i»' 



36 



The Weekly Florists' Rcvk^* 



NOVBHBBB 16, 1911. 



* 



I 



SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



S 



Aatileas. 



If not already placed in heat, no time 

 must be lost in gettifi^ any azaleas 

 wanted for the holidays in a warm, 

 moist house. Some varieties flower 

 early with little forcing and it is al- 

 ways possible to get a fair number for 

 Thanksgiving, ^mong whites, the well 

 known Deutsche Perle holds first place. 

 Mme. Petrick, double pink, is excellent, 

 as are Simon Mardner and the old 

 variegated, Verva>neana. 



The dwarf varieties are great sellers 

 at Christmas. Foremost among these 

 is Hexe, sometimes called Firefly. This 

 is the best selling: shade for the holi- 

 days and shon^ be more largely 

 grown. It must be pushed right along 

 to flower it t»X (ime. Plants carried 

 over from last year and planted out in 

 the field, where they were kept well 

 hosed over, are already flowering, sev- 

 eral weeks in advance of the imported 

 Belgian stock. Keep the plants, sprayed 

 over freely until the flowers are open- 

 ing and, when a fair number of flowers 

 are open, remove to a cooler house. A 

 night temperature of 60 to 65 degrees 

 should be given and rub out any young 

 growths the plants may make. 



Camellias. 



Camellias are steadily growing in 

 favor and sell especially well at Christ- 

 mas." They cannot be forced in the 

 same way. as azaleas, or most of the 

 buds will fall. Give them a light, sunny 

 house, a temperature not in excess of 

 50 degrees at night, and the majority 

 of them should have a few flowers open. 



If the plants are heavily budded, rub 

 off some of the smaller and weaker 

 buds to turn more strength into the 

 others. 



^ Spiraeas. 



The spira'as, or astilbes, are now com- 

 ing to hand. Do not attempt to force 

 these at once, as only failure will re- 

 sult. After unpacking soak well in a 

 tub of water, as the clumps usually get 

 well dried out in transit. Keep them 

 in a coldframe and leave the sashes 

 off until they get several good freez- 

 ings. Spiraea plants are now seen in 

 flower at Christmas. These, however, 

 are grown from retarded clumps and 

 are not new importations. In potting 

 spiraeas use a rich soil and use pots 

 into which the clumps can be just con- 

 veniently fitted. Little can be gained 

 from forcing spiraeas before Christmas, 

 but after getting a few freezings, pot 

 them and they will make considerable 

 roots before you start them. 



Cyclamens. 



Many cyclamens already are bloom- 

 ing quite nicely and we will have quite 

 a lot of salable ones for Thanksgiving. 

 Do not grow your plants too warm in 

 an eflfort to flower them early. It will 

 only mean plants with long, weak 

 flower stems, which will topple over 

 every time you move them. The night 

 temperature is better kept down to 50 

 degrees, and 55 degrees should only be 

 used in extreme cases. Keep the plants 

 as close up to the glass as possible. 

 They will need no shade now. Those 

 standing in a shady house and some 



distance from the glass will become 

 drawn. A properly grown cyclamen 

 should have a perfect circle of foliage, 

 which partly hides the pot, and the 

 flower stems should all stand up rigidly. 

 The pots being now full of roots, give 

 doses of weak liquid manure twice a 

 week, or a top-dressing of Clay's once 

 in ten days. Plants which it is in- 

 tended to hold back until February or 

 March must have a cold house; 40 de- 

 grees at night will be found ample for 

 them. 



Marguerites. 



Marguerite plants which are flower- 

 ing shoujd^be Jcept well fed. They are 

 better scme what cramped at the roots 

 in wintfflB'A large root run is not con- 

 ducive to^floriferousness. Such as are 

 being grown for Easter should be kept 

 potted along and pinched for some 

 weeks yet. Marguerites prefer a cool 

 house, but will stand a carnation tem- 

 perature. To produce nice, bushy plants, 

 however, specialists prefer to grow 

 them moderately cool. The old plants 

 carried over in coldframes or lifted 

 from the field are such as we get our 

 winter crop of flowers from. In this 

 connection, special mention ^ould be 

 made of the new double white Queen 

 Alexandra* variety, Mrs. F. Sander. 

 This is proving a most satisfactory win- 

 ter flowering sort. 



Bulbous Stock. 



Hatches of both Paper White narcissi 

 and Roman hyacinths should be brought 

 into heat every week or ten days. 

 There is no trouble in having an abun- 

 dant supply of Paper "Whites for 

 Thanksgiving, but the Bomans come on 

 rather more slowly. Now is a suitable 

 time to place a good batch in a warm 

 house for flowering at Christmas. The 

 flats should now be well matted with 

 roots and the tops started a couple of 

 inches. It is, of course, an advantage 

 to be able to give them a cool house 

 for a few days before cutting the 

 flowers. 



French Trumpet Major, and Empress, 

 and some of the La Seine ti|lips, should 



A New Freoch Styk of Table Deoonttion as Shown by the E. Wienhoeber Co. 



