28 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



NOVEMBEB 23, 1911. 



Radishes like a little more heat than^ 

 lettuce and should be at the warmest 

 end of the house. I would keep the 

 night temperature from 40 to 45 de- 

 grees, as near as possible. 



Carnations succeed best iu a night 

 temperature of 50 to 52 degrees. The 



Enchantress and Lawson varieties do 

 well at 48 degrees, but if you can man- 

 age to hold it from 50 to 52 degrees 

 your plant? will do well. The higher 

 temperatures nre much more injurious 

 than the low temperatures for these 

 and all other plants. C. W. 



^f^^^^^^^^^^^^^'^^^^^-iii^'^ii^f^m.-id^^i^i^'U^^ 



i 



I SEASONABLE 



SUGG ESTIONS 



Hardy LUiums. 



The bulbs of the bulk of the liliums 

 which are grown outdoors do not arrive 

 until November; the Japanese sorts do 

 not come to hand, as a rule, until early 

 in December. It is often necessary to 

 protect the ground with strawy manure 

 or leaves, to exclude frost until these 

 bulbs arrive. It is a great error to 

 delay planting until spring, as no mat- 

 ter how carefully they may be stored, 

 they will fritter away much of their 

 strength before that time. 



The most common mistake made in 

 planting liliums is not getting them 

 sufficiently deep in the soil. There are 

 a few small-bulbed varieties which do 

 well covered not more than six or seven 

 inches, but such sorts as auratum, spe- 

 ciosum, tigrinum, Brownii, Henryi, ex- 

 celsum, Chalcedonicum, superbum and 

 others should be planted a foot deep. 

 It pays to dig the soil deeply for them, 

 but never use any fresh manure when 

 doing so. A cushion of sand below and 

 over the bulbs is beneficial, and while 

 the liliums named can be grown well 

 in clumps or nursery rows, they are in 

 nearly every case seen at their best in 

 soft, deep soil, such as is found in 

 properly prepared rhododendron beds. 

 Plant any liliums out as soon as pos- 

 sible after arrival, for, if not already 

 emitting roots, they will speedily do 

 so if placed in the soil. If, perchance, 

 the ground is frozen hard and planting 

 can not be done, it is a good plan to 

 pot up the bulbs singly and store them 

 in a cold pit over winter. 



Primulas. 



Thanksgiving is a trifle early for 

 primulas, but some are already flower- 

 ing nicely, and if kept on a light, 

 sunny bench, they will be in good 

 shape toward the end of the month. 

 If any of the plants of P. Sinensis have 

 been potted too high and are wabbly, 

 use some short stakes to steady them. 

 Do not try to force any of the primula 

 family into flower, for you will only 

 ruin them. All are cool subjects and 

 succeed best in a house with a minimum 

 temperature of 45 degrees, grown well 

 up to the light and supplied with plen- 

 ty of fresh air. As the pots will now 

 be quite well filled with roots, some 

 feeding should be given the plants. 

 This may be either in the form of 

 liquid manure once in four or five days 

 or chemical top-dressings once in ten 

 to fourteen days, always remembering, 

 however, that primulas will not stand 

 as heavy doses of manure as do such 

 robust subjects as chrysanthemums, 

 callas or geraniums. 



Bouvardias. 



Bouvardias seem to be under a tem- 

 porary cloud, the larger a*nd showier 

 flowers being more in favor. This is 

 to be regretted, as there are few win- 

 ter flowers prettier than bouvardias, 

 whether in a cut state or in pots. A 

 few specialists still plant them and find 

 a good sale for the flowers, particu- 

 larly around the holidays, and more 

 country florists might well try a few 

 of them, as their culture is easy and 

 a renewal of their popularity is sure 

 to come again soon. In order to have 

 a good Christmas crop, a temperature 

 of 60 degrees at night should be given 

 them. If in benches, it may be neces- 

 sary to spray occasionally, as mealy bug 

 is partial to them. The finest of all 

 bouvardias, and one procurable over 

 the longest season, is Humboldtii. Its 

 large, delicately scented, jasmine-like 

 flowers may be had for six months in 

 the year, and where only one variety 

 is grown it should be Humboldtii. 



Callas. 



The callas, whether grown in pots or 

 benches, will now be flowering freely 

 and their roots will have ramified 

 through the soil until it is a veritable 

 mass of them. To keep them in vig- 

 orous health and to secure an abun- 

 dance of good spathes, feed them free- 

 ly. Cow manure water is good; so are 

 such chemicals as Clay's fertilizer and 

 Bon Arbor in dry form, while fine bone 

 is excellent. Many of the finest callas 

 it was ever my privilege to see had 

 fortnightly top-dressings of bone, and 

 the way the roots devoured the bone 

 and the plants flowered was something 

 of an eye-opener. Callas, of course, are 

 easy subjects to grow and every grower 

 knows that they like feeding, but few 

 realize how much they need. Try the 

 bone top-dressings and note how your 

 plants revel under the treatment. More 

 and more growers are discovering the 

 value of the Godfrey calla. Some there 

 are who have entirely discarded the 

 old variety, and no wonder, when they 

 can get treble the flowers from the new- 

 comer. Those who have not yet se- 

 cured it should do so. This is one of 

 the most useful florists' flowers sent 

 out in years. 



Deciduous Shrubs for Forcing. 



Such deciduous shrubs for early 

 forcing as Azalea mollis, lilacs and 

 deutzias, if they have not been pot- 

 grown, should be potted and stood on 

 the floor of a cool pit, where they will 

 make quite a few roots before they are 

 wanted for forcing. As a rule the de- 



mand for these is not robust until the 

 middle of March, and Easter is the sea- 

 son when they sell the best. It is much 

 better to pot all this class of stock 

 now, rather than wait until they are 

 to be started. 



Pansies. 



The ground will probably soon freeze 

 up for the winter. It is not well to 

 give pansies any covering until the 

 ground is hard. No good, but possibly 

 considerable harm, may be done by 

 premature mulching of these and many 

 other plants. A light covering of leaves 

 would be the ideal protection, but these 

 are not always procurable and are hard 

 to hold in position. Meadow hay or 

 straw, laid on just thickly enough to 

 hide the plants from view, makes a 

 good mulch. Some brush or old corn 

 stalks, dropped here and there, wUl 

 prevent the covering from being blown 

 away. Where plants are to be wintered 

 in coldframes, a light covering of per- 

 fectly dry leaves, after the frost has 

 tightened the ground, with sashes 

 placed over them, is all that Is needed. 

 Avoid too much covering; it is more 

 liable to be harmful than beneficial. 

 Such coverings are all right where it 

 is desired to exclude frost from the 

 ground, but it is quite the reverse in 

 the case of pansies and other hardy 

 plants. 



Freesias. 



Keep the earliest batch of freesia 

 plants in a night temperature of 52 to 

 55 degrees and give them plenty of 

 water, with liquid manure twice a 

 week. If the bulbs of these freesias 

 were planted early in August, it should 

 be possible to get a fair proportion of 

 them in flower for Christmas. It is 

 certainly worth a little extra trouble 

 to secure this, as prices are then fully 

 double what they are at any other time. 



DETROIT. 



The Market. 



The Detroit market has been in good 

 shape for the last week and good stock 

 of all kinds has been cleaning up well. 

 Chrysanthemums are all being taken up 

 as fast as they come. Chadwick, Maud 

 Dean, Dr. Enguehard, Timothy Eaton, 

 Nagoya, BonnafiPon and all the other va- 

 rieties due at this season are with us 

 and they are all in grand shape. Pom- 

 pons and singles are popular and the 

 supply of these is increasing every 

 year. Mrs. Helen H. Newberry, Fred 

 Pautke's new pompon, which is a late 

 white, following Diana, is in the market 

 and is a great addition to the family. 

 This pompon is extremely late and can 

 be held for Christmas, on the plant, in 

 good shape. Mr. Pautke and Fred 

 Breitmeyer are handling this variety 

 and are introducing it to the trade this 

 season. 



Carnations are fine this year and the 

 light colors are cleaning up well. The 

 dark carnations do not sell so well and 

 sometimes it is necessary to force a 

 sale on them. Lilies are coming in 

 limited quantity and are slow sale, 

 owing to the large number of mums in 

 the market. Paper Whites and Eomans 

 are in and go toward making a good 

 assortment for the retailers to set be- 

 fore their customers. Double violets 

 are fine and selling well again after a 

 slump at the beginning of the season. 

 Single violets grown in Mt. Clemens 

 by Fred Breitmeyer and Robert Klagge 



