12 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



Mauch 9, 1911.' 



SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



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Jerusalem Cherries. 



If your Jerusalem cherries are not 

 already sown, start a batch of them 

 now. Select a few good berries from 

 your own plants. They will be just as 

 good as any you could buy. Pot off 

 singly when of sufficient size. Gradu- 

 ally harden off in coldframes after the 

 middle of April and plant outdoors 

 about the middle of May. You can 

 grow them in pots, but the plants lifted 

 from the open ground will be finer and 

 more heavily fruited. You can also 

 propagate from cuttings and get an 

 earlier crop of ripe fruit. The plants 

 grown from cuttings are, however, too 

 low and prostrate and far inferior to 

 seedlings. 



Genistas. 



Bring genistas wanted for Easter into 

 a cool house now. They are better 

 grown cool all the time and nothing in 

 the nature of forcing is necessary with 

 Easter coming so late as it does. The 

 closely cropped plants so much in evi- 

 dence are not so pretty nor so salable 

 as those which are allowed to grow 

 more naturally. The sheared plants are 

 too formal and topiary-like and the 

 bulk of customers seeing the two types 

 would select those less closely sheared. 

 Cuttings which are rooted should be 

 potted off singly into 2-inch pots and 

 grown along in a cool house; 45 degrees 

 at night will suffice. Finch off any 

 flowers they throw, to send more 

 strength into the growths. 



Fancy Caladiums. 



Fancy-leaved caladiums need a brisk 

 heat to start them; unless a night tem- 

 perature of 60 to 65 degrees is at com- 

 mand it will be better to leave the 

 tubers dormant a few weeks longer, but 

 if you have a warm house shake out 

 the tubers carefully and stand them in 

 flats of sand and sphagnum. Only par- 

 tially cover the tubers and water spar- 

 ingly at first, or the tubers are liable to 

 rot. These fancy caladiums are useful 

 in the summer months, when flowering 

 plants in pots are scarce and drop 

 quickly when placed in living rooms, 

 while the caladiums with their rich 

 colors last a long time. 



Dahlias. 



It is much too soon yet to think about 

 starting dahlias for planting in the field, 

 or even for retail trade, but there may 

 be one or two special varieties of which 

 you may te desirous of increasing the 

 stock by means of soft-wood cuttings. 

 Lay these on a bench where they will 

 get some bottom heat. Scatter some 

 sphagnum moss about them and give 

 light sprayings until the growths ap- 

 pear, when a more generous supply will 

 be appreciated. Look over the stock of 

 tubers and remove any decaying por- 

 tions. Mold spreads fast and affected 

 portions should be cut off as soon as 

 they are seen. 



Flowering Shrubs for Easter. 

 Such varieties as deutzias, lilacs, pyr- 

 us, prunus and Philadelphus Lemoinei, if 

 wanted for Easter, should be placed in 

 heat if they are not already there. The 

 flowering apples, cherries and plums will 

 open in a month and are better not 

 forced too hard. Lilacs will still flower 

 if started in a brisk heat and moved 

 into cooler quarters as the flowers oj)en. 

 Deutzias require a longer season to get 

 them into flower and can be forced 

 hard, like lilacs, in the earlier stages of 

 growth. Of course all these flowering 

 shrubs are better when opened in a tem- 

 perature not exceeding 50 degrees at 

 night and come on quite fast in even 

 this heat during March and April. All 

 should be freely syringed until the buds 

 are ready to expand. ' 



Bambler Boses. 



Eamblor roses should now have the 

 flower trusses peeping, which being the 

 case they are all right. Carefully avoid 

 fold drafts, which will surely start 

 mildew. Also use care in syringing, so 

 that the plants will be dry before night- 

 fall. When syringing — and this is neces- 

 sary' when the plants are being hard 

 forced, in order to prevent attacks of 

 spider — select bright mornings for the 

 work, and if it chances to cloud up be- 

 fore noon, shake the plants individual- 

 ly so as to remove as much water as 



possible from them. An abundant water 

 supply is now necessary and, the pots 

 being filled with active roots, supple- 

 ment this with liquid manure twice a 

 week. Do not allow the plants to stand 

 too closely. Elevate good specimens on 

 pots, in which case it is a good plan to 

 place a saucer below them. 



Dutch Bulbous Stock. 



As Easter comes quite late this year, 

 it will only take a matter of a fort- 

 night to flower any of the narcissi, 

 tulips and hyacinths after housing. In 

 the meantime they cannot be kept too 

 cool. A cold cellar will hold them back 

 later than a frame. If in the latter, 

 keep board shutters over them to ex- 

 clude sun heat. See that the pots, pans 

 or flats are sufficiently moist. As the 

 bulbs have a mass of roots, they be- 

 come somewhat stunted if not copiously 

 watered. Keep the water, however, off 

 the flower stalks of the hyacinths. 

 Spanish iris and Gladiolus nanus in va- 

 riety will need to be growing on now 

 in a temperature of 50 degrees, or will 

 be too late. 



Spiraeas. 



Spiraeas will now be making rapid 

 growth and will require frequent spread- 

 ing apart. As the pots speedily be- 

 come a perfect mat of roots, the water 

 supply can hardly be too liberal. Use 

 diluted liquid cow or sheep manure three 

 times a week. Eaise up the larger 

 plants on stands or pots, using saucers 

 under them. A temperature of 60 to 65 

 degrees at night can be maintained 

 until the flowers show color, then 

 gradually lower it. In fumigating al- 

 ways remember that spira'as are suscep- 

 tible to injury and give light doses. 

 That beautiful peach pink variety, 

 Queen Alexandra, in order to retain its 

 coloi;, should not le exposed to sun- 

 shine. It fades out badly in the full 

 sun. 



OUTDOOB SWEET PEAS. 



Just as soon as the ground can be 

 worked is the right time to make the 

 first outdoor sowing of sweet peas. It 

 is an old and utterly erroneous idea 

 that we must wait for the ground to 

 become well dried and warmed before 

 sowing sweet peas. It is quite true that 

 if one batch is sown, say, at the end of 

 March and a second one a month later, 

 the seedlings of the later sowing 

 may appear only three or four days be- 

 hind the first sowing, but compare the 

 strength of huulm and flower stems and 

 it will soon become apparent that the 

 March seedlings have a big superiority. 

 Sweet peas revel in cool, moist ground, 

 such as exists when winter is passing. 

 They get a strong root hold before the 

 tops appear, whereas the later sowings 



have few roots when the tops appear 

 and suffer much sooner from drought. 



If the land was heavily manured and 

 plowed in late fall, all the better. If 

 not, do it now, and be sure to plow 

 deeply. If you want fancy flowers which 

 will beat those of your neighbors, take 

 out trenches two feet deep and the 

 same width; half fill these with rotted 

 cow manure. Cover with three inches 

 of loam, then sow the seeds; cover 

 these two and one-half to three inches 

 deep, firming the soil well with the 

 back of a rake. Never mind if the rows 

 have a hollowed appearance. This will 

 be something of an advantage when 

 rain comes. Avoid sowing the seeds 

 thickly. If you do, have courage to 

 thin severely. The more space allotted 

 the individual seedling, the more robust 

 will be the growth and finer the flower 

 stalks. 



