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16 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Aphii. 20, 1911. 



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I SEASONABLE 



SUGGESTIONS 



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Lorraine Begonias. 



The pressure of other work inci- 

 dental to Easter trade has probably 

 prevented the Lorraines getting the 

 attention properly theirs. Cleared 

 benches gives a chance to spread out 

 the young stock, which has no doubt 

 been standing too close to do well, and 

 there is now an opportunity to get a 

 lot of the rooted cuttings potted off. 

 Keep them quite close together when 

 potted. Use a light compost; leaf-mold 

 and sand are sufficient. If a little bot- 

 tom heat is at command, so much the 

 better. Continue to put in batches of 

 cuttings when procurable. The old 

 plants will now be making a good deal 

 of growth and quite a batch of cuttings 

 should be obtainable. Lorraines are 

 looked upon as difficult subjects to root 

 by some, but there is really no special 

 difficulty in it. If the propagating 

 bench is warm and a top heat of 60 to 

 ti5 degrees maintained, with the neces- 

 sary shade and watering, few should 

 fail to root. Those who only grow a 

 few dozens or a hundred or two of 

 plants may just as well buy young 

 stock in 2Vl>-inch pots from one of the 

 specialists in this begonia. 



Poinsettias. 



"While there is yet ample time in 

 which to start poinsettias intended to 

 produce cuttings to make plants for 

 pans, quite a few growers plant a 

 bench or house of them for cutting, 

 while others grow them singly in 6-inch 

 pots, and where you want stems of 

 good length and bracts twelve . to 

 eighteen inches across, or even more, 

 it is time now to start up the roots 

 which have been dormant since Christ- 

 mas. Head them back a little. Pot 

 up singly, or plant in flats and place 

 in a temperature of 55 degrees. Do 

 not give any higher temperature, as it 

 will only mean soft, lanky cuttings. 

 Be careful not to give much water at 

 the root until the plants are breaking. 

 It is easy to kill them with an over- 

 supply while they are dormant, but use 

 the sprayer freely until they break. 

 Then water the roots more freely. 



Primulas. 



The earliest sowings of obconica and 

 Sinensis primulas have just been trans- 

 planted into flats of light soil. Here 

 they will remain until they are meet- 

 ing in the rows, when they will go 

 singly into 2M!-inch pots. A high tem- 

 perature is neither necessary nor de- 

 sirable for these primulas; 50 degrees 

 at night is ample, and the young plants 

 want to be kept near the light, but 

 need a little shade from the direct rays 

 of the sun. Sowing of these primulas 

 is still seasonable. You will not get 

 as fine Christmas plants as from the 

 earlier sowings, but they can be grown 

 into nice little stock in 5-inch pots, 

 which is a convenient size for market- 

 ing or retailing. Even if the obconicas 



are only irK4^inch pots, they will be 

 serviceable for making up into pans 

 when in flower. 



Qloxinias. 



The earliest started gloxinia tubers 

 will soon be throwing flowers. Be care- 

 ful, in watering, not to pour it over the 

 foliage. If the sun's rays chance to 

 hit them while damp, scorching will 

 follow. As the pots begin to fill with 

 roots, an occasional weak dose of liquid 

 manure will be found helpful. Elevate 

 the best plants on inverted pots and 

 be sure that they are shaded suffi- 

 ciently to prevent scalding of the 

 leaves. ■ If a batch can be timed to 

 flower about Memorial day, they will 

 l)rove useful for bouquet work where 

 rather choicer flowers are wanted. If 

 stems are of insufficient length, it is 

 easy to add a stake or wire to offset 

 this difficulty. There is still ample 

 time in which to start a batch of tubers 

 for later summer blooming. Place them 

 in flats covered lightly with leaf-mold 

 and sand, in a warm, moist house, and 

 they will quickly start to grow. Then 

 pot off singly. Gloxinias are service- 

 able during the summer months, when 

 flowering plants are none too abundant. 



Calceolarias. 



Calceolarias will soon be in flower; 

 in fact, the rugosa section is already 

 nicely open. Be sure to stake the 

 plants securely before they bend over. 

 They are brittle and easily broken. 

 Use neat stakes; those painted green 

 are, of course, preferable, not only for 

 calceolarias, but all other pot plants. 

 If growers would only pay a trifle more 

 attention to their supports, their plants 



would look a lot better. Nothing so dis- 

 figures and hurts the sale of an other- 

 wise fine plant as a number of cum- 

 bersome stakes. Always use them as 

 thin as is consistent with rigidity, and 

 if painted green they are of course 

 much less conspicuous. But to return 

 to the calceolarias, they want shade 

 now. Any sun will be injurious, espe- 

 cially to the large-flowered or herba- 

 ceous section. Fumigate every few days, 

 and grow the plants as cool as possible. 

 Feed regularly once the pots are full 

 of roots. Cow or sheep manure, with 

 some soot added, will keep the foliage 

 dark green and tone them up. 



FACTORY FOR YOUNQ STOCK. 



A good many people who buy each 

 season a few hundreds or a few thou- 

 sands of rooted cuttings or young stock 

 out of pots, do not appreciate the ex- 

 tent of this department of the busi- 

 ness with some of the specialists. The 

 accompanying illustration will serve to 

 give an idea of the immense quantities 

 of stock propagated by A. N. Pierson, 

 Inc., Cromwell, Conn. The smaller of 

 the two pictures shows the propagating 

 house for bedding plants, where rooted 

 cuttings are turned out literally by the 

 hundreds of thousands. The larger pic- 

 ture is reproduced from a photograph 

 made in what is probably the largest 

 greenhouse in the United States given 

 over exclusively to the grafting of 

 roses. This is an iron frame house 

 51x475. The picture shows propagat- 

 ing cases of a combined length of al- 

 most 1,000 feet. The total grafting 

 here this season amounts to 780,000 rose 

 plants. This house holds at one time 

 only one-third the season's output. 



At the time of the Boston flower 

 show many visitors from a distance 

 took the opportunity of visiting the 

 Pierson plant. No matter how well 

 kept the visitor's own greenhouses 

 were, he almost invariably commented 

 on the apple-pie order of everything in 

 the Pierson establishment. 



Kenton, O. — John F. Sabransky has 

 succeeded his father, W. Sabransky, in 

 business. 



Propagatins House for Bedding Stock at A. N. Pierton's, Gx>mwell« Conn. 



