14 



The Florists' Review 



April 16, 1914. 



HABDY BOSES. 



Planting and Pruning. 



When not fall planted any roses, no 

 matter whether hybrid perpctuals, hy- 

 brid teas or ramblers, should be got 

 into the ground just as soon as possible. 

 Be sure to soak all roots well, plant 

 deeply, so as to bury grafts or buds 

 well, and firm thoroughly. It is a good 

 idea to head back the shoots a little, 

 but leave the pruning of spring-planted 

 stock until the plants start away into 

 growth. Pruning of all established 

 plants should be done at once. Cut 

 back the hybrid perpetuals, such as 

 Druschki, Laing, Brunner, Crawford, 

 Luizet, etc., to three or four eyes in 

 the case of strong shoots; leave only 

 one or two when they are weaker. 

 Hard pruning insures strong shoots and 

 fine flowers; light pruning gives some- 

 what earlier flowers, but of poorer qual- 

 ity. One advantage of severe pruning 

 is that such plants are comparatively 

 easily protected in winter, which is not 

 the case when they are but lightly cut 

 back. Cut away all dead and weak 

 wood. Roses, in consequence of the con- 

 stant freezing and thawing, are often 

 quite loose at this season. Be sure 

 to tramp firmly before pruning. Any 

 loosely planted subjects will never give 

 satisfactory results. 



Hybrid Teas. 



Hybrid teas, where buried or stored 

 for the winter, should now be replanted. 

 Cut away dead and weak growths, but 

 merely cut the ends of the stronger 

 ones. These require much lighter prun- 

 ing than the hybrid perpetuals; they 

 also succeed particularly well on lighter 

 land. As they are persistent-flowering 

 and their colors are varied and beauti- 

 ful, embracing many charming yellow, 

 orange, apricot and other shades, in 

 addition to scarlet, pink and white, they 

 are jumping into favor amazingly and 

 sales of them now exceed those of the 

 hardier hybrid perpetuals. 



Bamblers. 



Ramblers, when newly planted, do 

 better if cut back quite hard. Any 

 shoots they may carry will flower but 

 sparsely, and, if they are severely 

 headed back, it will insure some stout 

 canes from the base for flowering an- 

 other season. Established plants should 

 have all dead and weak wood removed. 

 It is a good plan also to bend over the 

 long canes. This makes them break and 

 flower more freely. The common habit 

 is to leave too much old wood on the 



ramblers. If the canes after flowering 

 can be cut out entirely and the shoots 

 from the bottom are allowed to come 

 up, the plants will flower more abun- 

 dantly and carry much larger trusses. 

 There now is such a wealth of material 

 among ramblers that it is no wonder 

 they are becoming universally popular. 

 Crimson Rambler has had its day; it 

 led the way for the galaxy of beauties 

 we have today. Flower of Fairfield and 

 Excelsa are much better double" reds. 

 Hiawatha is still hard to beat as a scar- 

 let. Tausendschon is probably the fa- 

 vorite among pinks, but Lady Gay, 

 Dorothy Perkins, Minnehaha and others 

 are all beautiful. Carmine Pillar and 

 American Pillar are beautiful singles. 



In double whites. White Dorothy has a 

 delicate blush color in the bud which is 

 charming. Alberic Barbier, creamy 

 white with yellow center, and Mrs. M. 

 H. Walsh, pure white, are superb. 

 Leuchtstern, Trier and others are good. 



Single-Flowering Bamblers. 



The single-flowering ramblers are de- 

 sirable for trailing over banks and rock 

 work in the same way as Wichuraiana, 

 Pink Roamer and others. The Austrian 

 briars and their hybrids, such as Soleil 

 d 'Or, Rayon d 'Or, etc., want light prun- 

 ing. Rosa rugosa and its many beauti- 

 ful hybrids, such as Coubert, white; 

 Conrad F. Meyer, Mme. del Campo and 

 the beautiful Repens alba, must not be 

 cut back hard, nor should the so-called 

 baby ramblers, such as Catherine Zei- 

 met, Mrs. Cutbush and Baby Dorothy, 

 • or the dainty little polyantha Mme. Ce- 

 cile Brunner, Hermosa,' Clothilde Sou- 

 pert and Leuchtfleur. The baby ram- 

 blers and polyanthas and such hybrid 

 teas as Gruss an Teplitz are splendid 

 subjects for massing in beds, as they 

 are persistent bloomers. 



Beverly, Mass. — A large store in the 

 Commercial Block has' been leased by 

 Ralph W. Ward, who will open a first- 

 class store there at once. It will be 

 supplied with stock from his extensive 

 greenhouses. 



ODCN LETTd^^^" READERS 



PAPEB WHITES IN BENCHES. 



A recent issue of The Review con- 

 tained an inquiry from E. W. K., with 

 a request for replies from any fellow 

 florists whose experience might be help- 

 ful. The inquiry was, in substance, as 

 follows: "Has anyone ever grown 

 Paper White narcissi by planting them 

 directly on benches? I should like to 

 have the experience of someone who 

 has forced these popular narcissi in this 

 manner, instead of flatting them up, 

 putting them outdoors and bringing 

 them in as needed. I am told that it 

 is not necessary to flat them at all, but 

 that they may be put directly in the 

 benches. This of course would occupy 

 the benches for a longer period of time, 

 but where this is no consideration 

 would the flowers be just as good as 

 those grown in flatst" 



For the information of E. W. K., I 

 will state that I have successfully 

 grown Paper Whites by planting them 

 directly into the benches; the growth 

 of the plants and the quality of the 

 flower clusters were much better than 

 in the case of those planted in flats. 

 This will also apply to Spanish iris and 

 gladioli; the winter-blooming gladioli 

 will do far better if planted in the 

 bench or solid bed. 



I never put Paper Whites outside, 

 but in flats of dry soil. I place them 

 under a bench in a cool house, and 

 water a few boxes and bring them in 

 as needed. There is no risk in planting 

 directly into the bench and much less 

 work is required in caring for them and 

 watering them. If they are to be forced 

 for some special day, part of them, at 



least, should be in flats, so that they 

 can be taken into a warmer house if 

 necessary. 



Do not put flats of bulbs flat on the 

 bench, but raise them by means of a 

 3-inch pot or a brick placed under each 

 corner; or, better still, put them on a 

 rack. You will then notice quite a 

 difference in the time required to bring 

 them into bloom. Such, at least, has 

 been my experience. I trust that these 

 suggestions will be of some help to 

 E. W. K. and other brother florists. 

 Sydney Skelcher. 



In a recent issue of The Review, E. 

 W. K. asks about forcing Paper White 

 narcissi planted out on the benches in- 

 stead of planted in flats. For several 

 years I have grown nearly all my nar- 

 cissi planted out on the benches and 

 have found it an extremely satisfac- 

 tory method. I get just as many and 

 as good flowers as are obtained when 

 the bulbs are planted in flats. The 

 earliest batch I put in flats, but from 

 December 1 to February 1 I always 

 bench the bulbs. I select a moderately 

 warm place with a little bottom heat, 

 put in a little soil of any handy kind, 

 fresh or old, insert the bulbs firmly in 

 it and cover with about one inch of 

 soil over the bulbs. Even if the 

 growths have started a couple of inches 

 and are cracked, they will run straight 

 up and will flower in about four weeks 

 with a temperature of 55 degrees. I 

 put in a batch like that every week 

 and it saves a great deal of handling. 

 In ' my estimation it is far the easiest 

 and best method of forcing Paper White 

 narcissi. Gunnar Teilmann. 



