The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



819 



Mr. W. H. Elliott's New Asparagus House. 



must have been of some assistance to 

 him during his closing days. 



Those stone s.tatucs upon old Hor- 

 ticultural Hall surely have been getting 

 their full share of attention lately, not 

 only from the newspapers but from the 

 general public. A big crowd gathered 

 one day to see them lowered by a big 

 derrick. They were on their dignity, 

 and insisted on coming down very slow- 

 ly indeed. I never bothered myself to 

 wonder whom the figures represented, 

 but it .seems that the goddesses of 

 fruits, flowers and grains, Pomona, 

 Flora and Ceres, respectively, were the 

 lucky people. The "Globe" says they are 

 to be removed to the new hall. 



W. H. Elliott has been making quite 

 a systematic search for real estate suit- 

 able for a combination summer home 

 and an enlargement of his rose-grow- 

 ing business. A few days ago he pur- 

 chased 180 acres of land and a large 

 brick house at Madbury, N. H., which 

 will make an ideal summer home when 

 alterations now under way are finished. 

 And, as Mr. Elliott considers himself 

 an expert in the selection of soils, it is 

 probably fully as safe to say it will 

 make a valuable addition to his busi- 

 ness whenever he gets ready to erect 

 greenhouses. The property is particu- 

 larly well situated to accommodate 

 shipping interests toward Boston. 



Two more florist stores have closed 

 up on us — M. Thompson, Mason street, 

 and Lawson & Taylor, on Boylston 

 street. The last young lady to close up, 

 some few weeks ago, chased up her 

 creditors indefatigably iintil she found 

 and paid each one, but her example has 

 not been followed this time by the lady 

 in the case. It is said that Lawson & 

 Taylor are to reopen. J. S. Manter. 



AN ASPARAGUS HOUSE. 



The engraving is from a photograph of 

 part of the new addition Mr. W. H. 

 Elliott, Brighton, Mass., has just made 

 to his extensive asparagus houses. 



The house is now 200 feet long and 110 

 feet wide, containing about 600,000 cubic 

 feet. It is built on a side hill, and from 

 the lowest point in the front to the high- 

 est point at the back, is 50 feet in height. 

 This immense structure is supported by 

 wrought iron pipe, the main supports be- 

 ing 1 1-2 and 1 1-4-inch pipe, branching 

 into 3-4-inch at the purlins. The wood- 

 work is cypress throughout, and the 

 house is glazed with 16x24 glass. There 

 are 13 beds in this house, each about 4 

 feet wide, with 2-foot walks running be- 

 tween. There are, also, 2-ineh plank walks 

 run overhead, the whole length of the 

 house, every 7 feet from the ground up ; 

 these walks help to strengthen the struc- 

 ture, as well as being necessary to use 

 in training the vines. The uppermost 

 planks are used for growing chrysan- 

 themums and Asparagus Sprengeri, the 

 latter being grown in long, shallow 

 boxes containing 2 1-2 inches of soil; 

 these boxes are 2 feet apart, just allow- 

 ing enough light to reach the aspara- 

 gus xmderneath, while at the same 

 time shading it and keeping the 

 house cool and moist at the top, thus pre- 

 venting the growth of red spider, which 

 is one of the most destructive pests en- 

 countered in the growing of asparagus. 



The vines are trained on linen thread, 

 attached to wires made fast to an iron 

 trellis about 2 feet above the ground, 8 

 inches apart, and at the top an equal dis- 

 tance, in order that the strings may be as 

 nearly straight as possible. 



This house is heated by steam, one 6- 

 inch main supplying the radiating pipes, 

 which are distributed overhead through- 

 out the house; in all there are 23,000 feet 

 of pipe used in trellises, supports and 

 heating the house. 



PEiaN, III.— Geo. A. Kuhl is re- 

 building inside of houses, putting in tile 

 benches. Has planted a house of Lib- 

 erties and one of Bridesmaids this week. 

 Business is fine. He reports ha^nng put 

 into propagating bed this season over 

 100,000 cuttings of roses. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



The continued cool weather, together 

 with the fact that quite a number of 

 lujuscs have been r<plantcd, has resulted 

 ill somewhat reducing the supply, espe- 

 cially of roses, but demand is still weak. 

 While some extra select tea roses are 

 liold at as high as $0 the top limit will 

 he more generally recognized as $5, and 

 I lie average range is from $2 to $5, with 

 the heaviest emphasis on tlie lower fig- 

 ure. Ift fact, "punk" aggregations have 

 been cleaned up at as low as $1. First 

 class Beauties hold their own very well, 

 hill tlicy are precious few in number, 



iiilr liiere is a big lot of stuff that 



i\.- ;is a horrible example and brings 

 wlv.a. llic buyer oilers. 



1m carnations a few very extra selects 

 aie hold at $3 and $4, but they are so 

 few they are hardly worth mentioning. 

 On good carnations $2 is practically 

 tlie top price, while really good flowers 

 can be had at $1.25 to $1.50, and the 

 great bulk of under grades goes at 40 

 to 75 cents. 



Lilac is now coming in freely, and 

 is moving fairly well. Parrot tulips 

 are also beginning to come in and sell 

 very well at $4.00 per 100. The arbu- 

 tus season is about over. Tulips are 

 doing a trifle better, but $2 is about 

 the top price. The supply of lilies has 

 shortened materially, and good ones 

 now go very well at $4 to $6, and we 

 hear of some sales of extra at as high 

 as $8 and $10. 



Various Items. 



The program for the regular meet- 

 ing of the Florists' Club, to be held 

 to-morrow (Friday) evening, includes 

 a paper on growing the cyclamen by 

 Paul Kopanka. Other essays are also 

 expected. 



Herman Schiller, the well known West 

 Madison street florist, died at 10 o'clock 

 last Sunday morning. He had been in 

 poor health for a number of years, 

 though still able to attend to business 

 up to shortly before his death. He was 

 49 years of age and leaves a widow and 

 six children, the latter aged from 20 

 to 12. He was laid to rest last Tuesday 

 in the funeral plat at Niles Center, the 

 services being held in the city in the 

 morning, which were attended by nu- 

 merous friends in the trade. Mr. Schil- 

 ler was born in Germany, and came to 

 America in 1879, when he established 

 liimself in the greeenhouse business at 

 Niles Center as a member of the firm 

 of Schiller & Kuske. Later, when 

 his inflammatory rheumatism became 

 chronic, he established himself in the 

 city and the greenhouses, which he 

 eventually owned entire, were finally 

 sold and are now conducted by Mr. 

 John Brod. He was also successful as 

 a storekeeper, and leaves an estate of 

 considerable value. The business will 

 probably be continued by his widow, 

 under the management of the able corps 

 of assistants, of which Mr. Geo. Asmus 

 is one. 



Bassett & Washburn have already re- 

 planted about half of their Beauty 

 houses. They report carnations in the 

 field, of which they have about five 

 iicros. as doing remarkably well. Mr. 

 aiul Jlr?. Bassett are now sojourning at 

 Itattle Creek, Mich. 



