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The Florists' Review 



Mabch 19. Ifl4. 



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? SEASONABLE ia«? * 

 i ^ SUGGESTIONS ^ 



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Cyclamens. 



There are so many duties which 

 crowd upon us at this season that there 

 is always more or less danger of the 

 little cyclamens, which are to flower 

 next faJl and winter, being neglected. 

 The seedlings should now be either in 

 small pots or in flats where they have 

 ample room for leaf development. Some 

 growers prefer flat culture; personally, 

 I like pots better. Each method has 

 some advantages. The plants make a 

 stronger growth in flats than in pots, 

 but at repotting time they do not forge 

 ahead as well as the pot-grown ones. 

 Still, for commercial growers the flats 

 are in many ways the best, as they can 

 be stood on shelves well up to the 

 light, while the pots occupy bench 

 space which we may like to use for 

 some other crop for Easter or Memorial 

 day. 



Do not allow plants in pots to become 

 potbound; give them a shift just as 

 soon as they need it. If moved into 

 4-inch pots, use a little more loam and 

 a little less leaf-mold than at the first 

 potting. Also use a good dash of sand; 

 this will help to prevent slime from 

 forming on the surfaces. Young cycla- 

 mens require a fairly warm house at 

 this season. A temperature of 52 to 55 

 degrees suits them nicely at night, and 

 if they are carefully potted and tended 

 their growth will be surprising. Plants 

 still in flower, and which it may be 

 desired to hold back for Easter, must 

 be grown cool; 40 degrees at night is 

 ample, and the glass must be well 

 shaded from direct sunlight. Experi- 

 ence goes to show that as fine cycla- 

 mens can be grown in deep pans, some- 

 times called half -pots, as in pots. These 

 plants do not root deeply, and growers 

 who have tried the pans have no de- 

 sire to revert to pots. 



Hydrangeas for Memorial Day. 



It is time hydrangeas were started. 

 They do not require a warm house this 

 early; 42 to 45 degrees at night will 

 suffice. Get them under way at once, 

 however, and then you are fairly cer- 

 tain they will be in on time. No mat- 

 ter how well your plants may look and 

 how many heads of flowers they will 

 carry, if none of the flowers are fully 

 open when wanted their sales will be 

 greatly restricted, as customers like to 

 see at least some flowers open when 

 buying. While it may not be necessary 

 to repot the plants when starting them, 

 some surface soil should at least be 

 removed and a liberal top-dressing of 

 rich loam and fine bone given. Once 

 the plants start away to make growths 

 and roots, they will quickly use up all 

 available plant food and will need 

 feeding regularly either with liquid 

 manure or chemical surfacing. 



Lorraine and Cincinnati Begonias. 



The earliest batch of leaf -propagated 

 begonias should now be sending up a 

 fine lot of young growths. Some grow- 

 ors become discouraged at the long 

 wait before these shoots appear, but, 



once they have appeared, growth is 

 fairly rapid and it will be necessary 

 to pot on the little plants to prevent 

 their getting potbound. Be sure to use 

 a light compost containing plenty of 

 flaky leaf-mold and it is astonishing 

 how quickly the pots will fill with 

 roots. 



While there is still time to put in 

 leaves, the propagating bench from this 

 time on will not be steadily watm as in 

 winter, and, as the sun is much more 

 powerful, the chances are against all 

 the leaves rooting, but there will now 

 be a good crop of cuttings on old cut- 

 back plants, and these will root easily 

 now and make nice plants. In fact, 

 for small-sized plants, cuttings can go 

 in until June. Give the young be- 

 gonias a temperature of 55 to 60 de- 

 grees at night and a moderately close 

 atmosphere. 



Pansies in Coldframes. 



The winter has been a somewhat long 

 and severe one, but it now, happily, 

 seems to be nearing an end. Plants in 

 coldframes, such as pansies, daisies, 

 myosotis, etc., should have any leaves 

 or other covering removed. After this 

 has been done, give the plants a soak- 



ing of water. Keep the sashes on for 

 some time yet, as the nights will be 

 cold, and, while the plants may look 

 green after their winter covering has 

 been removed, they will soon present 

 a faded appearance if frosts and cold 

 winds follow hot sunshine. Outdoor 

 pansies should not have their mulch 

 removed for some time yet. 



Dutch Bulbs for Easter. 



Three weeks should suffice for the 

 flowering of any hyacinths, tulips and 

 narcissi being kept for Easter, and, 

 as greenhouse space is now at more or 

 less of a premium, coldframes should be 

 used for the bulbs. As all will now 

 be well started into growth, no arti- 

 ficial heat should be necessary to flower 

 them on time. If you have a tight 

 frame and can lay mats over it in the 

 event of a cold night, you have the 

 best place possible to grow bulbs in, 

 being certain that they will be stocky, 

 a great desideratum with this class of 

 stock. Spread a layer of flne coal 

 ashes to stand the pots or pans on. 

 Air freely on all pleasant days. In the 

 case of tulips lay mats or board shut- 

 ters over them as the flowers open, and 

 all varieties can be kept cool by cover- 

 ing them in the same way when once 

 they are open. 



The varieties of tulips which sell 

 well at Easter include Murillo, Keizers- 

 kroon. Pink Beauty, Flamingo, Queen 

 of the Netherlands and White Hawk; 

 and among narcissi, double Von Sion, 

 Golden Spur, Victoria and Empress. 

 The robust sorts, such as Emperor and 

 Sir Watkin, are somewhat too tall -and 

 coarse. 



SPRAYING AND OTHER DUTIES. 



Keeping Thrips in Subjection. 



Among the duties which are likriy 

 to be neglected during the rush of 

 spring work are spraying or fumigat- 

 ing and disbudding. There is perhaps 

 nothing more important than these and 

 yet it is easy to be neglectful of them, 

 because the plants do not seem to 

 show any signs of suffering right away, 

 as they would from a lack of water or 

 ventilation. 



If you follow the spraying method 

 for combating thrips and aphis, you 

 presumably have a certain day of each 

 week when this operation is attended 

 to regularly. This is as it should be, 

 and if you attend to the matter syste- 

 matically and regularly you are pretty 

 certain to keep it up, but on many 

 places it is done so spasmodically 

 throughout the winter that the least 

 rush of work is liable to cause a sus- 

 pension in the spraying. Bight now 

 is perhaps the most critical time in 

 the fight against thrips. As the warm 

 weather approaches, these insects hatch 

 out more rapidly than they did during 

 the colder winter months, and even 

 though your plants have not hereto- 



fore shown the presence of the pest 

 in large numbers, a few weeks of 

 neglect will give them a start that you 

 will be unable to overcome. After 

 warm weather sets ^n, they will be 

 hatching outside and you will have to 

 fight to keep them out. So, by all 

 means, keep up your warfare against 

 them and it may even be advisable to 

 increase the number of applications. 



Regularity in Disbudding. 



With the disbudding it is much the 

 same as with the spraying. It is so 

 easy to call the boys away from the 

 disbudding for a few days, when there 

 is a special rush of work in other de- 

 partments. Then the few days run into 

 weeks and you are suddenly reminded 

 of your neglect when you begin pick- 

 ing blooms with buds strung all along 

 the stem. By that time the damage 

 is done. The time to disbud, to get 

 the maximum benefit therefrom, is just 

 as soon as the bud is far enough ad- 

 vanced to be handled without injur- 

 ing the remaining bud or the stem. To 

 take oflf the buds after the main bud 

 shows color will accomplish nothing in 

 the way of improving the quality of 

 the cut. Keep up the disbudding just 

 as regularly as you did in the winter, 

 when the blooms were bringing top 

 prices. The fact that carnations are 



