File:Florists' review (microform) (16678022075).jpg

Title: Florists' review (microform)
Identifier: 5205536_18_1 (find matches)
Year: [1] (s)
Authors:
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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JUNB 14, 1906. The Weekly Florists^ Review* 217 not had a bloom for two years. What is the matter I What can we do for them to make them bloom? W. G. T. T am not acquainted with this variety of rose. If it is a tea it would flower in six months. We can only account for its not flowering by having too much root room and growing too vigorously, and that is the reverse of flowering with most roses, or any other perennial plant. W. S. GROUND OR RAISED BEDS. Will roses do as well on the ground floor as on a bed raised eighteen to thirty inches? The location is in Texas. ^ G. W. T. The question is one on which there is considerable difference of opinion and much will depend on the style of houses and arrangement of heating pipes, as well as the soil beneath your beds. We know of one successful man in central New York who plows the natural soil, or floor, over which his greenhouses arc built, working in lots of manure and on that putting up a 6-inch board for L-e edge of the" bed and filling in with a good yellow loam. He is eminently suc- cessful. His houses are six or seven in a block, equal span, having no partition between the houses. Had we such a sur- face soil we should be tempted to try the plan, for there is an immense saving in bench building, repairs, etc. Yet it is safest to adhere to the old plan, by which so many millions of fine roses have been grown, viz., legs of about eighteen inches, with 2x4 joists every four feet and cypress floor of 2x6 boards. There is better all around light when the bench is two feet above the floor and a better circulation of heat and air, and for the majority of winter months when roses and carnations bring their best prices the raised wooden bench is all you desire. In the writer's opin- ion the semi-solid bed is near the ideal, reference to which is made in last week's Review. Beds on the floor are more undesirable for carnations than roses. W. S. ILEX CRENATA. As a neat growing hardy evergreen shrub this little Japanese member of the holly family is certainly less known than it should be, and for gardens of limited extent, where vigorous growing subjects would soon outgrow their allotted space it can be recommended, says the Gar- deners' Magazine. In appearance it is widely removed from the generally ac- cepted idea of a holly, being, in fact, more like box. It has a close, much- branched habit of growth, and the some- what spreading shoots are clothed with narrow, pointed, spineless leaves about three-quarters of an inch long, and slightly toothed. In color they are of a very dark green, against which back- ground the rich golden splashes of the variety variegata show up most con- spicuously. A second variety, Fortunei, or major, has larger and rounder leaves than those of the type, while the growth is also more robust. A very noticeable feature of Hex crcnata is the readiness with which it can be raised from cuttings, for hollies, as a class, are seldom increased in this way. Even with these desirable features It is not met with to any great extent in nurseries, the great drawback to it,
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Standing Wreath of Queen Beatrice Rose by F. H. Kramer, Washington, D. C from a commercial point of view, being its slow rate of progress, as it takes a long time to attain a salable size. In Japan it is a favorite subject for top- iary work, as the box is with us. Concerning this pretty little member of the holly family, Professor Sargent, in his "Forest Flora of Japan," says: "Ilex crenata is the most widely di.s- tributed and the most common of the Japanese hollies, with persistent leaves; I encountered it in nearly every part of the empire which I visited. It is usu- ally a low, much-branched, rigid shrub, three or four feet high; but in cultiva- tion it not infrequently rises to the height of twenty feet, and, assuming the habit of a tree, is n6t unlike the box in general appearance. The leaves, which are light green and very lustrous, vary considerably in size and shape, although they are rarely more than an inch long, and are usually ovate acute, with sligiit- ly crenate toothed margins. The black fruit is produced in great profusion, and in the autumn adds materially to the beauty of the plant, this is the most popular of all the hollies with the .Tapan- ese; and a plant, usually cut into a fantastic shape, is found in nearly every garden. Varieties with variegated leaves are common, and apparently much es- teemed. Ilex crenata and several of its varieties with variegated foliage were introduced into western gardens many years ago, and are occasionally culti- vated, although the value of this plant as an under shrub appears to be hardly known or appreciated outside of Japan. A NEW TROUBLE. It is reported from England that a florist and gardener has appeared before the Cheshire county council with an ap- plication for the payment of damages because his place was rendered unten- able for business by dust raised by pass- ing automobiles. IBERIS SNOWFLAKE. The iberis, or perennial candytufts, include several very useful and beauti- ful spring flowering plants, but for gen- eral cultivation I. sempervirens and its varieties are perhaps the best on account of their excellent constitution and free flowering qualities. For clothing good spaces in the rock-garden or planting on the front of the flower borders, few ))lants surpass them; they are easily cul- tivated in almost any soil, and their evergreen character is also an advantage. The variety Snowflake has not been in commerce many years, and it is but little known at present; its merits, however, entitle it to a place in all collections. The flowers are individually large, of the purest white, and produced with great freedom, so that when a plant has be- come established a fine mass of bloom results, the purity of the flowers sur- passing anything with which I am ac- quainted. Cuttings are easily rooted if taken off at any time during the summer and kept close for a few days in a frame. Where effective spring bedding has to be carried out this plan should prove of great value on account of the

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