38 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Dbcembeb 14, 1911. 



SEASONABLE NOTES. 



Bedding Plants. 



If the fall propagated cuttings are 

 in 2-inch pots they will now be abun- 

 dantly rooted. With chrysanthemums 

 out of the way, it is now possible to 

 spread them out a little more, at the 

 same time removing dead and decaying 

 leaves, any weeds in the pots and pick- 

 ing off any flower trusses that may be 

 showing. It is better to keep the plants 

 somewhat on the dry side, for if kept 

 persistently moist they will make too 

 rank a growth. Before they become 

 too matted with roots give a shift into 

 3-inch pots, using a little fine bone with 

 the loam, also some fine cow manure 

 or spent mushroom manure. Press the 

 soil firmly in the pots. When loosely 

 potted, the plants are prone to make 

 softer growth. 



There are many good growers who 

 prefer to keep their fall cuttings in 

 flats of sand until the middle or end of 

 January. This plan allows the cuttings 

 to be tucked away on shelves when 

 behch space is valuable. If kept some- 

 what dry, few cuttings will damp off, 

 and when taken out, all live cuttings, 

 which should number ninety to ninety- 

 five per cent of the number inserted, 

 will have a perfect network of fine 

 fibrous roots. They will grow apace 

 when put in small pots. 



Where stock plants are grown in 

 beds or benches, they will now yield a 

 line crop of cuttings. The wood on in- 

 door grown cuttings is always firmer 

 and shorter jointed than those obtained 

 in the fall outdoors and the liability of 

 loss by damping off is greatiy reduced. 

 These cuttings are best put singly in 2- 

 inch pots of sandy loam, placed where 

 they can get a little bottom heat and 

 given the full sun. Water well at the 

 start, then sparingly until the cuttings 

 are rooted. A night temperature of 50 

 degrees is ample for rooting geraniums. 

 Where a large rooted cuttings business 

 is done, regular propagating benches 

 are, of course, best used. If last year's 

 sand is still in them, better change it 

 and not run any liability of fungus, 

 which is often exceedingly destructive. 



Winter-flowering Geraniums. 



Geraniums grown for winter flower- 

 ing should now be making a brave 

 show. They are not yet half appre- 

 ciated in winter, especially as Christmas 

 plants. The average grower, whose con- 

 ception of geraniums is the ordinary 

 bedding sort as grown and retailed in 

 4-inch pots, can have but little concep- 

 tion of the beauty of many of the 

 newer varieties from French and Eng- 

 lish hybridizers, both in the singles 

 and doubles. With the plants now 

 flowering freely, preserve a tolerably 

 dry atmosphere in the house. Avoid 

 damping the floors at all on dull days 

 and even on mild but dark days. Al- 

 ways keep some heat in the pipes, to 

 prevent damping of the petals. Look 



over the plants each day and remove 

 any yellow leaves or damping flower 

 trusses. Feed the. plants well, giving 

 the preference to a chemical top- 

 dressing rather than too much liquid 

 manure, as the latter tends to promote 

 a soft growth which flowers sparsely. 



Ivy-leaved Geraniums. 



Ivy-leaved geraniums are little grown 

 in America, although in Europe they are 

 immensely popular, both for bedding 

 outdoors and for pots and baskets in- 

 doors. Any of these make charming 

 plants for spring sales. They are par- 

 ticularly well adapted for use in piazza 

 boxes, window boxes and vases, where 

 they flower the summer long with won- 

 derful freedom. A few specially fine 

 varieties are Souvenir de Charles 

 Turner, bright pink, still hard to beat; 

 Achievement, salmon pink, a stocky 

 grower; Alliance, delicate blue feath- 

 ered crimson rose. These two latter 

 varieties have zonale blood in them, are 

 semi-double and grand acquisitions. 

 Other good sorts are: Caesar Franck, 

 rich crimson; Rycroft Surprise, soft 

 pink; Dina Scalarandis, double white 



tinged with lilac; Col. Baden-Powell, 

 soft blush with dark blotches on the 

 upper petals. These all are extra fine. 

 If plants are now in 2-inch pots they 

 will make splendid stock in 5-inch be- 

 fore May and should net prices con- 

 siderably above those usually obtained 

 for the bedding zonales. 



Scented-leaved G«raniums. 



About everyone possessing a small 

 garden and who annually buys a few 

 bedding plants, wants to get one or 

 two scented geraniums. These and 

 scented verbenas are never-dying fa- 

 vorites. There is, in addition to the 

 plants themselves, some sale for the 

 shoots, which of late years have been 

 offered in a moderate way in several 

 of the large markets. Bowls of the 

 shoots of these spicy scented geraniums 

 are as acceptable as flowers to many, 

 and the demand is limited merely be- 

 cause the geraniums are so seldom pro- 

 curable at the stores. Then again, 

 it has hardly occurred to any plants- 

 man that nice, bushy little plants in 

 5-inch or 6-inch pots of the oak-leaved, 

 lemon, balm or rose-scented geraniums 

 would be in demand. Speaking of these 

 scented geraniums, the popular rose- 

 scented form has been in commerce for 

 221 years and shows no wane in pop- 

 ularity. There is also a good call for 

 leaves of these scented geraniums for 

 finger bowls, while with a flower added 

 to them they make ideal boutonnieres. 



Cuttings of any of the scented gera- 

 niums, taken now, will root within four 

 weeks and make good plants in 4-inch 

 pots for spring sales. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



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1 



Poiusettias. 



Any poinsettias the bracts of which 

 are not yet well developed should be 

 given more heat; 65 degrees at night 

 will not be too warm. Plants forced 

 thus hard will have softer bracts than 

 those which opened earlier, but every 

 effort should be made to have them 

 fully expanded for Christmas, as they 

 are hard to move when the holidays are 

 over. Any wliich are made up in pans 

 or grown singly in pots should, if pos- 

 sible, be given a lower temperature for 

 a day or two before sending them out. 

 The minimum temperature should not 

 go below 50 degrees or a loss of leaves 

 may ensue, and this will tend to render 

 the plants unsalable. Avoid sharp 

 changes of temperature, as these, to- 

 gether with overfeeding, overwatering 

 and dryness at the root, will each one 

 cause the foliage to turn yellow. 



Many inquiries are received each 

 year during the poinsettia season ask- 

 ing how best to keep the bracts fresh 

 in water. Early in the morning or 

 towards evening is the time to cut 

 them. Jars to contain them should be 

 deep. The usual flower room in which 

 roses and carnations keep well is rather 

 cool for poinsettias. It has been found 

 that they keep plumper in a room 



kept at 45 degrees to 48 degrees. It is 

 no use cutting them and placing in 

 water without first cauterizing the bot- 

 tom of the stems in some way, either 

 by dipping for a few seconds in boiling 

 or very hot water, or by burning the 

 ends with a hot iron, or, as is quite 

 often done, by using a shovel of hot 

 coals and searing the ends over them. 

 It is a benefit to wrap some soft paper 

 around the bracts and upper foliage, 

 and always leave cut poinsettias out of 

 the water as short a time as possible. 

 Lorraine Begonias. 

 Christmas is the season par excellence 

 for those floriferous and ever popular 

 plants, the Lorraine type of begonias. 

 A few people may, perhaps, be tiring of 

 them because they are becoming "too 

 common"; others object to them as 

 being poor house plants, and, indeed, 

 this is true, for in a house with steam 

 heat or hot air even the most skillfully 

 grown specimens sometimes are denuded 

 of flowers inside of a week. There is, 

 however, steady increase in the sale of 

 them. The coming Christmas will see 

 an enormous increase in the number 

 of Glory of Cincinnati, which many 

 good judges think will, to quite a con- 

 siderable degree, usurp the place of 

 Gloire de Lorraine. Cincinnati has 



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