12 



The Florists' Review 



May 29. 1913. 



RETARDING PEONIES. 



The peony is undoubtedly the most 

 gorgeously beautiful of all our hardy 

 flowers, and the ease with which it may 

 be cultivated, and the fact that it is un- 

 der any reasonable conditions sure to 

 produce a fine crop of blooms every 

 year after it is established, make it 

 deservedly a great favorite. 



Jts only drawback is its habit of 

 opening all its blooms nearly at the 

 same time, giving a great surplus of 

 flowers for a few days and none after- 

 Avards. it is not generally known that 

 the blooming of peony buds can be 

 easily delayed from several days to 

 several weeks, depending on the variety 

 and the method of treatment. 



To delay the opening of the blooms 

 for a few days, they are cut when the 

 petals are just loosenin^but when none 

 of them have tnrned^ack. All the 

 leaves are removed, exceiit a few of 

 the upper ones, sufficient to give the 

 flower a proi)er setting of green. They 

 are then wrajtped somewhat snugly — 

 one dozen or less in a bunch — in two 

 thicknesses of damp (not wet) news- 

 papers, leaving the lower four or five 

 inches of the stems uncovered. The 

 bundles of blooms so wrapjied are 

 placeil in jars of water so that the 

 lower one-third of the stems is sub- 

 merged, and placed in a cold, dark loca- 

 tion. A cool cellar is an ideal ])la*e. 

 In this comlition they will keep uji to 

 a Aveek without ojiening, Init will open 

 quickly when unwrappeij and brought 

 into the light and warmth. 



Tf it is desired to retard them a longer 

 time, they are cut earlier, while show- 

 ing full color but before any of the 

 jietals have loosened at all. and treate<l 

 in the same way. The tighter the bud 

 is when <-ut. the longer it will keep. 



Some few varieties can be retarded 

 only a few days in this way without 

 being injureij. while others can be hebl 

 back lor a long time. The jirofessional 

 peony grower, after jtreparing the 

 l>looms as described, will place them in 

 cold storage warehouses, where the tem- 

 ]ierature is kept low ami jierfectly even, 

 and will hold them there for six weeks 

 in the lase of some varieties. There 

 are jirobably a million or more peonies 

 stored in this manner every season by 

 florists in (liicagn. 



Where the ailvantages of artificially 

 cooled storage with an absolutely even 

 tcTuperature can not l»e hail it is prob- 

 ably not advisable to atteinjit retarding 

 the blooms over two weeks in this way, 

 while some varieties can be held only 

 a few days. 



The Horticultural Society of Chicago 

 will hold a grand peony exhibit at the 

 Art Institute about June 12, depending 

 on the carliness or lateness of the 

 blooming of peonies. Professional flo- 

 rists and expert growers from all over 

 the country will compete in the open 

 classes, while most liberal premiums and 

 medals are offered in special classes for 

 the amateur growers. It is hoped that 

 all who love the peony and who grow 

 even a few plants will send one vase 

 or more of flowers to the show. 



These instructions are given out by 

 the society so that those varieties 

 blooming too early for the show may 

 be hebl back. Premium lists and full 

 information may be had by addressing 



R. J. Haight, secretary, 536 South Clark 

 street, Chicago. 



PEOj^IES FOR CUT FLOWERS. 



At this season of the year there arc 

 frequent inquiries for lists of the best 

 varieties of peonies. In one of its bul- 

 letins, issued from the Cornell trial 

 grounds, the American Peony Society 

 recommends the following list for cut 

 flowers: 



White. — Festiva Maxima, Couronne 

 d 'Or, Duchesse de Nemours, Baroness 

 Schroeder, Albatre, Alba Sulphurea, 

 Madame Crousse, Madame Calot, Ma- 

 dame de Verneville, Boule de Neige, 

 Avalanche and Due de Wellington. 



Pale pink. — Achille, Albert Crousse, 

 Dorchester, Floral Treasure, La Perle, 

 Madame Lemoine, Marguerite Gerard, 

 Marie d'Hour, Miss Salway, Mademoi- 

 selle Leonie Calot, Madame Emile Galle 

 and Venus. 



Pink and white. — Oloire de Charles 

 Gombault, La Tuli})e and Jeanne d'Arc, 



Deep pink. — Madame Ducel, Lamar- 

 tine, Monsieur Jules Elie, Livingstone, 

 Monsieur Boucharlataine, Souvenir de 

 1 'Exposition Universelle, Madame Le- 

 bon. General Bertrand, Modeste Guerin, 

 Edulis Superba, Alexandre Dumas, Ma- 

 dame Muyssart and Kelway 's Queen. 



Red. — Felix Crousse, Louis Van 

 Iloutte and Henry Demay. 



Deep red. — Delachei, J^rince de Talin- 

 dyke. Constant Devred, Nigricans, Mad- 

 ame Bocquet, Pierre Dessert and Rubra 

 Superba. 



YELLOW MUMS FOR RETAIL. 



Please tell me what you consider the 

 best yellow chrysanthemum for retail 

 trade. What fertili/.cr would you sug- 

 gest for Tnums? A. B. R. 



Though some of the other yellow va- 

 rieties of chrysanthemums might be bet- 

 ter for sjiecial purposes, such varieties 

 as Major Bonnaff'on and Golden Glow 

 seem well adapted for the general re- 

 tail trade. 



Wiiile the jirincipal reliance should be 

 jilaced upon stable manure as the fer- 

 tilizer to be used in the compost, still 

 it is true that for top-dressing and for 

 liipiid applications the stable manure 

 has a general tendency to develop a 

 weak, watery tissue. Hence, to a con- 

 siderable extent, and especiallv for top- 

 dressing and for use as a liquid manure, 

 some of the chemical manures can be 

 substituted with goo<l results, but care 

 must be taken to use them judiciously, 

 as otherwise serious injury may result. 



As a top-dressing, a mixture of 100 

 pounds of fine ground bone, thirty 

 pounds of sulf>hate of j)otasli and 

 twenty-five pounds of nitrate of soda 

 may be used, at the rate of one pound 

 to fifty square feet. In case the supply 

 of manure is short, the amount can be 

 r(>dn(('(l one-half if the mixture just 

 mentioned is used for prejiaring the 

 bench soil, at the rate of one pound to 

 thirty sipiare feet, when the soil is not 



less than four-inches deep and when the 

 fertilizer is thoroughly incorporated 

 with the soil. 



For use as a liquid manure, chemicals 

 soluble in water should be used and 100 

 pounds of acid phosphate may be sub- 

 stituted for the ground bone, and tlie 

 mixture used at the rate of one pound 

 in fifty gallons of water. T. 



EARLY BUDDING OF MUMS. 



Will you kindly tell me what caused 

 my chrysanthemums to bud so soon? At 

 tiiis date. May 17, some of them av 

 actually showing color. The varieties 

 are .1. K. Shaw, Appleton, Black Hawk, 

 Brutus, etc. We took cuttings in Jan- 

 uary and February. They have not beeii 

 pothound. The majority of them are 

 showing buds. I have picked out thos«' 

 that are not showing buds and have 

 benched thein. What caused the early 

 budding and what can I do under the 

 iMrcumstances .' W. A. Ij. 



It is by no means uncommon to have 

 Muuns run into bud during the month of 

 May. In fact, we have several batches 

 nicely in flower at this time. The only 

 thing to do is to keep the jjlants liber- 

 ally supplied with water and, even 

 though the original plants get hard and 

 refuse to make growth, a good sucker 

 will eventually come from the base of 

 the jdant and go ahead and jtroduce 

 satisfactorv results, ('has. If. Tottv. 



