



The Florists^ Review 



Mabch 26, 1914. 



^^^E 



LEAF SPOT ON GEEANIXTMS. 



I am sending you a geranium out of 

 my stock. I have one house with about 

 5,000 geraniums in it, and they are all 

 beginning to show spots on the leaves 

 and stems such as show on the one I 

 am sending you. These spots keep 

 spreading until the leaves turn and 

 shrivel up and finally die. I am anx- 

 ious to know what this disease is, and 

 the cause and remedy for it. Any 

 information will be greatlv appreciated. 

 ' W. E. J. 



This is a common trouble among ge- 

 raniums. Outdoors it usually appears 

 during hot, damp, sunless weather, 

 when gfowths are soft, and most af- 

 fects plants which are in rich soil. What 

 soil did you use for your plants? If 

 it contained much animal manure, more 

 particularly any which was not well de- 

 cayed, it would render such plants 

 softer and more susceptible to attack. 

 Any manure used should be quite old. 

 A 3-inch pot of fine bone to a bushel 

 of earth is good, and helps to create a 

 stocky plant with firm wood which will 

 flower freely. 



Pick off the worst affected plants, 

 throw away any badly affected and 

 give the plants a spraying of Fungine, 

 an excellent and reliable remedy for 

 such fungoid attacks. Spray so as to 

 damp every part of the foliage, select- 

 ing a clear day for the operation. Use 

 a fine, misty spray nozzle in applying 

 it. Give a second spraying a week 

 later, and, if necessary, a third one. 

 Bordeaux mixture is another good fun- 

 gicide, but for greenhouse plants I pre- 

 fer Fungine. 



Do not syringe your plants overhead 

 at all, but run them somewhat on the 

 dry side, to harden up the growths. Air 

 freely and leave a little air on all 

 night; keep a dry, buoyant atmosphere 

 and a temperature of 45 to 50 degrees 

 at night and your plants should soon 

 show an improvement. Cleanliness, 

 plenty of fresh air, full sunlight and 

 a drier atmosphere — all these will help 

 to put new life into vour plants. 



' C. W. 



GERANIUM LEAVES DISEASED. 



Enclosed you will find some gera- 

 nium leaves from plants in my green- 

 houses. The plants are now in 4-inch 

 pots in good, rich soil and seem to be 

 thrifty otherwise. What is the matter 

 with themt Would you suggest using 

 nitrate of soda, or is there something 

 else I can use to remedy this trouble f 

 . <: T. G. 



Keep the affected leaves picked off. 

 Throw away any badly spotted ones. 

 Probably the cause of the trouble is 

 too rich soil. If you used much de- 

 cayed animal manure in the soil, it 

 would promote a rank, soft growth and 

 make the plants more susceptible to 

 disease. Geraniums should have little 

 animal manure, and such as is used 

 should be old and well decayed. Bone, 



1?<-^, 



at the rate of a heaping 3-inch potful 

 to a bushel of soil, is a good fertilizer 

 for geraniums, keeping the plants hard 

 and stocky and promoting floriferous- 

 ness. On the other hand, the too free 

 use of animal manures causes soft 

 growths which flower but sparsely. 



If your plants are well potbound and 

 the growths are not soft, you might 

 try an application of weak nitrate of 

 soda water. Use it with caution, how- 

 ever, as it may improve the color but 

 at the same time make the growths 

 decidedly soft. Soot water, such as is 

 obtained from the imported Scotch 

 soot, is splendid for toning up sickly 

 looking plants. Give the plants full 

 sunlight, do not spray overhead, venti- 

 late the house freely and give an aver- 

 age night temperature of 45 to 50 de- 

 grees. Keep bad foliage removed and 

 give the plants a fresh stand as they 

 crowd one another; also keep the at- 

 mosphere always on the dry side. I 

 hope some of these suggestions may, 

 if followed, be helpful to you. 



C. W. 



TtuMi may be due to some inherent 

 wisakness in these pirticular*';p^iits, or 

 the trouble may be brought on by an 

 overdosp of manure, either in the soil 

 or in liquid form. The best plan is to 

 throw away badly affected plants. Iso- 

 late others; keep them picked over and 

 carefully watered and they will usually, 

 grow out of it. Keep the atmosphere 

 dry; don't shade the glass at all. Ge- 

 raniums want full sunlight, at least for 

 some time yet, and only a light cover- 

 ing is needed to protect plants in full 

 bloom nearer bedding-out time. If the 

 plants seem at all starved, feed them 

 once in four or five days with weak 

 liquid manure, or nitrate of soda given 

 once a week will help to tone them up. 

 Usually two doses of the latter will 

 sufiice. C. W. 



GERANIUM LEAVES TURN RED. 



Enclosed you will find a sample of 

 leaves picked from our young gerani- 

 ums, which are now in 3-inch pots. 

 There seems to be an increasing amount 

 of this trouble; the older leaves turn 

 red and in a few instances the whole 

 plant is affected. We shall greatly ap- 

 preciate your opinion as to the cause of 

 this and the best remedy for it. 



C. F. C. 



LEAVES TXTRNING BROWN. 



I am enclosing some geranium leaves 

 which, I think, are diseased. All the 

 leaves on my geraniums have turned 

 brown in the same way. I would like 

 to know the cause and the remedy 

 for it. J. W. N. 



Occasional plants will not infrequent- 

 ly lose their foliage in this way, the 

 whole plant being sometimes affected. 



This looks like a case of starvation 

 at the root, from lack of both water 

 and plant food. Sometimes an over- 

 dose of bone in the soil will cause it. 

 If your plants are well rooted in their 

 pots, I would start feeding them; a 

 dose of Boot or weak nitrate of soda 

 would be good. A top-dressing, also, 

 of some high-grade fertilizer should 

 soon help to tone them up. Keep the 

 plants fairly moist, but not wet; air 

 freely on pleasant days; do not use any 

 shade over them; let the night tem- 

 perature average 50 degrees. These 

 conditions should suit geraniums, and 

 if your plants are treated thus they 

 ought to improve rapidly. C. W. 



^ 



,<#^<<^<»^<>^W^.W^W^.W^S^^*fer»»'fer»>'^r»>'fer»)'fe:»>-fe:»>-fe:»>'yf»>' 



^ 



THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



•^'^^<<^^»^<<^<*^<»^<» f >w<#^^tfe»>^tfe#>^fe^Vr»)V^^Vr»>'fer^Hfc#>^fe;#^- 



^iS 



SIX DAYS' WORK ENOUGH. 



The article on Sunday closing in The 

 Review for March 19 is all right. On 

 the doors of my establishment the sign 

 reads, "Closed on Sunday except for 

 funeral orders." 



A florist, or, in fact, any other man, 

 has enough to do in six days; he is 

 certainly entitled to rest one if he can. 

 By the time we attend to the fires, 

 watering, ventilating, etc., and go to 

 church, as ^V^^Sf^ vs do, it is j^bout 

 dinner time. TB^ef lost fii^lbcially 

 by closing. 



You will have plenty of visitors, but 

 no customers, if you keep open for in- 

 spection. They will walk through and 

 handle everything that is loose, but 

 "nary a buy." There are exceptional 

 cases where one is obliged to accom- 

 modate, but they are so few they do 

 not count. 



It's just owing to how you start and 



your greed for money. I have a busi- 

 ness that allows me a good living, a 

 month's vacation in Michigan and time 

 for duties as a citizen, which I owe my 

 fellow-citizens, church, etc. If you are 

 not "money-mad," selfish or a crank, 

 you will respect Sunday. There is no 

 excuse for keeping open Sunday. 



J. F. Sked. 



ALL STRANGERS NOT CROOKS. 



On the Saturday following the date 

 of issue, I was reading in The Review 

 of March 5 an account of a person try- 

 ing to flimflam the florists at Sandusky, 

 O. Within an hour a strange lady 

 came into our store and, after asking 

 the prices of flowers, finally ordered 

 some carnations. In payment she ten- 

 dered a check for $5 on a bank about 

 150 miles away. Well, say! she had my 

 goat! I was unable to cash the check 

 for her, as it was Saturday and the 



ii^M f-riil iV' M^rfl-ni r - 



