The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



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SUPTBMBUR 2, 1909. 



there will not be a sign of lice when the 

 plants commence to flower. If they are 

 clean at this stage it will not be neces- 

 sary to fumigate while they are in bloom. 

 It is impossible to sell sweet peas that 

 smell of tobacco. Tobacco also bleaches 

 the flowers of some varieties. 



"Buds dropping is caused by too cool 

 a temperature or a sudden chill, or too 

 much water. Should a house be allowed 

 to go near the freezing point in mid- 

 winter, the wholesale dropping of buds 

 will be sure to follow. They take an 

 abundance of water in the flowering sea- 

 son, but require little in the early stages 

 of their growth. They should be pro- 

 vided with proper drainage, to guard 

 against too much moisture. 



Best Varieties. 



"Earliest of All, pink, and Watchung, 

 white, will come into flower fully two 



weeks ahead of other varieties, and for 

 early purposes they are a fine pair to 

 grow together. They are both black- 

 seeded. These will flower in October if 

 sown in August, and will be in full crop 

 for Thanksgiving. For a later crop I 

 prefer Christmas Pink, pink, and Flor- 

 ence Denzer, white. These are the lead- 

 ers among sweet peas at the present 

 time. Denzer is two Weeks latex than 

 Christmas Pink, and is white-seeded. It 

 should be sown in sand and transplanted 

 into flowering quarters at the time you 

 sow the seed of Christmas Pink. They 

 will then commence to flower together." 

 There is a constantly increasing sale 

 for the fancy colors, but as yet pink and 

 white are the staples and are sold in 

 largest quantity. Don 't try to economize 

 on the seed. Get the true winter-flower- 

 ing varieties from a sweet pea specialist. 



tion should begin at once and be per- 

 sisted in, because the buds must be free 

 from fly before they show color. The 

 same thing also applies to red spider, 

 which is often p^-esent on the under side 

 of the leaves, right below the bud, and, 

 as soon as syringing stops, the pests 

 swarm up and render the bud useless. 



All these little points must be at- 

 tended to this month, so that when the 

 cool nights compel us to close thfe ven- 

 tilators the plants will be clean and 

 ready for the changed condition. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS. 



Early Flowering Varieties. 



Already the first mums are appearing 

 in the wholesale marts, and, truth to tell, 

 the demand is extremely slow. Golden 

 Glow is the principal variety seen so far, 

 and it certainly seems as though my pre- 

 diction as to a flood of this variety was 

 about to be fulfilled. 



With asters arriving in such splendid 

 shape as they are at present, and business 

 almost at a standstill, there is no need of 

 mums at this season. There is a time for 

 everything, and the time for the mum, 

 if you can catch it, is just after the first 

 frost has nipped the outdoor stock and 

 the market finds itself almost bare of 

 flowers. Then the retailer 's fancy lightly 

 turns to thoughts of mums, and the cool, 

 crisp weather induces him to stock up and 

 begin to look for fall business to open up. 



It would seem that the profitable way 

 to handle Golden Glow will be to strike 

 it at the end of April, plant late in May 

 and catch a bud about the first week in 

 August. This will give flowers by about 

 September 20, which is early enough to 

 commence cutting. It is the experience 

 of most growers that early planted stock 

 rung to bud altogether after the first 

 break, instead of going on with another 

 shoot as most kinds do, and consequently 

 everybody is sending in a batch of short- 

 stemmed flowers, deficient in decent 

 foliage and generally unsatisfactory, es- 

 pecially in the present condition of the 

 market. 



Flowers, with me, are open also on 

 Marie Masse, Robbie Burns, Ralph Curtis 

 and Wells' new early flowering singles, 

 but, speaking financially, they may as 

 well be not fiowering at all. 



Budding, Staking and Fumigating. 



The present is a busy season in the 

 houses. Side shoots and suckers are 

 springing up on every side, and constant 

 working around the plants is necessary. 

 Take all buds now as they show, saving 

 the ones that you are growing for late 

 use, as all the midseason varieties are 

 safe on buds now showing and nothing is 



gained and much lost by waiting for a 

 later bud. 



Plants are growing rapidly now and 

 they should be kept tied up and properly 

 looked after, as flowers with crooked 

 stems will sell only when other stock is 

 gone. 



When taking buds it is always well to 

 run over the plants in the early morning 

 or else the cool of the evening, when in 

 contemplative mood the boss walks 

 through the house, smoking his pipe and 

 mentally figuring how far into the winter 

 the mum crop will buy coal. The shoots 

 are brittle in the early morning and after 

 the sun goes down, and one can do just 

 about twice as much work in a given 

 time. 



Just at this season the black fly ap- 

 pears again in the houses, and funMga- 



POMPONS FOR SPRAYS. 



This is my first year with pompon 

 mums. I am growing them for sprays, 

 three to five branches to a plairt, for the 

 Chicago market. Will it be necessary to 

 do any disbudding? Will they need any 

 staking! W. D. H. 



It is not necessary to do any disbud- 

 ding on pompons, or at most you might 

 just thin out a few of the buds at the 

 tips of shoots that may seem over- 

 crowded. If you desire to show any 

 flowers, you can disbud somewhat by 

 waiting till the buds have grown long 

 enough on their stem to show you just 

 how close they will be, and then disbud- 

 ding enough so that when the flowers are 

 open they just touch each other. This 

 would hardly pay when growing pom- 

 pons commercially at wholesale, though 

 with a fancy retail trade one might find 

 it profitable to do so. 



Unless the plants were set out late and 

 are very short-stemmed, they will need 

 staking. I find bamboo canes the best 

 for pompons, because they are stouter 

 than iron stakes and stand up better 

 when the shoots are loosely looped up, 

 as they should be. 



W. D. H. will bear in mind that he is 

 aiming to produce an attractive spray 

 of flowers and not a stiff stem with a 

 single flower on top, so the sprays should 

 not be bunched tightly together. Catch 

 the base of the plant to the stake and 

 allow the top shoots all the leeway pos- 

 sible. Chas. H. Totty. 



LEAF-SPOT AND STEM-ROT. 



I am sending herewith a portion of a 

 carnation plant of the variety Boston 

 Market, and a bud of the Red Lawson. 

 Can you tell me the reason they rot at 

 the joints, like the plant I am sending 

 you? Do you think that too close top- 

 ping could be the cause, or being too 

 wet in the field? We had lots of rain 

 in the early part of the season and water 

 stood on the ground for a couple of hours 

 after it rained. 



I can find buds quite often that are 

 affected like this one I am sending you, 

 on all varieties. As you will see, this bud 

 is badly eaten up with spider, but I had 

 the same trouble with the rot last year 

 and I was clear of spider then. I gave 

 them a good watering when I put them 

 in the bench and they took hold finely, 



but this rotting seemed to come just as 

 soon as I housed them. They were mod- 

 erately dry at the root when benched. 



Will Bordeaux mixture be of any bene- 

 fit and how do you apply it? Will one 

 of the sprayers such as are used to put 

 on nicotine be all right? S. M. F. 



The spotted foliage and the rotted bud 

 are both undoubtedly caused by too much 

 rain outdoors, and similar conditions in 

 the house. The trouble with the Boston 

 Market is a simple case of leaf -spot and 

 can be gotten rid of by picking off the 

 spotted leaves and spraying with Boi- 

 deaux. 



The Red Lawsons are troubled with 

 that fungous disease which has caused 

 many growers to discard all the Lawson 

 varieties. It attacks mainly the stem, 

 eating through it and ruining the growth 

 above it. The treatment is the same as 

 for the leaf -spot and other fungous dis- 



