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APRii. 22, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



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few of it this season, as are Hunt Bros., 

 •it Park Kidge. Among the growers who 

 liave watched the variety are A. T. 

 Pyfer and Peter Olsem, of the Chicago 

 Carnation Co., and they liked it so well 

 that an arrangement has been made for 

 the joint dissemination of Mary Tolman 

 next year. 



The color is just a little deeper than 

 that of Enchantress. The petals are 

 serrated, instead of smooth. The flowers 

 keep well and do not fade at the edges. 

 The blooms are of good size, with long 

 stems, stiff enough to hold the flowers 

 erect. As a grower, it is said to be 

 oarly, free, continuous and non-bursting, 

 which seems to leave nothing to be de- 

 sired. ___^ 



OVERDOSE OF WOOD ASHES. 



What are the results of an overdose of 

 wood ashes? I notice that some of my 

 ])]ants are dying, and all over the bench 

 there are buds and stems wilting and 

 drooping. I applied about half a bushel 

 to a bench 5x48 feet about three weeks 

 ago. I am watering heavily and giving 

 lots of ventilation, thinking they will out- 

 grow the trouble. The variety is Rose- 

 pink Enchantress. W. R. D. 



The results from an overdose of wood 

 ashes would be just what you describe as 

 the behavior of your Rose-pink Enchant- 

 ress. If this had been applied in the 

 winter, when the sun was weaker, there 

 would not have been so much wilting. 

 You would have noticed a softening of 

 the growth, however, followed by a brit- 

 tleness in the joints of the flower stems 

 ivhich would have been quite annoying. 

 We have seen this carried on so far that 

 the stems would snap off from the mere 

 weight of a medium sized flower. We 

 have also seen it make the growth so soft 

 that cuttings taken from the plants could 

 not be made to stand up in the cutting 

 bench, on account of wilting. You are 

 following the proper course with these 

 plants, providing you are flooding the 

 beds enough so the water runs through 

 the bottom. Anything short of that will 

 do no good. Give all the ventilation you 

 can. A. F. J. B. 



WHEAT SOIL FOR CARNATIONS. 



I have a piece of ground sown to wheat 

 and plowed it down this spring. Will 

 this do to plant young carnations in 

 about a month after it was plowed, or 

 ^vill it cause stem-rot? W. R. D. 



If you can plant your carnations on 

 some other ground this year, I would ad- 

 vise you to do so. Carnations like a well 

 decomposed soil, and anything like newly 

 broken ground should be avoided. They 

 •lo not like it. By next year the piece 

 you describe should be in good condition, 

 i would sow it in cowpeas this spring, 

 ^nd early in the fall plow them under. 

 A. F. J. B. 



TOO FADED FOR EXAMINATION. 



..j^.^iiclose a blossoming stem of a 

 >mte Enchantress and wish you would 

 'cu me what the trouble is and how to 

 u ^^ °* it- It seems to be worst on 

 , Enchantress and White Enchantress, 

 '"ough there is also some on White Per- 

 itctjon. It did not bother me during the 

 ,f }^^''^^ fact, it only spoils the looks 

 /^the bloom with the dried ends of the 

 ''"^^«- C. F. E. 



Tiv^^ ^P^<^i"i«n forwarded, coming all the 

 UD t ^°? tlie Pacific coast, was too dried 

 nlnrif S?' conclusively what ails your 

 ' '»nt8- Either forward a whole plant, ' 



Field of Freesia Purity in California. 



or pack the shoots with damp moss 

 around the lower ends. A. F. J. B. 



YELLOW CARNATIONS. 



A contributor to the Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle, London, writing * ' American Notes, ' ' 

 says: 



* ' Yellow carnations are not as popular 

 in the United States as in England, and 

 although this may be in part due to the 

 fact that there are few really good kinds 

 that are profitable to grow commercially 

 as cut flowers, yet the fact remains that 

 growers generaUy are shy of them. The 

 new variety, J. Whitcomb Riley, was well 

 shown both at Chicago and at the In- 

 dianapolis convention of the American 

 Carnation Society, and is a beautiful 

 flower, as well as a fine grower and free 

 flowerer. The raisers are said to have 

 received an offer from a British firm for 

 the whole of the stock, in which case it 

 would not, of course, be sent out here. 

 More than one prominent grower has 

 told the writer that no yellow variety 

 will ever be taken up with any spirit in 

 America. ' ' 



The yellow variety, Neptune, sent out 

 a year or two ago by the late Paul Thom- 

 son, West Hartford, Conn., has been 

 widely distributed in Europe, but has 

 been taken up by only a few growers in 

 the United States. 



FISCHER'S FIELD. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 Rudolph Fischer's field of Freesia Purity 

 at Santa Anita, Cal. It will be recalled 

 that Mr. Fischer raised this freesia in 

 New Jersey and something over a year 

 ago removed to California, to grow it on 



a more extensive scale than was possible 

 in the east. Mr. Fischer also grows Pur- 

 ity under a big lath house, where it does 

 finely. One of the surprises to him is the 

 number of calls he receives for seeds of 

 this freesia. He says it should be a mat- 

 ter of general knowledge that neither 

 Purity nor any other freesia comes true 

 from seed and that stock grown in thii 

 way is unreliable. He says that if Pur- 

 ity could be grown satisfactorily from 

 seed, he would have increased his stock 

 much faster than has been possible. 



MEALY BUG ON PALM ROOTS. 



Will you please tell me what is the 

 best remedy for mealy bug on the roots 

 of palms? The roots in the bottoms of 

 the pots are covered with them and I am 

 afraid to use the usual remedies for fear 

 of injuring the roots. M. M. 



The safest method to use in order to 

 get rid of mealy bugs on the roots of 

 these palms would be to wash them off 

 with a good pressure of water. Turn the 

 plants out of the pots and wash the 

 roots thoroughly under a faucet; then 

 carefully repot, working the soil well in 

 around the roots and ramming firmly. 

 Then water well and place the plants in 

 a warm and shaded house. 



The bench upon which these plants 

 have been standing is probably more or 

 less infested with the insects, and should 

 also be thoroughly cleaned before hav- 

 ing plants placed upon it again. "^ 



W. H. T. 



Union City, Pa.— W. J. Olds has 

 added about 3,000 feet of glass, for the 

 growing of chrysanthemums. ■« 



