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10 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



Sbptbmbbb 16, 1900. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS i 



Cinerarias. 



As the growth on cinerarias is now 

 much more rapid, the plants will re- 

 quire spacing once a week and potting 

 should be done before the young plants 

 become crowded in the flats or potbound. 

 Cinerarias like a light, rich soil, not 

 pressed too firmly in the pots until the 

 final shift, when it is better to use a 

 potting stick and see that it is well 

 firmed. For compost in the earlier stages 

 of growth, one-half loam, one-fourth leaf- 

 mold and one-fourth fine cow manure, 

 well decayetl, answers well. At the last 

 potting drop the leaf-mold. Two-thirds 

 loam and one-third cow manure, with a 

 little fine bone and a dash of sand and 

 fine charcoal, will then be found excel- 

 lent. 



Grow the plants cool all the time; air 

 abundantly, shade from bright sunshine; 

 spray overhead early in the afternoons 

 of hot days. Fumigate or spray once a 

 week for aphis and always keep well up 

 to the glass. With this treatment the 

 plants cannot fail to thrive. For some 

 time yet frame culture will be found 

 much the best for the plants. 



Eticas. 



It is now time to lift and pot ericas. 

 Where they have been planted out in a 

 Bunny spot and kept well syringed, they 

 Bhould be bristling with little flower buds. 

 In lifting, it is essential to have a good 

 ball. This can be reduced with a sharp 

 pointed stick so as to permit them to go 

 into pots of moderate size. It is an 

 erroneous notion that ericas must have 

 peat to succe-sfully grow them. It is 

 true they thrive beautifully in peat, to 

 which sand, leaf-mold and some old ma- 

 nure have been added, but loam will an- 

 swer as well as peat, particularly if it is 

 of a fibrous nature. Ericas, like all hard- 

 wooded subjects, must be potted firmly. 

 Pack the soil a little at a time around the 

 sides of the pots with a thin, flat pot- 

 ting stick, being sure that no open crev- 

 ices are left. 



If nice balls were on the plants when 

 lifted, they will require little shading. 

 Be sure to soak them thoroughly after 

 potting and keep outdoors until danger 

 of frost necessitates their removal to a 

 cold house or pit. Erica melanthera is 

 probably the most widely popular of the 

 heaths in the United States and is an 

 excellent plant for stores, on account 

 of its splen<lid keeping qualities. It is 

 easily flowered for Christmas by housing 

 a few plants now, giving them a light, 

 airy structure to grow in. 



Lilies. 



Bulbs of L. longiflorum multiflorum 

 and of the so-called Formosa type should 

 be potted as soon as received. A larger 

 proportion of growers than usual are 

 planning to grow these in lieu of L. 

 longiflorum giganteum, on account of the 

 early date on which Easter falls in 1910. 

 There can be no question but that the 

 giganteum is the best lily commercially, 

 but it is going to require more forcing 



than Usual to flower it by the end of 

 March. This will make it necessary to 

 have buds in sight by St. Valentine's day. 



Small growers, who lack forcing facili- 

 ties, had better depend on Harrisii, multi- 

 florum or Formosa. The first named may 

 require some holding back. It is, unfor- 

 tunately, subject to disease, Formosas 

 are of such variable heights, all the way 

 from twelve inches to six feet, and also 

 show so much irregularity in the flowers, 

 that they do not make desirable pot 

 plants, though they are good for cut- 

 ting. Their practical immunity from dis- 

 ease is the great point in their favor. 

 Good multiflorums are probably the best 

 to grow where giganteums cannot be flow- 

 ered in time. 



The giganteums are dwarf in habit 

 and flower profusely. The flowers are 

 large and the percentage of loss from dis- 

 ease la, as a rule, less than from Harrisii 

 or multiflorum. Just as soon as the lily 

 bulbs arrive, get them in the soil. If 

 allowed to lie around for a week in flats, 

 they will lose much of their weight and 

 become quite flabby. When the scales of 



ter to secure any propagating wood on 

 marguerites in the hot months, every 

 shoot hardening and running to bloom. 

 There should be no trouble now for some 

 months about securing all necessary cut- 

 tings. Plants carried over the summer 

 in pots do not at present look particu- 

 larly promising, ownng to the constant ef- 

 fort they make to bloom, causing a con- 

 tinual removal of buds. They will soon 

 take on a new lease of life. Any which 

 are getting cramped at the root will be 

 benefited by a small shift. Do not give 

 too big a shift, for it will mean an ex- 

 cess of growth at the expense of flowers. 

 For early winter flowering the plants 

 must be well rooted in the pots. 



Hydraogea Otaksa. 



Easter comes early in 1910, and it be- 

 hooves us to get the wood ripened on our 

 hydrangeas in good season, so that they 

 will be in a fit condition to force a little 

 earlier than usual. Field-grown stock, if 

 potted now and kept in an open, sunny 

 spot, will wilt but little, provided some 

 ball was retained on the plants and they 

 are freely sprayed for a few days. Plants 

 kept in pots through the summer can 

 have the water supply gradually reduced, 

 in order to check the growth and harden 

 the wood. Eemember the withholding of 

 water must not be sudden, or it will be 

 more harmful than helpful. What we 

 are aiming at is to have the foliage ma- 

 tured and the wood of a nutty brown 

 color early in December. If we can se- 

 cure these things, we can depend upon it 

 that the plants will be in a fit condition 

 for forcing. 



D. Rusconi. 



a lily bulb become soft, it is a moral cer- 

 tainty that much of its vitality has gone. 

 Be careful, then, to delay potting of all 

 lilies as short a time as possible. 



Marguerites. 

 Stock plants of marguerites in the field 

 are now throwing a nice lot of soft cut- 

 tings, free from flower butls, and a good 

 batch of these should be placed in the 

 sand bench at once. It is a difScult mat- 



Lemon-tcented Verbenas. 



Every florist is asked for some plants 

 of lemon-scented verbenas each spring. 

 It is often found a difiicult subject to 

 propagate. From hard wood the chances 

 of rooting, this plant are small, but by 

 selecting soft tops or little side shoots 

 rubbed off with a heel, and inserting 

 them in an ordinary propagating bench 

 where there is a little bottom heat, few 



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