The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



SGPTEMBEa 16, 1909. 



TO REMOVE BORDEAUX MIXTURE 



r sjiravt'il IjDrclcaiix inixt\iie ou my 

 chi vsaiitlieiiiuiiis to protect lliem from 

 loai'-.spot, iuul Olio day af'torwaril I 

 syrin<,fOil tlii'iii SL'\t'r;il times, but it seems 

 I caiiiiot elean this Jlordeaux mixture otT 

 by syiingiiijf with water. Please let me 

 kuow if there is .sometiiiiijj to use for 

 washiiijr oil J'ordeaux mixture. 



• S. U. E. 



8. 1". E. niiylit try a weak solution of 

 Ivory so;ip, (II a spray with the new 

 Ajihino solution Tni<;ht remove the Bor- 

 deaux mixture, as it has great cleansing 

 properties. Jt is late now to give ad- 

 vice, as the Bordeaux is already applied, 

 but in future, when si)iaying Die mums 

 so near llowering time, use ])()t;u«sium sul- 

 phide, one ounce to two gallon.s of water, 

 as ad\i.'^ed lor rust and mildew. It 

 does not discolot the foliage to any harm- 

 ful extent and is a valual)le fungiciile. 

 The chief merit of the Bordeaux is that 

 it sticks, but 8. U. Iv (iocs not seem to 

 care for it on that account. 



CUAd. H. TOTTY. 



SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS. 





Spraying and Watering. 



The cooler days tire with us and mote 

 particularly the cooler nights. Much 

 more care must be taken now in spray- 

 ing the plants, r^p a heavy dose of mildew 

 often result.s irom spraying the stock too 

 late in the day and having the plants wet 

 all ni;,'lit. Do all your sjiraying and wa- 

 tering ill the morning, so that the house 

 will be dry everywhere by nightfall, and 

 then mildew will not make any headway, 

 unless your growth is extremely soft. As 

 the buds buist tlirough their covering, 

 overhead spraying should cease, because 

 the water will lodge in the bud and rot 

 the embryonic petals. Some buds that 

 are more or less conical in shape shed 

 the water easily, but the flat ones hold 

 the water, the old Robinson and the 

 Katons being noteworthy in that res|)ect. 



Feeding. 



As the different varieties show' color 

 the feeding should cease, because if the 

 feeding is too long continuetl the flow- 

 ers damp and are rendere<l useless. It is 

 an art only acquired by long o!)sorvation, 

 to know when to .'^top feeding, but the 

 grower had better err on the side of 

 too little rather than too much, as a 

 tlower s[>oilcd means the loss of tho sea- 

 son "s W(irk. 



Nover us^- bone or any srdid fertilizer 

 so late as thin. Confino the fwding en- 

 tirely to liquids, either ehemicd or nat- 

 ural manures, as the liquid can be taken 

 up by the pl.ant arid used at once and 

 will not remain in tho soil to injure the 

 blooms later. 



Rust. 



The iisiial complaints regarding rust at 

 this sia-!on are coming in, more particu- 

 larly from growers who have their stock 

 outside. In .New .lersey it seems impos- 

 sible te grow muin.s outsi<le anv more 



witlunit lust and leaf-spot. Before the 

 jilants are got inside they should be 

 sprayed with the liver of sulphur or 

 [lotassium sulphide. I have found this 

 will kei^p down rust and will also check 

 any mildew 'that may be coming as a 

 n'sult oj' tlie damp night air. 



All i)lants that are outside should be 

 got in as soon a.s possible now, especially 

 if they have to be lifted ami jjotted, be- 

 cause time must be given the jilants to 

 get established again before the flowers 

 open. Many market pot plants are han- 

 dled in this way, and if the lifting be 

 carefully done and the plants shadecl for 

 several days after jiotling, they suffer 

 Jjut little iniurv. Chas. II. ToTTY. 



WHITE GRUBS IN SOIL. 



Will you kindly advise me what to do 

 for white grubs. They eat the roots off 

 my bedding plants and girdle them under 



the ground. I have lost a great majiy 

 jilants that I had in the field. The soil 

 that I have prepared for my benches also 

 has grubs in it. Kach time I hanille it 

 I kill all I find, but no doubt several will 

 bo left in. C. A. H. 



The grubs you are having trouble with 

 are probably the larvic of the May beetle 

 or June bug. Th(;se are destructive, par- 

 ticularly in dry se.isons, when they come 

 near the surfac^e of the soil and eat the 

 roots from grasses and many garden 

 crops. Steam sterilization of the soil de- 

 stroys these and all other pests. This 

 is, of course, impossible among growing 

 crops, but you can get rid of them by 

 u.sing carbon bisulphide. This will cost 

 you about 25 cents per pound commer- 

 cially. Bore holes eighteen inches apart 

 each way in the affected beds, using a 

 pointed stick. In each hole pour a few 

 drops of the carbon, covering the hole at 

 once. The fumes are penetrating and 

 deadly, especially when the ground is 

 damp. This remedy can also be applied 

 to plants in pots or crops in benches. It 

 will not hurt any of your crops in the 

 least. Keep any naked lights away from 

 the bottle while using it; when you have 

 doiie using it, cork up securely and seal 

 tiie top with |iaratliii to ])revent any 

 fumes escaping. C. W. 



TROUBLE WITH GERANIUMS. 



I am sending you samjjles of my gera- 

 niums, the leaves of which are diseased. 

 These plants were purchased in April. 

 They have; been kept in covered frames, 

 well \enti!ated, until two weeks ago, when 

 I brought them into the greenhouse. This 

 trouble began the last of May and has 

 been inoeasing, in spite of all my ef- 

 forts to cheek it. 1 have sprayeil them 

 with Jiordeaux mixture and have used 

 sulphur and air slaked lime. What i.s the 

 tiouble and can it be checked? The 

 leaves finally turn yellow and drop. I 

 tind my large st<ick geraniums planted 

 out in the borders ar(^ alft^cted also. 



L. .M. D. 



^'our trouble is not by any means an 

 uncommon one. As your pl.ants appear 

 to have been sickly from the start, it may 

 li.'ive been due to o\('ri»ropagation. If 

 the plants Ironi which your stock \va.s 

 obt.ained were from plants kept contin- 

 ually umler glass and every pos^^ible cut- 

 ting taken from them, it is not surpris 

 iiig that they siiow a lack of vitality and 

 tall an easy mark to disoas(\ Koiping 

 (jiittings too long in the jiropai^ating 

 lieiich is .•lisD liable to .start this trouble. 

 As ii general thing, cuttings taken from 

 indoor stock root with the smallest loss 

 from damjiing off and, unless the jiropa- 

 gating is overdone, they shoidd remain 

 healthy, either inside or out of doovs. 



(.'liyiatic conditions often start blight 

 in the fidiage. Damp, warm and .sunless 

 ue.'ither, if (Continued for several days, 

 will sometimes ruin whole beds. Your 

 •louble, lunvcver, is evidentiv of ;i differ- 



ent nature, and as you evidently have it 

 in a virulent form and remedial measures 

 h.ave been of no avail, it would be better 

 to throw away your plants and endeavor 

 to secure clean stock from a reliable spe- 

 cialist in geraniums. If you do not care 

 to do this, pick your pot plants clean and 

 .stand them on a sunny bench, where they 

 can get plenty of pure, sweet air. If the 

 pots are well filled with roots, use a little 

 nitrate of soda or soot in an endeavor to 

 tone them up. Before taking any cut- 

 tings from your stock plants wait until 

 just before frost threatens. Trim the 

 foliage off quite bare, dip the cuttings in 

 Bordeaux mixture and place in clean sand 

 in a sunny house. It is possible they 

 may keep clean, but I would have more 

 faith in new stock. C. W. 



GERANIUMS FOR SPRING SALES. 



llow late can cuttings be jiut in sand 

 to make 4 inch blooming plants not later 

 than June 1? C. L. IL 



The usual plan is to grow along the 

 cuttings taken in September and October 

 for spring s.alos, but you can propagate 

 as late as the end of .January and get 

 nice 4 inch pot stock by .June 1. In the 

 case of cuttings taken during the winter 

 the best jilan is to insert each singly in 

 2 inch pots of sandy loam. They will 

 root within a month. Shift to 3-inch and 

 later 4 inch pots. C. W. 



Cortland, N. Y. — N. Starr & Son are 

 extensive market gardeners here, and they 

 also contemplale growing flowers for the 

 wholesale market. 



