12 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



April 4, 1912. 



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f SEASONABLE i^ 1| 

 i 9^ SUGGESTIONS jl 



Gladioli. 



With sweet peas and asters, gladioli 

 are among the most important of out- 

 door crops today. The improvement in 

 varieties is as remarkable as the in- 

 crease in their culture. During the ex- 

 tremely hot weather we can always de- 

 pend on getting gladioli of good qual- 

 ity. The indogr plantings will give us 

 fine spikes until the middle or end of 

 June and, to provide a succession for 

 these, it is necessary to plant a batch 

 outdoors just as soon as the frost is out 

 of the ground and it has dried suffi- 

 ciently. Plant the bulbs six inches deep. 

 They will not blow over then, as when 

 planted shallow, and will have their 

 roots in moist earth when the hot weath- 

 er arrives. Do not use fresh manure 

 for gladioli. The older and more rotted 

 it is, the better. All the popular large 

 flowering indoor varieties, such as 

 Shakespeare, Augusta, Baron Hulot, 

 Dawn, Mrs. Francis King, the peerless 

 America, the brilliant Brenchleyensis, 

 Independence, Klondyke and others, do 

 well outdoors, but be sure to plant them 



deeplv. 



Hydrangeas. 



Now that Easter stock is out of the 

 way, we should give the much needed 

 bench room to the hydrangeas for Me- 

 morial day. These plants will have 

 been standing quite close together and 

 a liberal spreading out will be much 

 needed. Water freely and supplement 

 this with doses of liquid manure, which 

 can be given more frequently and 

 stronger from the time the flower heads 

 show until they show color. Keep the 

 plants clean, and to accomplish this a 

 spraying with nicotine or a fumigation 

 every eight or ten days will be neces- 

 sary. 



Memorial Day Bench Crops. 



While Easter is an important flower 

 festival, the demand is each year rela- 

 tively stronger for pot plants than for 

 cut flowers, while at Memorial day the 

 reverse is the case. Often at Easter cut 

 flower prices, except for a few special- 

 ties, are disappointing, while at Me- 

 morial day practically every flower, no 

 matter of what color, will sell, as ev- 

 eryone is buying. It means the making 

 or losing of many good dollars to hit it 

 right with Memorial day crops, and 

 every care from this time on should \><^ 

 given the crops in beds or benches, of 

 ten weeks ' stocks, double feverfew, 

 snapdragons, candytuft, gladioli, spi- 

 raeas, etc. Weather has a great influence 

 on these crops and, as we can never 

 tell in advance what we are to get, we 

 should plan to have the crops suffi- 

 ciently advanced so that they can be 

 kept cool and well aired for a few days 

 before the date for cutting. 



Caladium Esculentum. 



There is no advantage in starting 

 Caladium esculentum too early, as they 

 grow fast and take up a lot of valuable 

 space. Big roots are neither necessary 

 nor desirable, but be quite sure to start 



them in a brisk heat. They can be 

 placed singly in pots, but in flats of 

 sand and leaf -mold they are more easily 

 and expeditiously handled. Once they 

 are well started into growth they can be 

 given rather cooler quarters. 



Olivias. 



Olivias, or imantophyllums, are at- 

 tractive and showy spring flowering 

 plants, which are seen to a rather lim- 

 ited extent in the retail stores. Now, 

 when the flowering period is passing, 

 is a suitable time to do any repotting. 

 Large plants can be carefully broken 

 up and strong individual growths, con- 

 taining as many active roots as pos- 

 sible, be placed singly in 6-inch to 

 8-inch pots. The drainage must bo 

 ample. For compost, fibrous loam, 

 lumpy dried cow manure, coarse sand 

 and broken charcoal are suitable. Keep 

 the plants rather close and warm for a 

 few weeks; then give them ordinary 



greenhouse treatment. Olivias are easily 

 injured by too much water at the roots^ 

 and it is always safe to under rather 

 than oversupply them with moisture. In 

 summer they can be kept in a shady 

 spot outdoors. The trouble always is 

 that torrential rains will sodden the 

 plants and cause many to rot off at the 

 collar. For these reasons a shaded 

 greenhouse is to be preferred for sum- 

 mer culture. 



There are now many fine hybrids of 

 divias and the old 0. miniata was long 

 ago outclassed. 



Left-over Azaleas. 



A frequent inquiry at this season is, 

 "What shall I do with my left-over 

 azaleas?" Pick off all the flowers and 

 seed pods, keep them in a cool house 

 and, as soon as danger from frost has 

 passed, plant them outdoors where you 

 can reach them with the hose and syr- 

 inge them freely during hot, dry 

 weather. You can give them a mulch 

 of old, decayed manure to prevent the 

 soil drying out so much. Any good gar- 

 den soil will suit azaleas. They are par- 

 ticularly fond of leaf-mold and should 

 not be planted in ground recently 

 limed. Plants treated in this way will 

 be much more heavily set with flower 

 buds than those you import. They can 

 be lifted and potted about the end of 

 September. 



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MR. DOOGUE 



ON LAWNS 



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THE CARE OF LAWNS. 



The old-fashioned catalogue was 

 merely a price list — it described the 

 goods, perhaps with a picture, and told 

 the cost, but it stopped there. The 

 modern method, however, is to tell how 

 the goods are used, or even to i)rovide a 

 fund of general information with re- 

 gard to the subject to which the mer- 

 chandise is related. So, when the Dun 

 ham Co., of Berea, O., planned a booklet 

 on lawn rollers it secured from Luke 

 ,1. Doogue a comprehensive discussion 

 on the whole subject of the care of 

 lawns. Mr. Doogue is widely known in 

 the trade as the superintendent of the 

 public grounds in Boston. What he 

 has to say on the care of lawns is, in 

 part, as follows: 



In the spring, one of the questions 

 most frequently asked of horticultural 

 people is: "How can I make a lawn?" 

 or ' ' How can I remake a lawn, and aft- 

 erwards keep it in good condition?" 

 The answer to such a question, without 

 going into details, should be: By using 

 good seed, sown with a seeder; good 

 loam, a hose, a good lawn mower, an 

 abundance of "sticktoitiveness," and 

 last, but not least, a good roller. 



This question and reply naturally 

 suggest another question, which is: 

 "What is a good lawn?" And the re- 

 ply to this is: A satisfactory lawn is 

 one with a smooth surface, of evenly 

 colored grass, with a sod that is strong 

 and elastic to the tread, and on which 

 the grass grows so fine and close that 



weeds cannot find an entrance there. 



These inquiries about making lawns 

 come mostly from people who, while 

 fully realizing the commercial and ar- 

 tistic value of a well-kept grass plot 

 about a dwelling, have, either through 

 carelessness or lack of persistence, 

 never been able to attain the much de- 

 sired end. Investigation of the in- 

 quiries has shown that the land con- 

 ditions surrounding such places may be 

 divided into two classes: One where 

 there is sufficient depth of good loam on 

 which the grass has gradually petered 

 out, allowing an ever increasing mass 

 of weeds to push in and take its place, 

 and the other a poor, gravelly soil, with- 

 out possibilities, regardless of what 

 might be done to it. 



The treatment for the first example 

 lited is simple. It will not be neces- 

 sary to spade up the ground and re- 

 seed, for just as good results can be 

 jiroduced by a simpler method and in 

 much shorter time. 



Take a sharp iron rake, sharpen the 

 teeth if necessary, and after first 

 digging out the weeds, scratch deep 

 into the soil, breaking it up as fine as 

 possible. After doing this, sow grass 

 seed liberally. After sowing, roll the 

 ground. After this water, and when 

 the water has soaked in use the roller 

 again. You need not be afraid of hurt- 

 ing either the seed or the loam, for it 

 was because of a lack of this heavy 

 rolling that the land and sod petered 

 out. If you have been so fortunate as to 

 use first-class seed it will not be 



