Apbil 4, 1912. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



13 



long before an improved condition 

 will be noticed. 



Treatment for the second condition 

 mentioned above should be radical. 

 There is nothing to do in such a case 

 but to dig out the gravel, or poor soil, 

 and put in that which is suitable. 

 There is no short cut to success 

 through such conditions. Don't deceive 

 yourself by thinking that good soil can 

 be brought about by the addition of 

 fertilizers and patent grass foods. Of 

 course, if you are striving for a tem- 

 porary growth of grass it can be ac- 

 complished by fertilizers, but for a per- 

 manent lawn the loam conditions must 

 be right. Fertilizers are very useful at 

 times, but to apply them to gravel or 

 poor soil with the expectation of sup- 

 plying plant food, will only spell 

 failure. 



After you have taken out the poor 

 soil, put in a foot and one-half or, bet- 

 ter, two feet of the best loam you can 

 find. On this sow your seed, and the 

 results will surely be satisfactory. 



Making a lawn is no work for a lazy 

 man. It takes a hustler, and one that 

 is willing to stick to the work until 

 success comes. Lawns do not happen; 

 they are the results of intelligent and 

 hard work. 



THE MADISON ROSE. 



Elwood Brant and Henry Hentz, Jr., 

 who compose the Brant-Hentz Flower 

 Co., of Madison, N. J., are extremely 

 enthusiastic over their new rose, Madi- 

 son, said to be a seedling of Bride 

 crossed with Perle des Jardins, shown 

 in the accompanying illustration. 

 Madison was shown at the Detroit ex- 

 hibition of the American Rose Society, 

 but has not been seen at many places 

 outside of New York, so that the pic- 

 ture will be of special interest. The 

 raisers say that their novelty will be 

 tried out next season in all parts of the 

 country. If it makes good on all the 

 points of merit claimed for it, an im- 

 portant addition to the list of forcing 

 roses will have resulted, for Messrs. 

 Brant and Hentz use strong terms in 

 describing both its growth and selling 

 qualities. 



•^^ 



STERS. 



The earliest sowing of asters has 

 now produced strong plants in flats. 

 These will in a few days go into 

 benches in a house now occupied by 

 miscellaneous Easter stock. The variety 

 chiefly grown is Queen of the Market, 

 but some Early Wonder and Comet are 

 also grown. However, the first named 

 proves to be most generally useful for 

 indoor culture, especially where undis- 

 budded flowers are desired. The giant 

 Comets are good for forcing to single 

 stems, or reducing to a small number 

 of flowers per plant, but these fancy 

 flowers must be sold at a good price to 

 make them as profitable as the smaller 

 flowers of the reliable Queen of the 

 Market. A compost which will grow 

 good sweet peas, mums or roses, will 

 produce equally good asters. Give it a 

 dressing of air-slaked lime, as at least 

 a partial preventive of stem-rot. Allow 

 the plants 10x12 inches where all flow- 

 ers are to be left; where disbudded and 

 staked they can go much closer, but 

 the undisbudded flowers will suit the 

 average retail florist the best. Asters 

 like a cool, airy house, not over 50 de- 

 grees at night. Treatment such as 

 mums enjoy will suit them. 



The end of March is an opportune 



Rose Madison. 



time to make a good sowing of late 

 asters, such as Victoria, Crego and 

 Vick 's Branching. The seed may be 

 sown either in flats in the greenhouse, 

 or in rows in a gentle hotbed; by utiliz- 

 ing the latter, the pressure on the green- 

 houses is relaxed a little and the aster 

 seedlings will be finer than those pro- 

 duced with fire heat, besides being less 

 liable to succumb to the several aster 

 diseases. 



Asters are an important outdoor crop, 

 and a thorough preparation of the 

 ground is necessary where the best re- 

 sults are to be achieved. We like to 

 plow, after manuring liberally, in late 

 fall, leaving the ground rough; then, in 

 the spring, when the soil has sufficiently 

 dried, we harrow it well and keep 

 stirred until planting time, using the 

 smoothing harrow just before setting 

 out the plants. There is, of course, am- 

 ple time yet to make additional aster 

 sowings. Some growers prefer to sow 

 nearly all their late batches outdoors, as 

 it is a proven fact that outdoor raised 

 seedlings are stronger nnd far more im- 

 mune from disease than greenhouse 

 raised seedlings. Overcrowding in the 

 flats before transplanting, careless wa- 

 tering and burying the stems too deeply 

 are all potent causes of many of these 

 early plants going off in the field before 

 flowering time. 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS. 



Meeting of Executive Board. 



The board of directors of the S. A. F. 

 met in Chicago, in the Auditorium 

 hotel, March 13, 14 and 15. There 

 were present President Vincent, Charles 

 H, Totty, E. Allan Peirce, H. A. Bun- 

 yard, John A. Evans, W. N. Rudd, 

 George Asmus, Robert Craig, August 

 Poehlmann and Secretary Young. The 



board was in session practically the 

 whole three days and accomplished a 

 vast amount of business. 



The sum of $50 was placed at the 

 disposal of Prof. H. H. Whetzel, of 

 Cornell University, to cover the expense 

 of an exhibit embracing the diseases 

 of the various staple productions of 

 the florists, to be made at the Chicago 

 convention. 



A request from I. S. Hendrickson, 

 president of the American Gladiolus 

 Society, that arrangements be made 

 for space in which to exhibit gladiolus 

 blooms at the Chicago convention and 

 that such arrangements allow of a com- 

 petitive class for amateurs, was 

 granted. 



A request of the Western Dahlia and 

 Gladiolus Society, in the same line, 

 was, upon motion, refused for the rea- 

 son that the board believed it to be 

 for the interest of the society that 

 division or multiplication of such so- 

 cieties should not be encouraged, and, 

 further, that the allotment of space for 

 another display of gladioli was not 

 feasible. 



The committee having in charge the 

 matter of life membership badges was 

 continued, and the committee was em- 

 powered to make arrangements with 

 manufacturers for a supply of badges, 

 to be offered at a stated price to mem- 

 bers wishing to purchase; thus finally 

 disposing of this matter. 



Mr. Poehlmann reported that the 

 Coliseum in Chicago had been engaged 

 to house the August convention of the 

 society, under the terms considered at 

 the meeting of the board in Detroit, 

 and the action of the oflBcers in taking 

 a lease was approved. 



A committee was appointed to for- 

 mulate a plan looking to the affiliation 

 of sister societies of the S. A. F., such 



