Ai'Hir- 25, 1012. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



17 



Views at the Establishment of John G. Kilian, Raspeburg, Md. 



will winter safely if water does not 

 St ami about them. Then store a quan- 

 tity of bulbs in any cool cellar where 

 there is no fire heat. Plant some of 

 tlicse out as soon as the ground is open 

 jiiul a month later plant a further 

 liittch. This will ensure flowers from 

 July to October. Good old varieties 

 Jilt' Etoile de Feu, scarlet; Kayon d'Or, 

 yellow; crocosmaeflora, orange-red; and 

 (pf the large-flowered newer sorts, Ger- 

 inauia, George Davison and Prometheus 

 are fine. 



Hardy Lilies. 



The best time to plant liles outdoors 

 is of course in late fall, but sometimes 

 it is not possible to tlo the planting 

 then. Not infrequently bulbs are re- 

 <eived late and are carried over winter 

 ill a cold cellar in pots. Where this 

 was done, the bulbs should be planted 

 out at once. Set them considerably be- 

 low the surface of the pots, in order 

 tliat the roots may be eight to ten 

 inches below the surface and away from 

 the constant diggings affecting the sur- 

 t'aeo soil. These and in fact all other 

 11 Hums should be planted where they 

 will not come in tlirect contact with 

 anything in the shape of fresh manure. 

 They are all much benefited, however, 

 liy a mulch of well decayed manure 

 at this season. The old white garden 

 lily will now have its spikes a foot or 

 more in height. This is an opportune 

 time to spray it thoroughly with Bor- 

 deaux mixture. Repeat the spraying 

 once in ten days from now until the 

 llnwering time, to prevent the blight 

 which so often attacks it in June. 



English Ivy. 



Where a good batch of English ivy 

 • uttings were rooted in the winter and 

 where these plants are still occupying 

 valuable space in the greenhouses, they 

 <an be moved forthwith to coldframes 

 or plunged at once in the nursery, cov- 

 •Ting the pots well. Possibly they may 

 need a watering or two in spells of 

 l>rolonged drought and should therefore 

 l»e plunged within reach of the hose. 

 Thej' will make rapid growth treated 

 thus and will be strong stock for fall 

 ■sales, or they can be wintered cold and 

 held for spring sales. Plants a few 

 months old are of course salable, but 

 if they are plunged outdoors and given 

 a shift into 4-inch or 5-inch pots and 

 tied up, when potted they will easily 

 realize three times the money of the 

 younger plants. English ivy is an 

 excellent plant for vases, window boxes, 

 piazza boxes, for cemetery lots or for 



basket work and, given a northern 

 exposure against a wall, will withstand 

 zero weather and considerably lower. 



Bulb Beds. 



The covering will, of course, have 

 been removed from bulb beds for some 

 time. They make rapid growth with 

 the first warm days and many will al- 

 ready be in flower. If time permits, 

 stir the surface soil of the beds with 

 a small hand fork, as the mulch lying 

 on it all winter bakes it considerably. 



Where your customers want a nice 

 groundwork below the bulbs, this is the 

 time to plant out forget-me-nots, pan- 

 sies, violas, arabis and other spring 

 flowers. In planting these out, how- 

 ever, be careful to select colors which 

 will harmonize well with the bulbs. For 

 instance, white or yellow pansies will 

 look well as a base for scarlet, pink or 

 crimson tulips. Red under pink tulips 

 would be distressing, as would blue, 

 while under yellow or white they would 

 be in excellent taste. In mixed beds it 

 is best to use light groundworks. 



Soil for Vases and Window Boxes. 



It may seem a trifle early to mention 

 window boxes, but it is time to prepare 

 the soil to be used for them, rather 

 than scurry around and hastily jirepp^e 



it at the planting season. As the root- 

 ing space is limited in boxes and vases, 

 the soil should be tolerably rich. Two- 

 thirds good pasture loam, one-third well 

 decayed cow manure and a 3-inch pot- 

 ful of fine bone to each basket make 

 a good compost. If this compost can be 

 pref)ared now and get one mixing be- 

 fore it is used it will be in i)rime 8hai)e. 

 Unless the loam is heavy there is no 

 nee<l to use any sand, but a few shovels 

 of soot will be beneficial in keeping 

 worms in check and making tiie foliage 

 of the plants a rich, dark green color. 



KILIAN Ain) HIS PLANT. 



At Raspeburg, Md., John G. Kilian 

 does a prosperous business, growing a 

 general line of stock. The accompany- 

 ing illustration gives three views of 

 his place, two of them snapshots by 

 himself, and in the picture of the car- 

 nation house, which was made early in 

 the season, Mr. Kilian is seen with his 

 daughter. 



"In building my last two greenhouses, 

 which have 10,000 square feet of glass 

 surface, I paid particular attention to 

 the heating," says Mr. Kilian. "To 

 o})erate the heating apparatus each year 

 was an annual expense which made the 

 fixecj, charges on my business higher or 

 lower, according to the plant installed, 

 so after I had considered this matter, 

 I decided to place this heating propo- 

 sition in the hands of Ileer Bros., of 

 Baltimore, who were recommended as 

 heating experts. I gave them full sway 

 in the matter, and they installed for me 

 a 28-5 .Tuniata water boiler, made by 

 the National Radiator Co., of .lohns 

 town. Pa. This boiler has a grate sur 

 face of 3.3x32 inches. All my neighbor 

 ing florists claimed that the boiler was 

 too smj^ll, but after using it for two 

 seasons, I find that it does the work 

 amply, and when 7 degrees below zero 

 outside I had a temperature of 140 de- 

 grees on the boiler, and maintained a 

 temperature of 55 degrees in the green- 

 houses. My cost of fuel averages $1 

 per season to 100 feet of glass surface, 

 which is a great deal less than the cost 

 for the same amount of glass of my 

 neighboring florists. I write this as I 

 feel that florists in general neglect one 

 of the most important features of green 

 house construction, namely, the heat- 

 ing. If any of my neighboring florists 

 can beat this, in the cost of heating 

 their greenhouses, I would like to hear 

 from them." 



