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The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



Decembeu 1, 1910. 



wearing a carnation with a neat tag 

 that told where it came from, and this 

 year he sent over 4,000 women down 

 the street each carrying a chrysanthe- 



mum plant flowered in a small pot. 

 The accompanying illustration shows 

 Mr. Coggan's store, with the proprietor 

 in the foreground. 



' ^♦^'♦^.'♦i^.'<Hf?.'^^r;>.»»i^.<<^?». •'^r»>'^^.<»^.'-l 



I SEASONABLE 

 l-^^^ SUGGESTIONS 



ss-r^.^^^s^W. 



i 



Azaleas. 



Quite a few azaleas appeared at 

 Thanksgiving this year. It is true they 

 were not heavily flowered, but they 

 proved good sellers. Any plants not in 

 season for Thanksgiving should be all 

 right for Christmas. Those bright 

 dwarf varieties, Hexe or Firefly and 

 Mme. Petrick, have sold uncommonly 

 well the last few years and are in active 

 demand. It will be necessary to give 

 azaleas a brisk, moist heat to send them 

 along for the holidays. Eub off any 

 young growths which may appear. As 

 the flowers expand, move the plants to 

 a slightly cooler and drier house. 



Genistas. 



While genistas are mostly seen in 

 flower in spring and especially for 

 Easter, they are useful earlier in the 

 season, and if a batch is placed in a 

 temperature of 50 degrees they will be 

 in nice flower about the end of January. 

 The present is a suitable time to put 

 in a good batch of cuttings. A propa- 

 gating bench which will root carnations 

 or chrysanthemums is equally good for 

 genistas. These cuttings, if kept potted 

 along, will make nice, bushy stock in 

 6-inch pots before another winter. 



Marguerites. 



Marguerite plants are now making 

 rapid growth, and as the pots are well 

 filled with roots, they will take copious 

 suppUes of water and feeding twice a 

 week. Where they are intended for 

 Easter flowering they should be pinched 

 to keep them shapely until the middle 

 of December. When doing any repot- 

 ting, use a tolerably rich compost, com- 

 prising two-thirds loam, one-third 

 screened, dry cow manure, some soot 

 and fine bone. Ram the soil firmly in 

 the pots. If, perchance, you lifted some 

 old plants from the field and have been 

 carrying them over in a cool house, they 

 will now be blooming quite freely and 

 will make nice, salable Christm.as stock. 

 When pinching out the tops of the mar- 

 guerites, save some for propagating pur- 

 poses. These late cuttings will make 

 nice plants in 5-inch pots for late spring 

 flowering and will prove quite salable 

 for Memorial day trade. 



If the leaf miner, which frequently 

 badly disfigures marguerite foliage, 

 makes its appearance, pick off and burn 

 the affected leaves as soon as they show 

 and spray the plants twice a week with 

 a nicotine extract. 



Pansies. 



If there is any room iu a cool house, 

 where violets have perchance failed, 

 fill up the bench space with pansies 

 from the open ground or coldframes. 

 They succeed well in a violet tempera 



ture, 40 to 42 degrees at night, and like 

 a light but rich soil. Pansy flowers are 

 always in good demand in winter and 

 spring, while the plants themselves, 

 with the passing of winter, always sell 

 well. 



With the arrival of cold weather, it is 

 time to get some protection on the 

 plants which are to be wintered out- 

 doors. It is better to apply this cov- 

 ering while the ground is hard frozen. 

 The mulch will help to keep the frost 

 in, which is just what we need. Any 

 protection applied must be light and 

 may consist of forest leaves, pine needles, 

 hay or straw, held in place by cornstalks 

 or brush of some kind. Plants in cold- 

 frames should be given a coating of 

 perfectly dry leaves, the sashes then 

 being placed over them to keep these 

 dry. Tilt up the sashes during mild 

 spells through the winter, but always 

 avoid getting any moisture on the 

 leaves. When they get damp they 

 weigh heavily on the plants and usually 

 cause damping off. If kept perfectly 

 dry, the plants should uncover as fresh 

 and green as when the protection was 

 applied.' 



Dutch Bulbs. 



The earliest lot of tulips, such as 

 Le Reine and Trumpet Major narcissi, 

 are now nicely started and have been 



placed in heat. The tulips are given a 

 dark frame for ten days to draw them 

 up, with little bottom heat, but a strong 

 top heat. The narcissi do not need 

 keeping in the dark any length of time, 

 as in a brisk heat they will make suf- 

 ficiently long stems. While it is nice 

 to be able to say that we had a few 

 of these bulbs in season for Christmas 

 and got 5 cents or 6 cents a flower for 

 them at wholesale, it pays better to 

 wait a couple of weeks longer and be 

 content with lower prices. 



Look over all the Dutch bulbs in flats 

 or pans. They may look moist on the 

 surface, but they will all be benefited 

 by a soaking of water. This applies 

 more especially to tulips, narcissi and 

 hyacinths. If the bulbs are in the open 

 — although a cellar is a far better place 

 for them — dt will now be necessary to 

 furnish additional protection for them 

 in the way of straw or hay to exclude 

 frost. At best it is a disagreeable job 

 digging out pans or flats in cold weather 

 and the wonder is that so many growers 

 still cling to a needlessly cumbersome 

 and out-of-date method of culture. 



The bulb beds will need a coveripg 

 when once they are hard frozen. Do 

 not apply it while the ground is soft. 

 If you do, the bulbs will push their 

 shoots up through the soft earth, and 

 when you come to remove the mulch- 

 ing in spring you will break many of 

 them, unless you use extreme care. A 

 thick covering is uncalled for — merely 

 sufficient to prevent the heaving of the 

 bulbs, which results from alternate 

 freezings and thawings during winter. 



Lilium Speciosum. 



The imported bulbs of Lilium spe- 

 ciosum will soon arrive from Japan, 

 if they are not already here. Potted 

 now and placed in a cold cellar or 

 frame for some time, they can be placed 

 in gentle heat after they have made 

 two or three inches of growth, and for 

 early summer blooming under glass they 

 will be found invaluable. L. speciosum 

 album is the most useful variety of the 



Store of S. W. Coggan, Battle Creek, Mich. 



