"FOOLING" THE FLOWERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 72, 26 March 1938, Page 27

"FOOLING" THE FLOWERS

By adding a "dark-house" to greenhouses and hothouses, Cornell University horticulturists have abolished the four seasons for flowers. They fool flowers into blooming >at unheard-of periods.' Their work promises" millions in savings to the ficwer trade and ;cheaper^blqoms for: everyone, states the, "Christian 'Science Monitor.'*

have found that you can fool some of the flowers alt the time, all the flowers' some of the time, but a Scotch heather is the hardest to fool.

Developed uride£, the "-direction of Dr. Kenneth Post, of the Department of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture; the "dark-house" is a step in the use of artiflcial : lighting. It is made by hanging black satin curtains ov.er greenhouse walls to simulate night. Now, chrysanthemums . normally flower in November. But place a black satin hood over them at five every afternoon in August and leave it. until seven in the morning, and the "mums" bloom in September. With the.aid/of the same hood they can be .made to. flower in JurSe. .

The black satin. fools the flowers into .feeling that the shortening days of fall have arrived. . .

Chrysanthemums are one of many varieties that bloom -only,.in short days. Poinsettias, brilliant winter blooms of the Southern United States, normally appear in December. But with the aid of a "dark^house" they come out in July. -The blue October

garden flower, eupatorlum, has been moved up from October to September by shortening its day to 11 hours after July 15. ■ V ' '-■■'

Scotch heather has been the hardest to please. It wants, not shorter days, but longer. The variety, King Edward VII, has never.flowered in} America more than...half-way, to its top. At Cornell it was given more and more light, from electric bulbs.

When the "day" had been lengthened to 20 hours in this way, the heather bloomed to the top as if in its native Scotland. Many other flowers can be fooled by longer days. But their electric bills are not as high as this Scotch plant demands.

Stock,- a. popular, flower that immigrated from the Mediterranean countries, is the best "penny pincher." It appears to need four hours' added light. But it does just as well if the four hours are split into alternating periods of light and darkness. In' this inexpensive way its flowering has been moved up from January to the Christmas season when stock sells very well.

Added to both darkness or light, most of the flowers want the right temperatures. ; Some want the thermometer- above 60, others ; below.

In taste for • temperature the yellow and red libonia almost fooled the scientists who were trying to fool it. At 60 this plant was all leaves. At 50 it had many buds, but the leaves fell off. At 55 libonia puts on a profusion of both leaves and flowers.