^ -, ^■*;t»-,-j 



12 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



i»i,jEfWW^ 



Mabch 10, 1910. 



RET^^ING EASTER UUES. 



Do you know if Formosa lily plants in 

 green bud, nearly ready to bloom, could 

 be put in a cellar carried at 40 to 45 

 degrees, where we keep cut flowers, and 

 be held back two or three weeks. If so, 

 how long would it take to bloom them 

 when put back on the bench! Or would 

 it be better tq wait until part of the 

 buds are in bloon^ and then put them in 

 the cellar! I am afraid of blasting the 

 buds or damping off, unless advised to 

 do so. H. D. H. 



It wUl be much better for you to allow 

 the first flowers to open on your For- 

 mosas before placing them in the cool 

 cellar. You can hold them a couple of 

 weeks in good condition in the tempera- 

 ture you refer to. It would not do to 

 take plants in bud from a warm house 

 into the cellar. In all probability many 

 of the buds' would never open at all. Be- 

 fore you move them, lower your green- 

 house temperature in advance, so that the 

 change will be less marked. C. W. 



TULIPS AND DAFFODILS. 



Are tulip and daffodil bulbs, which are 

 now through blooming, suitable to plant 

 next fall for forcing next winter! My 

 bulbs were bought last fall. W. B. 



Tulips and daffodils are worthless for 

 forcing a second season. The best use 



PRIMULA OBCONICA. .j 



A prlmroee by the rlTer** brim, 

 Only a primrose la to blm. 



For years the trade did not realize the 

 great beauty and usefulness of Primula 

 obconica, but lately it has become such 

 a common article of stock that the aver- 

 age florist is apt to overlook its impor- 

 tance and sometimes neglect its not ex- 

 acting requirements. But the primrose, 

 no less than most other subjects for 

 greenhouse culture, gives results in pro- 

 portion to the care that is put upon it; 

 it suffers from the sins of omission as 

 much as from those of commission, and 

 it responds nobly to rational, liberal 

 treatment. Well grown primulas are a 

 joy to their grower, along about Thanks- 

 giving time and later, and they turn in 

 an excellent interest on the investment. 



The primulas are the least troubled 

 with any of our greenhouse pests of any 

 cultivated plants. The principal thing 

 to rememljjer is that they do not like 

 much heat — there is far more danger of 

 growing them too v^arm .th^n too cool. 

 After they have left the seed pan they 

 need a good, open soil; two parts loam, 

 one part sifted cow manure and one part 

 leaf-mold will suit them nicely, potted 

 only moderately firm. The leaf stems 

 break rather easily and to get the best 

 of plants the shifting should not be left 

 to a careless man. 



"If you wish to have primroses by 



Primula. Obconica Graodiflora. 



to make of them is to plant them in your 

 flower border or lawn. The daffodils look 

 well in grass, especially where it is not 

 mown too closely, and the tulips will 

 bloom nicely in any mixed flower border 

 where herbaceous and annual plants are 

 grown. C. W. 



GrOVEVille, N. J. — ^^'^illiam Robinson 

 plans the erection of a greenhouse. 



October you should sow in April," ad- 

 vised Wm. Scott, author of that widely 

 read volume, the "Florists' Manual," 

 "and if you wish to have them in spring 

 ypu shoiild sow again at the end of 

 August. You can with care sow any 

 time from March to September. We 

 usually sow about May 1, which gives 

 us flowering plants from November on 

 to March, after which we think there 



are many other plants, nolj^ better, but 

 the* people want a change, and for an 

 Easter plant we do not prize them. It 

 is in early winter that they are such 

 favorites with everybody. 



"The coldframe is an excellent place 

 to summer over the primroses. With the 

 glass shaded and the sashes raised back 

 and front, it is cool, and if you will not 

 neglect them there is no place in the 

 greenhouse where they can be grown as 

 well. If the frame is in the shade of 

 trees, so much the better. It is coolness 

 you want. 



"Sow on some light loam and leaf- 

 mold that has been previously well 

 watered. Just press in the seed and 

 cover with more leaf-mold very lightly; 

 when the seed is out of sight it is cover- 

 ing enough. Place a pane of glass over 

 the flat or pan and don't let the soil 

 get parched. When the little plants are 

 up keep the pan in the coolest place you 

 have. 



"In five or six weeks they can be 

 potted singly in 2-inch pots, using clean 

 pots. I have'-^ound these little plants 

 do finely on a shelf in a house that had 

 a good shade. In another five or six 

 weeks they will go into a 3-inch pot. If 

 you don't have a coldframe, then give 

 them a bench where it is shaded over- 

 head, and they can get plenty of air- 

 By the end of August or early Septem- 

 ber they should be shifted into their 

 flowering pot. We sell most of them in 

 4-inch pots, and the great majority go 

 as soon as one fine truss is developed, 

 but to grow a fine plant they should have 

 a 5-inch. 



"After the heat of summer is gone 

 we try to keep them at about 50 de- 

 grees at night, but less won't hurt them 

 in the least. And don't crowd them at 

 any time. They must have full room 

 for the spread of their pretty leaves, or 

 they are useless. They need little syring- 

 ing, and none when in flower, but when 

 growing during summer a fine sprinkling 

 does them good. They wilt quickly when 

 allowed to suffer for want of water 

 and need plenty of water from seedpan 

 to flowering. The soil should be always 

 in that condition that it will take plenty 

 of water. 



"If you flower them as late as March 

 or April their flowers will need shading. ' ' 



The illustration opposite is prepared 

 from a photograph made early in 

 November, 1909, in a house at Lakeside 

 cemetery, Minneapolis, in which A. J. 

 Smith had grown 2,000 fine plants of 

 Primula obconica, . 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PRIMULAS. 



J. L. Schiller, of Toledo, O., has lately 

 been giving a good deal of time and at- 

 tention to the culture of primulas, partly 

 for experimental purposes, and he has 

 found this class of flowers even more in- 

 teresting and pleasing than he expected. 

 He says that when his sample plants — 

 about 250 of them — were in bloom, the 

 array of colors was really a revelation 

 to him. As he has watched them time 

 after time, his admiration has increased, 

 and each plant, as his gaze has rested on 

 it, has seemed to him for the moment to 

 be more beautiful than all the others. 



The colors, he says, are numerous and 

 distinct, ranging from the softest lilac 

 to a deep purplish crimson, and from 

 pure white and light pink to a dark 

 blood-red. They are mostly self colors, 

 combined in many cases, of course, with 

 dark and bright eyes, which contrast 

 magniflcently with the rest of the flower. 



