iCh\ 11, 1912. 



The Florists* Review 



11 



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Plufflostn Under Lath Roof at Long Beach» Col, 



"breeze on all sides, the asparagus be- 

 •comes vigorous and hard, and the seed 

 produced is always well ripened, insur- 

 ing perfect germination. 



The Sprengeri is grown in large 

 clumps in one end of an immense lath 

 house, and there are over 7,500 of these. 

 Besides this, there are 6,500 plumosus, 

 and already this season some 11,000 

 sprays have been cut. Twelve thousand 

 smilax are cut every season for greens 

 alone, leaving out the big lots of plants 

 of each kind which are grown for seed. 



There are several new varieties on 

 trial, including a beautiful new aspara- 

 gus, but it is too early yet to say much 

 about this. But the place is always in- 

 teresting and will well repay a visit 

 at any time. Visitors will be sure of a 

 welcome from Mr. Latelle, who man- 

 ages this and the grounds used for cut 

 flower growing by the company. 



The three illustrations of this Cali- 

 fornia place will be of special interest 

 "to florists in other localities, who grow 

 their Sprengeri and plumosus in a dif- 

 ferent sort of houses and under entirely 

 different conditions. One of the illus- 

 trations gives an exterior view of a 

 part of the lath house, with the fore- 

 man's cottage at the end; another pic- 

 ture shows part of the interior of the 

 lath house, with the crop of Sprengeri, 

 and another shows one of the walks in 

 the section of the house which is used 

 for plumosus. 



In addition to the property of the 

 H. N. Gage Co. at Signal Hill and else- 

 where, the firm has just purchased ten 

 acres of land at Montebello and will 

 begin to move the bulbs and other stock 

 from the Hollywood ranch at once. This 

 means the moving of about 1,000,000 

 <bulbs of various kinds. H. R. R. 



DISEASE QEBMS IN SOIL. 



We had trouble with our Grand 

 Rapids lettuce last winter. The plants 

 had yellow, sunken spots, usually be- 

 ginning around the stem and spreading 

 so as to make the lettuce rusty and un- 

 salable. We have grown lettuce for 

 years in the same soil and never had 

 any trouble before. Will the germs of 

 this disease remain in the soil all sum- 

 mer? If so, how can we sterilize the 

 soil? We have also been troubled with 



carnation disease. In two of the 

 varieties. Beacon and Scarlet Glow, the 

 disease began with purplish red spots, 

 and in the Enchantress family it began 

 with yellow leaves. Both finally died 

 back to the stems. This trouble weak- 

 ens our stock a great deal. We have 

 bought new stock of different growers 

 each season, but always have the same 

 trouble. It usually does not show in 

 the field, but develops soon after hous- 

 ing. 



Is it customary to carry over own- 

 root roses, as is done with grafted 

 roses? Is there any difference be- 

 tween the budding of rose bushes and 

 that of fruit trees? We have a lot of 

 grafted roses in the field, but the 

 grafted wood war winter-killed and the 

 Manetti is making fine growth. We 

 wish to bud them to something good. 



G. G. 



You might sterilize your lettuce soil 

 with steam and get rid of the disease, 

 but you would have to clean the house 

 thoroughly and do a good job of ster- 

 ilizing. The fertilizer should be put in 

 the soil first, or the sterilizing would 

 do no good. The soil used for seed 

 flats and for transplanting should be 

 sterilized al^o. For carnations it is 

 decidedly better to change the soil 

 than to sterilize. Clean the soil all 

 out, scrub the walls and whitewash the 

 benches. Then put in some new soil 

 that has not previously been used either 

 in the greenhouse or for field crops. 

 You could change your lettuce soil, 

 also, about as cheaply as to sterilize it, 

 and this is often advisable because of 

 some unsatisfactory condition of the, 

 soil which would not be entirely over- 

 come by manuring and sterilizing. 



The greatest secret of success in 

 greenhouse crops is to get good soil 

 first. A piece of sod, well manured and 

 plowed under to rot now, would soon 

 be ready to use, but would not be as 

 good as a piece prepared a year or two 

 ago by manuring and plowing, and 

 planting to some crop, like clover or 

 soy beans, to improve it by plowing the 



Sprengeri Under Lath Roof at Long Beach, Cal. 



