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JANDABT 18, 1912. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



9 



- 'C^ v^'^ 



SEASONABLE NOTES. 



Bedding Plants. 



Now is the time when bedding ge- 

 raniums should receive attention. If 

 they have been standing close together, 

 they must be spaced so as to give each 

 plant more breathing room. If left 

 crowded, it wiU mean spindling plants 

 and much decayed foliage. Any not 

 yet potted on from 2-inch pots should 

 get a shift right away. Fall rooted cut- 

 tings should now be rooted nicely in 

 3-inch pots, but as salable plants are 

 not wanted until May there is still 

 good time to pot and grow even smaller 

 sized ones. A suitable soil consists of 

 six parts loam and one part old manure. 

 Spent hotbed or mushroom manure is 

 good. It is well to sterilize it to kill 

 worms, which are liable to be numerous 

 in such manures. Add a good dash of 

 sand also, and pot firmly. For the last 

 potting I prefer to use fine bone in 

 lieu of cow or horse manure. The 

 plants grow less vigorously in it, but 

 the wood is harder and shorter jointed, 

 and, what is most important, the plants 

 flower far more freely than when they 

 have made a soft growth in compost 

 containing rotted manure. 



Temperature' and Moisture. 



Geraniums, after each potting, like 

 a little bottom heat. In fact, they 

 seem to enjoy it all the time, and it is 

 especially helpful to them in winter. 

 Do not play the hose indiscriminately 

 over them. There is no need to wet the 

 foliage at all, and the plants will keep 

 much healthier if run a little on the 

 dry side between waterings. A soft 

 growth, with too much moisture in the 

 soil and on the foliage, increases the 

 probabilities vOf leaf-spot or blight. 

 Maintaining a drier atmosphere, with 

 less water at the root and none on the 

 foliage, picking off all affected leaves 

 and giving the plants a reasonable 

 amount of growing space, is the best 

 way to check the spread of disease in 

 geraniums. I have tried spraying, but 

 with indifferent results. Clean culture 

 is what they need. 



Propagation. 



Probably there are many cuttings 

 now in the progagating bench. Do not 

 allow these to become too strongly 

 rooted before potting them on. I prefer 

 to place the cuttings singly in 2-inch 

 pots of sandy loam, rather than insert 

 them in the cutting bench. They like 

 a bottom heat of 60 to 65 degrees. 

 After getting one soaking watering, 

 they should be run a little on the dry 

 side until they root. Never give any 

 shade and do not spray overhead, as 

 you do with carnation or mum cuttings. 

 With proper treatment ninety-five per 

 cent should root without trouble, and, 

 if kept potted on, these will make, not 

 as large plants as tlie fall rooted ones, 

 but nice, . salable stock)|Cti' 3-iS^ or 



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3% -inch pots. Give them a tempera- 

 ture of 55 degrees. For the earlier fall 

 stock 50 degrees is better, while they 

 will do well even at 45 degrees. 



Good Double Varieties. 



There are many florists who each year 

 buy rooted cuttings or stock in 2-inch 

 pots from specialists, and for some of 

 these a list of flrst-class bedding varie- 

 ties may be helpful. In doubles S. A. 

 Nutt, dark red, is in great demand. 

 Alphonse Ricard, rich vermilion red, is 

 incomparable in its particular shade 

 of color. E. H. Trego is a rich, dazzling 

 scarlet, which makes a brilliant bed. 

 Jean Viaud, mauve rose, is popular; 

 so is Beaute Poitevine, shrimp pink, 

 shading at the edges to white. La 

 Favorite is a grand double white, and 

 Comtesse d' Harcourt is equally good. 



Marquis Castellane, reddish crimson, 

 beds beautifully; so does the old double 

 giant, with orange scarlet flowers. Mme. 

 Landry, salmon pink, shaded scarlet, 

 was splendid last summer; so was Mrs. 

 Lawrence, salmon pink, tinged with 

 white. Marquis de Montmort, bright 

 purple, is the best of its particular 

 color. Among newer varieties of 

 doubles these have proved good: Mme. 

 Canovas, better than S. A. Nutt, scar- 

 let, shaded maroon, beds beautifully; 

 Jean Oberle, one of Bruant 's best sorts, 

 peach pink in color; President Baillet, 

 another Bruant, rich scarlet in color, 

 and Fleuve Blanc, a pure white Bruant. 



Single Varieties. 



In singles a boiled down selection of 

 first-class bedders should include the 

 following: Dry den, red, with pure white 

 throat; Snowdrop, still the best white; 

 Jacquerie, rich crimson scarlet, huge 

 trusses, unequaled as a bedder; Paul 

 Crampel, the most brilliant of all bed- 

 ding geraniums, the most intense glow- 

 ing scarlet of any in cultivation, enor- 

 mously grown in Europe and does finely 

 here; Telegraph, Lincoln red, a grand 

 bedder, quite vigorous; Mrs. Brown 

 Potter, clear pink, a gem; Mrs. E. Eaw- 

 son, bright scarlet, and Granville, rose 

 pink, white blotches. 



SWEET PEAS DAMPING OFF. 



Enclosed you will find some swe^ 

 peas, which I wish you would examine 

 and kindly tell me what causes them 

 to damp off. The soil they are growing 

 in is composed of rotted sod and cow 

 manure. I am giving them a bottom 

 heat of from 55 to 60 degrees. Would 

 too much moisture be causing the trou- 

 ble? This is my first experience in 

 sweet pea culture, and I shall appreci- 

 ate any advice you may give. 



H. A. B. 



If the cow manure used was rather 

 new, it would in itself be responsible 

 in part for the damping off. Cow 

 manure and rotted sod make an ideal 

 compost. The manure, however, should 

 always be well rotted. I would judge 

 that your plants are in benches rather 

 than in solid beds, and that some heat- 

 ing pipes are below the benches.: Sweet 

 peas are not benefited, but injured, by 

 bottom heat. They love a cool bottom, 

 and, provided good drainage is af- 

 forded, they succeed much better in 

 beds than in benches. Another possible 

 cause for the plants damping off is al- 

 lowing the seedlings to remain too 

 thick. They should be at least three 

 to four inches apart in the rows. This 

 may look thin at first, but the plants 

 will make stronger haulm and branch 

 much more freely than when grown 

 more crowded. 

 j^ If your soil is rather sour, which 



would be indicated by a scummy forma- 

 tion on the surface, work a little air- 

 slaked lime into it and keep the soil 

 scratched over frequently. In an acid 

 soil damping off will be sure to start. 

 Sweet peas like a good water supply. 

 They also need plenty of sweet, fresh 

 air. Anything approaching a close at- 

 mosphere is bad for them. While they 

 can be grown cool in the early stages of 

 growth, a temperature of 48 to 50 de- 

 grees while flowering will be found 

 about right. C. W. 



SWEET PEA BUDS DEOPPmO. 



I am mailing you under separate 

 cover a branch from one of my sweet 

 pea vines, which you will see has 

 blasted buds. Can you tell me the 

 cause and the remedy for this? They 

 are in a house that is run at 52 to 55 

 degrees at night, and nearly all buds 

 have come like the sample and have 

 fallen off without producing any flow- 

 ers to speak of. Last year I had the 

 same kind of seed, had the plants in 

 the same place and had an enormous 

 crop, with stems as long as sixteen 

 inches. W. K. S. 



Early in the season it is not at all 

 uncommon for sweet peas to drop their 

 earliest buds, both under glass and out- 

 doors, and if your plants are just start- 

 ing to flower I would not worry abtSfUt 

 it. Even if they are in th^^H^m^ soil 



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