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December 29, 1910. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



15 



SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS. 



While we have passed the shortest 

 days and the duration of daylight will 

 now slowly increase, we have not yet 

 reached that portion of winter which 

 gives the maximum of cold. December 

 has broken all records for continued 

 frigidity, but fortunately snow falls 

 were not heavy and cloudy days were 

 fewer than usual. The pick, therefore, 

 of flowers from the earliest plantings of 

 sweet peas has been fully up to the 

 average. The stems are now improv- 

 ing in length, but not until early spring 

 will they attain that strength which we 

 like to see. Violet flowers in many 

 places have not during the early part 

 of the winter proved so prolific as 

 usual, which has naturally helped the 

 sale of sweet peas, which continue to 

 grow in popularity. 



During midwinter feeding must be 

 given with care. The plants are un- 

 able to assimilate anything like the 

 same amount of plant food now as two 

 months hence. If the stems show any 

 signs of becoming shorter, a watering 

 of liquid cow or sheep manure once in 

 two weeks will help them. A top- 

 dressing of well decayed cow or pul- 

 verized sheep manure is better if light- 

 ly forked into the ground before water- 

 ing. The manurial elements are then 

 more evenly distributed. It is better to 

 avoid all chemicals at this season, for 

 unless applied with great caution, they 

 will do far more harm than good. Ty- 

 ing must be regularly attended to, for 

 once any stems become bent the flowers 

 are unsalable. Eemove any sickly 

 plants. A certain number will turn 

 yellow under the most careful culture, 

 more especially where the seedlings 

 have been left too thick. Maintain 

 an average night temperature of 48 to 

 50 degrees as nearly as possible for 

 plants in flower; cooler they develop 

 too slowly, while warmer they run out 

 more quickly and are more liable to be 

 attacked by red spider. Ventilate care- 

 fully, but endeavor to give some air 

 every day. The temperature with sun 

 heat can run up to 65 or 68 degrees, but 

 on cloudy days a maximum of 55 to 58 

 degrees is sufficient. 



With the clearing away of some 

 Christmas crops, it is now possible to 

 give more attention to sowing a good 

 batch of seeds for spring flowering. If 

 you want flowers as soon as possible, 

 it is better to sow Mont Blanc, Earliest 

 of All, Christmas Pink and others of 

 the forcing type, but this is also a 

 suitable time to sow such varieties as 

 Dorothy Eckford, Miss Willmott, Helen 

 Lewis, Helen Pierce, John Ingman, 

 Navy Blue and Countess Spencer. Any 

 of the Spencer type can also now be 

 started. They are a little longer in 

 coming into flower, but sell better than 

 anything else in late spring, when the 

 early varieties are on the wane. A few 



first-class Spencer sorts to grow are: 

 White Spencer, Mrs. Boutzahn Spencer, 

 delicate pink on apricot ground, a 

 charming color; Countess Spencer, the 

 best clear pink, very vigorous; Tennant 

 Spencer, rosy purple; King Edward 

 Spencer, crimson scarlet; Asta Ohn 

 Spencer, a beautiful lavender. Seed 

 can be started in small pots or flats, or 

 sown directly where they are to flower. 

 Flats of sand are as good a method as 

 any, transplanting the seedlings singly 

 into the rows, allowing them six inches 

 apart. Do not leave them closer than 

 this, for you will only crowd them un- 

 duly and the result will be weaker 

 haulm and poorer flower stems. The 

 rows for the best results should be five 

 feet apart; six feet is better if space 

 will permit. Three to four feet is too 

 close. Peas want a lot of headroom. 

 The houses should have six to eight feet 

 clear at the sides, for it must be re- 

 membered that under favorable con- 

 ditions and careful culture they will 



grow ten feet or even more in height. 

 Of course, other plants can be grown 

 between the rows until the peas grow 

 up so as to shade them too much. 



The best medium in which to grow 

 peas is loam, liberally enriched with 

 well rotted cow manure, and solid beds 

 are far preferable to raised benches. 

 The largest and most successful special- 

 ists grow them directly in the ground. 



MILDEW ON SWEET PEAS. 



I am troubled with mildew on sweet 

 peas. Can I use one part lime and 

 three parts sulphur, painted on the hot 

 water pipes, without injury to the flow- 

 ers, as they are in full bloom? If they 

 cannot stand this, will you kindly tell 

 me what to use, as the mildew is just 

 starting? If the lime and sulphur will 

 do, how much of the piping shall I 

 paint in a house 22x75 ? W. L. B. 



»With a powder bellows blow some 

 flowers of sulphur over the affected 

 plants. Paint sulphur over the upper 

 part of the flow pipe, which will have 

 the strongest heat. Do not put sulphur 

 on more than one pipe. The fumes from 

 hot water pipes are less pronounced 

 than from steam pipes, and even if you 

 are firing quite heavily, it should be 

 strong enough to bleach out any of the 

 flowers. Ventilate carefully at this 

 season. Mildew invariably comes from 

 cold drafts. Put on a little air at a 

 time and lower gradually. When cloudy 

 spells come, following clear skies, do 

 not allow the temperature to fall un- 

 duly before reducing the ventilation. 



C. W. 



PEBNET-DUOHEB'S NEWEST BOSES 



Commenting on the season's trials 

 of new., roses at the Bagatelle gardens, 

 near Ffaris, France, the Horticultural 

 Advertisier (English) says: 



The finest novelties of an interna- 

 tional character were again those shown 

 by the firm, Pernet-Ducher, of Lyons, 

 the most successful rose growers of 

 France, who can point to the magnifi- 

 cent results this firm has obtained, from 

 Mme. Caroline Testout to the Lyon 

 rose. Their Eayon d'Or, a Eosa lutea 

 hybrid, a little wonder in color, was, 

 it is sad to say, not found under trial 

 at Bagatelle, but Beaute de Lyon, like- 

 wise a Pernetia hybrid, was in evidence. 

 The salmon-red bud discloses on open- 

 ing a fiery salmon-pink flower, not very 

 full, certainly, but of great effect. It 

 will prove a fine variety for bedding 

 and pot culture — a rose of the highest 



class. Souvenir de Gustave Prat, a tea 

 hybrid, is a flower of promise. As if 

 modeled by an artist's hand, stands the 

 slender, canary yellow bud, which, as 

 it ages, becomes creamy yellow, and 

 shows the deeper color of the unex- 

 panded bud in its center. 



An aristocrat for cutting purposes, su- 

 perior to both the above-named varie- 

 ties, is Lieutenant Chaure, a hybrid tea, 

 which was awarded the second prize. 

 The flower has, if anything, a more 

 exquisite shape than Kaiserin. In 

 blooming, the color takes on a purplish 

 scarlet tone, while the fully open flower 

 is fiery carmine, of good medium size 

 and having a straight stalk, and leaves 

 without a blemish. As a red hybrid tea 

 it is in color and shape a more perfect 

 flower than Eichmond and General Mac- 

 Arthur, or indeed any other red rose. 



BUDDED HYBBID PEEPETUALS. 



I transplanted a Paul Neyron rose- 

 bush this fall, as it had not done well 

 in the summer. It was a budded plant, 

 and right around the union there was a 



