Skptbmber 1, 1910. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



11 



Plant B of the Poehlmann Bros. G>., Morton Grove, III. 



bench about three inches apart and not 

 potted up until spring? F. W. S. 



No matter whether kept in sand or 

 loam, the plan you suggest is a poor 

 one and will give unsatisfactory re- 

 sultB. It is far too long a period to 

 leave cuttings without potting, and the 

 chances are that many plants would 

 damp off and others grow so robustly 

 that they would lose much of their foli- 

 age when lifted. If you want to carry 

 them over until, say, the early part of 

 February, you could do so in flats of 

 sand, keeping them just moist enough 

 to prevent shriveling and giving them 

 a shelf in a sunny house. Pot culture, 

 moving successively to 2-inch, 3-inch 

 and 4-inch pots, may mean some more 

 labor, but it is the plan which will 

 give you far the best plants in the 

 end, and we would advise you to adopt 

 it. C, W. 



HALF-MILE FEONTS. 



Reproduced on this page are two of 

 the most interesting photographs of 

 greenhouse establishments ever made. 

 The pictures show the two plants of 

 Poehlmann Bros. Co., Morton Grove, 

 111. The photographing of a modern 

 range of greenhouses presents many 

 diflSculties which may not have occurred 

 to one who has not tried it. In the 

 first place, with hundreds of thousands 

 of feet of glass to be photographed, it 

 is difficult to find a position from which 

 all the glass may be within range of 

 the camera at one time. Then, when 

 such a position is found, either the dis- 

 tance is so great that the details are 

 lost, or else it is found that no lens 

 has a sufficiently wide angle to get the 

 entire establishment withip its scope. 

 The photographing of the Poehlmann 

 establishments has presented a pecu- 



liarly difficult task because of the great 

 distance to be covered; plant B is near- 

 ly half a mile long. Little could be done 

 towards showing all of either of the 

 plants until the revolving camera was 

 used. A great many florists have seen 

 these cameras employed in photograph- 

 ing convention groups. The machine is 

 set pointing at one end of the group, 

 and, when it is started, revolves until 

 it points to the other end of the group, 

 in the meantime automatically exposing 

 different parts of the film as it revolves. 

 This gets a fine picture, but if the line 

 to be photographed is a straight one 

 the camera produces the effect of a re- 

 versed curve, those standing nearest 

 appearing the largest in the picture. 

 To escape this distortion the photogra- 

 pher arranges his group of people in a 

 semicircle. Then the picture shows 

 them as standing in a straight line and 

 all the people of size in correct propor- 

 tion. The revolving camera worked 

 finely on the two Poehlmann plants, but 

 as the greenhouses stand in a straight 

 line, the picture presents the effect of 

 a reversed curve. This result is more 

 apparent in plant B than in plant A. 

 Even with the revolving camera it was 

 not possible to get the entire number 

 of houses in plant B on the film, though 

 the original photographs were in this 

 instance thirty-two inches long. There 

 are some dozen or more houses at 

 the right that do not show. Build- 

 ing is a fairly continuous performance 

 with the Poehlmann Bros. Co.; usually 

 there are houses just being started, 

 others approaching completion, with 

 further additions contracted for. At 

 the time the pictures were taken the 

 establishment was as complete as at 

 any date in recent years. Practically 

 everything which had been started was 

 finished up, but there are .thirteen addi- 



tional houses arranged for, to be ready 

 for early planting for next summer's 

 cut flower production. 



CROOKED GLADIOLUS STEMS. 



What is the reason for gladiolus flow- 

 er stalks growing crooked, and is there 

 any way to prevent it except staking 

 them? J. J. H. 



Some varieties of gladioli have an 

 inherent weakness and invariably pro- 

 duce crooked flower stems. Few of the 

 really good named kinds have this fail- 

 ing. Grow the bulbs in an open, sunny 

 spot; in shade they are more liable to 

 come weak-stemmed. It is best to dis- 

 card sorts that persist in coming with 

 crooked stems; it hardly pays to stake 

 gladioli in commercial culture. 



C. W. 



VARIEGATED VINCAS. 



Will you kindly tell me how to grow 

 variegated vincas? I have a nice lot of 

 seedlings in the field, but being a begin- 

 ner in the business I do not know what 

 to do with them now. They are about 

 three inches in height. L. M. S. 



Leave the vincas where they are. 

 Keep them well cultivated. Lift and 

 pot them about the end of September. 

 The plants should require 4-inch or 

 5-inch pots. Stand them along the 

 edges of the benches in any cool green- 

 house for the winter. These will make 

 splendid stock for spring and Memorial 

 day sales. To increase stock for an- 

 other year, root cuttings any time dur- 

 ing the winter. Pot off, plant outdoors 

 and treat in the same way as suggested. 

 The cuttings, if soft, root easily, espe- 

 cially the short ones rubbed off with a 

 heel." W. C. 



Plant A of the Poehlmann Bros. G>., Morton Grove, III. 



