34 



The Florists^ Review 



December 12, 1912. 



ping to pieces a day or two after being 

 received. 



Wrap Plants Securely. 



Sometimes we are favored with mild 

 weather at Christmas. This is a 

 veritable godsend to those who are 

 handling plants in quantity, as it means 

 a great saving in both time and wrap- 

 ping material. Weather conditions are, 

 however, i»roverbially fickle, and never 

 more so than in winter. Unless for 

 short and prompt deliveries we must 

 not trust too much to balmy spells of 

 weather, as the temporary breath of 

 spring may in a few short hours give 

 way to the frigidity of the arctics. All 

 plants, therefore, should be heavily 

 wrapped where they go by express, 

 necessitating some hours of exposure, 

 perhaps, on open vehicles at a season 

 when the delivery companies have their 

 maximum of business. Wrap well and 

 pack securely in the boxes, so that there 

 can bo no jolting. Customers receiving 

 chilled or frozen plants have every room 

 to complain, especially where an addi- 

 tional covering of newspaper would 

 have made all the difference in the 

 world. 



Ill the <risi> of such tender plants as 



foliage deserves to lose trade. It is 

 always a good plan to hang a tag on 

 the plants, "Water this plant well 

 daily." As a general rule, one soaking 

 a day, while it may be more than some 

 jilants require in a greenhouse, is not 

 too much in the drier heat of the aver- 

 age American home. 



CUT POINSETTIAS WILTING. 



We have a batch of poinsettias with 

 stems four to six feet long and fine 

 foliage, but as soon as we cut them 

 they wilt. We dipped the ends in hot 

 paraffine and then placed them in a 

 cool, dark room in about two feet of 

 water, but still they seem to wilt. We 

 hate to cut them down to twelve to 

 eighteen inches so long as the stems 

 are strong and the foliage large and 

 fine. Will they keej) better later, when 



rijier I 



H. G. C. 



Every year many complaints are re- 

 ceived of poinsettias wilting badly 

 when cut. The warmer the plants 

 have been grown, the more they will 

 wilt. It is an excellent plan to gradu- 

 ally lower the temperature some 8 or 

 1(1 degrees in the house where they 



A Good Cyclamen in a Gr<en Toneware Receptacle. 



gardenias, various orchids, tropical 

 foliage ]i]ants, lilacs and all plants 

 which may have been subjected to hard 

 forcing, use some sheets of cotton wool 

 as well as tissue paper about the flowers 

 before using newspapers or other heavy 

 wrapping. Ericas, camellias, Dracaena 

 Australis, ardisias, solanums and some 

 other plants will be uninjured by chills 

 ■which would ruin those of a more trop- 

 ical nature. 



I need hardly say that clean pots and 

 clean foliage should be the rule. The 

 grower who sends out dirty pots or 



are growing when the bracts are well 

 developed. This will to some extent 

 prevent wilting, but not altogether. 

 When you want to cut any of your 

 poinsettias, have a pail of boiling 

 water in readiness and dip the bot- 

 toms of the stems in it. Do not im- 

 merse them deeply, merely enough to 

 seal up the ends. Keep them in this 

 water for about a minute, or if pre- 

 ferred you can have a piece of iron 

 heated red hot, or some hot coal, and 

 sear the ends. It is important not to 

 wait until vou have cut a lot of stalks 



and then proceed to dip the lot; the 

 bleeding will materially weaken them. 

 After dipping in hot water or searing 

 on a hot iron or coal, I find it pays to 

 wrap each bract in soft paper before 

 placing the stems in water. 



There is no need to cut your stems 

 short. They will, of course, keep bet- 

 ter when the bracts are well developed. 

 Use jars with a good depth of 

 water and place, not in an icechest, 

 but where the temperature holds about 

 45 degrees. If you adopt these pre 

 cautions you should have no trouble^ in 

 keeping your bracts plump. C- "W. 



DfAHLIAS IN THE SOUTH. 



Soil and Situation. 



We had been informed that dahlias 

 were hard to grow well so far south as 

 Tennessee, and so it was not until three 

 years ago that we made any real at- 

 tempt to grow them here at Nashville. 

 We purchased a few and planted them 

 on a southern slope, protected on the 

 north from the early frosts by a timber 

 lot. The soil was excellent and they 

 had good care. We anticipated a lot 

 of good late flowers, but by the middle 

 of the summer every one was dead. 

 Last year we tried again, planting a 

 few hundred, mostly varieties we had 

 grown in the north before locating here. 

 We selected a cold clay soil on a north- 

 ern exposure. We planted in the latter 

 part of March, and by the middle of 

 June we had good bloom. The ground 

 was well cultivated, and by the middle 

 of July every plant was a mass of 

 bloom. Alas, a heavy wind followed by 

 a flood of rain broke most of them down 

 and made it necessary to cut the others 

 back severely. They came on well 

 again and in the fall gave us a good 

 crop of bloom. We had such a heavy 

 demand for the tubers that we decided 

 to begin growing them in quantity. 



AVe had a field that had been so poor 

 and the clay so yellow that we had ma- 

 nured it and sowed it to oats and 

 clover. This hail grown on it for two 

 years. We top-dressed this clover sod 

 with a light coat of stable manure and 

 turned it under early in June. Of 

 course there was a good crop of green 

 manure to turn under. The latter part 

 of June and the first week of July we 

 planted our dahlias, over 2.50 varieties. 

 They were kept well plowed and hoed, 

 and we have never seen a better field 

 of dahlias in our lives than we had this 

 year. The attention they have attract- 

 ed has been a surprise to us, most 

 visitors having no idea of the progress 

 that has been made in dahlias. 



We are now digging. We cut the 

 tojis about five or six inches above the 

 top of the ground, then allow them to 

 stan<l a few days, till the sap has pretty 

 well dried up in the stump. We can 

 do this here, as we will not have enough 

 frost to kill them before January. The 

 chimps are then dug and allowed to 

 dry two days or more. They are then 

 set in boxes, head downward, or packed 

 in barrels that have been provided with 

 ventilation, always being sure to place 

 the top down, as they keep much better 

 in this way. They are then put in a 

 cool, dry cellar. 



This method of procedure is not es- 

 sentially different from what we did in 

 the north, other than that we allow the 

 plants to dry after the tops are cut, 

 before <Ugging the tubers. We do find, 

 however, that wc must use a cool clav 



