14 



The Florists' Review 



February 27, 1918. 



ruary 15, with plants from 2i4-inch 

 pots, and got an average of four spikes 

 thirty inches in length for Memorial 

 day, for which we received $1.50 per 

 dozen. These plants were planted in 

 old soil, eight inches apart, and were 

 kept disbudded. The plants housed in 

 the month of August, after blooming for 

 the first crop, should be thinned out to 

 carry not over five shoots. ''"'"* 



Geo. E. Buxton. 



»# 



PRIMtft.A OBCONICA. 



Enclosed are two diseased leaves of 

 Primula obconica. This is the first 

 year my primroses have been affected. 

 They were the worst from October to 

 December. Lately they are growing 

 more or less out of it. I kept picking 

 off the diseased leaves and threw out 

 the worst plants. They were grown in 

 a cool house during the summer. Please 

 state the cause. M. B. 



This does not look like a disease, 

 but appears, rather, to be sun scald. 

 Perhaps you grew your plants rather 

 heavily shaded and then gave* them full 



sunshine in a light, sunny house. This 

 would cause the burnt-like foliage. If 

 this is not due to sun scald with water 

 on the foliage, I am at a loss to" ac- 

 count for it, as I have seen no disease 

 attack the leaves in this way. An- 

 other year remove the shading grad- 

 ually and do not subject the plants to 

 a change from shade to clear sunshine. 

 P. obconica is naturally a clean grow- 

 ing plant. Some yellowing around the 

 leaT edges is due«to overfeeding, but 

 this is quite different from your trou- 

 ble. C. W. 



A Pi;ORIA STORE. 



The special reason for publishing the 

 accompanying illustration in this issue 

 is that next week the 'Illinois State 

 Florists' Association meets, March 4 

 and 5, at Peoria, the second city, in 

 size, in Illinois. The illustration shows 

 the retail store conducted in Peoria by 

 George A. Kuhl, of Pekin. A larg^ at- 

 tendance is expecteyi, at nisxt week 's 

 meeting. There will fee an exbibiiion in 

 conjunction. 



II SEASONABLE <^ 



i 



(53 



2) 



^ SUGGESTIONS k 





Rambler Roses. 



A good many growers are likely to be 

 somewhat late this year with their 

 rambler roses for Easter, and many of 

 the plants will not be up to the average, 

 having been subjected to such strong 

 heat to flower them on time. It is worth 

 an extra effort to get at least a few 

 blossoms open on each plant, as the de- 

 mand after Easter is not robust. Do 

 not give the ramblers over 60 degrees 

 at night, and if time will permit, move 

 them into a house a few degrees cooler 

 to open their flowers. Strong heat will 

 affect both the substance and quality. 

 Liquid stimulants can be given once in 

 three or four days, until the flowers are 

 opening, when feeding should be dis- 

 continued, as it only has a tendency to 

 take the color out of the flowers. 



Tausendschon proved so immensely 

 popular last year that it is being heav- 

 ily grown again. Please note that this 

 sort will come into bloom at least ten 

 days ahead of Dorothy Perkins and 

 Hiawatha, and should be moved to 

 cooler quarters, with a slight shade on 

 the glass, so that its beautiful color 

 will not fade. Keep a sharp lookout 

 for mildew, which is liable to attack 

 ramblers when hard forced. Sprinkle 

 some sulphur on the steam pipes as a 

 preventive and dust over affected plants 

 at once. 



Easter Lilies. 



Quite a few growers of Easter lilies 

 will be kept on the anxious seat for the 

 next three weeks. It means a great 

 deal to the grower whether his plants 

 are in flower or not, and it is certainly 

 hard for many a small grower with but 

 limited housing facilities and insuflS- 

 cient heat to get his plants in on time. 

 These too early Easters make the grow- 

 ers devoutly wish that the festival had 

 a fixed date, and few florists would op- 

 pose such a change. "Where lilies are 



not now showing buds prominently it is, 

 of course, hopeless attempting to flower 

 them. Where the buds are two to three 

 inches long they will need 70 degrees at 

 night and frequent syringing to get 

 them in. Where the buds are starting 

 to hang down they are safe and can be 

 kept comparatively cool. Do not, how- 

 ever, subject them to a sharp drop in 

 temperature, or most of the flowers may 

 never open. 



Plants which show color within a 

 week can easily be held back in a cool 

 cellar. All that can be done with late 

 lilies is to give them all possible heat, 

 even 75 degrees at night, plenty of 

 water at the root, and spray freely with 

 warm water. If anything will bring 



them in on time, this treatment will, 

 and, of course, they need all possible 

 snnshine. 



Dutch Bulbs for Easter. 



It takes an average of three weeks to 

 flower hyacinths, tulips and narcissi for 

 Easter after being housed. Do not give 

 any of them a warm house. They do 

 not need it and it will only draw them 

 up. In some places the plants will, no 

 doubt, come on BuflSciently fast in cold- 

 frames, but not in the more northerly 

 states, where temperatures as low as 

 zero or below sometimes occur in March. 

 The colder the plants can be grown the 

 sturdier they will be. It is difficult to 

 lay down any hard and fast rule about 

 these bulbs. A few hot days in March 

 may forward them far beyond any of 

 the present expectations, and we must 

 guard against these possibilities by abun- 

 dant ventilation and some shade on the 

 glass. The floor of a good cellar comes 

 in handy for these plants and they can 

 be retarded easily for eight or ten days 

 in such a place, even when in flower. 



Allow the double tuHps, like Murillo 

 and Couronne d'Or, a little more time 

 than Yellow Prince, Keizferskroon or La 

 Eeine, and do not forget to lay news- 

 papers over any of the tulips on hot, 

 sunny days, when their flowers are 

 opening. 



Stevia. 



Do not forget, in the pressure of other 

 duties, to start a good batch of cut- 

 tings of stevia. No country florist can 

 afford to be without it and, while it 

 may be an easily grown and cheap 

 flower, we would hate to have to give 

 it up. Throw away the old stock plants 

 once you have taken plenty of cuttings. 

 You can easily secure more plants, if 

 wanted, by* striking the tops of these 

 early cuttings. 



The Propagating Bench. 



There should be no vacant places in 

 the propagating benches these days. If 

 you are doing a business in bedding 

 plants, cuttings of various kinds will 

 require considerable space now. Such 

 varieties as scented geraniums, zonale 

 geraniums, salvias, heliotropes, coleus, 

 alternantheras, verbenas, scented ver- 

 benas, petunias, etc., should be propa- 

 gated in quantity. Then you should 



Peoria Retail Store of Geo. A. Kuhl, Pekio, Ul. 



