8 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



July 21, lOlf. 



fumigating. The house can be closed 

 ilown about 9 o'clock in the evening 

 and opened again by daylight, and 

 under such conditions no harm will be 

 done to the plants, but never let the 

 sun rise on a closed house or when the 

 house is sweating, as it tends to start 

 loaf disease and other troubles. 



There are tiny j-ellowish white thrips 

 in our section that do a great deal of 

 damage if not closely followed uji. They 

 are always on the under side of the leaf, 

 and often, with a novice, it is not be- 



fore the plant shows unmistakable 

 signs of not being happy that their pres- 

 ence is detected. Look your plants over 

 today and, if you see any signs of this 

 trouble, get busy with a good sprayer 

 and spray underneath the leaves, wash- 

 ing off every leaf, commencing from 

 the ground and going up. I have seen 

 this little pest practically destroy a 

 man 's labor of several months, simply 

 because he did not know enough to 

 wash the under side of the leaf as well 

 as the top. C. H. Totty. 



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Lorraine Begonias. 



Lorraine begonias, while they may 

 not appear to be making the progress 

 we should like to see, will soon make 

 up for it when the first cool night of 

 autumn arrives. Growers not well ac- 

 quainted with these begonias and their 

 characteristics sometimes become dis- 

 couraged at their slow rate of growth 

 in the hottest summer months, but so 

 long as they are healthy no concern 

 need be felt. 



Do not allow them to get potbound 

 before giving them a shift. Be sure 

 not to use a stiff, heavy compost. What 

 they revel in is a soil composed of equal 

 parts of fibrous loam, flaky leaf -mold 

 and well decayed cow manure or screen- 

 ings from an old hotbed, adding a good 

 dash of sharp sand. A light, rich and 

 porous compost is what they specially 

 like. Keep runaway shoots pinched 

 back. Remove all flowers. Do not al- 

 low scum to form on the surface of the 

 soil. Give the plants a fresh stand be- 

 fore they crowd each other, and grow 

 them moderately warm. They like a 

 place quite close to the glass and should 

 not be heavily shaded. Though heavy 

 shading might produce green looking 



fdants, they would be soft and spind- 

 ing compared with those grown in 

 stronger light. 



Cyclamens. 



^Vhile torrid weather continues, cyc- 

 lamens, provided they are being grown 

 in coldframes, will be much better with- 

 out any sashes over them at all, except 

 when there are signs of torrential rain. 

 If lath shadings are used and run 

 over the beds during bright sunshine, 

 the plants will be cooler and do much 

 better without any glass covering. Play 

 the hose over the shading twice or 

 thrice a day, just sufficiently to damp 

 over and at the same time cool and 

 refresh the plants. Be sure the shad- 

 ings are raised so that a good current 

 of air can blow in at both the top and 

 bottom; four to six inches of an eleva- 

 tion will suffice. 



Cyclamens do not like hot weather 

 and, like quite a few other plants, do 

 not raj^He rapid headwaj' in July and 

 August. The most forward plants 

 should now be sufficiently strong to go 

 into 6-inch pots. In potting, do not 

 bury the corm; it should be just suffi- 

 ciently deep in the soil to hold the 



plant firm. Too high an elevation, with 

 a shaky top, means a worthless plant 

 and is even worse than burying it. The 

 soil should be well firmed and be sure 

 to allow a liberal space for water. Two- 

 thirds good fibrous loam and one-third 

 decayed cow manure, passed through a 

 half-inch screen, forms a good potting 

 medium. Add to the foregoing some 

 sharp sand, fine broken charcoal and a 

 3-inch potful of Clay's fertilizer to each 

 bushel of soil. 



Foinsettias. 



Cuttings of poinsettias can be in- 

 serted until the middle of August, and 

 the late ones, while they will not make 

 large bracts, are really preferable for 

 making up into pans, owing to their 

 dwarfness. In putting in cuttings dur- 

 ing this hot weather, trim the leaves 

 oflf quite closely and let the cuttings lie 

 in a pail of water half an hour, to help 

 plump them up. If the sand is sharp, 

 so that water passes away 'freely, there 

 should be little trouble from damping 

 off. Be sure to examine the cutting's 

 frequently and, just as soon as they 

 have made roots an inch long, pot them. 

 If left longer the roots will be broken; 

 the cuttings will soon harden and never 

 make as satisfactory plants as if potted 

 more promptly. 



The earliest rooted cuttings are, or 



soon should be, planted out in benches. 

 This is the way to get big bracts for 

 Christmas, but be sure to grow them 

 in a house where a minimum tempera- 

 ture of 60 to 65 degrees can be main 

 tained while the bracts are developing. 

 Any compost suitable for carnations or 

 chrysanthemums will grow first-class 

 poinsettias. Plants in pots should not 

 receive any shade when once they have 

 becom.e established in their first pots. 

 No plant requires more careful water- 

 ing if good foliage is wanted. The 

 drainage in the pots or pans should be 

 fairly liberal. Avoid using too much 

 manure in the soil, as it is better to 

 supply this later, in the way of top- 

 dressings or waterings with liquid 

 manure. 



Achimenes. 



Achimenes are not a great deal grown 

 commercially, but are useful in July 

 and August, when flowering plants are 

 none too plentiful. If in pots or pans, 

 light stakes should be used for each 

 flowering stem before the blooms start 

 to open. Leave these a little longer 

 than the shoots are, as they will be the 

 better of another tie later, to keep them 

 erect. These are . excellent basket 

 plants, and to display their full beauty 

 they should be grown in this way, 

 where flowering basket plants can be 

 used in summer. Treatment such as has 

 been advised for gloxinias, in former 

 issues, answers well for achimenes. A 

 cool, airy house, well shaded, is what 

 they want in summer. Too often they 

 are seen in so-called stove houses, 

 drawn and spindling, a mere ghost of 

 what they should be. For window or 

 piazza boxes, where they are not ex- 

 posed to sun or wind, achimenes are 

 satisfactory summer plants. The large 

 flowered varieties are the only ones 

 worth growing. 



Adiantums. 



The sale for maidenhair fronds is 

 now at its lowest. Every effort should 

 be made to build up strong plants, 

 which will have an abundance of firm, 

 dark green, well ripened fronds when 

 the real selling season again opens. The 

 houses should have sufficient shade to 

 make the fronds dark in color. The 

 pots should never suffer from want of 

 water, or a lamentable loss of foliage 

 is bound to result. Feeding should be 

 given regularly. A good liquid is soot 

 and cow manure. The former helps to 



Gncinnati Florists' Society at Gus Adrian's, July H. 



