10 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



May 12, 1910. 



: GERANIUMS FOR WHOLESALING. 



I am interested in the wholesale trade 

 in bedding jilants and should be glad to 

 see somethiniT about this branch of the 

 business, esj)ecially referring to gera- 

 niums. The geranium is one of the com- 

 monest of i)lants. but I find that infinite 

 care is necessary to get a crop through 

 in gfidd sliape, while frequently the clos- 

 est atlentioii does not serve to ward off 

 trouble. II. O. 



Those universal favorites, (lie 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 tliey nuist have light. Heat 

 with poor liglit and excessive moisture 

 would ho tiie worst conditions for a 

 geranium .a- any of flie pelargonium 

 family. 



Our ordinary bedding geraniums will 

 propagate any moiitli in the year, except 

 pcrhajiS .lune, .luly and August. In those 

 months they would need keeping quite 

 moist lo i)revent severe wilting and the 

 tissue of rhe cuttings would get filled u]i 

 with water and ret would likely set in. 

 Early in September we take cuttings 

 from outside and put into 2-ineh pots 

 and |ilace in a light greenhouse or cold- 

 frame. No bottom heat is necessary at 

 this lime, or any other, for this class of 

 geraniums. If shifted at New Year's 

 into .'i-iuih .ukI in early A])ril into 4-inch, 

 these should make splendid jdants by the 

 middle of May. Jii most cases a cutting 

 can be laken oil' the top of each of these 

 about I'cbruary 1, which, if shifted as 

 soon as well rooted, will make a good 

 bedding plant in a .'jio-iiich jiot 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.'">0. 



We have, as retailers, mostly no space 

 to give to old plants. b\it the man who 

 wholesales cannot only take o(T all Ihe 

 cuttings ])ossible in September and Oc- 

 tober, but should ;it the same time lift 

 these same cut down plants and put 

 them on the bench in five inches of good 

 soil, gixing them s|)ace to grow. They 

 will soon t.'ike hold and in a night tem- 

 perature of .1(1 degrees and a light bench 

 you will lie able to take off at least three 

 good batches of cuttings from autumn to 

 March. 



The trouble with many of Ihe young 

 geraniums you 1)uy of wholesale growers 

 is that tliey 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 jilenty and (hey 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-.Jointcd 

 and hard, and that is the condition a 

 geranium slmuld bo 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- 

 iduded 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 ■ioaly way they 

 should be shipped. TW-emall li-im-h or 

 -'/■>-inch pot plants are the sizes mostly 

 shippAl in winter, and nothing is easier. 

 A tight box of moderate depth is lined 

 to keep out frost, each little plant 

 \vra]iped in soi'ne pliable pajier and then 

 laid tightly in layers till the box is full. 

 1 say tightly, because there should be no 

 chance for any plant to move, whichever 

 wav Ihe box mav l)e tossed about. Auv 



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 

 a])pearance a great deal, although no per- 

 manent injury would be done, but these 

 we wrap in paper and stand in a box 

 Avith 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, no 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 umking expensixe charges. 



A NEW YELLOW FORCING ROSE. 



jN'o yellow rose ever will enjoy the 

 uuirket 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, Whiti^^Killarney and Rich- 

 mond every retail florist 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 Ilillingdon will jirove 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 is 

 Avorth a trial. 



Rose Lady Ilillingdon originated with 

 Lowe & Shawyer, Ltd., a firm that was 

 established by Joseph I<owe, at Uxbridge, 



.Middlesex, l']nglnnd, in LSG4. When ex- 

 iiibited before the lioyjA 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 Ilillingdon was raised by 

 Lowe & Shawyer, it will be distributed 

 to the trade by George Mount & Sons, of 

 Canterbury. 



LYON ROSE A KEEPER. 



Laurence J. f'ook, of Stuart Low & 

 Co., the well-known English firm, says 

 that the remarkable substance ])ossessed 

 by the bloom of the Lyon rose was dem- 

 onstrated when, after exhibiting flowers 

 in the warm atmosphere of the hall of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society at Lon- 

 don, they dispatched the same blooms 

 to Falmouth, 800 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. 



