24 



The Florists' Review 



January 80, 1918. 



THEIPS. 



You will find some carnation buds 

 enclosed. Please tell me what the trou- 

 ble is. It is becoming general in the 

 house. The stems and foliage are 

 healthy. J. D. B. 



Those brown edges on your carna- 

 tion blooms are caused by thrips. You 

 will do well to get rid of these before 

 the arrival of warmer weather, or you 

 will lose a considerable portion of your 

 crop when spring comes. Get some 

 one of the nicotine preparations and 

 apply it vigorously. Do not increase 

 the strength much over the directions 

 on the can, but apply two or three times 

 as often as recommended for a few 

 weeks, until you can see that you have 

 the pests conquered. If you use steam 

 for heating, a good plan is to put some 

 on one of the pipes in each house once 

 or twice each week. Put it in an oil- 

 ing can and let it run on the pipe as 

 you walk along slowly. A. F. J. B. 



CUTWORMS ON CARNATIONS. 



In looking over my carnations to- 

 day, I was surprised to find so many 

 of the buds hollowed out by. some in- 

 sect. The varieties are mostly En- 

 chantress and White Enchantress. 

 Kindly advise me through the columns 

 of The Review. C. F. K. 



Your carnation buds are being eaten 

 by one of the several varieties of cut- 

 worm. At this time of the year, and 

 until spring, these pests give the car- 

 nation grower considerable trouble. If 

 you will take a bright light and go 

 through your houses late at night, you 

 can catch them feeding on the buds. 

 Or you can poison them by mixing bran 

 and sugar or molasses, and mixing into 

 it enough Paris green to make it dead- 

 ly. Drop a little of this here and there 

 on the edgeboard and through the bed. 



A. F. J. B. 



SPLIT CALYXES. 



We are greatly troubled with our 

 carnations splitting, and if you can of- 

 fer us some suggestions as to how to 

 prevent them from doing so we shall 

 feel greatly indebted to you. The 

 rooted cuttings were received last Feb- 

 ruary from a large florists' establish- 

 ment. Could there be anything in the 

 plants themselves to cause their split- 

 ting — for instance, if they had been 

 taken from poor plants at the start? 

 The plants grew well outside last sum- 

 mer and we moved them into the house 

 about October 15, with large balls ' of 

 earth. Thev were carefully syringed 

 and aired, and have also grown well in 

 the house. They are free from disease, 

 as far as can be seen. 



The plants wer^ set in the bench 8x9 

 inches apart. The soil used was a good, 

 sandy, clay loam, taken from newly 

 cleared land. There was mixed with 

 the soil about five parts of cow manure. 



This was mixed in the bench just be- 

 fore planting. We have kept the tem- 

 perature between 48 and 52 degrees at 

 night and have given plenty of air 

 during the day, possibly too much. We 

 have given the soil a thin coat of wood 

 ashes three times, but still the stems do 

 not seem brittle. We do not water them 

 until they are quite dry, but then we 

 soak them down well. The buds split 

 long before opening and seem to be 

 unusually short and heavy. The va- 

 rieties are Enchantress, Dorothy Gor- 

 don, Alma Ward, White Perfection and 

 Beacon. They all split about alike. A 

 whole calyx on a flower is a rare ex- 

 ception. It seems that the flowers on 

 the Beacons are getting smaller or more 

 single and the stems are also getting 

 weaker and light in color. 



I have helped to grow carnations in 

 other establishments and given them 

 almost the same treatment, except that 

 I used sheep manure instead of cow 

 manure, and the splits were extremely 

 few. Our location is western Michigan. 

 Any information will be greatly ap- 

 preciated. L. L. 



Either one of two things, and per- 

 haps both together, may be at the bot- 

 tom of your trouble. First, October 15 

 is entirely too late to house carnations 

 and expect good results in your lati- 

 tude. Two months earlier would be the 

 proper time, and even two weeks ear- 

 lier than that would be still better. 

 Although your plants have grown nice- 

 ly, yet they were not established when 

 winter set in, and could not be expected 

 to give as good results as plants which 

 had two months' start of them. 



Second, you are not watering them 

 properly. By letting the soil be- 

 come quite dry, you slightly check 

 the growth, and then, when you soak 

 them, you cause a jump in the 



growth. If the plants were not bloom- 

 ing, you would not notice this, but the 

 bloom will show any check or jump in 

 development before any other part of 

 the plant. And the calyx seems to be 

 the first to suffer; that is because the 

 calyx is always strained to its utmost 

 just before the petals have pushed 

 through the end of the calyx. Any 

 check at that period will cause it to 

 give way. 



Your soil seems to be all right, and 

 so does the temperature. A. F. J. B. 



CARNATION RUST. 



I enclose samples of carnation leaves, 

 showing some disease. Please tell me 

 what it is, with cause and cure. 



H. E. E. 



The specimens had several rust pus- 

 tules on them. Unless there is consid- 

 erable of this on your plants, you need 

 not be alarmed about your crop. Keep 

 the atmosphere dry and bracing, and as 

 the sun gains strength the trouble will 

 likely disappear. ,A. F. J. B. 



STARRJ OF OOLDSBORO. 



S. A. Starr, proprietor of the Golds- 

 boro Floral Co., Goldsboro, N. C, is 

 only 22 years of age. His establish- 

 ment consists of three greenhouses, with 

 the necessary service buildings. One 

 house, 25x100, shown in the accompany- 

 ing illustration, is planted to carna- 

 tions, the varieties being Enchantress, 

 in three colors, and Beacon. Two other 

 houses are used for mums, peas, roses, 

 valley, Easter lilies and callas, snap- 

 dragons, bulbous stock and a general lino 

 of bedding and pot plants. Mr. Starr 

 also leases another plant, owned by the 

 Denmark Floral Co., in which he grows 

 cut flowers and plants for the cemetery 

 trade, the establishment being advan- 

 tageously located adjoining the burying 

 ground. Goldsboro is a town of be- 

 tween 5,000 and 6,000 population, in 

 addition to which there is a good popu- 

 lation in adjoining towns where there 

 are no florists. Business is so good 

 with Mr. Starr that his two establish- 

 ments do not produce anywhere near as 

 much stock as he needs. During the 

 winter months he has regular shipments 

 of cut flowers from the northern mar- 

 kets, mostly from Philadelphia. 



Canution House of Goldsboro Floral G>^ Goldsboro, N. C 



