Title: Florists' review (microform)
Identifier: 5205536_26_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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Sim-BUBBR 29, 1910. The Weekly Florists^ Review^
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THE FORCING OF BULBS. (A paper by Alex. R. Wllkle, of Outremont, .Montreal, Can., read at a meeting of the Mon- ireal Gardeners' and Florists' Club, March 7, 1910.) To force bulbs successfully, we want the right compost or soil. Three parts f^food loam to one part dried cow manure, imd a dash of sharp sand to keep the whole open, is a good mixture. Of course, old carnation soil or mum soil, with a little fresh loam mixed, will answer the purpose if difficulty is experienced in >retting the first mentioned compost. Next we must have good bulbs. Good bulbs are half the battle. Do not get <heap varieties and think you are making a bargain. We cannot expect to get first-class flowers from third-sized bulbs. There is not a great difference between first and second sizes; you can get nearly as good blooms from seconds as you can from firsts, but avoid No. 3, if you wish to be successful and have a creditable show for your money. I shall speak first of daffodils, narcissi, tulips and hyacinths. They all come along together, as it were, and the same sort of treatment will answer. We gen- erally get our bulbs in from Holland dur- ing October and the early part of No- vember. Treatment on Arrival. Where some people make a mistake right at the start is by leaving the bulbs lying around for days, and perhaps weeks, before getting them potted or boxed. They ought to be handled as soon as they arrive. Then, after being potted or placed in flats, they should be given as much water as the soil will take, and kept moist until stored away in cold- frames or bulb sheds. My purpose in watering thoroughly as soon as potted is to plump up the bulbs and put them in a good growing condition. Now the question follows, what is the best method of storing bulbs for forcing? Different growers have different opinions about this, but I should advocate the coldframes, or, better still, digging trenches and covering with wood and lit- ter, to keep them dark until the root growth has advanced far enough to be able to supply food to perfect the blooms. It takes about four weeks to root nar- 'issi, tulips and daflFodils, and a little longer to root hyacinths. A Succession of Hyacinths. French grown Boman hyacinths can be had in bloom during November, until Christmas, with the Dutch Boman minia- tures, in different colors, to follow. Some good doers are: L'Innocence and La (Jrandesse, white; Gigantea and Ger trude, pink; Charles Dickens, Grand Maitre and Czar Peter, blue. The dou- ble varieties come in well afterward, such as Prince of Orange, Princess Alexandra and Frederick the Great, red; La Grand- ewe, Princess Alice and Miss Night- ingale, white; Lord Wellington and Bem- brandt, blue; Bouquet d'Orange, Goethe and Ophir d'Or, yellow. Paper White narcissi are the earliest of their class and can be had nicely in flower by the first week in December. They do not like too strong a heat until the flower spikes are showing. After that they should have a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees until showing color; then the temperature should be reduced to 50 or 55 degrees, or they will get leggy and will not have much substance. Paper White is about the only narcissus that is forced in quantity before New Year's. Tulips and Daffodils. In tulips, Proserpine (pink), Yellow Prince and Chrysolora can be got in for Christmas fairly well. Then follow King of the Yellows, White Swan, White Hawk, Eembrandt (scarlet). Belle Al- liance, La Eeine (pink), Murillo (double pink), Ophir d'Or, Salvator, etc. Daffodils for succession from January 1 are: Trumpet Major, Von Sion, Golden Spur, Bicolor Victoria, Empress, Horsfieldii and Emperor. I may mention that Narcissus poeticus ornatus does not force successfully before the third week in January. All the aforesaid can be forced inside three weeks from the time of putting Easter Lilies. A few words now about liliums. At- tempts have been made over aad over again to keep Ulium bulbs im cold storage until November ani then force right from the start. Some growers seem to think that by so doing they prevent the disease from hav- ing time to develop, but neither do the plants have time to develop. Lilium bulbs, to get the best results, must be permitted to take their own time for the first six weeks, more or less. To allow for this, the bulbs must be potted up as soon as received in September, and put into a coldframe until well rooted. Then you can weed out all showing signs of disease when housing. This plan gives you the chance to put in a cold storage batch of bulbs to make up your number, if the early potted lot are not up to the standard. The early batch can be brought in for Easter, say the first week in April, in a temperature of 50 degrees, while the cold storage lot require a temperature never under 60 degrees, and up to 90 degrees, to get them out for the same time. Now, it stands to reason that the bulbs treated naturally and brought along gently will be the best at the finish, while those forced in a high temperature will be weak

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