OCIOBEB 28, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



u 



KOT THRIPS, BUT LEAF-SPOT. 



[ find something working on my car- 

 nation buds which I take to be thrips. 

 In iliis house I have carnations, Aspara- 

 gus^ Sprengeri, Chinese and obconica 

 pri;.;roses and geraniums. Would fumi- 

 gating with hydrocyanic gas injure any 

 of the above plants? 



^here are several cigar shops in my 

 tov.n and I can get all the tobacco stems 

 I viunt free. Would any of these plants 

 be affected by fumigating with tobacco 

 stems? Also let me know if I could 

 make a liquid of tobacco stem? to use as 

 a spray to exterminate these pests, and 

 how it should be prepared. G. C. H. 



The specimens forwarded showed no 

 signs of thrips, but had several spots of 

 the common leaf -spot disease. This is no 

 doubt what your trouble is. To rid your 

 plants of this disease, you must adopt 

 ditTerent methods than you suggest in 

 your letter. Pick off all the spotted 

 leaves. Then spray your plants with Bor- 

 deaux mixture, as directed on tho cans. 

 Dust the walks and under the benches 

 with lime. Paint one of the steam pipes 

 with a mixture of lime, sulphur and 

 water. Give all the ventilation possible 

 and keep your plants in a vigorous 

 growth. They will soon outgrow the 

 trouble if these suggestions are followed 

 carefully. 



None of the plants you mention will 

 be injured by hydrocyanic acid gas, 

 should you have occasion to use it, pro- 

 viding, of course, that you do not make 

 it too strong. But it is not needed in 

 this case. 



Regarding the tobacco stems, my ad- 

 vice would be not to use them. It is not 

 a question of the cost of tobacco stems. 

 We can get free of cost all we could use, 

 but would not think of using them for 

 fumigating or for spraying. No up-to- 

 date grower would think of using them 

 lor this purpose. When used for fumi- 

 gating, the smoke takes the brilliancy out 

 "f all the colored plants. It leaves a 

 rank, offensive odor in the house, which 

 i-^ retained by all the blooms for at least 

 t^vo days, making the blooms unsalable. 

 ^>'hen fumigating, the houses must be 

 > 'osed up tight, often causing the tem- 

 I'orature to run up too high, and this, 



hen coupled with the strong tobacco 



loke, will often burn tender growth. 



Years ago we used to make a liquid 

 ■ ^r spraying by steeping the stems in 

 '^t water. This liquid, however, will 



ain both foliage and blooms, and is not 

 •"-tisfactory. 



Contrast this with the nicotine prep- 

 rations offered nowadays. These, when 

 'luted properly in clear water, make a 

 praying material which will not spot the 

 ; hitest flower or injure the most delicate 

 '^af (except violets; never put them on 

 'iolets). You can spray early in the 

 ;ioming, either before or after picking 

 'he flowers, preferably after, and no 

 •blooms are made unsalable thereby. 



Spraying can be done regularly, and 



all insects kept in subjection. This 

 could not be done formerly, with the to- 

 bacco stem fumigating. In those days 

 it would be put off from day to day on 

 account of having to cut blooms, until 

 the grower would wake up to find his 

 plants carried away by the pests. 



We would indeed be sorry to have to 

 go back to using tobacco stems for fumi- 

 gating. A. F. J. B. 



A BED OF SHASTA. 



The accompanying illustration shows a 

 bed of the new white carnation, Shasta, 

 in the greenhouses of Baur & Smith, In- 

 dianapolis. A point of interest to grow- 

 ers will be that the picture shows the 

 style of solid bed that has replaced 

 raised benches in this establishment. The 

 plank walls are filled in with cinders to 

 a height that brings the stock up to a 

 level where it is easier to work than it 

 would be on the ground, and the usual 

 amount of soil is used on top of the 

 cinders, which provide the drainage. 



The bed illustrated was planted dur- 

 ing the first week of August and contains 

 1,800 plants. The photograph was made 

 October 1. This bed is being grown for 

 blooms, not for cuttings. There is an- 

 other house on the place in which 8,000 

 plants are being grown for cuttings. 

 Propagation will begin about November 

 1. It is stated that over 40,000 cuttings 

 already have been sold. 



STARTED IN A ROOFLESS HOUSE. 



We are thinking of erecting a carnation 

 house next summer, about 20x75 feet, and 

 think of putting up the framework and 

 benches early in the spring, but not put- 

 ting the glass on until fall. Our idea 

 is to plant the young carnations directly 

 into the benches in the spring and let 



them grow there during the summer, ex- 

 posed to the open, and then early in the 

 fall put on the glass. We think by this 

 plan we can control conditions better, 

 for if we have excessively rainj weather, 

 as we did last summer, the benches will 

 dry out faster than the field, and if it 

 IS dry we can use the hose. This plan 

 will save considerable work in the fall 

 in planting into the house from the field' 

 We propose to prepare a sod and manure 

 compost at once and have it ready for 

 the benches by the time frost is over in 

 the spring. 



What do you think of this plan. In 

 answering, you must remember that here, 

 in North Carolina, we have pretty hot 

 weather in the summer. B. E. G. 



After considering your case carefully, 

 I believe I would modify your plan some- 

 what. To begin with, you must bear in 

 mind that if you plant your carnations 

 where they are to flower, the proposition 

 is quite a different one than where you 

 are to transplant them during the early 

 fall or summer. In this case it will mat- 

 ter but little how fast they grow or how 

 large the plants are by fall; in fact, 

 the larger they are, the better. It will 

 not matter even if they should be some- 

 what softer than you would want to have 

 them in case you had to lift them. The 

 fact that you will not need to disturb 

 the roots makes all the difference in the 

 world. 



If your soil has a good natural drain- 

 age I hardly think that it could rain 

 enough to injure your plants, barring 

 storms, etc. On the other hand, you 

 must take into consideration that a raised 

 bench will dry out much faster in the 

 open than it will inside a greenhouse. 

 You would have trouble in keeping them 

 watered enough to get a good, strong 

 growth. 



So, taking all these things into consid- 

 eration, I would advise you to construct 

 your beds as we do ours here, which 

 would prove safe from either too much 

 rain or too much drying out. 



If you prefer to use concrete, which 

 is used so much these days in greenhouse 

 construction, you can build up side walls 

 three inches thick and eighteen inches 

 high. It would be better to make them 



Bench of Canution Shasta at Baur & Smith's. 



