The Florists^ Review 



jANUARy 2, 1918. 



WEAK PLANTS, POOR BLOOMS. 



I am sending you a sample of my 

 carnations and also some of the soil. 

 Something is wrong with them and I 

 should like to have A, F. J. B. 's opinion 

 of them. The carnations were planted 

 in the benches August 8 and did not 

 grow as strongly as they should. As I 

 thought they had been a little too dry, 

 I gave them more water. There is not 

 much manure in the soil, so about 

 November 1 I put on a light top-dress- 

 ing of bone and wood ashes, but this 

 did not seem to do much good. The 

 plants are weak and the blooms are 

 poor. The white ones show a dirty 

 white color before they open, and the 

 pink ones are sleepy. I have been told 

 lately that the soil had been in the 

 benches for five years, but that the 

 grower had good carnations growing in 

 it last winter. When I water the 

 benches they do not dry out enough to 

 be watered again until about ten days 

 or two weeks have passed. The night 

 temperature is from 48 to 52 degrees; 

 on clear days it is 60 to 68 degrees, 

 with air on. I should be glad to hear 

 what A. F, J. B. has to say about them. 



G. A. R. 



The specimens forwarded disclosed 

 two things: First, your carnations are 

 infested with thrips. Nearly every 

 bloom had several of the insects on it. 

 That is what causes those brown edges. 

 If you have watched these columns 

 lately, you will know that the remedy 

 for this pest is nicotine. 



The second disclosure is that your 

 soil lacks humus and is in what may be 

 termed a flat condition. The fact that 

 this soil grew good carnations last year 

 is no sign that it would repeat the 

 success this year, without anything 

 being added to it. Had you procured 

 some well rotted manure and mixed a 

 wheelbarrow load for each six lineal 

 feet of a 5-foot bench, you would have 

 improved it wonderfully. A hundred 

 pounds of sheep manure added to each 

 100-foot bench, in addition to the other, 

 would have improved it still more. 

 From the appearance of the soil sub- 

 mitted I would imagine that, if handled 

 as suggested above, it would grow fair 

 stock. The application of bone and 

 wood ashes you gave last fall could 

 not be expected to correct the trouble. 

 Had you given a mulch of manure, you 

 would have seen better results. 



This matter of using soil several 

 years without change has not been 

 solved by a long way. Now and then 

 we hear some grower assert that he 

 has used soil so and so many years 

 without change, and grown fine stock 

 on it. We always take such statements 

 with a grain of salt. Usually inquiry 

 discloses the fact that, in spite of these 

 excellent results, the grower has been 

 sfraid to adopt the plan any further 

 than just on this experimental space. 

 Granting that the grower is quite 

 honest in his statements, there is still 

 the question of what is good stock, as 



there is a wide variation between what 

 one grower would call good stock and 

 what another would consider such, and 

 there is also a question as to how much 

 one would allow his interest in the 

 matter to sway his judgment. 



Our own experiments along this line, 

 while not altogether discouraging, have 

 not proved satisfactory. We find that 

 the plants will not start off as vigor- 

 ously as in new soil, and consequently 

 enough is lost in the early part of the 

 season to more than offset the saving 

 in soil and refilling. A. F. J. B. 



CARNATION RUST. 



Enclosed you will find some carna- 

 tion leaves that have black spots on 

 them, and the trouble is becoming gen- 

 eral in the house. Please tell me what 

 it is and what is a good remedy for it. 



C. & W. 



possible, always keeping a sharp eye 

 out for red spider. Dust your plants 

 lightly with either hydrated lime or, 

 better still, with Grape Dust. As the 

 days grow longer and the sunlight, 

 stronger, you will have less trouble 

 along this line. A. F. J. B. 



GREEN MOSS ON SOIL. 



I am sending you some samples that 

 show the nature of the trouble we are 

 having with our carnations this year. 

 In former seasons we have had the 

 best of blooms and an abundance of 

 them, but this year they are of no ac- 

 count. This trouble is spreading all 

 through the beds. When we brought in 

 the soil in the fall we took some sheep 

 manure, which had been in a pile out- 

 doors for two years, and mixed it with 

 the soil in the beds. We mixed it thor- 

 oughly as we brought it in. Our soil 

 becomes covered with green moss in a 

 little while. Please let us know what 

 we must do. G. G. 



The spots you notice on the foliage 

 of your plants are caused by the com- 

 mon carnation rust. When a little 

 farther advanced in development, these 

 raised places burst open and release a 

 brown, powdery substance. These are 

 the spores by which the rust is propa- 

 gated. They scatter about, and wher- 

 ever they alight new ruptures will 

 occur. j 



Diminish your syringing as much as 



While it is possible that the sheep 

 manure is the cause of your soil being 

 covered with moss, etc., yet I would be 

 sure about it. If the soil did not contain 

 suflScient fibrous material at the time 

 it was brought into the house, it would 

 act just as you describe, even though 

 no manure had been mixed with it. I 

 would suggest that you apply a sprin- 

 kling of lime to the beds now, and if 

 the trouble continues, repeat it in about 

 three weeks. Apply about a scant 3- 

 inch potful of the lime to each row, 

 halfway across a 5-foot bench. 



A. F. J. B. 



GERANIUMS FOR BEDDING. 



It is now possible to give geraniums, 

 the most valuable of all bedding plants, 

 some of the additional space they have 

 for some time been so sorely needing. 

 Such as are in 2-inch pots and getting 

 potbound will be better shifted into 

 3-inch pots. Some growers, in an ef- 

 fort to save labor, like to put them in 

 4-inch pots and save one potting. It 

 does not pay. The plants with two 

 shifts will easily beat the others, no 

 matter how carefully these are watered. 

 Any which for lack of space have been 

 kept in flats should be potted at once. 

 I would not use more than a pinch of 

 fine bone at this potting, but apply it 

 more freely at the next shift. 



While the days are short and we have 

 much dark and possibly damp weather, 

 let the plants run pretty well on the 

 dry side. Look them over occasionally 

 and remove decaying leaves and weeds, 

 giving any a fresh stand which are 

 crowded. Any plants showing signs of 

 leaf disease should have the affected 

 foliage removed. This disease seems 

 constitutional in certain varieties, but 

 much can be done to keep it in check 



by running plants a little on the dry 

 side, avoiding overhead syringing and 

 keeping the air pure and sweet by free 

 ventilation. 



Stock plants grown in benches will 

 be yielding lots of nice cuttings now, 

 and as bottom heat is more steady these 

 should root with a small percentage of 

 loss in any sand which passes water 

 freely through it. 



GOOD SINGLE GERANIUMS. 



Will you please give me the names 

 of three or four good varieties of single 

 geraniums? Kindly name sorts that 

 make cuttings freely. We have the 

 Wonder, which is a fine variety, but it 

 is hard to get enough cuttings from it. 

 E. F. C. 



Excellent varieties for either pot 

 culture or bedding are: Jacquerie, 

 crimson, immense trusses; Paul Cram- 

 pel, brilliant vermilion scarlet, compact 

 habit, wonderfully floriferous; Snow- 

 drop, pure white, the best of its color; 

 Mrs. Brown Potter, clear pink; Tele- 

 graph, Lincoln red; Granville, rose pink. 

 All these varieties can be relied upon 

 to bed out well and make cuttings 

 freely. C. W. 



