SYRINGA (LILAC) 537 



so with the Lilacs: a good number planted out each year will soon 

 develop into fine specimens and there should be no trouble in dis- 

 posing of them. Not only should the common purple and the white 

 sorts be carried, but also some of the other beautiful varieties which 

 only have to be seen to be ordered. Among the latter none are 

 perhaps better known than Charles X, a fine reddish deep purple; 

 Marie Legray, one of the best large flowering whites; Louis Van- 

 houttei, deep red; and Emil Lemoine, double Hght purple. AU of 

 these Lilacs make slow headway while small; it takes years to obtain 

 good specimens. But they are well worth waiting for. Grow some 

 on for cut flowers, some for plants to be sold smaU as weU as when 

 large, and some for flowering under glass. 



Lilacs for Forcing 



The best Lilacs for forcing are plants which have been grown 

 in pots. This sort of handling results in a dwarfer growth and 

 usually more flowering wood than you will find on plants grown 

 in the open. To grow plants on in pots is beyond the retail grower. 

 Not that he cannot do it, but such plants require constant care and 

 attention and on a smaU scale it wouldn't pay. There are today in 

 this country, men who are getting interested in growing, for a couple 

 of years in pots, Lilacs suitable for forcing. In time, this will prove 

 profitable, not only with Lilacs, but with Deutzias, Spiraeas, For- 

 sythias, flowering Plums and Crabs — in fact, with almost any of the 

 early Summer-flowering shrubs. Why not? Also it wiU pay the 

 florist to use this stock for forcing. He cannot have too much of a 

 variety. There is a lot of labor attached to producing good-sized 

 plants in that way, even though most of them have had "field culture 

 for the first two or three years, and it is this fact which, more than 

 anything else, prevents nurserymen from going into it. Since the 

 War, there hasn't been an oversupply of anything in the nursery 

 line; the scarcity and high cost of labor have constantly been felt, 

 whfle there appears a decided increase in the deioaand. As long 

 as this keeps on, the nurseryman cannot very well be expected to 

 bother about devoting his time to pot plants for the florist's use. 



Pot-grown and Field-grown Stock 



A pot grown Lilac is preferable for forcing not only because 

 it has a shorter growth and more flowering buds, but also because 

 these buds respond more freely to forcing. The plants are ripened, 

 off better and earlier than those planted out. By the time the leaves 

 drop in late Fall the flowering buds of a Lflac are all formed the 

 same as in a Hydrangea. This holds good not only with the ones 

 in pots, but with the ones in the field as weU. 



If you want to grow on plants best suited for forcing out in the 

 open, the stiffer the sofl the better. Such soil usually has a ten- 



