File:Florists' review (microform) (16683321965).jpg

Title: Florists' review (microform)
Identifier: 5205536_27_2 (find matches)
Year: [1] (s)
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Subjects: Floriculture
Publisher: Chicago : Florists' Pub. Co
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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May 11, 1911. The Weekly Florists^ Review* y 13
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Field of Lilium Harrisii at William Bustrin's, Watsonville, Cal. PLANTING MIKADO ASTER SEED. If Mikado aster seed is sown now and the plants put in greenhouse benches about June 1, will the blooms mature? J, R. S. & S. Yes, but they will do much better if planted in well enriched ground out- doors. For early asters indoor culture is all right, but for later crops outdoor culture is much to be preferred. You still have ample time in which to sow aster seed and have them flower before frost; in fact, some varieties can be sown as late as from the middle to the end of June. C. W, LILY BULB GROWING. The accompanying engraving is from a photograph taken last June of a part of a field of Lilium Harrisii being grown for bulbs by William Bustrin, Watsonville, Cal. The part shown in the picture contained about 2.000 bulbs. Mr. Bustrin started in 1906 with two dozen bulbs and from these has in- creased his stock to 10,000 or 1.5,000. He estimates that the bulbs increase about four to five fold annually, the younger bulbs seeming to produce more bulblets than the older ones. His soil is rather heavy and it produces a re- markably solid bulb. The bulbs mature the latter part of October and are then lifted and replanted, the bulblets being of course separated at that time. The bulbs be started with were from an old garden and the stock seems en- tirely free from disease. His greatest difficulty in growing these bulbs is in obtaining sufficient labor to do at the proper time the large amount of hand work required. In his section fruit is the main industry and the Japanese supply most of the labor. And they generally work for a share of the erop, especially in the case of straw- berries, and ot course this cannot well be arranged in the case of lily bulbs. But he hopes to overcome these local difficulties and believes there is an ex- cellent future for the lily bulb growing industry in his section. THE HARRISII OF TODAY. (Extracts from a paper by .\rth\ir T. Boddiiif,'- ton, read before the New York Florists' Club May S, 1911.1 I left New York April ."j, arriving at Bermuda April 7. The lilies were just coming into bloom; hardly any were expanded, but the buds were white. Disbudding the Lilies. The growers have been busy in the onion and potato business this year and they were a little behind with the dit; budding of the lilies. A great deal of care is necessary to produce good bulbs. No weeds can bo allowed to grow more than an inch or two high. If the weeds are allowed to got large, when they aro pulled out they disturb the surface roots of the lily, which will always result in serious injury and failure when the bulb is grown the next year. It is a practice among the Bermuda growers to disbud the lilies just as the buds are whitening. This is done that the plants may be strengthened and that all the nutriment may go to form as large a bulb as possiMe. Fortunately tor me. the weather, which had been rather cool, became suddenly warm and by Palm Sunday the fields were a sight to behold. The next day, April 10. I made photographs of some of the best fields at Columbia Farm, Longbird, Smiths Island and at Westmeath. The lilies were growing strongly and for the most part showed perfect health. When examining them closely, however, there seemed to be about ton per cent of stunted and deformed plants, all of which are being dug out by the more t'arcful growers. Rough Handling Causes Deformity. Upon my pointing these plants out to R. H. James, he told nie they had not been removed before for the reason that in digging out these rogues an equal number of good jdants would be destroyed, and that the plants that were deformed and stunted were really not diseased plants but bulbs which had been injured in digging the previous year, or in the process of planting. Mr. James informed me that they handle lily bulbs as if they were eggs and that rough handling in digging, or by the seedsmen, or by the florists when the bulbs are being potted, is one of the most frequent causes of the stunted and deformed jilants. To convince ine that his theory is correct, Mr. James had a number of these deformed plants dug in my pres- ence, lie demonstrated to me that the bulbs^showing these deformities were smaller than when they were planted and that they could never even by acci- dent get packed in the cases as salable bulbs, for the reason that they would not be big enough to grade as even 5 to 7-inch bulbs. The bulbs of these deformed plants, or, as our friend Louis Schmutz calls them, "kyoudles," were all afflicted with a i>artial rotting of the root base. Mr. James, who has had thirty years' exiierience in growing bulbs in Ber- muda, tells me that to drop a bulb out of the hand onto even the soft ground will frequently produee an injury suf- ficient to cause this disease of the root base. There seems to be nothing con- tagions in this disease. Ward's Disease Being Eradicated. The other disease that seems to be afllicting the lilies in Bermuda is what is known as Ward's disease. The symptoms of this disease are as follows: The plant starts to grow healthily, until it gets up a few inches high, when it develops yellowish-brown streaks and spots in the foliage and finally peters out to nothing, or jirodnces a deformed flower. This disease has been almost eradicated, though here and there a plant was to be seen afflicted with it. About the only remedy for this disease

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