March 7, 1912. 



The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



21 



Side Hill Greenhouse of W. H. Weinschenk, New Castle, Pa. 



of a complete group of state societies, 

 selecting the most advanced, intelligent 

 and energetic members to send each 

 year to its annual sessions, would be: 



"(1) To give it a representative 

 character, and standing equal in dignity 

 and power to associations of other busi- 

 ness, and an efficiency not now pos- 

 sessed. 



"(2) To enroll under its standard 

 • those who are at present inert, luke- 

 warm, or positively unfriendly. 



"(.i) The influence upon the indi- 

 vidual florist might be counted: 



"(1) To stimulate to larger, broader 

 views; take him out of the local and 

 provincial field, and widen his vision; 

 to consider his vocation in its national, 

 even world-wide scope, and promote 

 the interchange of valuable experiences, 

 and inspire an esprit de corps in his 

 class. 



" (2) To bring him personal gains by 

 the advances necessarily secured where 

 a thousand rivulets, bringing informa- 

 tion, mutual aid, timely suggestion and 

 friendly cooperation, will give volume 

 and momentum to the resultant stream. 



"Let us have a state society in every 

 state, and a tributary local club in every 

 town and neighborhood where numbers 

 will allow, and all links in a sentient 

 chain, each one decessary to the com- 

 pleteness and strength, to the efficiency 

 and force of the national body, which, 

 thoroughly representative in composi- 

 tion and character, material and aims, 

 will give us a place eminent among 

 other organizations, honored and ap- 

 plauded for good work throughout the 

 land. Remember the fable of the bun- 

 dle of arrows, each easily broken of 

 itself, but once bound together, beyond 

 any force to disrupt. Let us recognize 

 and remember that with gardeners and 

 florists as with every other profession 

 and pursuit, however lowly or however 

 exalted, *In union there is strength.' " 



GLOXINIAS FOE AUGUST. 



Please inform us when we should 

 start bulbs of gloxinias and tuberous 

 rooted begonias in order to have them 

 at their best from August 15 on. 



D. F. C. 



Start the tuberous begonias and 

 gloxinias right after Easter and you 



will have each in good flower from 

 August onward. Also, if you have 

 any seedlings of either begonias or 

 gloxinias, sown during the present win- 

 ter, these, if transplanted into flats of 

 light soil and later potted, will flower 

 at the time named. The gloxinias will 

 require more heat than the begonias 

 an^ are also more susceptible to injury 

 from sunshine. C. W. 



THE "COMING" HOUSE. 



Frequent reference has been made 

 during the last few years to the 

 '*wide" house, as the "coming" house, 

 and the illustration, reproduced here- 

 with, of W. H. Weinschenk 's green- 

 house at New Castle, Pa., indicates 

 that the wide house arrived some time 

 ago, for this house has been up long 

 enough to have had a thorough test. 

 Of course conditions have much to do 

 with the style and construction of any 

 greenhouse, and the hilly country 

 around New Castle, Pa., particularly 

 lends itself to the type shown. 



This is said to be the largest veg- 

 etable house in the world; it is 120x600 

 feet; the long span of the roof is 

 ninety feet; the glass is 20x30, laid 

 twenty inches between the bars, and 

 there is a total of 80,000 square feet 

 of glass in the roof. For ventilation a 

 double row of sashes at the ridge and a 

 row in each wall below the eaves is 

 used. Planting is done directly on the 

 ground, the soil being plowed and culti- 

 vated the same as in the open, with 

 enormous crops of lettuce and tomatoes 

 resulting. 



This house has proven so satisfac- 

 tory that two more of the same gen- 

 eral type are to be built at New Castle 

 this summer. The John C. Moninger 

 Co., whose pipe frame construction was 

 used in "the house illustrated, is fur- 

 nishing material to E. P. Weinschenk 

 for a 226-foot extension to a house 

 100 feet wide formerly erected by him. 



Weinschenk & George are also going 

 to erect a new Moninger iron frame, 

 flat rafter house 125 feet wide, which 

 will contain about 45,000 square feet 

 of glass. This will give New Castle, 

 Pa., three establishments with houses 

 almost identical with the original, mak- 

 ing a decidedly distinctive showing. 



FBEESIAS NOT FLOWERING. 



Our freesias this year were a com- 

 plete failure. We use Purity and we 

 potted them in 4-inch pots, giving them 

 the usual treatment. The foliage de- 

 veloped in good shape, but the flower 

 spikes did not show at all. We have 

 generally had good success in the grow- 

 ing oL^hese pretty flowers and are at 

 a loss to find a reason for this failure. 

 The plants were chilled during the 

 January cold snap, but were not 

 touched by frost. Can you help us 

 to locate the trouble? D. F. C. 



It is quite unusual for freesias not 

 to flower at all. They succeed best 

 in a night temperature of 50 degrees, 

 but are sometimes grown a little 

 wanner for early flowering, and often 

 5 to 10 degrees cooler. Provided you 

 bought well matured bulbs and gave 

 them correct cultural treatment, the 

 flower spikes must have been destroyed 

 while in a tender state by a sudden 

 drop in temperature. You should be 

 able to cut open the growths and find 

 out if they are blighted inside. Heavy 

 fumigation and excessive feeding will 

 damage the foliage and adversely af- 

 fect the flowers, but I have never 

 known either to completely destroy the 

 flowers while in an embryo state. 



C. W. 



TO KEEP BBUSHES SOFT. 



In looking over a newspaper I have 

 just noticed a paragraph that has 

 reference to the care of paint brushes 

 and I thought that the suggestion 

 offered on the subject might be of in- 

 terest to many readers of The Review. 

 So I am passing the paragraph along, 

 without vouching for the correctness 

 of the idea it contains. It reads as 

 follows: "After finishing a job of 

 painting, if you don't want a can of oil 

 standing aroulid the house, fill the v 

 bristles of the brush with a good supply 

 of paint, carefully wrap it in paper, 

 tie it securely with a string and place 

 the brush on a shelf. The oil in the 

 paint will soak the inner wrappings of 

 the paper, thus preserving the brush in 

 first-class style for two years. ' ' 



Wm. J. Brust. 



