32 



The Florists' Review 



Decembeb 12, 1912. 



ject the plants to any cold draughts or 

 low temperature. 



There is trouble each year in cutting 

 poinsettias and having them keep 

 plump. If cut and put in cold water, 

 wilting frequently follows, the same as 

 if the stock is left out of water, but 

 if the stems, as soon as cut, are seared 

 on a hot iron or dipped in water that 

 is boiling or nearly so, the flowers will 

 keep stiff. It also is an advantage to 

 wrap each head in oiled or tissue paper. 



Lilies. 



The crop of Christmas lilies must 

 now have the buds starting to open. 

 Then, in a temperature of 60 to 65 de- 

 grees at night, they will be all right. 

 There is not the same demand for white 

 flowers as at Easter, but nevertheless 

 quite a few longiflorum lilies are sold. 

 Where the cold storage speciosums are 

 grown, if they were started in August, 

 they should now be flowering. They 

 prefer a lower temperature than the 

 longiflorums. These cold storage lilies, 

 both longiflorum and speciosum, do not 

 make good pot plants, as they lack the 

 vigor of the newly imported bulbs and 

 produce a smaller number of flowers per 

 bulb, but they are excellent for cut- 

 ting. 



Beiried Plants. 



Christmas is the time par excellence 

 for disposing of berried plants. In 

 fact, the sale for them at any other 

 time is quite limited. Ardisia crenulata 

 is deservedly popular. It cannot be 

 offered at a low rate, but if the fruit 

 has been well ripened the plants are at- 

 tractive and readily command a good 

 price. Late plants should have a warm, 

 sunny house to help color up the fruit. 

 There is little use trying to sell plants 

 with green fruit. Solanums, Christmas 

 peppers and Otaheite oranges are all 

 popular fruiting plants for the holiday 

 trade. The solanums do not mind a 

 low temperature, but want plenty of 

 water. The oranges also stand cool 

 treatment, but the Christmas peppers 

 do not want to be kept too cooU The 

 solanums can be profitably moved at 

 quite a low price, and it is a mistake to 



hold them up, for they are almost a 

 dead loss if not cleared out in the next 

 two weeks. 



Begonias. 



Both the Lorraine and Glory of Cin- 

 cinnati begonias are great Christmas 

 plants. The latter is much in evidence 

 this season and J. A. Peterson must 

 be proud to see how wonderfully it has 

 bounded into popular favor. I was told 

 seriously a year ago that it is hard to 

 pack, as the leaves are too large; that 

 the foliage spots badly with flowers 

 falling on it, and that it will never 

 approach the Lorraine in favor. I think 

 there will continue to be a place for 

 each, but there is no mistaking the fact 

 thaft Cincinnati is, if anything, the 

 more popular of the two this season. 

 Its larger flowers and the fact that it 

 stands house treatment better than Lor- 

 raine are points in its favor. It is likely 

 that small plants, in 3-inch and d-inch 

 pots and small pans, will be in great 

 demand. The last two seasons many 

 more of these could have been sold. 

 Do not keep the begonias too warm 

 from now on and they will then give 

 your customers more lasting pleasure. 



Csrpripedium Insigne. 



That good old orchid, Cypripedium 

 insigne, is still one of the most popu- 

 lar sorts in commerce. The flowers 

 are hardly of a Christmas color, but 

 it is more sold in pots each year, and 

 surely for anyone who wants some- 

 thing lasting it has few equals. It 

 will not drop its flowers if a little dry 

 at the root, or wilt, as will most other 

 plants, but its flowers are good for 

 some weeksj even in a warm room. I 

 have seen C. insigne sell splendidly in 

 little wicker baskets with one or two 

 small sprays of evergreen or deciduous 

 holly to brighten it up. If this orchid 

 is not sold at Christmas, it has one fine 

 property, viz.: that it will continue 

 perfectly salable for some weeks. 



Ericas. 



The ■ ericas, such as melanthera, are 

 quite easily flowered for Christmas and 

 meet with quite a good sale. This is 

 another plant which will not tolerate 



forcing, which must always be grown 

 cool, but which is quite accommodating 

 in that it will remain fresh a long 

 time. Any temperature just above 

 actual frost will suit it. Some growers 

 abuse it by standing it outside their 

 doors on quite frosty days. It may not 

 ,^Hpf mae^ill effects while outside, but 

 th^flowers will soon become brown and 

 the foliage drop in heat. Be sure to 

 keep the roots moist. No hard-wooded 

 plants will stand much drying, and 

 ericas are in this respect probably the 

 most fussy and consequently the most 

 injured of the whole family. The ericas 

 which were retained in pots flower 

 earlier and are thus better for Christ- 

 mas^than such as were planted outdoors 

 in summer. 



Lily of the Valley. 



Lily of the valley is a great favorite 

 with practically everyone. I sometimes 

 hear people say that they get tired 

 of roses and carnations, but how often 

 do we hear of anyone growing tired of 

 lily of the valley? Pots five and six 

 inches in diameter, with fifteen to 

 twenty single pips in each, will make 

 salable plants. If they were started 

 late In November they should now be 

 grown sufficiently to place in the full 

 light in a temperature of 60 degrees 

 at night. As they are getting fully 

 opened, give them slightly cooler quar- 

 ters, but be careful on this point, as a 

 drop of 20 degrees will cause the plants 

 to wilt. 



Decorative Colored-Leaved Plants. 



The highly colored crotons and 

 dracaenas make excellent plants for 

 warm rooms, as does Pandanus Veitchii. 

 All of these stand the drying heat with 

 little injury. Do not, however, make 

 the mistake of mixing these rich foliage 

 planiis in the same pans or hampers 

 with poinsettias, as they hardly agree. 

 Speaking of these tropical plants, we 

 are reminded of the fact that now, 

 when firing is more steady and the sand 

 in the propagating bench will be warm, 

 is a good time to get in a batch of cut- 

 tings of crotons, pandanus and dra- 

 caenas. It is well also to remember 



Two Way» of Filling the Same Basket, Using the Commoner Christmas Plants. 



.V. . : 



t 



