only the extra 

 attention to keep it in position to re- 

 ceive the sun's rays so as to produce 

 the rainbow effect. 



Fall Biver, Mass.— Chatterton War- 

 burton says the more he sees of the 

 Hadley rose the better he likes it. He 

 has a rival to Killarney Brilliant and 

 expects to see a new house planted with 

 it for trial by a large grower near by. 

 He will possibly have some blooms at 

 the convention. 



