

Decbmbbr 22, 1910. 



(X ;,:,•. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



11 



" ' IBISES. 



Please tell me what treatment Jap- 

 anese and English irises ought to have. 



S. G. 



The Japanese iris, I. Ktempferi, is 

 not adapted for forcing. Its place is 

 in the herbaceous garden or in any 

 position where it can have an abun- 

 dant water supply until it has stopped 

 flowering. In winter the roots must 

 not stand in water, although there is 

 a popular misconception that it is al- 

 most aquatic in its requirements. 



English iris can be planted outdoors 

 in any well drained soil, in which they 

 will be found quite hardy. They can 

 also be grown in flats or planted in the 

 bench in a cool greenhouse. A night 

 temperature of 45 to 50 degrees should 

 not be exceeded. They will bloom a 

 little later than the Spanish iris, I. 

 Hispanica. 



. Spanish irises are the best of the 

 bulbous section for forcing. The bulbs 

 arrive early and start to grow at once. 

 At present the earliest batch is about 

 six inches high. A temperature of 45 

 to 50 degrees at night will be found all 

 right for these. Some growers plant in 

 benches, but flats are just as good and 

 more convenient for small growers. 

 They should have four inches of soil 

 to grow in, and a flat 12x24 inches will 

 hold fifty to seventy-five bulbs. Span- 

 ish irises can also be successfully grown 

 outdoors, where they will come up year 

 after year, if not cut down too severely 

 at flowering time. C. W. 



VARIOUS KINDS OF LEAKS. 



(An extract from a paper by Buit C. Blake, of 

 Springfield, O. read at a meeting of the Spring- 

 field Florists' Club, December 12, 1010.] 



Among the leaks, or apparently small 

 but fast accumulating losses, that are 

 common in the greenhouse, is the waste 

 of time in hunting for tools or equip- 

 ments because these are mislaid or the 

 supply of them is inadequate. For 

 example, in the busy season there may 

 be a shortage of flats or trays. I have 

 seen several instances within the last 

 year, where the help was running 

 around and hunting for a flat — ' ' Where 

 can I get a flat?" 



There are in a day of ten hours only 

 600 minutes, and they slip away with a 

 quickness that is surprising to the dili- 

 gent worker; but, on the other hand, 

 they also slip away from the one who 

 is hunting something to do something 

 with. Plats are not the only thing I 

 have seen hunted. I have seen a man 

 hunt for a shovel for an hour; also other 

 tools I have seen hunted by the half 

 hours and quarter hours — enough loss 

 of tirne to have bought several such 

 tools in the course of a year. To be 

 sure, there are things that will be mis- 

 laid at times, but a great deal of time 

 can be saved by having a place for 

 everything and everything in its place; 

 and time is money. 



In trying to preVent a waste of time, 

 do not be so "close" with the men as 

 to get their ill will, for they will then 

 go about their work in a grumbling 

 sort of way and you will not get the 

 best results at all times. When you are 

 particularly in a hurry for something 

 to be done, you will undoubtedly get 

 left, for they will not do their work 

 with their whole heart in it. 



Your leaks, however, are not labor 

 leaks alone, as you will find on going 

 around on a cold day. There are drafts 

 here and there, and you wonder where 



Wreath of Laurel, Pine Cones and Acorns. 



they come from. The openings are not 

 noticed in the summer, but as soon as 

 the cold season arrives you discover 

 cracks which you can run a fair-sized 

 cardboard through. Now, don't keep 

 on neglecting this, when one-fourth of 

 a minute will locate the crack. In- 

 vestigate, locate, and mark it with a 

 piece of "blue lumber" or crayon, and 

 have your repair man watch for the 

 blue marks. Then, when the cracks are 

 stopped or fixed, the repair man can 

 rub the marks off. 



An immense amount of cold air sifts 

 in through those cracks, small as they 

 look, but the amount would not be hard 

 to approximate. Say there is an open- 

 ing one-eighth inch wide at the base of 

 the glass; with seventy-two of those 

 cracks you have found one square foot 

 of cold air sifting in; that is based on 

 glass sixteen inches wide. You can cut 

 down the coal bill just that much, and 

 I venture to say that in a month, in a 

 plant as large as some of you have, you 

 will have no trouble in finding twice 

 seventy-two such cracks as I speak of, 

 for not long ago I visited a place where 

 a half pane, 16x24, was out, and it was 

 below freezing then and snowing at 

 the time. 



Speaking of coal leaks, how many 

 times do your boiler flues get cleaned 

 per week? You may remember a time 

 when it was thought that if locomotive 

 boiler flues were cleaned every ten 



days, that was enough, but I am told 

 that now the flues in fast train engines 

 are cleaned every trip, and in freight 

 engines every round trip. Does it 

 strike you why they need every unit 

 of heat that is in the coal? This is 

 why: To make the time the card calls 

 for. 



Going back to labor once more — look 

 out for the practical joker. He will not 

 kill much time himself, but he will 

 have all the help on the place watching 

 him in less than a week, both for the 

 fun he creates and to keep him from 

 playing some prank on the individual 

 himself. 



CANTEBBUBT BELLS. 



When should I bring in Canterbury 

 bells to have them in bloom for Easter? 

 Also, when should I bring in a batch 

 to bloom for Memorial day, in a temper- 

 ature of 60 degrees by day and 50 de- 

 grees by night? Will a temperature 

 like that suit them? A. D. 



Start the plants for Easter, which 

 will fall on April 16 next year, right 

 after Christmas. Those for Memorial day 

 need not be started until the early part 

 of February. An average night temper- 

 ature of 50 degrees will be about right. 

 Easter grown Canterbury bells are 

 never of the quality of those flowered 

 later in the season. C. W. 



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