hIarch 23, 1011. 



»■ ,v:t- 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



19 



New Carnation House of Dobbs & Son, Auburn, N.Y. 



way as clirysanthemums, will root within 

 a month. If bench space for them in- 

 doors is limited, they will root in an ordi- 

 nary coldframe, only it Avill take them 

 a little longer. Keep them well watered 

 and shaded and few will fail to root. 

 These cuttings planted out in nursery 

 rows six to eight inches apart will pro- 

 duce splendid heads of flower in late 

 summer, much superior to those carried on 

 the older clumps, and these are what 

 nurserymen sell as "strong field-grown 

 plants" each fall. Phloxes are probably 

 the most valuable of all herbaceous flow- 

 ering perennials and every florist should 

 have a good bed of them. 



Annual Climbers. 



It is a mistake to sow annual climbers 

 too early under glass, for being in nearly 

 every case of rapid growth they become 

 too tall before the selling season arrives. 

 A few varieties which are popular can 

 now be started. These include Coboea 

 scandens and C. scandens alba, balloon 

 vine, cypress vine (Ipomoea Quamoclit), 

 moonflower (Ipomoea grandiflora alba), 

 Lophospermum scandens, canary creeper 

 (Tropsealum Canariense) and the various 

 thunbergias. The latter are not really 

 climbers, but are useful as trailers for 

 vases, piazza boxes, window boxes and 

 baskets. For the same purpose the 

 maurandias and Kenilworth ivy (Linaria 

 Cymbalaria) are also valuable. Start all 

 these seeds in a brisk, moist heat and pot 

 off singly as soon as they can be handled, 

 their growth being made so quickly that 

 they will spoil or become entangled if 

 neglected even a few days. 



Spiraea Queen Alexandra. 



Spiraea Queen Alexandra requires a 

 longer season of growth than the ordinary 

 white forcing varieties. It succeeds much 

 better when treated as a Memorial day 

 plant than when forced for Easter. For 

 Memorial day use it is now time to start 

 the plants. Hard forcing will not be 

 necessary, but to have them strong and 

 vigorous give them a house kept at 50 

 to 55 degrees at night. As soon as the 

 plants show color move them into a cooler 

 house, where the glass is well shaded, as 

 when exposed to bright sunshine the 

 beautiful peach-pink flowers fade out 

 almost white. For bouquet work this 

 spiraea is one of the finest things intro- 

 duced for many years and growers who 

 sent in batches of it in a cut state last 

 year easily realized $6 per hundred for 



them. Buy some clumps at once if you 

 want to get something good and have not 

 yet grown it. 



Azaleas. 



It can be seen with tolerable certainty 

 now whether plants wanted for Easter 

 will be in season or not. If the plants 

 are each opening a few flowers when 

 April comes in, they will be all right. If 

 not, they will need some pushing. Give 

 late plants 65 degrees at night and spray 

 freely until you are sure they are going 

 to be on time. A few good Easter varie- 

 ties are Bernard Andre alba, Niobe, Ver- 

 vseneana, Professor Wolters, Apollo and 

 Empress of India. Dwarf plants of such 

 sorts as Indica alba and (Jharles Encke 

 are also salable. Plants in flower can be 

 held quite cold. Shade the glass well in 

 the house where the plants are in full 

 flower. 



Gladioli. 



The earliest batch of Gladiolus The 

 Bride and G. Peach Blossom will soon 

 be in flower and make a welcome addition 

 to the list of spring flowers. To keep up 

 a good succession, bring a few boxes into 

 heat every ten days. Do not force them 

 hard; 50 degrees at night is as warm as 

 they require. The batch wanted for 

 Memorial day, a time when there is a 

 practically unlimited demand for flowers 

 of this description, need not be housed 



yet for a couple of weeks. Benches where 

 the large flowering varieties, such as 

 America, May and Shakespeare, are grow- 

 ing should be scratched over once a week 

 and when spikes appear water should be 

 given abundantly. Just as soon as the 

 ground can be worked outdoors an early 

 batch can be planted. The grounil shouki 

 be well ]nanured and the bulbs planted 

 six inches deep. From bulbs planted thus 

 early spikes can be cut through the month 

 of June. It is a mistake to merely cover 

 the bulbs. Deeper j)lanting prevents the 

 plants from being blown over during wet, 

 windy weather and the plants are much 

 finer, the roots being down in moist earth 

 before the sunnncr droughts arrive. 



Primula Obconica. 

 Many of the later sown plants of Prim- 

 ula obconica are still in good condition 

 and there is certainly no flowering plant 

 which is more generally satisfactory us a 

 house plant than P. obconica. Its poison- 

 ous properties have prejudicial many 

 against it, but it is satisfactory neverthe- 

 less to see that it remains popular. Plants 

 in small pots, if massed together in 6- 

 iiich or Sinch i)ans, one color to a pan, 

 will sell much better than in the small 

 pots. They are one of the finest of all 

 plants in window boxes and if Avell wa- 

 tered will flower for months in even a 

 warm room, the only attention needed be- 

 ing the removal of dead flowers occasion- 

 ally. 



BUSINESS BOOMING. 



With all the talk that is going on of 

 the marvelous rate at which the green- 

 house business is growing in the west, 

 sight should not be lost of the fact that 

 the business also is growing in that part 

 of the country where florists already are 

 most numerous. The state of New York 

 has more florists than any other state 

 in the Union and The Review has more 

 subscribers in the state of New York 

 than in any of the forty-seven other 

 states. In such towns as Auburn, in 

 central New York, greenhouse building 

 is proceeding at a rate that seems to 

 increase each year. The accompanying 

 illustrations show the exterior of the old 

 plant of Dobbs & Son, at Auburn, and 

 the interior of the new carnation house 

 at the new plant this firm recently 

 started. They are planning to make an 

 extensive addition to the new plant this 

 season, for business is booming with 

 them all the time, running far ahead of 

 any previous year. 



Older Plant of Dobbs & Son, Auburn, N. Y. 



