FSBBUABY 9, 1011. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



9 



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I SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



Bouvardias. 



The red and pink varieties of bou- 

 vardia are now little grown. This is re- 

 grettable, for not only do they furnish 

 a pleasing variety in cut flowers for 

 Christmas, but nicely grown plants in 

 pots are quite salable. In the European 

 markets plants in 5-inch and 6-inch pots 

 meet with a large sale. The variety, 

 Humboldtii, has come into considerable 

 favor of late. This is far the best of 

 the bouvardias. It produces long stems. 

 The flowers are larger than the other 

 sorts and have a delicious perfume. A 

 prominent grower for the Boston mar- 

 ket, who made a specialty of this variety 

 last winter, cut large quantities with 

 stems twenty-four to thirty-six inches 

 in length, which found a ready sale in 

 bunches of one dozen at $1 to $2 per 

 bunch. 



In order to secure a batch of strong 

 plants for flowering next winter, some 

 old plants should have been rested, 

 pruned back and placed in heat. These 

 will give a crop of cuttings in a short 

 time, which will root in three weeks, 

 and can be planted in the field in May. 

 B. Humboldtii propagates much easier 

 than any other bouvardia and is a 

 more vigorous grower. It is not, as 

 some people imagine, a new plant, as it 

 has been in cultivation over thirty 

 years. The other varieties of bou- 

 vardias propagate best from root cut- 

 tings laid in a sand bench in a warm, 

 moist house. 



Bhododendrons. 



The white and light pink rhododen- 

 drons make desirable Easter plants. The 

 strong colors are not wanted at all. 

 Rhododendrons should have been potted 

 some time ago and stored in a pit just 

 clear of actual freezing. They are 

 much better in quality when not sub- 

 jected to hard forcing. There are now 

 a good two months before they are 

 wanted, so place them in a moderately 

 cool house, kept at 45 to 50 degrees at 

 night, and they will be in flower on 

 time. If they are found to be a little 

 early, as may be possible if we get a 

 hot spell in the last half of March or 

 early April, it is easy moving them to 

 cooler quarters. "When hard forced the 

 flowers wilt quickly when subjected to 

 a low temperature. A syringing over- 

 head once or twi<je a day in bright 

 weather may be given until the flowers 

 show color. 



Lorraine Begonias. 



The earliest batch of Lorraine leaf 

 cuttings are now well rooted and little 

 plants are pushing up from them. Pot 

 them into 2-inch pots, using mostly 

 flaky leaf-mold and sand, and stand 

 them on a warm bench, where they will 

 get some bottom heat. There they will 

 quickly establish themselves. 



As the bulk of the left-over plants 

 have now passed out of flower, this is 

 an opportune time to take off a large 

 quantity of leaf cuttings and put in the 

 propagating bench. Plants which were 



headed back after Christmas, kept dry 

 for a time and then given a brisk, moist 

 heat, are now throwing a good crop of 

 cuttings. These should be taken off as 

 fast as they are of sufficient size. Given 

 a warm bench, few should fail to root. 

 There is, of course, plenty time yet iu 

 which to propagate Lorraines; even 

 those put in as late as June will make 

 nice little plants, and, by the way, the 

 supply of these in small pots and pans 

 was inadequate last Christmas in many 

 of the large cities. 



Callas. 



Callas in pots should now be gener- 

 ously fed, not only with liquid manure, 

 but top-dressings of fine bone, which 

 the roots seem to fairly revel in. Dur- 

 ing the next two or three months the 

 finest flowers of the year will be pro- 

 duced and, in order to get them of the 

 best possible quality, the plants must 

 be well fed. 



Where the stock is being grown in 

 shallow benches, the root^? will also now 

 have pretty well used up the available 

 plant food and occasional top-dressings 

 of fine bone or sheep manure, scratch- 

 ing over the surface lightly, will great- 

 ly benefit them. In using sheep manure, 

 a good plan is to mix it with twice 

 the quantity of screened loam before 

 applying. 



The new Godfrey calla, with its pure 

 white flowers and paler spadix, is a 

 grand acquisition, and flowering as it 



does thrice as freely as the old variety, 

 it is bound to largely usurp its place. 

 It originated with W. J. G<)dfrey, the 

 noted English chrysanthemum spe- 

 cialist. 



aiadioli. 



Toward the end of February is a suit- 

 able time to plant a good sized batch of 

 large-flowered gladioli for May flower- 

 ing. The colored varieties will be found 

 especially useful for Memorial day. Any 

 vacant benches can be profitably util- 

 ized by growing a gladiolus crop in 

 them. If the benches are not quite 

 ready and you are anxious to get the 

 bulbs started, place the bulbs singly in 

 3-inch pots. Stand them pot to pot on 

 any spare bench and later plant them 

 out in their flowering quarters. Amer- 

 ica continues a prime favorite with 

 growers. The new Dawn will prove a 

 strong rival for it. The old brilliant 

 scarlet Brenchleyensis, although the 

 cheapest on the list, is one of the best 

 for cutting and is of just the color 

 wanted for Memorial day. 



Freesias. 



Where the freesia plants are cut down 

 close to the soil, there is no use in 

 keeping them over another year. As 

 the demand now is for flowers on long 

 stems, it is necessary to ruin the bulbs 

 to supply the flowers. If, however, as 

 often happens, the flowering stems have 

 been cut off separately and the foliage 

 not removed, the bulbs will be of ex- 

 cellent quality for another year, pro- 

 vided that when the flowers are cut the 

 pans or pots are not stood under the 

 bench to ripen, but given a light shelf 

 where they can gradually ripen off. The 

 small bulblets should all be saved, for 

 these, if sown moderately thick in 

 flats containing four inches of soil, will 

 the year following produce fine flow- 

 ering sized bulbs, and as the price of 

 Purity, the best freesia, holds up well, 

 it will pay for anyone to raise some 

 of his own bulbs. 



^MiK 



SEASONABLE CULTURE. 



The last lot of geranium cuttings pro- 

 curable from the tops of the stronger 

 plants should now be taken and inserted 

 singly in small pots. Plants which will 

 not yieid a cutting of suflScient length 

 and which nevertheless need pinching, 

 should merely have the tops taken out. 

 Any plants still in 2-inch pots should 

 go into 3-inch, and if any in the latter 

 size are appearing starved, better move 

 them into 4-inch. They can easily be 

 kept in good condition until the early 

 sales start, even if a little feeding is 

 necessary to keep them toned up later 

 in the season. 



It is pretty generally conceded that 

 the use of anything like fresh animal 

 manure in geranium soil is harmful. It 

 may give you a vigorous, green looking 

 plant, but flowers, which are needed to 

 sell stock, will be sadly lacking. Bone 

 meal and good pasture loam at the rate 

 of a 6-inch pot of the bone to a wheel- 



barrow-load of loam makes a suitable 

 compost. A little old mushroom or 

 hotbed manure will do no harm, how- 

 ever, and as this has lost its fire it 

 serves as a useful medium, especially in 

 heavy soils. 



Geraniums should be firmly potted. 

 This promotes a firm growth; loose pot- 

 ting, the reverse^. The ideal location 

 for geraniums is in a light, sunny 

 house with a temperature of 45 to 48 

 degrees at night. Young stock can be 

 given a few degrees more heat, but 

 the minimum should not exceed 52 de- 

 grees, or the plants will lack stocki- 

 ness. 



Many errors are made in overwater- 

 ing geraniums. They should not be 

 treated like semi-aquatics, or they will 

 become soft. Let them dry out well 

 between waterings. Growth is now 

 quite rapid and the plants will neod 

 spreading out occasionally, at which 

 time decaying foliage and seeds should 

 be removed. 



