16 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



November 24, 1910. 



plants in solid beds, or in benches lack- 

 ing bottom heat. It is now easy to 

 syringe too much. Two thorough 

 sprayings a week will keep the plants 

 clean and prevent the constant drip 

 consequent on daily hosings. Nothing 

 approaching sogginess in the soil must 

 be allowed, or buds will fall in show- 

 ers. When water is applied, let it soak 

 the soil thoroughly. Let it dry out 

 well before giving any more. If the 

 soil is porous, as it should be, there 

 will be no trouble with surface scum. 

 Keep a moist atmosphere and a night 

 temperature of 68 to 70 degrees. Ven- 

 tilate, when the thermometer is above 

 75 degrees, a little at a time. Do not 

 allow the temperature to run up to 85 

 or 90 degrees and then rush on a lot of 

 air. There is no surer way of spoil- 

 ing your plants. Plants in pots, which 

 show the need of a little feeding, 

 should have a little soot water to keep 

 the foliage dark green, and a sprin- 

 kling of Clay's fertilizer once in ten 

 days will keep them toned up nicely. 



Eucharis. 



"Whether in pots or benches, eucharis 

 should by this time be started if a 

 Christmas crop is wanted. If the 

 plants have been kept cool and dry 

 for some weeks, they will respond 

 quickly to a brisk bottom heat, and 

 after the first soaking watering it 

 almost seems as if the flower spikes 

 appear by magic. Eucharis are less 

 grown than their merits would seem 

 to warrant. A few pots or a small 

 portion of a bench with heating pipes 

 below it planted with them will give 

 a lot of flowers, and no matter whether 

 for cutting for vase use, or in design 

 work, they are one of the most chaste 

 of all white flowers. 



Tuberous Begonias and Gloxinias. 



The flowering season for tuberous be- 

 gonias and gloxinias is past. Too 

 often as soon as the flowers disappear 

 the plants are thrown under the 

 benches on their sides to rest. This 

 treatment is all wrong. After flower- 

 ing, watering should be continued for 

 some time and only gradually with- 

 drawn. The reason many growers 

 lose their tubers in winter from dry 

 rot is owing to the drying off being 

 so abrupt. In order that the tubers 

 should not occupy too much space, the 

 soil can be shaken away when they are 

 quite at rest and the tubers packed 

 in dry sand or cocoanut fibre refuse. 

 The begonias will winter all right in 

 a temperature of 40 to 45 degrees, but 

 the gloxinias are better if kept 10 de- 

 grees higher. Achimenes are best left 

 in the pans or pots they have flowered 

 in until at some convenient time in 

 winter they can be picked out. Fancy 

 caladiums, which, if not at rest, prob- 

 ably soon will be, are not always win- 

 tered successfully. They like a warm, 

 dry shelf or shed with a temperature 

 which holds to 60 degrees at night; in 

 a low temperature most of the tubers 

 will decay. 



Lilies for Christmas. 



The buds on both Harrisii and For- 

 mosa longiflorums which are wanted 

 for Christmas must now be well ad- 

 vanced; nothing less than two inches 

 in length will flower in time, unless 

 forced very hard. Maintain a brisk, 

 moist, heat, 65 to 68 degrees at night, 

 and use the hose freely among the 

 plants. A spraying with nicotine or 



fumigation will keep that arch enemy, 

 green aphis, in cheek. Quite a few 

 Formosa lilies will this year be out for 

 Christmas. This is a beautiful lily 

 and it is too bad to find that growers 

 are this season having more disease 

 than usual on it. This is due, no doubt, 

 to too early lifting and shipping of 

 the bulbs. They arrived earlier this 

 year than ever before. The desire to 

 get bulbs in early is no doubt respon- 

 sible for a large part of the disease 

 seen everywhere. Improperly ripened 

 bulbs cannot be expected to make a 

 healthy and natural growth. 



Astilbes. 



Astilbes will arrive toward the end 

 of the present month. Soak them well 

 in a tub of water when unpacked. 

 They generally arrive on the dry side. 

 Leave outdoors or in a coldframe, 

 where they can get one or two good 

 freezings before doing any potting up 

 for forcing. Astilbes must have a com- 

 plete rest before they can be success- 

 fully forced. Do not omit the beauti- 

 ful pink variety. Queen Alexandra, 

 from the list. This is now much more 

 moderate in price. This sort will not 



force well early, but for Easter and 

 Memorial day it is the finest of the 

 family. The white varieties, astil- 

 boides, floribunda and Gladstone, are 

 much to be preferred to the old 

 Japonica. While botanically these are 

 astilbes, the name spireea dies hard and 

 it seems doubtful if the new name will 

 find acceptance in this generation in 

 the trade any more than codiseums will 

 for crotons. 



Spanish Iris. 



The present time, just before the 

 ground freezes up, is when Spanish iris 

 should be planted outdoors. When set 

 out too early, they frequently make 

 considerable growth before winter. 

 While this growth is rarely injured, 

 even in severe zero weather, it is better 

 to plant the bulbs a trifle later, so that 

 they will not sfend any shoots above 

 ground until spring. These irises are 

 perfectly hardy, unless planted in 

 ground where water stands, and are 

 fine for cutting. The English iris can 

 also be planted now with advantage. 

 This class immediately follows the 

 Spanish section and is also exe^lent 

 for cutting. 



SLOW TO BLOOM. 



My carnations are just beginning to 

 bloom. They were planted about the 

 middle of August, some of them earlier, 

 and grown in a temperature of 50 de- 

 grees at night. For some reason they 

 seem rather slow, though they have 

 good, stiff, long stems. When would 

 you feed them? What kind of feed 

 would you use and how often? Any 

 general information on feeding would 

 be greatly appreciated. W. H. D. 



Without knowing more about what 

 varieties you are growing and how they 

 have been treated since they were 

 housed, I can not tell whether your 

 carnations are coming along as they 

 should or not. Varieties like White 

 Perfection and Victory should have 

 been blooming for at least six weeks, 

 unless the plants were topped back un- 

 usually late after being benched. Bea- 

 con and the Enchantress varieties some- 

 times are a little slow in coming into 

 crop if they fail to get away in good 

 shape after being housed. 



If your plants are in good condition, 

 as you say they are, then I would ad- 

 vise you not to experiment with them 

 too much. Let them come along nat- 

 urally, and you will find they will repay 

 you with quality. However, you might 

 with safety raise the night temperature 

 to 52 degrees. 



If you think they will stand some 

 feeding without causing the blooms to 

 come soft, you might give them a light 

 sprinkling of sheep manure, say about 

 a good handful to each row across a 

 5-foot bench. Bepeat this about every 

 month or six weeks, substituting wood 

 ashes in equal amount about every third 



time. Watch the texture of the blooms 

 right along, and at the first sign of 

 softness stop the feeding. A light mulch 

 of half rotted cattle manure would also 

 be beneficial, and would perhaps be 

 the safest at this time. 



There is a great deal of danger of 

 overfeeding until after the turn of the 

 new year. After, say, the middle of Feb- 

 ruary or the first part of March, that 

 danger has passed and feeding may be 

 practiced with comparative safety. 



A. F. J. B. 



A VABXEGATED ENCHANTRESS. 



Please tell me whether anyone has a 

 variegated Enchantress carnation. I 

 have a plant of Rose-pink Enchantress 

 which has one large, fine rose-pink 

 bloom and one large variegated bloom, 

 besides three large buds which are not 

 showing color yet. The variegated 

 bloom is as white as snow and beauti- 

 fully marked with rose-pink stripes 

 which go the entire length of the 

 petals. Will someone tell me the best 

 way to use this plant in order to pro- 

 duce as many cuttings as possible? I 

 had thought of cutting off the rose-pink 

 blooms as close to the base of the plant 

 as possible and saving each flowering 

 stem of the variegated bloom. 



L. M. B. 



There has not been registered with 

 the American Carnation Society any 

 such sport from Enchantress as you 

 describe. Inasmuch as priority is rec- 

 ognized in all such matters, you might 

 well consider that your sport is eligible 

 for registration, providing you get your 

 registry here first. 



I would not advise you to cut away 

 the pink portion of the plant, as you 

 suggest, unless most of the plant 



