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14 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



May 4, 1911. 



ME YES. 



Everyone in the wholesale cut flower 

 section of New York knows Meyer, 

 likes him, and will recognize The Re- 

 view's photographer as having touched 

 the button when his subject was in a 

 characteristic attitude, with a box of 

 his favorite flower under his arm. In- 

 deed, there are those who will see in 

 Meyer ai modesty akin to that of the 

 violet, for Meyer is so content to jog 

 along on the road of good fellowship 

 that some of those who know him best 

 are not acquainted with his full name 



— Meyer Otile. To the trade he is 

 Meyer. There is only one Meyer. 



Mr. Otile — Meyer — is still one of the 

 young men of the New York market, 

 but he has had many years of expe- 

 rience. For twelve years he was with 

 the firm of Gunther Bros., and later 

 for six years with A. J. Guttman. 

 When the corporation of Badgley, 

 Biedel & Meyer was formed to take 

 over the Guttman business Meyer be- 

 came one of the incorporators and 

 stockholders, since which time he has 

 hustled harder than ever. 



SCENTED GEBANIUMS. 



About everyone who has a garden 

 wants a plant or two of the scented- 

 leaved plants and none are more popu- 

 lar than the scented-leaved geraniums, 

 of which there is a considerable variety. 

 The leaves of these are useful in finger- 

 bowls for 'dinners, while the shoots are 

 excellent for arranging in bowls in 

 rooms. There is some commercial value 

 to scented geranium sprays, there being 

 quite a little call for them in the large 

 markets, but the average country florist 

 cannot afford to grow these as a winter 

 crop to any extent, but In summer if 

 he plants out even twenty-five or thirty 

 plants from 4-inch pots in good ground, 

 they will give quantities of shoots the 

 whole summer. 



Another use to which these scented 

 geraniums can be put is in growing 

 them on from year to year in pots or 

 tubs, keeping them well pinched and 

 growing them of specimen size for use 

 in the garden or on the piazza. In Eng- 

 land these are grown from year to year 

 into specimens six to eight, or even ten 

 feet across, and used as we would box 

 or bay trees. That popular plant, the 

 lemon-scented verbena, Aloysia citrio- 

 dora, is another suitable plant to treat 

 in this way. Nothing could be finer for 

 old-fashioned gardens than these speci- 

 mens of scented geraniums and lemon 

 verbenas. In winter they can be car- 

 ried over safely in any light frost-proof 

 cellar and can be placed in the green- 

 house early in April, in order to get a 

 good growth on before the time comes 

 to stand them indoors. 



THBIPS ON IVY OEBANIXJMS. 



I enclose a geranium leaf and shall 

 be obliged to you if you will tell me 

 whiat disease is troubling my plants 

 and the remedy for it. When the gera- 

 niums are affected this way, all the 

 leaves finally drop off. .7. M. T. 



The leaf of the ivy geranium shows 

 unmistakable signs of the attacks of 

 white thrips. As a general rule, gera- 

 niums are immune from red spider, 

 thrips and aphis, but the ivy-leaved sec- 

 tion, with leaves of thinner substance, 

 are sometimes attacked, particularly 

 when growing in a bright house near 

 the glass. If the watering has at any 

 time been neglected, so that the plants 



become dry, thiips would get a foothold 

 on the foliage. They are most likely to 

 appear on plants growing near the heat- 

 ing pipes. 



Pick off the worst affected leaves 

 and spray the plants with a nicotine ex- 

 tract, of which there are a number of 

 good brands on the market. Directions 

 for use generally come on each can. 

 Use a fine spray nozzle and direct the 

 water below the foliage. Repeat this 

 operation three or four times, J^t inter- 

 vals of forty-eight hours, and you 



Meyer Otile. 



should clean out the thrips. Moisten 

 down the more arid parts of yo'ur house 

 in future. As less fire heat will be 

 needed from this time on, there will be 

 less likelihood of the pests increasing, 

 but as they breed fast during hot, dry- 

 summer weather, if you keep any plants 



under glass, it would be wise to syringe 

 them occasionally. C. W. 



OEBANIUMS ONCE FROZEN. 



We had a fine lot of gerailiums in 

 2 -inch pots which froze for us about 

 four weeks ago, and they dropped 

 nearly all of their leaves. Then we 

 used nitrate of soda to hustle them 

 along and the third dose we gave them 

 was too strong and of course they 

 turned brown at the roots and the 

 leaves, but now they seem to be grow- 

 ing again. Now, would you transplant 

 them into 3-inch pots or feed them 

 something to make them grow? They 

 were taken out of the sand and potted 

 February 10. Any information on this 

 subject will be appreciated. 



E. E. G. C. 



You did wrong in applying nitrate 

 of soda to the geraniums after the 

 leaves were frozen off. No plants in 

 this condition can take up liquid food. 

 You must treat them carefully, or they 

 will be valueless when the spring trade 

 starts. I would advise taking them 

 out of the 2-inch pots. Scratch the 

 balls over a little with a pointed stick 

 and place in 3-inch pots. Use no ma- 

 nure in the soil, except it be a little 

 which is well decayed. Pass it through 

 a half-inch screen. Add a little fine 

 bone to the soil; a 3-inch pot to a 

 bushel of soil will suffice. Pot firmly 

 and stand the plants on a sunny bench, 

 where they can have a temperature of 

 48 to 50 degrees at night. Allow 

 them to dry out well between water- 

 ings. Scratch over the surface soil 

 if it becomes baked and remove dry,, 

 moldy or dead leaves twice a week. 

 Do not spray the plants overhead. Ven- 

 tilate freely. Do not feed with liquid 

 manure at all, or you will spoil them. 

 Spread out from time to time as they 

 grow and avoid a close atmosphere. 

 These may not make first-class plants, 

 blit they may be salable in early June. 

 C. W. 



DUTY ON IMMOBTELLES. 



W, C. Beckert, of Pittsburg, has been 

 upheld by the United States Board of 

 General Appraisers in a claim that yel- 

 low immortelles are simply "flowers,, 

 preserved or fresh," and not artificial 

 flowers as described in paragraph 43S 

 of the tariff law, the difference in duty 

 being thirty-five per cent of the value 

 of the goods; but the board rules that 

 the dufy of sixty per cent applies to 

 colored immortelles. General Appraiser 

 McClellan says: 



' * The importation .><pnsists of 3,500 

 bunches of immortelles, and the testi- 

 mony of the importer shows that all of 

 them, except the 125 bunches of yellow 

 flowers, were either bleached or dyed 

 before importation; that as to the 125 

 bunches of yellow immortelles they 

 were natural flowers simply dried, and 

 as to these the claim for duty at the 

 rate of twenty-five per cent ad valorem 

 under paragraph 263 is well founded 

 and therefore sustained. The remainder 

 having been artificially colored, they 

 were properly assessed under paragraph 

 438, and the surveyor's action is to this 

 extent affirmed." 



Agawam, Mass. — M. S. Angleman, 

 formerly employed at the greenhouses 

 of Mark Aitken, in this town, has taken 

 a position with N. F. Higgins, at 

 Springfield, Mass. 



