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May 1G. 1012. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



25 



Enormous Signs That Keep Nurserymen's Name Before New York Suburbanites. 



make excellent center plants for large 

 rustic stands and vases. Agaves and 

 aloes are suitable for very exposed 

 places. 



Lawn Vases and Bustle Boxes. 



In selecting lawn vases, choose them 

 of good size, say eight to twelve inches 

 deep, and not less than sixteen inches 

 in diameter. 



Eustic stands or boxes of wood should 

 be charred in the same way as the win- 

 dow boxes, and should have a minimum 

 depth of eight inches to do well. Also 

 drainage must be provided, as recom- 

 mended for window boxes. 



Special care must be used in draining 

 iron vases, as some patterns are poorly 

 arranged. When the vases are small, it 

 is necessary to make the soil somewhat 

 richer in composition. If heavy vine 

 growth is desired, be careful to have the - 

 soil fully one inch below the top of 

 the vase or box. The last filling around 

 the plants should be of finer soil, and 

 must be well firmed. Do not expect good 

 results in loosely planted vases or boxes. 



If possible have them in some shel- 

 tered place where they can remain sev- 

 eral days, and where they will be pro- 

 tected from heavy rains, as the soil must 

 not be kept too wet. Until the roots 

 have started well into the new soil, they 

 must be sparingly watered, and yet the 

 soil should never be allowed to dry 

 hard. 



Treatment During the Summer. 



After a week or ten days the soil will 

 stand more watering, and after three 

 weeks or a month it cian be soaked 

 daily in dry weather in a sunny position. 

 From this time on fertilizer cai/be used, 

 ■which at first should consist^of weak 

 solutions of manure water, or a light 

 dusting of the dry material. The water- 

 ing must be looked after at regular in- 

 tervals, and let me warn you that good 

 results cannot be had /with indifferent 



care. Also the old flowers and the dry 

 leaves must be regularly removed; also 

 see that vases stand firm and level. 



Eegarding the different vines, the 

 vincas, both the white edged and light, 

 green leaved sorts, are the most useful 

 and best growers. The variegated honey- 

 suckle and Senecio scandens are other 

 vines for yellow and green effects. They 

 are of rapid growth and readily propa- 

 gated, and will grow from four to eight 

 feet long in a box that is eight inches 

 deep. Where some climbing vines are 

 desirable, the cobajas, both the white 

 and purple, will fill the bill. These can 

 be trained up to porch columns and win- 

 dows, and Madeira vine planted in the 

 back of the boxes can be trained to 

 form a nice screen. G. A. Heyne. 



BOBBINK & ATKINS' BIQ SIQNS. 



Where there are few people there are 

 not many buyers, but the more people 

 there are the harder it becomes to keep 

 one's name before them. That is a 

 bromidic statement, to be sure, but it 

 puts in few words one of the big prob- 

 lems of some of the dealers in plants. 

 New York without doubt has more 

 buyers of greenhouse and nursery prod- 

 ucts than has any other city in Amer- 

 ica — but they are not easy to reach; 

 the town is too big; the city itself is 

 largely barren ground; the stock is 

 planted at suburban homes; and the 

 nursery itself must be outside, off to 

 one side. 



While a large business is done at 

 wholesale by Bobbink & Atkins, of 

 Eutherford, N. J., their shipments go- 

 ing to all parts of the country, a still 

 larger local retail trade is done in the 

 prosperous suburbs of New York. 

 Practically all their customers do busi- 

 ness in the city;, • but to reach them 

 there is prohibitive in cost — the city 

 flat dwellers so outnumber the subur- 

 banites that anything like an adequate 



use of city newspapers is out of the 

 question. So Bobbink & Atkins use 

 billboards along the railroads. The ac- 

 companying illustration shows one of 

 their big painted signs. It stands be- 

 side the New York, New Haven & 

 Hartford a few miles out of town. 

 These great signs may be decried by 

 the high-brows, but they serve their 

 commercial purpose. The O. J. Gude 

 Co. designs, builds, paints and main- 

 tains them at so much per year. A 

 few of them on each road have made 

 the name and location of Bobbink & 

 Atkins known to all who ride in and 

 out of the city. 



GLADIOLI. 



The earliest outdoor planting of 

 gladioli is now well above ground and 

 has had one cultivation, Successional 

 plantings are made once a fortnight in 

 order to insure a constant succession of 

 flowers, this planting being continued 

 until the middle of June. The bulbs are 

 planted at an average depth of six 

 inches. This keeps the stems more rigid 

 when rain and wind storms prevail; 

 those planted nearer the surface will in 

 many cases be laid flat. 



The earliest plantings under glass, of 

 America, Augusta and some other large- 

 flowered varieties, are now starting to 

 flower and make a welcome addition to 

 flowers for cutting. It is always best 

 to cut them when the first flowers open, 

 allowing the others to expand in water. 

 These gladioli are always in great de- 

 mand at Memorial day and, prices be- 

 ing higher at that time, as many as pos- 

 sible should be held until that day. 

 With a good cool room at command, 

 spikes cut just as they start to open 

 can easily be kept in fine condition for 

 eight or ten days. A batch of Peach 

 Blossom, Blushing Bride and others of 

 the Colvillei and nanus type, will be 



