Jancabt 16, 1913. 



The Florists^ Review 



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II SEASONABLE 



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\ s^ SUGGESTIONS \ 



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Easter Lilies. 



It is an old and tolerably true saying 

 that to be sure of having Easter lilies 

 on time the buds should show when 

 Lent comes in. That date will be 

 here before we know it, for it is Febru- 

 ary 5 this year, and how about your 

 lilies? It looks as if a good many 

 growers would be late with their stock. 

 A mild winter has been favorable for 

 pushing the plants ahead, but one can 

 expect much cold and dark weather 

 within the next few weeks. Lilies which 

 seem at all late should be given the 

 warmest house you have; 65 degrees at 

 night will do, but for the laggards 5 

 degrees more will be better. Spray 

 them ffeely and do not allow aphis to 

 get any foothold on them. From now 

 on the plants will need considerable 

 moving around. Those which will soon 

 have buds peeping can have a slightly 

 cooler house, but do not let the drop 

 be over 10 degrees or harm may come. 

 Throw away all puny and diseased 

 plants. There are always more or less 

 of these. Give the extra space to the 

 healthy ones. Do not try to force any 

 plants which are only an inch or two 

 above the pots. You cannot get these 

 into flower by March 23 by any process. 

 You would better hold them back to be 

 of some use for the weeks following 

 Easter, when home trade can always 

 care for a certain number. 



Canterbury Bells. . s« 



Nothing is to be gained by starting 

 Canterbury bells too early. It is a 

 •common mistake to pot them early, and 

 instead of allowing them to remain 

 outdoors or in a coldframe until they 

 have had one or two moderate freez- 

 ings, to place them in the greenhouse 

 at once. Anyone who has tried the two 

 plans must have been convinced that 

 it is just as important to freeze these 

 plants, or at least give them a period of 

 rest in a low temperature, as in the case 

 of lily of the valley and astilbes, or 

 that much misunderstood but beautiful 

 lily, L. candidum. 



In starting Canterbury bells, let them 

 have a night temperature of 45 degrees; 

 later, as the flower spikes advance, 

 raise it 5 degrees but not any higher. 

 Oood plants of this beautiful biennial 

 cannot be grown in a hot, stuflfy green- 

 house. Easter comes so early this year 

 that it is useless to try to force this 

 plant into bloom for it, but if allowed 

 to come along in a cool, airy green- 

 house, and if well fed and watered and 

 kept clean of aphis, splendid plants will 

 be the result. If you want to save 

 some for cutting at Memorial day, keep 

 them in a cold pit for some time yet 

 and plant them in a greenhouse bench 

 early in March. You will find them in- 

 valuable at a time when flowers are 

 none too abundant. 



Stocks. 



It is too early yet to sow stocks for 

 a Memorial day crop, but they make 

 a good spring crop, and while they may 



not be particularly good sellers in the 

 big wholesale markets, are valuable to 

 country florists for use in designs. Suit- 

 able forcing varieties are White 

 Column, Crimson Column, Beauty of 

 Nice, of a charming delicate pink color, 

 and Queen Alexandra, lilac rose. The 

 giant ten weeks varieties are excellent 

 for sowing a little later in the season 

 for a Memorial day crop.- Sow the 

 seeds in flats of light, sandy soil, 

 mostly leaf-mold. Cover the seeds with 

 fine sand rather than soil, and protect 

 from the sun until germinated. Then 

 give them a shelf close to the glats 

 and pot oflE singly when large enough 

 to handle. Purchase the best seed; it 

 will prove the cheapest in the end. 



Bex Begonias. 



There are now some beautiful vari- 

 eties of Eex begonias, and at the pres- 

 ent time, while plenty of bottom heat 

 is at command, they can be quite easily 

 rooted. Select the oldest leaves for 

 propagating purposes, discarding the 

 thin outer edges. Cut the leaves in 

 pieces about an inch square. They will 



root best where the veins are the 

 thickest, near the leaf stalk. Do not 

 lay them flat on the sand, but stand 

 them on edge. As soon as little plants 

 appear, pot off singly and grow along 

 In a warm house until well established. 

 They will later do well in any ordinary 

 greenhouse. Colored-leaved plants are 

 not popular with everyone, but these 

 begonias have many friends. 



Heliotropes. 



The old stock heliotrope plants now 

 have an abundance of cuttings. Place 

 these in the cutting bench as soon as 

 ready and be sure always to pot off 

 before they become at all hard, or they 

 will never make good plants. If you 

 want to grow a batch of standard helio- 

 tropes, which sell readily at Christ- 

 mas as well as in spring, select some of 

 the strongest cuttings. Do not pinch 

 them, but remove all side shoots and 

 flowers as they appear; stake up se- 

 curely and pot along as required. When 

 the stem has reached the' necessary 

 height, pinch out the top and keep 

 the resultant shoots pinched until a 

 good head is made. The stems need 

 not be higher than eighteen inches, and 

 in 8-inch pots these make nice plants. 

 If, however, big specimens are wanted 

 for piazza use, fifteen to eighteen 

 months are needed to produce them in 

 12*inch pots or small tubs. I have 

 found that for extra large standards I 

 can get better results from seedlings 

 than from cuttings, as the former pos- 

 sess greater vigor. 



OUB FIBST GERANIUMS. 



Their South African Ancestors. 



The geranium belongs to the pelar- 

 gonium family, of which there are 175 

 species. Almost all of these species 

 are natives of the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Therefore, if we would go back to the 

 origin of this popular plant, we should 

 take a trip to South Africa, to the vast 

 desert of Karoo, where we shall find a 

 region rich in flowers, glowing with 

 many colors, and consisting largely of 

 the wild pelargoniums from which our 

 geraniums are descended. These often 

 grow to the height of miniature decid- 

 uous trees, although where they have 

 more rain, in the valleys near the coast, 

 they are evergreen shrubs. 



In Johnson's "Gerarde" of 1633 is a 

 report of a plant called Geranium Indi- 

 cum, "of late brought to England 

 through the industry of Mr. John 

 Tradescant. I did see it in flower about 

 the end of July, 1632, being the first 

 time it hath flowered with the owner 

 thereof." Hence the first flowering of 

 a geranium in England was about 280 

 years ago. Mr. Tradescant, no doubt, 

 brought it from Barbary in the voyage 

 he made with the English fleet that 

 was sent against the Algerian pirates 

 in 1620. As the Cape was discovered 

 123 years before this date, this species 



had probably been carried to Algiers by 

 the Portuguese from the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Soon after, the Dutch intro- 

 duced over a dozen species from South 

 Africa. 



The Early Hybridizers. 



The splendid named kinds we have 

 today are the product of systematic 

 hybridizing or crossing by our florists 

 during the last 100 years, a brief time 

 when the results attained are compared 

 with the wild types. In the year 1815, 

 amateurs began to hybridize the species 

 and obtained many beautiful hybrids. 



It is quite evident that the blood of 

 a score or more species has been used 

 to form our present type of geraniums. 

 It is diflScult to trace their parentage, 

 as these early workers kept no record 

 of their crosses, making questions of 

 pedigree difficult to determine. 



Pelargonium zonale and P. incjuinans 

 were the leading species used in pro- 

 ducing our popular bedding geraniums. 

 About the year 1815 Mr. Bailey pro- 

 duced Lee's Variegated, the first scar- 

 let variegated. Mr. Kinghom crossed 

 it on P. compactum and secured Cerise 

 Unique and the famous Flower of the 

 Day. Mr. Kinghom considered this the 

 greatest advance ever obtained at one 

 bound, in this kind of work. The large 

 seedling plant and two smaller ones 

 were sold to the Messrs. Lee, and in 



