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18 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JANUABY 6, 1011. 



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SUGGESTIONS 



Lily of the Valley. 



After New Year's the small grower 

 who handles a few thousand pips an- 

 nually can start the new season's crop 

 with a certainty of success. It is quite 

 otherwise when forcing is tried a month 

 earlier. Specialists have houses set 

 apart for valley culture, where steady 

 bottom heat and top heat can be main- 

 tained. The small grower must needs 

 adopt more crude methods, but a case 

 built over heating pipes, with the latter 

 boarded in to hold the heat, will grow 

 good valley. Use six inches of clean 

 sand to place the pips in; or, if you 

 prefer it, plant in flats of sand, to per- 

 mit removal to a cooler house if neces- 

 sary. The pips must be kept quite 

 dark until the spikes are well drawn 

 up; then admit more light by degrees, 

 to harden the stems, give substance to 

 the flowers and encourage leaf -growth. 

 A bottom heat of 85 degrees, with a 

 top heat of 55 to 60 degrees, suits 

 valley, and if your case is of suflScient 

 size it can also be utilized for forcing 

 early tulips for some time. 



The sand can be used over and over 

 again, as the pips make no roots while 

 being forced. Loam, cocoanut fiber or 

 other composts may be used if pre- 

 ferred, but sand is the cleanest and best 

 medium g,nd the one in general use. 



Poinsettiafi. 



There is little sale for poinsettias 

 after the holidays and it is best to lay 

 a good supply of stock plants on their 

 sides under one of the benches, or store 

 them in a dry shed, where they can be 

 kept until the time arrives to pot and 

 start them up. Plants which have been 

 grown in benches can be lifted and 

 stored close together in boxes. They 

 will keep well in any dry and frostproof 

 shed or cellar. The demand for poin- 

 settias has this season been extra good, 

 many growers not having a single sal- 

 able plant left. Do not throw away 

 any stock plants. Many a florist will 

 be glad to buy such. Advertise them, 

 and you will have no trouble in selling 

 them. 



Cinerarias. 



The earliest batch of cinerarias is 

 now coming into flower. While not a 

 market flower which sells as well as 

 cyclamens or primulas, nicely grown 

 cinerarias make neat house plants and, 

 stood in jardinieres, they are quite ef- 

 fective, as the foliage is handsome in 

 itself. The chief trouble with these 

 plants in houses where fumigation can- 

 not be given them is that green aphis 

 in a short time will appear in myriads 

 on them, particularly if the plants are 

 kept in a warm room. Later sowings 

 of cinerarias should now be ready to 

 shift into their flowering pots. These 

 should be in nice flower about the end ! 

 of March, but by keeping them cool 

 they can be held until Easter quite 

 easily. The stellata type will flower 

 later than the ordinary large-flowercfl 



form and may be had until May. For 

 decorative work, it is decidedly superior 

 to the old type, but it is a tall grower 

 and does not make so symmetrical a 

 pot plant. Cinerarias want a rich soil. 

 For the last shift, two-thirds loam and 

 one-third dry cow manure, with the 

 addition of some fine bone, soot and 

 coarse sand, will make a suitable com- 

 post. Ram the soil firmly in the pots 

 and grow the plants as cool and airy as 

 possible all the time, 



Oalceolaxias. 



Calceolarias of the rugosa type, such 

 as the old and well-known Golden Gem, 

 should be pinched until the end of 

 February, when the shoots can be 

 allowed to run up and flower. They 

 will then flower in May and be at their 

 best for Memorial day, at which time 

 their golden yellow flowers, which are 

 lasting when cut, will be found ex- 

 tremely useful. As these calceolarias 

 soon fill the pots with roots, care should 

 be taken to shift them into their bloom- 

 ing pots before they become potbound. 

 If you have a good batch of these 

 plants and want flowers for cutting, 

 rather than plants, and can spare a 

 bench in a cool house, plant them out. 

 Treated thus; they will give a grand 

 crop of flowers. 



; The herbaceous,' fai^e-flowered ^varie- 

 ^ti'es must not be^snbjected to any forc- 

 ing: To have ^hem at their best, a 

 temperature such as single violets revel 

 in, 40 degrees at night,^sho'uld be given; 

 5 degrees higher should be the absolute 

 night maximum, Nice plants; can be 

 flowered in 6-inch pots, if feeding is 

 carefully done, but better ones kre to 

 be had in 7-inch and 8-inch, Oiice the 

 plants become potfcound, if carelessly 

 watered, they will quickly turn yellow. 

 Fumigate once a week without fail, no 

 matter if you never see a green aphis, 

 for if they get a good foothold they 

 will speedily ruin a batch of plants. 

 These calceolarias, while they will with- 

 stand the midday sun now, should re- 

 ceive some shade after the end of 

 January. 



Purchase Seeds Now. 



Seed catalogues are now arriving on 

 each mail and the bulk 9f them will 

 arrive by the third week in January. 

 Business is less rushing ndw than it will 

 be even a month hence, and while the 

 days are short we can spend an evening 

 looking over the catalogues and making 

 out a seed list for the coming season. 

 There is always something of a charm 

 in looking over well gotten up seed 

 lists, and even if some things we order 

 do not come up to our most sanguine 

 expectations, it is a good plan to try 

 a few new things annually. All will 

 not prove with us what the eulogistic 

 introducers say, but if we get even one 

 desirable novelty it will repay a little 

 experimenting. Make out the seed list 

 early in January. You will get your 

 orders filled much more promptly than 

 if you wait until you actually need the 

 seeds, and the seedsmen, who will be 

 overwhelmed with business in a few 

 weeks, will much appreciate your trade 

 now. 



CAENATION EUST. 



Will you please tell me what causes 

 the spots on the enclosed carnation 

 leaves? The spots first appeared on 

 the petals and have now spread to the 

 foliage. H. L. S. 



The spots on the specimens forward- 

 ed are caused by the common carna- 

 tion rust. If you had spots on the 

 petals of the blooms, they must have 

 been caused by something else, as this 

 disease is always found on the foliage. 

 If there is a great deal of this rust on 

 your plants, I would advise you to go 

 over them and pick oflf the leaves which 

 show this breaking out and burn them. 

 Discontinue overhead watering, and 

 keep the overhead conditions as dry 

 and bracing as possible. Give all the 

 ventilation you can without causing too 

 much direct draft on the plants or too 

 low a temperature. Dust air-slaked 

 lime around under the benches, and 

 even over the plants if there is a great 

 deal of the disease. Painting a steam 



pipe with sulphur will also help to de- 

 stroy the spores of the disease. 



This disease is not feared now, as it 

 was at one time, before we knew how 

 to handle it. About fifteen years ago it 

 did a great deal of damage, and it was 

 feared by carnation growers as much as 

 stem-rot. Under present-day methods 

 of culture it seldom becomes trouble- 

 some, though it can be seen in a limited 

 way in almost every carnation estab- 

 lishment. The whole secret in con- 

 trolling it is, that when kept dry, the 

 spores remain inactive. A. F. J. B. 



CHLOEIDE OF UME IN WATEE. 



Can you tell me what effect water, 

 in which chloride of lime has been put 

 in sufficient quantity to kill typhoid 

 germs, will have on carnation plants 

 grown for cut flowers, and on carnation 

 cuttings in the sand for rooting? Will 

 the continued use of such water be in- 

 jurious to the plants or cuttings in any 

 way? I am growing carnations in 

 Toronto at present and am compelled to 

 use such water all the time. E, M. 



If the chloride of lime is put into the 



