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14 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



March 18, 1909. 



TEMPERATURE FOR CUTTINGS. 



After potting up rooted cuttings, what 

 sliould be the temperature of the house? 

 I believe more cuttings are ruined by 

 too low a temperature than by a too high 

 one. 



I find white carnations more subject 

 to disease than otlier colors. Ts this so 

 generally! G. O. K. 



We have always contended that the 

 young plants should have about the same 

 temperature as the blooming plants. We 

 find 50 degrees about riglit. In that 

 * temperature growth is moderate and 

 thrifty, and sturdy plants are produced, 

 if the light is good. If an extra early 

 start is desired with outdoor planting, 

 the temperature may be dropped some 

 for a couple of weeks, to harden the 

 j)lant8, if they are well established, but 

 not unless they are well established. To 

 take a cutting from a plant growing in 

 52 degrees,, and after rooting it subject 

 it, before it is well established, to a tem- 

 perature of 40 degrees, would be foolish. 



We find that no color, as a whole, is 

 more subject to disease than any other 

 color. There are weaklings among all 

 the colors, and sturdy ones, too. 



A. F. J. B. 



CARNATIONS IN SOLID BEDS. 



I am growing carnations this year iu 

 a new house, with steam heat and solid 

 lieds. Will not all plants in solid beds 

 require more heat than in benches? I 

 find my Joost doing unusually well. 1 

 have counted twenty buds and twenty 

 more shoots ou some plants and there is 

 no disease, with the temperature often up 

 to 60 degrees at night. Other varie- 

 ties are not doiug so well, especially En- 

 chantress, which does not do well in our 

 clay soil. CJ. O. K. 



We have been growing carnatioii.'s in 

 semi-solid beds for a number of years, and 

 we cannot say from our experience that 

 growing on that kind of be<ls makes any 

 higher temperature necessary. Wo find 

 no difference whatever in that respect. 

 If we run our temperature up, we find 

 our stems weakening just the same as 

 they would on raised benches, and if the 

 temperature drops, the calyxes split, etc. 

 The only difference we find is in the 

 watering. Evaporation being only from 

 the top and no heat underneath, natu- 

 rally the soil does not dry out so rapidly 

 and we are not obliged to water so fre- 

 quently as others who plant on raised 

 benches. 



We will digress from the question at 

 issue long enough to speak a word about 

 drainage of our beds, as compared with 

 raised tables. Many carnation growers 

 wiU remember the fine crop of carna- 

 tions they saw growing at the experiment 

 station at Washington last year, at the 

 time of the "A. C. S. convention. It was 

 generally conceded that they were about 

 as fine as any grower could wish for. 

 The grower in charge, Mr. Keller, paid 



us a visit this winter, and, among other 

 very interesting things, he told us of his 

 observations along the line of drainage. 

 This year he has all his carnations on 

 beds constructed as we do ours, and lie 

 says they are still finer than they were 

 last year. In examining the soil right 

 after a heavy watering last year, he 

 found that fully an inch of the soil at 

 the bottom would be simply nuul. This 

 was because the water could drain 

 through the upper soil readily enough, 

 but at the bottom it would be arrested 

 by the boards long enough to make the 

 soil soggy. This year, with the cinder 

 bottom, the water goes riglit down and 

 the soil at the bottom retains the same 

 condition as that farther ujt. He con- 

 sidered, and so do we, that this is very 

 important to the plant, which has only 

 a limited amount of soil to work in at 

 best. This proves that, while evapora- 

 tion is less rapid in the solid bed, the 

 drainage is more perfect — just the oppo- 

 site of what is generally contended. 



You will find that the texture of the 

 soil will make no more difference on 

 solid beds than on raised- benches, if 

 you have proper drainage material un- 

 derneath. Enchantress should do well 

 in a heavy clay soil. We have found that 

 the color will be deeper and the stems 

 stiflFer than in a light soil. 



A. F. .1. B. 



OBITUARY. 



Louis M. Noe. 



Louis M. Noe, a pioneer of the rose 

 growing industry in New Jersey and one 

 of the widest known growers in the 

 United States, died at his home in Madi- 

 son Thursday morning, March 11, at the 

 age of 61 years. He had been ill for a 

 fortnight with pleurisy, but his death 

 is almost directly due to a fall sustained 

 more than a year ago near Watertown, 

 Wis., where he went in connection with 

 some of his diversified business inter- 

 ests. At that time he so seriously 

 sprained one of his knees that he never 

 fully recovered, and the injury so under- 

 mined his general health that when he 

 contracted a severe cold on a recent auto 

 mobile trip he did not have the strength 

 to throw it off. 



Mr. Noe was born in Madison, wlioie 

 he spent his entire life wiuh the excep- 

 tion of two years at school at Fort Hd- 

 ward, N. Y. He read law for one sea- 

 son, but many years ago saw the possi- 

 bilities of growing cut flowers for the 

 New York market and built one of the 

 first ranges of greenhouses in what is 

 now the great rose growing center of the 

 United States. He has one son, Louis 

 A. Noe, also engaged in the business, 

 their establishments being side by side 

 and practically one place. The combined 

 ranges include thirty-six large houses. 

 The Noes are among the largest i)ro- 

 ducers of American Beauty for the New 

 York market, the middle bench in jnac- 

 tically every house being planted to 

 Beauty, with teas on the side benches. 

 Mr. Noe was one of the largest stock- 

 holders in the New York Cut Flower Co., 

 and at the time when it needed his at- 



Loufs M. Noe. 



