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10 



TheWcekly Florists' Review. 



May 12, 1910. 



:geraniums for wholesaling. 



I am interested in the wholesale trade 

 in bedding plants and should be glad to 

 see something about this branch of the 

 business, especially referring to gera- 

 niums. The geranium is one of the com- 

 monest of plants, but I find that infinite 

 care is necessary to get a crop through 

 in good shape, while frequently the clos- 

 est attention does not serve to ward off 

 trouble. H. O. 



Those universal favorites, the gerani- 

 ums, would more greatly be missed than 

 any one plant from our gardens. They 

 submit to many abuses and everybody 

 has his own way of caring for his gera- 

 niums, but they must have light. Heat 

 with poor light and excessive moisture 

 would be the worst conditions for a 

 geranium or any of the pelargonium 

 family. 



Our ordinary bedding geraniums will 

 propagate any month in the year, except 

 perhaps June, July and August. In those 

 months they would need keeping quite 

 moist to prevent severe wilting and the 

 tissue of the cuttings would get filled up 

 with water and rot would likely set in. 

 Early in September we take cuttings 

 from outside and put into 2-inch pots 

 and place in a light greenhouse or cold- 

 frame. No bottom heat is necessary at 

 this time, or any other, for this class of 

 geraniums. If shifted at New Year's 

 into 3-inch and in early April into 4-inch, 

 these should make splendid plants by the 

 middle of May. In most cases a cutting 

 can be taken off the top of each of these 

 about February 1, which, if shifted as 

 soon as well rooted, will make a good 

 bedding plant in a 3iA-inch pot and a 

 neat size for shipping. As far as price 

 and profit are concerned, there is more 

 in these smaller plants at $1 a dozen than 

 the larger at $1.50. 



We have, as retailers, mostly no space 

 to give to old plants, but the man who 

 wholesales cannot only take off all the 

 cuttings possible in September and Oc- 

 tober, but should at the same time lift 

 these same cut down plants and put 

 them on the bench in five inches of good 

 soil, giving them space to grow. They 

 will soon take hold and in a night tem- 

 perature of 50 degrees and a light bench 

 you will be able to take off at least three 

 good batches of cuttings from autumn to 

 March. 



The trouble with many of the young 

 geraniums you buy of wholesale growers 

 is that they are drawn-up, elongated, 

 weak things. They have been grown too 

 crowded and warm. In the winter 

 months, whether for your own spring re- 

 tailing or for shipping, 45 degrees at 

 night is plenty and they must have light 

 and ventilation whenever possible. When 

 these succulent plants are in a low tem- 

 perature they are often kept too wet and 

 that makes them soft. Being on the dry 

 side, and only watered when they are de- 

 cidedly dry, makes them short-jointed 

 and hard, and that is the condition a 

 geranium should be in if you expect a 



free-growing and free-flowering, robust 

 plant in the summer months. 



A rather stiff loam and firm potting is 

 essential at every stage of growth. To 

 use too much manure and induce a rank 

 growth is a big mistake. 



Now a word about packing these 

 plants for shipping. Pernaps you have 

 noticed that there is no plant that so 

 soon suffers with yellow leaves if ex- 

 cluded from the light a few days. Even 

 if left in the packing-shed for forty- 

 eight hours the leaves lose their color. 

 Therefore, express is the only way they 

 should be shipped. The small 2-inch or 

 2%-inch pot plants are the sizes mostly 

 shipp^ in winter, and nothing is easier. 

 A tight box of moderate depth is lined 

 to keep out frost, each little plant 

 wrapped in some pliable paper and then 

 laid tightly in layers till the box is full. 

 I say tightly, because there should be no 

 chance for any plant to move, whichever 

 way the box may be tossed about. Any 



small plants, roses, carnations, verbenas, 

 petunias or anything else, travel finely 

 except that with carnations or plants 

 with small tops, four plants can be put 

 in one parcel instead of each plant 

 singly. The principal thing is that there 

 should be no chance of any plant moving 

 in the box. . Plants should be dry when 

 shipped, never just watered. Moist would 

 be correct, and the foliage dry. 



We often have to ship a few hundred 

 fine 4-inch geraniums in full flower at 

 bedding time. To pack these plants 

 tightly in a closed box would mar their 

 appearance a great deal, although no per- 

 manent injury would be done, but these 

 we wrap in paper and stand in a box 

 with the sides as deep as the tops of the 

 flowers. There is a way which must sug- 

 gest itself to everyone; that is, after the 

 first row of plants is stood firmly in the 

 end of the box, another tier can be put 

 between the stems of these. The next 

 row is stood on the bottom of the box, 

 and so on. If compactly packed, ho foli- 

 age will be bruised or broken. Then the 

 box is covered with a few strong strips, 

 leaving plenty of space for the plants 

 and flowers to be seen. Then I never 

 knew an express man to turn the box on 

 its side or on end, but they can stand 

 other boxes on top of your box without 

 harm. 



A good packer is a valuable man and 

 it is a great advertisement for a firm to 

 gain the reputation of packing well with- 

 out making expensive charges. 



A NEW YELLOW FORaNG ROSE. 



No yellow rose ever will enjoy the 

 market for cut blooms in this country 

 that there is for white, pink or red. But 

 that there is a place for a yellow forcing 

 rose that will stand for quality beside 

 Killarney, White Killarney and Rich- 

 mond every retail fiorist and wholesale 

 grower will agree. Perle des Jardins 

 now is almost the only yellow rose that 

 ever is seen as a cut flower. It is not 

 at all in the class with the modern forc- 

 ing roses of other colors and the demand 

 for it, therefore, is on the wane. Wheth- 

 er or not Lady Hillingdon will prove to 

 be worth space in the American green- 

 houses that shelter the Killarneys remains 

 to be seen, but in England, where it 

 originated and where yellow is a more 

 important flower color than it is here, it 

 is thought highly of. The accompanying 

 illustration would indicate that it ia 

 worth a trial. 



Eose Lady Hillingdon originated with 

 Lowe & Shawyer, Ltd., a firm that was 

 established by Joseph liowe, at Uxbridge, 



Middlesex, England, in 1864. When ex- 

 hibited before the Eoyail Horticultural 

 Society at London, March 8, 1909, the 

 variety gained an award of merit. It is 

 described as "a beautiful new tea-scent- 

 ed rose that appears to be especially 

 suitable for forcing. It has long stems 

 and handsome foliage. The full, broad- 

 petaled blooms are of a pleasing shade 

 of soft yellow. A very fine new rose." 

 While Lady Hillingdon was raised by 

 Lowe & Shawyer, it will be distributed 

 to the trade by George Mount & Sons, of 

 Canterbury. 



LYON ROSE A KEEPER. 



Laurence J. Cook, of Stuart Low & 

 Co., the well-known English firm, says 

 that the remarkable substance possessed 

 by the bloom of the Lyon rose was dem- 

 onstrated when, after exhibiting flowers 

 in the warm atmosphere of the hall of 

 the Koyal Horticultural Society at Lon- 

 don, they dispatched the same blooms 

 to Falmouth, 300 miles distant, where 

 they looked quite well at the exhibition 

 there the two days following. This last- 

 ing quality is an additional merit for the 

 Lyon rose, which has so rapidly become 

 popular. 



