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14 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



August 3, 1911. 



a week. The plants should be rather 

 heavily shaded, or the foliage will 

 be of a pale color. Unlike cattleyas, 

 they appear to do better when both 

 bulbs and leaves are somewhat drawn 

 up, so long as they are of a deep green 

 color. 



On hot days the calanthes will en- 

 joy spraying over, both morning and 

 afternoon, and the house in which they 

 are growing should be closed up suffi- 

 ciently early in the afternoon to bottle 

 up a good amount of sun heat. On 

 dull days the plants should not be 

 syringed. On any night when the out- 

 side temperature falls below 60 degrees 

 a little fire heat in the pipes, just 

 sufficient to take off the chill, is bene- 

 ficial. One of the most successful 

 growers of these attributes much of his 

 success to having a little fire heat every 

 night through the summer. Where 

 plants have quantities of roots run- 

 ning over the surface, a mulch of old 

 cow manure can be applied with ad- 

 vantage. Calanthes make their growth 

 best in houses which are rather close 

 and stuffy, conditions which also suit 

 many of the dendrobes and phalee- 

 nopsis at this season. 



Seedling Cattleyas. 



During the summer months orchids 

 are in less demand than in winter and 

 spring, but there is an ever increasing 

 call for orchid flowers even in the hot 

 weather and there are many fine hy- 

 brids which bloom in summer. Some 

 may not be quite equal to their parents, 

 but others are even better. These seed- 

 lings generally possess greater vigor 

 tl^an Hieir parents and in many cases 

 flower finely twice a year. Unlike the 

 collected cattleyas, they seem to care 

 but little for a resting period and 

 do just as well when not rested at all. 

 It is a fact that cattleyas are often 

 seriously weakened by excessive drying, 

 and growers are gradually waking up 

 to the fact that in the past this rest- 

 ing business has been rather overdone. 



Seedling cattleyas up to the flower- 

 ing stage, and even later, succeed re- 

 markably well in a house which is kept 

 moderately moist and which can be 

 closed up at 4 or 4:30 p. m., after 



spraying the plants over. There is no 

 need at all to treat them as we are in 

 the habit of treating collected plants. 

 This is not saying that they will not 

 grow well with them, but they seem to 

 enjoy more heat and moisture. There 

 need be no hard and fast rules about 

 repotting them. It can be done practic- 

 ally any time in the year. Just as 

 soon as the pots are well filled with 

 roots and start to push over the sides, 

 repot them at once. » 



Note how strongly many of the seed- 

 lings break, as compared with the for- 

 est species. It is common to see double 

 breaks; three, and even four, are not 

 unusual; in fact, it is often necessary 

 to cut out some of the growths to 

 strengthen the others, especially before 

 the plants have flowered. Any grower 

 who has two or three dozen hybrids 

 can cut flowers practically every day 

 in the year, and this is quite a con- 

 sideration to the man who has a steady 

 call for choice flowers. In the near 

 future houses of special hybrids will 

 be grown by all the leading commer- 

 cial specialists. This will be a neces- 

 sity, as the forest supplies can not last 

 forever. The plants themselves are 

 only good for a few years, while hy- 

 brids, produced from vigorous parents 

 possess much greater longevity. 



CHBISTMAS PEPPERS. 



Kindly publish cultural notes on 

 Christmas peppers, when to sow and 

 how to treat to be in prime condition 

 for Christmas. E. A. B. 



Christmas peppers should be sown 

 not later than the first week in April. 

 Prick off into flats when large enough 

 to handle. Plant outdoors about June 

 1, when all danger from frost has 

 passed. Lift and pot about the mid- 

 dle of September. Keep well sprayed 

 and shaded for a few days, until the 

 plants become established. Some 

 growers prefer to keep in pots through 

 the summer. This entails more labor 

 in watering, but if the pots can be 

 plunged in soil or cinders in an open, 

 sunny spot, convenient to water, they 

 will do well. Six-inch pots are a con- 

 venient size to grow the plants in. 



Remove to a house with a night tem- 

 perature of 50 to 55 degrees by the 

 early part of October, in order to get 

 them well ripened in good season. 



C. W. 



CUTTINa GLADIOLUS SPIKES. 



How close to the ground should gladi- 

 olus spikes be cut, in case the grower 

 wishes to sell the blooms and either 

 sell the bulbs or retain them" for his 

 own future use? A. G. 



The gladiolus spikes should be cut 

 so as to leave at least two fully devel- 

 oped leaves. This can be done by plac- 

 ing the blade of a sharp knife across 

 the stalk and bending the spike over 

 the thumb of the knife hand, cut- 

 ting the spike and snapping it out at 

 the same times^ Generally it is not 

 necessary to cut entirely through the 

 stalk. Varieties differ in growth; 

 some are much easier to cut long than 

 others. It is necessary to leave at least 

 two leaves in order to develop the new 

 corm, which begins to form from the 

 time the spike shows. 



E. H. Cushman. 



ASTEBS BENCHED TOO LATE. 



I have a bench of asters, put in dur- 

 ing the first week of June. I put 

 strawy stable manure in the bottom of 

 the bench; on top of that I placed some 

 soil and then about one inch of well 

 rotted stable manure, spaded in. My 

 asters did nicely for about three weeks; 

 then they began to turn black on one 

 side of the stem. Can you tell me 

 where the trouble lies? D. E. 



The compost would seem to have been 

 all right for the asters. The main trou- 

 ble is in benching them as late as June. 

 For indoor culture early planting is 

 best, benching not later than the early 

 part of May. This permits the plants 

 to get well rooted and strong before 

 the intense summer heat comes on. The 

 terrific heat experienced during July 

 of the present year has been too much 

 for some plants under glass, asters 

 among them. The fact that watering 

 had to be done daily to keep the 



The Omaha Florists' Qub on its Annual Outing, July 27, 1911.— See page 46. 



