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18 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Mabch 23, 1911. 



England, and they were delayed ten 

 days in addition to the ordinary voy- 

 age, yet we received word that they 

 were in fine condition on arrival and 

 not one cutting was lost. We had the 

 same report from Germany. This is 

 encouraging, especially when it is con- 

 sidered that in some other cases, when 

 the cuttings have been shipped only 

 twenty miles or so, the consignee re- 

 ports that he has lost practically all of 

 them. 



Potting Booted Cuttings. 



My advice to those buying rooted 

 cuttings is to pot them up in moist 

 soil and place them in a north house 

 for a week. Afterward they can be 

 brought out in the sunshine and you 

 will find that your percentage of loss 

 is small. 



In conclusion, gentlemen, I would say 

 that any question you wish to ask I 

 shall be pleased to answer. It is some- 

 what difficult for a commercial man to 

 prepare an essay without mixing his 

 business with it. I may state that our 

 carnations practically have the same 

 attention as our chrysanthemums, and 

 I consider we have started well in the 

 field of carnation novelties, with Wo- 



denetlie as & beginner. It is certainly 

 going to take everything by storm. 



I think you will excuse this remark, 

 but I am proud, after starting with 

 Lizzie McGowan, as I did, that I should 

 be connected with one of the best 

 whites of today, namely, Wodenethe. 



THE PINK BOSTON MARKET. 



In these days when so many growers 

 think nothing will do but the biggest 

 carnation, it is interesting to find one 

 who gets his best profit out of a me- 

 dium sized flower. Pennsylvania is de- 

 scribed as a pink Boston market. It 

 originated with P. M. De Witt, Bridge- 

 water, Pa., as a seedling of Boston mar- 

 ket and Harlowarden. Mr. De Witt has 

 been growing it for five years and 

 thinks more highly of it every season. 

 The accompanying illustration shows 

 one of his houses in which the variety 

 is planted in elevated solid beds. He 

 says it does fully as well so handled as 

 when grown on a bench and he expects 

 this house to give him a continuous 

 cut of high grade blooms for weeks 

 after the bench grown stock has run 

 out. 



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SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



Show Pelargoniums. 



Where show pelargoniums were not 

 pinched late the plants will already be 

 carrying flower trusses, and these should 

 be in nice flower for the middle of 

 April. Give them a sunny house, yet 

 one where a low night temperature of 

 45 degrees or so is maintained. Give the 

 plants an occasional fresh stand and do 

 not omit a weekly fumigation. Feed 

 liberally with liquid manure. An alter- 

 nate top-dressing of Clay's or some 

 other equally highly conce)itrated ferti- 

 lizer will also assist in making the wood 

 firm and cause the plants to flower 

 freely. 



Potting Foliage Plants. 



Spring is almost here and to the south 

 has already arrived. The blooming of 

 early bulbs, the songs of early birds and 

 the passing of ice and snow indicate that 

 the strenuous season is at hand. Any re- 

 potting of palms, ferns or foliage plants 

 of any description whatever should be 

 done now, as there will be so many jobs 

 crowding in a few days that if work like 

 this is not done now it will probably not 

 be done at all. Crotons, dracwnas, arau- 

 carias, ficus, araliss, marantas and many 

 other useful . folige plants, if intended 

 for pot culture throughout the summer, 

 will pay for a little overhauling now. 



Rambler Roses. 



The flower trusses on rambler roses 

 should now all be showing prominently 

 and if these show color by the end of 

 March they will be all right for Easter, 

 if grown in a night te.mperature of ^5 

 degrees. Do not resort to any hard 

 forcing, unless it is an absolute necessity. 

 It only means softer plants, which fall 

 an easy prey to mildew, and flowers of 



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a paler color than those grown cooler. 

 Now is the time to feed the plants well 

 v.ith liquid manure twice a VA-eek. Dis- 

 continue it, however, when the flowers 

 are opening, as if continued it will take 

 away some of their cblor. The old Crim- 

 son Rambler it will be found opens some- 

 what earlier than the pink varieties. As 

 an Easter plant its sale has heavily de- 

 creased since the advent of the pink va- 

 rieties. Of the latter Tausendschon prom- 

 ises to be in heavy demand the coming 

 Easter, while Dorothy Perkins is being 

 grown by almost everyone. Those who 

 have 'the white Dorothy will also find it 

 a great seller. Hiawatha, single scarlet, 

 is another popular sort, which, while a 

 true single, is charming and preferred by 

 nearly all lady purchasers to Crirrison 

 Kambler. 



Calceolarias. 



As the flower stems begin to run up on 

 the herbaceous calceolarias, it becomes 

 necessary to do a little staking. These 

 stakes should be light and are better if 

 painted green, as indeed are all stakes in 

 pot plants. Nothing disfigures a w«Jl 

 grown plant more than a number of heavy 

 brown, yellow or white stakes. As these 

 stakes can be purchased inexpensively, 

 their increased use is to be commended. 

 You can hardly grow the calceolarias too 

 cool; 40 degrees at night is quite high 

 enough, unless you are in a hurry for 

 them, and as they are much more at- 

 tacked by aphis in 10 degrees more her;t, 

 they will need closer attention. The 

 sun's rays are now getting strong and the 

 plants wdl be benefited by some shade. 

 As the pots are well filled with roots, 

 apply liquid cow or sheep menure once in 

 four or five days until the flowers are 

 opening. Calceolaria rugosa, the popular 



bedding variety in Europe, will soon be 

 running up to flower. Like the herba- 

 ceous section, it likes to be grown cool. 

 This will be found a valuable plant for 

 Memorial day work, either to sell as a 

 pot plant or for cutting. It lasts splen- 

 didly and does not shake out or bruise 

 like the large flowered section. The va- 

 riety Golden Gem is the best of the type. 

 There is also a hybrid between this and 

 the herbaceous section, with much larger 

 golden yellow flowers, named C. Stewarti, 

 which is a fine variety for florists to grow. 



Pansies and Myosotis. 



Pansies and myosotis are valuable for 

 spring sales and sell specially well when 

 put up in small handle baskets, which 

 purchasers can conveniently carry home. 

 The demand for these commences as soon 

 as frost has left the ground and contin- 

 ues until Memorial day. If you grow a 

 few hundreds or thousands of these, you 

 have probably wintered them in cold- 

 frames and given them a light winter 

 mulch of leaves or hay. This should now 

 be removed and the plants Avell watered. 

 If kept moderately close for a few days, 

 they will start away to grow in good 

 shape and a month hence will be flower- 

 ing freely. If, however, an earlier batch 

 is needed, lift a quantity and plant them 

 closely in some spare bench in your violet 

 house. As single violets are now practi- 

 cally done, part of the bench or bed space 

 can be profitably utilized by pansies, myo- 

 sotis or double daisies, all three of which 

 are popular flowers. 



Pansies Outdoors. 



While it is time to remove tJie mulch 

 from pansies in coldframes, it is not safe 

 to take away the covering from thjsc in 

 the open. We often get a spell of hot 

 weather in March which tempts us lo do 

 foolish things, as these warm spells are 

 generally succeeded by a breath of Arctic 

 weather and the biting winds and hot 

 sun's rays raise havoc with the little 

 plants if prematurely uncovered. Always 

 make haste slowly in removing winter 

 mulch, not only from pansies, but jnany 

 other plants. It is best removed by de- 

 grees. Take a little away where it seems 

 thick, but leave enough to cover the plants 

 until well into April. 



Pruning Hardy Climbers. 



Such climbers as wistarias, Bignonia 

 radicans, Aristolochia Sipho, actinidias 

 and any of the ornamental grapevines, 

 such as Vitis Labrusca and V. Coigne- 

 tise, if not yet pruned should be attended 

 to at once. The popular Clematis pani- 

 culata should be cut back quite hard. 

 Even if headed to the ground, it will soon 

 cover all its allotted space. Except in 

 the warmer states, it is still a little early 

 to prune the climbing roses. They must 

 not be cut back hard. All they need is 

 to have the dead and weak wood removed, 

 and if the long, strong canes which start 

 from the ground can be bent down some- 

 what, they will flower more abundantly 

 than if tied up erect. The climbing hy- 

 drangea. Hydrangea scandens, does not 

 require any pruning, unless it be dead 

 wood, but speaking of hydrangeas re- 

 minds us that this is the time to head 

 back the shrubby varieties, paniculata 

 ^randiflora and arborescens, quite hard. 



Perennial Phlox. 



If you want to increase your stock of 

 herbaceous phlox of any particular varie- 

 ties, lift a few clumps as soon as the 

 ground is open. Place them in a cool 

 greenhouse and they will soon yield an 

 abundant crop of cuttings, which, if in- 

 serted in the cutting bench in the same 



