Title: Florists' review (microform)
Identifier: 5205536_21_2 (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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April 30, 1908. The Weekly Florists^ Review^ into the soil with their pots. In this way difficulties can be overcome, and it is then possible to have free flowering plants even in heavy soil and in shady positions. I am pleased to see Lobelia Erinus Kathleen Mallard being advertised so much already in American trade journals. I am quite certain, too, that American gardeners will not be slow to notice and appreciate the commercial value of this good plant, and that it will soon be made use of as a bedding plant in private and public places of the United States, be- sides being grown a great deal as a ^ot plant for the market. It can easily be propagated by cuttings and is a quick and strong growing plant; it offers no cultural difficulties whatsoever and will undoubtedly find friends everywhere, Erfurt. -^ W. H. A RAkE AGAVE. Can any correspondent of the Eeview give any information or experience as to where th,e agave described below is a native, etc.? I think I have seen plants of it occasionally ii^ collections of suc- culents, but do not remember ev)6r seeing it in the trade. The plant in^ question came into my possession about twenty- five years ago. It was then about two feet high above the pot and scant three feet across to the extreme points of the leaves. The foliage got badly damaged last fall, which almost reduced it to a stump. Last summer, before the dam- age was done, it had increased in spread about four inches and in height from four to five inches. It had made this growth in twenty-five years. Early in March it began to show signs of flower- ing. It now has a flower stem of about two inches caliper and about five feet high, with a joint about every three inches. Now, April 22, four bracts or branches to the main stem are visible, with apparently three or more to come. From the small progress this plant has made in the last twenty-five years it is easy to fancy it was seventy-five years old when I first saw it. It is different from all other agaves of my acquaint- ance. It has never shown a sign of a sucker. Under cultivation, most likely it could be propagated by the same means as are often used to propagate dracse- nas, or the same as are sometimes used with pineapples of shy suckering varie- ties. I should think that in a state of nature it would seed freely. If not, it is no wonder it is scarce. We have all heard, even as children, of the century plant, the Agave Americana, which has the credit of being peculiar in this re- spect, but I have known the Agave Americana to flower before it was thirty years old, and in that time it made suck- ers enough to plfint a city lot. S. Taplin. TO RID GREENHOUSE OF MOLES. In answer to Augustus Caspers' in- quiry in the Revibw of April 23, I will say that my way of ridding the green- house of these pests is to purchase at the druggist's ,one half-pound can of carbon disulphipe (carbon bisulphuret). After finding an open hole, drop into it a piece of cotton saturated with the liquid, covering it over immediately with earth, to keep the fumes down. Carbon disulphide, when exposed to the air, forms a heavy gas, which settles down into the moles' hole and smothers all animal life there. This is also effective in killing moles and gophers in the garden and field.
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Floral Fountain for a Washington Store Opening. (Designed by A. Qude & Bro. Co.) The operator must be careful not to breathe too much of this gas. In using in the greenhouse, put it in at night, so that you will not need to be in the house for a few hours afterward. Also keep well corked and away from children. I have always found this a sure death for moles and gophers, as it kills every animal in the hole where it is put. Harold C. Keats. LIUUM PHILIPPENSE. The Philippine lily, Lilium Philippense, is an old variety to which attention was attracted a season or two ago by the efforts of a Boston seed house. It has been tried by a large number of grow- ers for forcing under glass, but it has appeared in only one or two wholesale markets, and then only in occasional lots. While the trumpets are enormous and the plant is easily handled, growers do not seem to see in it any advantage over the longiflorum types when consid- ering it as a market crop, either as cut flower or pot plant. It has, however, one advantage which should recommend it to those who grow lilies for their own local trade; it may be forced season after season for winter bloom, the bulbs seem- ing to gain strength each season if al- lowed to mature in the natural man- ner after flowering. The trumpets are larger and longer than tliose of any other of-the. white flowered lilies, but the plant is more attenuated in its growth, both stem and foliage and the base of the trumpet being thinner than in the longi- florum types. E. H. Cushman, of Sylvania, O., has discovered that the Philippine lily is also suitable for summer garden culture, which is thought to be an entirely new use for it in this country. The plants grow vigorously under ordinary garden conditions, the immense snow-white trum- pets, nearly nine inches long, being sup- ported on slender stems two feet high, thickly clothed with narrow foliage. The perfume is rich and powerful, and the blooms themselves rather more lasting than those of Harrisii and longiflorum. Mr. Cushman gives the following direc- tions for the garden treatment of this interesting species: "In the garden or border no lily is easier to grow. Select a place in full sunshine, if possible, away from trees or tall plants that might take the mois- ture and light. Plant in May not less than four inches deep in loose, mellow soil. Beware of fresh manure or acid fertilizer. Give plenty of water when growing; in their native mountains they are deluged nearly every day during the growing season. In cutting the flower stalk be sure to leave enough foliage to develop and ripen the bulb. When the foliage ripens in October, dig the bulbs and store in dry sand or earth. With a light mulch the bulbs seem fairly hard^ but they are so easily kept in <"• it seems advisable to lift and ing winter." /

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