File:The American florist - a weekly journal for the trade (1900) (18111250186).jpg

Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw21amer (find matches)
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: American Florists Company
Subjects: Floriculture; Florists
Publisher: Chicago : American Florist Company
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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/pdd. The American Florist. 375 strong plarts and will no doubt give us some very fine flowers later in the season. With us this season has been a favora- ble one for field cultivation. Ordinarily plants would not be as large a month later as they were at mid-August, so that a comparison between indoor and field cultivation this season would be no criterion to go by. This season we are experimenting on indoor cultivation, with some twenty varieties, planting at different dates, but it is yet too eatly to pass an opinion, and I hope at some near future date, when this association holds a winter carnation meeting, to be able to give you a more practical paper, embracing the results of our experiments. Rose Soleil d'Or. The accompanying illustration has been prepared from a colored plate which appeared in the Journal des Roses of last June. For description, etc., see the article entitled "A Noted French Rosa- rian,"page342of ourissueof October 13. CARNATIONS. PRKSBNT TREATMENT FOE THE PLANTS. There is no time so suitable as the next four weeks m which to get your carna- tions into good shape for the holidays. Chrysanthemums have the call and there is no use in crowding the market with second-class carnation stock. Plants housed between August 10 and Septem- ber 10 ought, if they have been properly treated, to now be in good health and well established. Such plants can stand a little trimming up and be all the better for it, but if from any cause your plants are not in good growing condition do not cut any wood from them. Go over the houses carefully to see that every shoot intended for flowering is growing straight, to make a good stem, and cut all weak shoots out to give the stronger ones the advantage of additional light and air. II the plants are heavily set with buds that will open during the chrysanthemum season, thin them out fully one-half By this I do not mean disbudding; all good growers do that. What I mean is that where a plant has ten long-stemmed buds that will open during chrysanthemum season, five of them should be cut out, and where a plant hasfivesuch buds two or three of them should be cut out, leaving those which promise to produce the best flowers. This gives better flowers and flowers that will sell in competition with any other flower that grows. Moreover, if the half crop does not bring in as much money as the full crop would have done, you are storing up strength in your plants for their winter's work and that is better than a few extra dollars now. Do not let any "Tom, Dick or Harry" do this trimming up. Do it yourself or have it done by someone who under- stands the habits and requirements of carnations. Too often carnation houses are turned over to employes who do not understand plant life and who conse- quently do not note the gradual retro- gression of the plants until they have gone so far as to be beyond getting them back into a state of vigor that will enable them to produce first class flowers before the end of the season. The successful carnation grower will look after his carnations as carefully as an engineer will look after the steam in his boilers. Constant examination of the plants no w will enable you to learn the
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NEW ROSE SOLEIL DOR. requirements of the diSerent varieties and you can govern their winter culture accordingly. Some growers put heat into their houses too early; others delay it too long. There is no ironclad rule to adopt, but a pretty safe one to follow is to leave ventilation on both day and night so long as the temperature outside does not fall below 40° and to keep heat out of the houses so long as the temperature in the houses does not fall below 35°. Of course a continued temperature of 35° would be injurious, but where it lasts only for one or two nights and then turns in warm again it is better to keep the heat out of the houses altogether rather than fire up one night and not fire the next. This treatment may give you a few bursted calyxes but that is better than to soften up your plants with heat and force them into bloom when flowers are not wanted. Albert M. Herb. Keeping; Dahlias Dwarf. There are several methods of keeping dahlias dwarf without checking their growth and we follow a number of plans, one in conjunction with the other. In the first place, we do not make our ground too rich in the beginning. Secondly, as soon as the shoots appear, we pinch them out, which is known as the single pruning system. Of course we remove all but the strongest. Then we stir or cultivate the soil very deeply, in many cases from four to six inches. This is really root pruning, and while it does not check the growth of the plants it checks the rapid growth. As soon as the plants commence blooming we cultivate lightly, only one to one and one half inches^deep! This gives the full strength of the soil to the plant and the flowers are conse- quently large and are produced in quan- tities. When the flowers commence to get smaller we top-dress the soil with pure bone meal, four parts of the meal to one part nitrate of soda. This top-dressing we renew as often as the flowers show that it is needed. In regard to pruning the plants, I would say that all we do is to remove all the shoots but the one strongest in the beginning. You then have but one strong, sturdy stem. All the pruning we do after that is to cut the flowers and, as

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