286 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



BOUVARDIA 



Every retail grower should have at least a few plants of Bouvardia 

 Humboldtii to flower during November and December. Their beautiful 

 waxy-white, orange-blossom-scented flowers are quite different from 

 anything else to be had at that time, and the plants require but little 

 care in order to do well. 



But few men specialize today in Bouvardias; the time of the 

 average grower is taken up with other, perhaps more profitable, 

 things. Those who can produce fine Roses, 'Mums and Carnations 

 during late Fall and early Winter find them better paying crops 

 than a bench or house of Bouvardias, yet we see the flowers used as 

 of old in corsages. A few are still grown in spite of the general run 

 of the usual assortment found in the larger establishments. I don't 

 look forward to seeing Bouvardias ever come back, any more than 

 Gamelias, but the retail grower will make no mistake in planting 

 some for his own use. 



Bouvardia Humboldtii, the most showy of all, will thrive and 

 do well in a Carnation house temperature, and you can make the 

 plants pay on a small scale. You can use the flowers for the wedding 

 bouquet, the corsage, as cut material and in design work. There is 

 nothing that can equal a spray of Ophelia or Columbia Roses and 

 white Bouvardia, or a centerpiece of the same. A few plants in 

 flower will always be a great attraction to visitors to the greenhouses, 

 and even one plant in bloom will fill a 100-ft. house with its sweet 

 fragrance. 



If you desire a little more of an assortment than what every- 

 body has to offer, by all means plant a few Bouvardias. 



Cultural Notes 



Bouvardia Humboldtii is grown from cuttings of the old plants, 

 which, after having been overwintered underneath a dry bench 

 up to the end of January, are cut back a little and placed in a 52-deg. 

 house. The softwood will easily root, but must have a good bottom 

 heat. After the cuttings are rooted, pot up, keep shifted and 

 plant them out on a bench or solid bed by the end of May; or you 

 can grow them on in pots under glass. Still another way is to plant 

 them outdoors, keep them pinched back up to the end of August, 

 and bench them afterward. The more soil you can bring in clinging 

 to the roots, the better. Shade the plants well for a few days after 

 housing, and provide a stake for each; they wiU start to flower in 

 September, but the best flowers on the longest stems are not cut 

 until November. Nevertheless, pinch after August or the plants 

 are apt to become too full of small shoots and develop no buds. 



You win find that, lifted with a ball of soil and placed 

 under a bench, a cut-down plant will not suffer in the least if water 



