Sbptbmber 15, 1910. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



11 



fore planting, if on making a soil test 

 it is found to be acid. If green slime 

 does appear, the only cure is to keep 

 the surface loosened. C. W. 



SOAKING SWEET PEA SEED. 



Do you approve of a twenty-four 

 hours' soaking of winter flowering 

 sweet pea seed before planting, or do 

 you consider chipping the outer shell 

 of any advantage? K. G. 



I have not found any benefit from 

 soaking sweet pea seed, either for out- 

 doors or under glass. My experience 

 has been that while the seeds will 

 germinate a trifle earlier, no larger a 

 percentage will grow. Chipping the 

 outer shell, even if advantageous, is 

 too laborious a task to be thought of, 

 especially where large quantities are 

 grown. Soak the seed well after sow- 

 ing and, in my opinion, the percentage 

 of seedlings will be fully as great as if 

 you soak it twenty-four hours in ad- 

 vance. C. W. 



OEOBQE GIBBS. 



American bulb growing is being 

 tested with more or less success in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, and there 

 are several men who deserve the title 

 of pioneers in that line, but perhaps no 

 one will deny that George Gibbs, of 

 Clearbrook, Wash., has the chief claim 

 to the title in the great district known 

 as the Pacific northwest. 



Mr. Gibbs was born May 2, 1830, in 

 the county of Gloucester, England, and 

 was from childhood a lover and student 

 of plant life. Early in life he came to 

 America. After many years of farm- 

 ing in the corn belt of Missouri, he 

 sold his property there and moved in 

 October, 1887, with his wife and four 

 daughters, to the western part of Wash- 

 ington state, so that he might study 

 plant life in a mild, moist climate, such 

 as he had known in his native land — a 

 climate distinctly different from that 

 of any other state in the Union. 



By an accident January 3, 1888 — a 

 fall for a distance of fourteen feet — he 

 received such injuries in his spine and 

 abdomen as made him a cripple for 

 life. What then could he do? It was 

 here that his love for plant life became 

 his leading thought. He examined the 

 gardens in the neighborhood and found 

 that the bulbs of Holland were per- 

 fectly at home there and increased with 

 great rapidity. The United States had 

 been importing them by the million for 

 many years. Why not attempt the 

 growing of them for the nation's sup- 

 ply, in the favorable climate of west 

 Washington? 



So he bought his first $5 worth in 

 1891 and got down to work on them. 

 "Got down," he says, is exactly the 

 right phrase, because he could not stand 

 up much, but could kneel down and 

 plant and fertilize and weed them bet- 

 ter than he could do almost any other 

 kind of work. He has been wrapped 

 up in this work ever since, with ever 

 increasing success, and has had over 

 half a million bulbs in several different 

 seasons. The selling end of the busi- 

 ness, however, has been much neglected, 

 he says, so that^he is rich in experience 

 and demonstration work, but poor in 

 purse. 



Three years ago he began using the 

 correct Dutch methods of propagating 

 the hyacinth. He scored 200 bulbs the 

 first season and now has 48,000 grow- 





K- .'• •> 



George Gibbs. 



ing on a small fraction of an acre of 

 land. His two-year-old miniatures 

 measured up to the standard, five and 

 a half inches around, last season, and 

 this season they will prove to be fine, 

 thrifty, solid bulbs. 



The Division of Plant Industry at 

 Washington, D. C, sent an expert 

 across the continent four years ago to 

 inspect Mr. Gibbs' work, take photo- 

 graphs of the beds and report his 

 achievements. The citizens of Bell- 

 ingham. Wash., after seeing the suc- 

 cess of his work, made the offer to the 

 Department of Agriculture to furnish 

 ten acres of land and all buildings re- 

 quired for ten years if the Department 

 would take up the matter of public 

 demonstration bulb gardens, to show 

 just how well the bulbs could be grown 

 in that section of west Washington. 

 This season the second display was on 

 view at these gardens and the work was 

 pronounced a splendid success by the 

 thousands of people who beheld it. 



Mr. Gibbs estimates that he can grow 

 on an acre of land 9,600,000 one and 

 two-year-old hyacinth bulbs. He plants 

 narcissi at the rate of 325,000 per acre, 

 and tulips at the rate of 250,000 per 

 acre. All narcissi increase fast. He 

 states that all forced bulbs recover in 

 three years and bloom as well as ever 

 in the climate of Washington. 



He thinks that he can claim, with 

 modesty, that he has "made good" 

 and has introduced a class of plants 

 that Jn years to come will be worth 

 many thousands of dollars to west 

 Washington. But his advanced age and 

 his increasing physical infirmity have 

 now almost disabled him and he is 

 looking for some one to succeed him in 

 the enterprise. 



STOCKS DO NOT FLOWER. 



I have a bed of Beauty of Nice 

 stocks, which are nice plants, but they 

 will not bud in the open ground. I had 

 the same trouble last year. The plants 

 are perfect in every other respect. Can 

 vou tell me what the trouble is? 



C. P. M. 



Beauty of Nice stocks, if not flower- 

 ing now, will probably not amount to 

 anything. You cannot dig them out, 

 but you might protect the bed with 

 strips of burlap or cheesecloth on cold 

 nights and get some flowers from them 

 a month hence. Ten weeks' stocks are 

 the best for growing outdoors. You 

 iirc absolutely certain of their flower- 

 ing. C. W. 



PROPAGATION OF STOCKS. 



Please inform me if ten weeks ' stocks 

 can be propagated by cuttings. I have 

 been told that it could be done, but 

 have never seen it. A. A. F. & S. 



It would be possible, no doubt, to root 

 cuttings of stocks and quite a number 

 of other annuals. There is, however, 

 no advantage in this method of propa- 

 gation, as cuttings will not by any 

 means equal seedlings in vigor and flo- 

 riferousness. As seed is purchasable of 

 every shade of color and as it can be 

 depended upon to come eighty per cent 

 double and true to color, from any re- 

 liable seed merchant, any other method 

 of propagation is of no practical value. 

 C. W. 



STOCKS NOT BLOOMING. 



We planted some stocks about June 

 in the open ground, hero in southeast- 



