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32 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



March 17, 1910. 



iieat ami trim, a credit botli to liimself 

 and your establishment, and one that 

 your customer is not ashamed to see com- 

 ing to her front door. This is a bit of 

 good advertising, too, for if Mrs. A. sees 

 liim frequently delivering flowers on Mrs. 

 B. 's doorstep, she naturally wants to have 

 Mrs. C. see him at her own door, and 

 so it goes. 



What a winter this has been! And yet 

 it has not been without its advantages, as 

 so much and long-continued cold weather 

 has made it possible for everyone who 

 has violets here, in Florida, to have them 



in large quantities and of superior 

 quality. In fact, I have never seen them 

 so good before, during the ten years in 

 which I liave been spending the winters 

 here. They have bloomed so freely, and 

 of such good color, that they have been 

 u real satisfaction, and I think, from 

 their behavior, that probably we could 

 have had good sweet peas also, if we had 

 started them. Ordinarily, however, the 

 sweet peas are a dismal failure here, and 

 who could tell that we were going to have 

 so cold a winter? 



E. E. Shuphelt. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS f 



Easter Plants. 



But a comparatively few days now 

 remain until Easter. Any backward flow- 

 ering plants must be hurried. So far 

 March has . been a pleasant month, but 

 the latter half may prove different from 

 the first half. Every day with sunshine 

 counts. We can use fire heat all we 

 want, but it fails to send things along 

 like a clear, sunshiny day. Laggard 

 lilies should be given a night tempera- 

 ture of 70 to 75 degrees and frequent 

 sprayings overhead. It will be unwise 

 to force roses, azaleas and other flower- 

 ing plants in this way. We hope you 

 have started them sufficiently early so 

 that late hard forcing can be dispensed 

 with and a gradual lowering of tem- 

 peratures given instead. If the weather 

 is bright, be sure to keep Dutch bulbous 

 ■ plants cool and well shaded, especially 

 tulips. The same applies to the general 

 run of flowering plants, if they have been 

 properly hardened. 



We are liable to have cold, frosty 

 winds for Easter, and plants will re- 

 quire careful wrapping. Should we, per- 

 chance, get balmy weather, it will mean 

 a big saving, but it is well to be fully 

 prepared for cold weather. It is dis- 

 agreeable to have complaints from your 

 customers of frozen plants, and for this 

 there is no necessity whatever. Be sure 

 that all pots, tubs and boxes are per- 

 fectly clean and never send plants away 

 which are dry at the root. In the case 

 of ericas, acacias, ramblers, astilbes, or 

 in fact almost any Easter plants, a good 

 drying out while in bloom is practically 

 their finish. Always tell your customers 

 to water their purchases regularly and 

 there is then less likelihood of your be- 

 coming the target of censorious critics. 



Outdoor Sweet Peas. 



Just as soon as frost leaves the ground 

 and it has dried out sufficiently to be 

 plowed or spaded without being pasty, 

 the sweet peas should be sown. The ear- 

 lier you sow them, the better flowers 

 you will have. Never mind what pes- 

 simists may say about the necessity of 

 waiting until the soil becomes warm. 

 The sweet peas will be making splendid 

 root growth in the cool, moist earth be- 

 fore any tops appear. A month later 

 the shoots will appear- /{vhile the plants 

 have yet made hardly any roots, and 

 common sense will tell which sowing will 



give you the best returns. One generous 

 sowing of sweet peas should suffice for 

 the season. When planted later they 

 lack the vigor of the early sowing, and 

 if properly cared for there is no earthly 

 reason why they should not bloom satis- 

 factorily through the whole season. 



Well manured and deep soil, in which 

 sweet peas can root deeply, is the best 

 for continuous flowering, but in sandy 



Azaleas and Adiantum. 



soil, liberally enriched and mulched with 

 old manure, seaweed or -some similar 

 material, they will bloom surprisingly 

 well. Sow thinly. Nine-tenths of the 

 sweet pea growers use a pound of seed 

 where an ounce would suffice. Have the 

 courage to thin severely if your seedlings 

 come up thickly. Cover the seeds two 

 to two and one-half inches deep and do 

 not earth them up as they grow, as often 

 advised, unless you want to lose many 



of your plants from stem-rot. Persistent 

 cultivation, watering in dry weather, a 

 suitable mulch, keeping seed pods care- 

 fully removed and a hosing on warm 

 sumiper evenings will all help to make 

 sweet pea culture a success. 



It is unwise to grow mixed sweet peas. 

 These are not wanted in the markets, 

 nor does it pay to handle more than a 

 small number of varieties. Seedsmen's 

 lists are bewildering and should be well 

 boiled down. The following will be 

 found strictly first:class and among the 

 best of their respective colors : Dorothy 

 Eckf ord, white, still the best of its color ; 

 White Spencer; Mrs. Eoutzahn Spencer 

 or Lady M. Ormsby Gore, blush ; Countess 

 of Spencer and Prima Donna, pink; Miss 

 Willmott or Helen Lewis, orange pink; 

 Helen Pierce, blue and white; King Ed- 

 ward VII, scarlet; Navy Blue or Captain 

 of the Blues, Spencer, dark blue; Lady 

 Grisel Hamilton or Frank Dolby, laven- 

 der. If restricted to half a dozen va- 

 rieties, try Dorothy Eckf ord, Frank 

 Dolby, Countess of Spencer, Miss Will- 

 mott, Helen Pierce and King Edward VII. 

 If you may wish to try a few of the 

 kinds of more recent introduction, here 

 are a few of the best: Asta Ohn Spen- 

 cer, Miriam Beaver, Evelyn Hemus, W. 

 T. Hutchins and Marie Corelli. 



Hotbeds. 



Greenhouses are now full' to overflow- 

 ing. Easter will give us some much 

 needed bench space, but it is possible 

 to utilize some of the vacant coldframe 

 sashes to good advantage now. It is too 

 early to move many plants into frames, 

 but if a foot of warm manure is firmly 

 tramped in these frames and a layer 

 of fine ashes spread on the top, you can 

 place your flats of carnations here and 

 they will grow jwt as well as in the 

 houses, and probably better. You can 

 root your violet stock also in them, 

 while for any of the hardier annuals, to 

 say nothing of vegetable plants, these 

 frames present many advantages. See 

 that all sashes are well glazed. Cover 

 with mats on cold nights. Leave on a 

 chink of air at the back, to prevent 

 steaminess, and water carefully during 

 sunless spells of weather. To some, hot- 

 beds are back numbers, but try a few 

 sashes and note how much better the 

 plants thrive in them than in the houses. 

 In early April the geraniums can be 

 placed in fraiftes, and with a gentle bot- 

 tom heat and the pots partly plunged, 

 they will grow in a manner to amaze you. 



Marsuerites. 



Well flowered marguerite plants, both 

 of the yellow and white varieties, are 

 always popular at Easter. Be sure they 

 never suffer for want of water. They 

 are thirsty subjects and the pots need 

 filling almost every time you use the 

 hose. This is a good time to take a 

 batch of cuttings to grow along through 

 the summer, for flowering early next 

 winter. These plants will, of course, 

 show a tendency to flower all the time, 

 but pinch out all buds as they appear. 

 Their first really satisfactory growth will 

 not come until the cool autumn nights 

 arrive. There is a big demand for mar- 

 guerite flowers in April, May and even 

 June. If you want flowers then, your 

 plants should either be in quite large 

 pots or planted in some vacant bench. 

 If in the latter, you are bound to get 

 fine stems. Boxes six inches deep and 

 shallow benches produce the finest mar- 

 guerites we have ever seen. 



