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12 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Apbil 27, 1011. 



ROSES IN FLORIDA. 



I am sending by mail some Bride 

 rose plants and some soil. Can you 

 give me any idea as to why these 

 plants are troubled with root knot? 

 The roses were planted last May in 

 solid beds. The soil was the same as 

 the sample and was fourteen inches 

 deep. Plenty of manure was mixed 

 with it, as the soil is poor in this coun- 

 try and this was the best I could get 

 here. Does the soil need lime, bone 

 meal, or blood and bone, or what does 

 it need to give it more body? I was 

 thinking of digging up the plants, cut- 

 ting them back at the root and top, 

 planting them all in one bed and then 

 planting all the other beds with new 

 plants. I do not wish to renew the 

 soil, as it is expensive and has only 

 been inside one year, but I thought of 

 working the bed well and letting the 

 soil rest for a month or five weeks be- 

 fore planting any new plants in it. I 

 should like to know what is the best 

 material to mix with it. Can you tell 

 me what roses to plant in Florida, 

 where the days are warm and the 

 nights are damp and cool? I am in the 

 central part of the state, forty or fifty 

 miles from the sea. The roses are own- 

 root stock. 



One house is 25x40 feet and nine 

 feet six inches to the ridge, with venti- 

 lation on each side. The side bed is 

 four feet from the glass and the mid- 

 dle bed seven and one-half feet. There 

 is a, large ventilator on the ridge. The 

 house runs north and south. One 

 thing that puzzles me is this: On the 

 south end is a concrete wall, rising 

 sixteen inches above the level of the 

 rose bed. The space above is glass. 

 The four bieds.^t^thkt end are nice and 

 green and have'* grown roses two and one- 

 hal^ feet high. 'Tlie space where the roses 

 do well extends only six or seven feet 

 north; the ,rest^-of each bed looks yel- 

 low^ except the" side bed, which looks a 

 litt|e better. Thi^' house is on a street 

 corner, whe^e there is an electric light, 

 which makes the south end of the 

 house clear as day. Has this anything 

 to po with the quality of the stock 

 grown? The house was not heated at 

 all during the winter and the roses 

 were outside until the beginning of 

 November, when I built the house on 

 thei concrete wall. No mildew has 

 bothered the roses, except where they 

 have been growing so thriftily in the 

 south end. J. H. 



In a house of the small dimensions 

 you have, it will be difficult to grow 



good roses, especially in so warm a cli- 

 mate as yours. The soil forwarded, 

 while not ideal for roses, is much bet- 

 ter than many florists can obtain, and 

 there is no reason why it should not 

 grow them satisfactorily. You would 

 secure better results if half the depth 

 of soil were used. The drainage below 

 this should, of course, be good. Cow 

 manure is the best for roses. If you 

 can obtain this of good quality at a 

 moderate price, it is much to be pre- 

 ferred to blood, bone or any chemicals. 

 If cow manure is not procurable, use 

 well rotted horse manure. Instead of 

 lifting field-grown plants and planting 

 them in the beds, it would be better 

 to secure young stock in 3-inch or 4- 

 inch pots, preferably grafted stock, and 

 plant in May or June. 



Bride is not now grown to any con- 

 siderable extent under glass for sum- 

 mer flowering. My Maryland, Kaiserin 



Augusta Victoria, President Carnot and 

 Prince de Bulgarie are particularly 

 good. For winter blooming, Killamey 

 and White Killamey are among the 

 best. There are now dark pink, light 

 pink and scarlet sports of this most 

 popular of all indoor roses. 



There would seem to be no need to 

 renew the soil, but it would be your 

 best policy to use less depth of it, 

 planting young grafted stock from pots 

 and not saving over any of the old 

 plants. By using blue litmus paper 

 you can easily see whether the soil 

 needs any lime, but be cautious in the 

 use of bone and chemicals generally, 

 as they often do a great deal of harm. 

 Liquid cow manure is the best fertilizer 

 for roses. C. W. 



SMILAX. 



It is yet rather early to plant beds of 

 smilax, but this will act as a gentle 

 reminder that the little plants should 

 not be neglected. If they are in 2-ineh 

 pots and getting their roots crowded, 

 give them a shift into 3-inch. As each 

 crop of strings is cut, it is a good plan 

 to let the roots get tolerably dry for 

 a while. If watered in soaking quanti- 

 ties after the growth has been cut 

 away, the roots will sometimes rot. 

 Wait until the new growths are start- 

 ing away. Then give a mulch of ma- 

 nure and water well. Smilax has been 

 outclassed to some extent by the sev- 

 eral varieties of asparagus, but those 

 who have grown it this season have 

 found an extra good demand for it. 



SEEDLING GERANIUMS. 



I am shipping you today, by express, 

 two blooms of my seedling geraniums. 

 No. 1 and No. 2. Please tell me what 

 shades they are. Both are good, robust 

 growers and good bloomers. They are 

 good bedders and bloom more brilliant- 

 ly outdoors than in the greenhouse, the 

 flowers lasting nearly a month. They 

 also have fine foliage, both branching 

 freely, with the flowers well above the 

 foliage. No. 1 shows almost as well in 

 artificial light as in sunlight. Do you 

 think they are of any value? J. M. 



The flowers show some good features, 

 though blooms of geraniums at this 

 time of the year do not always indi- 

 cate the possibilities of the plants later 

 in the season, when better conditions 

 bring out the color and develop the size 

 of the blooms. 



No. 1 is a soft, light pink; the petals 

 are edged with a lighter shade and 

 veined with carmine — a pleasing color. 



No. 2 is a clear pink of delicate 

 shade; the base of the upper petal is 

 blotched with white and it has a large 

 truss, strong stem and heavy foliage. 

 These indicate strong growth and this 

 is likely to prove a good bedding sort, 

 but this can only be determined by 

 growth in the open and by comparison 



with other varieties under like condi- 

 tions. J. G. H. 



WINTER-FLOWERING GERANIUMS. 



In the rush of other work, winter- 

 flowering geraniums are liable to be neg- 

 lected, and if allowed to become pot- 

 bound it is difficult to make good plants 

 of them. When the roots get much 

 matted, loosen them with a pointed stick 

 when repotting. If the plants are now 

 in 3-inch pots, they are of ample size 

 and will develop into fine 6-inch pot 

 specimens before winter. These gera- 

 niums are better grown under glass all 

 the time. When stood outdoors, if the 

 pots get soddened by drenching rains, 

 such as we frequently get in summer, 

 the foliage often suffers and bacteria 

 develop, which indoor culture prevents. 

 Pinch the tops out of the plants when 

 they are six to seven inches high, in 

 order to make them bushy, and keep all 

 flowers removed. In potting, avoid a 

 light soil. You do not want any leaf- 

 mold, but a good stiff loam, and instead 

 of adding rotted manure, add a little 

 from a spent mushroom bed and some 

 fine bone. Pot firmly, in order to make 

 the plants produce short jointed 

 growths. Loose potting in soil contain- 

 ing much nitrogen will cause a soft, 

 rank growth, which we do not want. 



