May 19, 1910. 



ThcWcekly Florists' Review. 



21 



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Bedding as it is Done About a Rochester Residence.- 



(To the left, agcratum, white geraniums, red fireraniums, nicotiana and morning Rinries. To the right white and red geraniumn, Kn^rllHli ivy and atnpelopsis.) 



are few really good ones. Some that 

 may thrive and flower in a sheltered, 

 partly shaded place will look like rats' 

 tails in a few weeks if exposed to the 

 winds and starved for root room. The 

 English ivy will remain just where you 

 put it, but in a vase is not graceful. The 

 vincas are truly the best of all. Then 

 there is the ivy geranium, Abutilon vex- 

 illarium, double sweet alyssum, money 

 vine, senecio (often called German ivy), 

 lobelias, maurandia, nasturtium, etc. 

 There are two splendid climbing plants, 

 both excellent for this purpose, but sel- 

 dom seen because they are neglected in 

 the winter, in fact, often lost, viz., Ipo- 

 moea Mortonii and Pilogyne suavis. 



Don't Crowd the Plants. 



Now, if you are a beginner at the la- 

 borious vase business, remember that you 

 crowd into a space of two feet in diam- 

 eter or less, as many plants as would 

 about properly fill a 6-foot bed. There- 

 fore the soil should be of the best. In 

 addition to manure, use a 6-inch pot 

 of bone flour to every wheelbarrow of 

 soil and be sure to get the soil firmly 

 and compactly down between the balls 

 of the plants. Let each plant be well 

 firmed in its place. You can cover the 

 surface of the soil with green moss. It 

 keeps the soil from washing oflf, prevents 

 some drying out of the soil and when the 

 roots reach it they thrive in it. 



One thing more. When you start a 

 young man filling these vases, your stock 

 is a,bu!ndant and he wants to make a nice 

 looking job and crowds in your fine 

 geriniums. Now, with these early filled 

 vases there is no need to crowd, for they 



will soon fill up and be all the better 

 for a little room to spread. JDon't put in 

 more stock than you are paid for, just 

 because it is abundant. Save your plants, 

 for there are lots of belated orders 

 coming along until July 4. Then you 

 would be glad of the plants you so lav- 

 ishly used when they were plentiful, 

 and it is the late filled vases that need 

 crowding, if any. 



It is a good plan to arrange to water 

 the vases you fill and if you water several 

 hundred at $2 or $2.50 each for the 

 season it does not seem a large charge 

 for the individual, but it will be found 

 a better paying operation than the charge 

 for filling, and you have the opportunity 

 to care for your own work. 



BEDDING OUT. 



The time for bedding out has arrived 

 — at least, over the greater part of the 

 country, floriculturally speaking, the time 

 for planting out most of the soft-wooded 

 stock is from May 15 to the early part 

 of June. Earlier than this date there 

 is danger of frost. -Indeed, .so warm 

 was March and the early part of April 

 that a good many people were impatient 

 to get their lawns and window-boxes 

 in shape, and some florists who yielded 

 to their customers' insistence have now 

 to explain why they did so — the cold of 

 late April and early May has ruined 

 whatever tender stock was exposed to it. 



It is the duty of the florist to sug- 

 gest the most appropriate style of bed- 

 ding to his customers where advice is 

 asked for, and poor policy to crowd in 

 more than is discreet when it is left to 



his judgment. In residence streets a 

 flower bed on the lawn between the house 

 and the sidewalk is not good taste. At 

 the side or slightl^^ to the rear of the 

 house is much better. Houses of a modr 

 erate size, with verandas at side and 

 front, have often a row or two of eannas 

 in the border surrounding the veranda, 

 and extremely handsome they look, 



Florists are divided into several classes. 

 The strictly store man has no interest 

 in bedding plants, nor has the wholesale 

 grower more than to dispose of them, 

 but the great majority of the florists of 

 the country raise bedding plants for 

 their sprihg crops and depend upon their 

 sale for a good part of their income. If 

 well and carefully done and a fair and 

 jufit charge made, customers will be un- 

 likely to leave and one can depend on 

 the order from year to year. 



The profit will largely depend upon 

 the florists' ability to keep a good stock 

 of plants in a comparatively small space 

 till after Easter. From fall till after 

 Easter benches are wanted for successive 

 crops, but Easter sales largely clear them 

 except those planted with roses and car- 

 nations. Geraniums can be then given 

 their last shift, and so can ageratum. 

 feverfew, heliotrope and salvia. Coleus 

 can be grown from a cutting to a fine 

 bedding plant in eight weeks. Cannas 

 and caladiums can be kept in flats till the 

 middle of April and then make fine 

 plants by June 1. Petunias can be 

 pricked out in pans and then in six weeks 

 will make the best of bedding plants. 

 Centaurea, coleus, achyranthes, verbenas, 

 heliotropes, many of the geraniums, lo- 

 belias, aloysias, and all the 'carpet bed- 



