28 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



May 19, 1910. 



SEASONABLE NOTES. 



Odontoglossums. 



OStontoglossums are the most difficult 

 of all orchids to grow in the United 

 States. Coming, as they do, from loca- 

 tions where a maximum of 65 degrees is 

 rarely exceeded, it is telling on^thein 

 when we get hot waves, with tempera- 

 tures of 90 to 95 degrees in the shade 

 for several successive days. Yet, while 

 these most beautiful of all orchids are 

 hard to succeed with, more growers are 

 handling them successfully than ten years 

 ago. An old error was to give them a 

 low winter temperature of 45 degrees in 

 a north house, whereas 10 degrees higher 

 in a sunny house, which will give the 

 leaves a ruddy hue, hardens them, makes 

 them flower better and earlier and puts 

 them in a vastly better condition for 

 standing our torrid summers than the 

 dark-green-leaved plants grown in shady 

 houses. Some day, when an inexpensive 

 system of artificial refrigeration for 

 greenhouses is possible, we may grow 

 good odontoglossums, such as abound in 

 Europe. Until then we must be satis- 

 fied with rather mediocre ones. 



Before the arrival of hot nights, move 

 the odontoglossums into a north house. 

 If sunken below the ground level, it will 

 be much cooler. As the flo\^ring season 

 is now nearly over, many can be re- 

 potted. Use pots about half filled with 

 crocks, mix a little sphagnum in chopped 

 fern fiber for compost, and put a little 

 of the moss .on the surface if you are 

 sure it will not bring a crop of shell 

 snails, which will later devastate the 

 flower spikes as they appear. After re- 

 potting, the plants will need little water 

 other than sprayings overliead until roots 

 and growths are being freely produced. 

 Allow the plants to have some early 

 morning sun, and during the latter part 

 of the afternoon, and air freely at night. 



Such varieties as O. citrosmum and O. 

 pulchellum majus succeed well at the 

 warm end of the cattleya house. The 

 former is now flowering and succeeds 

 best in pans suspended from the roof. 

 For summer, shading lath or cloth blinds 

 suspended a foot above the glass are 

 better than putting whitening on the 

 glass, as they keep the house much 

 colder. 



Summer Cattleyas. 



Summer cattleyas are now making a 

 gorgeous show and they are of such easy 

 culture that no commercial grower with 

 even a small place need be afraid to try 

 his hand at one or the other of them. 

 C. Mossia; is now in its glory and is of 

 easy culture. Keep the plants drier at 

 the root and cooler while in flower. In 

 the case of buying new stock, never buy 

 established plants unless obliged to. The 



specialists, of course, cull out all the 

 choice forms as they bloom and ask 

 fancy prices for them. In getting a 

 case, it is not at all unlikely that a 

 white-sepaled and petaled one will much 

 more than pay for the original outlay. 

 Cattleya Skinneri is a useful summer 

 variety of a color much like the autumn 

 flowering C. Bowringeana. It succeeds 

 well at the coldest end of the house, 

 where a winter minimum of 55 degrees is 

 maintained. C. Mendellii is a beautiful 

 summer orchid. The sepals and petals 

 are usually nearly pure white. It is 

 more expensive than Mossiae, hence is less 

 grown for the markets. It likes the 

 warmest end of the house, with C. TriansB, 

 when growing. A few C. gigas are al- 

 ready open. This is the largest and most 

 showy of all cattleyas. The flowers lack 

 the substance of other sorts named and 

 must be well shaded to prevent burning. 

 C. gigas likes more heat than some cat- 

 tleyas and enjoys being up close to the 

 glass. 



Many importations of cattleyas have 

 lately come to hand and will soon arrive. 

 On arrival, sponge the plants carefully. 

 Cut out any decayed bulbs. Stand them 

 on a bench, or, better still, hang them 

 below a center bench until they start to 

 break. Pots or pans are better than 

 baskets. The roots are in more perfect 

 control in them. The old idea about 

 these plants having aeriel roots and feed- 

 ing on the air is utter nonsense. Keep them 

 inside the pots if you want healthy 

 plants. Pure osmunda fiber is the only 

 potting medium needed. Water not at 

 all for a starter, but give fine sprayings 

 each afternoon. As roots appear and 

 pseudo-bulbs advance, water a little, but 

 better give too little rather than an over- 

 supply. 



If we could all use movable shades on 

 our cattleya houses, as in Europe, we 

 would get better results, but it is too 

 laborious where large collections are 

 grown. The next best thing is kero- 

 sene or naphtha and white lead. We 

 sometimes wish, when we get day after 

 day of dark weather, that it was not 

 there, but this is better than trying any 

 colored shadings, which may be all right 

 on palm or fern houses, but are out of 

 place over orchids. It should be possible 

 to leave some air on cattleya houses all 

 the time now, and the night temperature 

 may vary from 62 to 65 degrees, although 

 on hot nights it will exceed that. Wa- 

 tering after June 1 we like to do in the 

 afternoon, and a spraying on bright aft- 

 ernoons is refreshing. 



ONCINNATL 



The Market 



New Bedford, Mass. — John H. Cleary, 

 employed by Wm. P. Peirce, the Market 

 street florist, was recently an important 

 witness in the trial of one of the county 

 officials for malfeasance in office. 



The general condition of the market is 

 about the same as at the last writing. 

 The large supply of stock of all kinds 

 meets with a fair demand and moves at 

 fair prices. The quality of the blooms is 

 noticeably better. The supply of roses 

 is still large and of the finest quality. 

 They move readily, but only at fair 

 prices. The white varieties are especially 

 in request. 



The supply of carnations was large, 

 and the call for them took them up slow- 

 ly. In spite of this, the prices were 

 scarcely shaded at all. There was just 

 enough white to meet the demand. 



Sweet peas are taken up by the buyers 

 as rapidly as they are offered. Valley is 

 a little scarce, but apparently enough is 

 on hand to meet the demand. Gladioli 

 and new stock in cornflowers and delphin- 

 iums sell well. Good lilies are offered. 

 There is enough of green goods, such as 

 ferns, leucothoe, smilax, plumosus and 

 Sprengeri, to meet all demands. 



Various Notes. 



Weiland & dinger are installing a new 

 battery of self-feeding boilers at their 

 greenhouses at New Castle. They have 

 already received many inquiries and some 

 large orders for flowers for Decoration 

 day. 



J. A. Peterson's field of Iris pallida 

 Dalmatica is in full bloom. The flowers 

 are a beautiful shade of lavender. Mr. 

 Greensmith, the horticulturist for the local 

 parks, pronounces it one of the finest 

 sights he ever saw., 



C. E. Critchell, while out of town for 

 a few days last week, arranged for large 

 shipments of stock for Decoration day. 

 Large quantities of jasmines are arriving 

 at Ms place. He has added labels to his 

 stock of supplies. 



The Heckman Floral Co. and B. D. 

 Buttle, of Madison avenue, Covington, 

 supplied many flowers when the new 

 assistant postmaster of their city took his 

 office. 



William Murphy reports a large ship- 

 ping trade. His sweet peas and white 

 carnations are good and are selling well. 



Tom Windram is sending good carna- 

 tions, and Honaker, of Lexington, Ky., 

 excellent roses and carnations to J. M. 

 McCullough's Sons. 



A large shipment of magnolia leaves 

 arrived at E. G. Gillett's this week. Clar- 

 ence Ohmer's plumosus from West Palm 

 Beach, Fla., is fine. Mr. Gillett has his 

 force of wire workers hustling to keep 

 ahead of orders for wire baskets. 



L. H. Kyrk offers cornflowers that fill 

 the bill nicely for a small blue flower. 

 These and the delphiniums are from 

 George Klatter, of Price Hill. Mr. Kyrk 

 also has some gool longiflorum. 



Wm. Speck is sending fine Harrisii to 

 Critchell 's. 



Wm. Gardner took a hurried run down 

 from New Castle last Saturday evening. 

 He returned the following evening. 



Alex. Ostendarp has the sincere sympa- 

 thy of the trade. His baby son died last 

 week. 



Eddie Bossmeyer, at Critchell 's, ia 

 again on the sick list. 



W. Giles, representing Hummel & Down- 

 ing, of Milwaukee, Wis., showed his sam- 

 ples to the trade the early part of last 

 week. 



Messrs. Goldman, of Middleton, and 

 Lodder, of Hamilton, were in town re- 

 cently. C. H. H. 



