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Afbil 28, 1910. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



The Twa Macs, of San Francisco, and their Orchid Things that Look Like Finnan Haddies. 



Keep the plants cooler and airier now. 

 If you have the requisite sashes at service, 

 get as many of the plants under them as 

 you can. Plunge the pots a little, to 

 reduce watering, and they will make 

 grand, stocky plants for Memorial day 

 trade. Unless they are growing in too 

 rich soil, or are being overfed with liquid 

 or chemical manures, all the plants should 

 now be showing flower trusses, and these 

 should now be left on the plants, although 

 up to this time we have removed them. 



'Winter Geraniums. 



Select some of the best plants of popu- 

 lar varieties of geraniums, and if you 

 did not propagate any specially for win- 

 ter flowering, you can grow along some 

 of the ordinary bedding ones. Any of 

 the scarlets sell well at Christmas and 

 are still something of a novelty in winter 

 at many stores. Plants for Christmas 

 blooming are now sufficiently advanced 

 if in 3-inch pots; later shifts to 4%-inch 

 and 6-inch will be necessary. For the 

 next shift use a heavier compost, good 

 loam, some screened cow manure and 

 bone, but no leaf-mold or sand, and pot 

 quite firmly. Keep the plants on a bench 

 in a light, well aired house. Pinch oflf 

 all flowers as they appear, and also the 

 top of the shoot, to keep them bushy. 



Amaryllis. 



The flowering season for the hybrid 

 amaryllis is now over and the plants are 

 in active growth. It is utterly absurd 

 to suppose, as some still do, that with the 

 passing of the flowering season the 

 plants can be dried and otherwise 

 neglected, even thrown under the benches 

 sometimes. Amaryllis is hardly even a 

 deciduous bulb, and usually, when pot- 

 ting it in January, green leaves are to 

 be found on many plants. Provided that 

 the drainage is good and the pots well 

 filled with active roots, liquid manure at 

 least once a week should be given. 

 Spread the plants out. They do not need 

 a warm house, but will grow much bet- 



ter if they can be plunged to their brims 

 in cocoanut fiber, half decayed leaves, or 

 any similar suitable material. 



Amaryllis Belladonna, with its beau- 

 tiful spikes of soft pink flowers, is now 

 almost completing its growth. It is best 

 grown quite cool. Early in June the 

 foliage will show signs of ripening, when 

 the plants should be placed on their 

 sides, either under sash to ward off rains, 

 or outside on a warm, dry bank, where 

 they are to remain until flower spikes 

 show in the fall. This amaryllis does 

 best in rather large pots and does not 

 flower freely until the pots are a mass of 

 roots. 



THE TWA MACS. 



The Twa Macs, as they are kent a' 

 aboot here, are twa bonnie bairns. And 

 mind ye, while they belang tae rival 

 clans, they are unlike their forefaithers 

 in this, that they dinna like tae f echt wi ' 

 ane anither. In kilts they look rale weel 

 and are a credit tae the land o' the hills 

 and the heather, though sometimes they 

 like tae wear the breeks, as ye will see 

 for yersel'. 



The Twa Macs dae all sorts o' things 

 oot oor way, frae layin' oot kale yairds 

 tae importin' them orchid things that 

 look like finnan haddies or saut herrin' 

 strung oot on a claes line, though I 

 never saw a saut herrin' twa feet lang 

 and that was what some o' them shil- 

 leriating anes misured. 



I dinna want tae say ony mair aboot 

 them the noo; they micht no like it very 

 weel if I was a bit too fameeliar wi' 

 their affairs. But when ye come oot tae 

 San Francisco ye can jist call in and hae 

 a bit speel wi' them yersel'. The Twa 

 Macs will make ye feel at hame, and will 

 give ye a taste o ' their Athol brose, which 

 they import alang wi' them orchid 

 things. Magreegor. 



PiNEHURST, N. C. — H. F. Kelly has 

 started in business here, growing both 

 flowers and vegetables under glass. 



MANURE IMPROVEMENT. 



To avoid Jthe fly plague, I adopted the 

 expedient of having the horse manure 

 removed each morning and thrown into 

 the chicken yard. This was easily ac- 

 complished by placing a large box be- 

 neath the dump door, resting it on an 

 old wheelbarrow. The box was then 

 wheeled to the hen yard and there 

 dumped. So long as this is faithfully 

 attended to, we have few flies. The chick- 

 ens seem to get a good deal of value out 

 of the manure, as well as beneficial ex- 

 ercise. 



When the time for using the manure 

 arrived I found that it ha[d been vastly 

 improved by the chickens' work. It had 

 been so worked over and evenly distrib- 

 uted over the yard that there had been 

 no danger of heating, and it was in such 

 fine particles that it was in ideal condi- 

 tion for mulching. Further, the old and 

 the new had been so thoroughly incor- 

 porated from day to day that the whole 

 mass was remarkably uniform in quality. 

 The chicken manure was so evenly dis- 

 tributed through it and so broken up 

 that it could rarely be located, and thus 

 it enriched the horse manure without any 

 danger of undue concentration. 



Of course, such manure has to be han- 

 dled with a shovel when taken out, unless 

 just after a rain, when a fork will take 

 part of it. 



Formerly the use of a manure mulch 

 was usually followed by a crop of oats 

 where they were not wanted, these being 

 freely interspersed with various weeds. 

 Manure that has been in the chicken yard 

 a full season seems to be entirely free 

 from seeds of any kind, which is, of 

 course, a great advantage. It is sur- 

 prising how great a variety of weed seeds 

 manure sometimes contains. 



On the whole, I would now put the ma- 

 nure through the chicken process, even if 

 there were no longer a fly problem. 



G. E. A. 





