PfcBRtTAUt 9, 1S99. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



I 251 



View in Conservatory, Wm. Brown's Range, Flatbush, L. I. 



[Conservatory erected by Lord & Burnham Co. J 



price tlian French stocks that are not 

 disbudded. Last year I purchased a 

 few thousand at one-half the price I 

 usually pay for first class stock. I 

 only grafted two hundred of them, as 

 they averaged from two to four 

 suckers a piece in the grafting cases. 

 The latest facts about gi'afted roses 

 for winter forcing are, that they have 

 come, and have come to stay. Most 

 of the live and progressive rose grow- 

 ers are either growing them now or 

 will plant them for the next season's 

 bloom. 



PACKING FLOWERS FOR MARKET. 



If you stand in a commission house 

 any day you will see as many differ- 

 ent styles of packing and packages as 

 you would likely find in a life's travels. 

 In my opinion the grower is not care- 

 ful enough in packing and often does 

 not display good judgment in cold 

 weather. In my judgment the best all 

 round boxes are those used by Garland 

 Bros., Des Plaines, 111. They are about 

 40 inches long, 24 inches wide, 12 

 inches deep, and contain three trays. 

 The trays allow them to put the first 



quality in one, second quality in the 

 next and mixed flowers, smilax or any- 

 thing else in the bottom. The result 

 is that they have no breakage and the 

 stock shows up well when received, 

 which last is an important point that 

 is becoming more and more impor- 

 tant. 



One may think the item of breakage 

 does not amount to much, but I will 

 try to show you that it does. Today we 

 received a box containing 250 roses, all 

 packed mixed as to quality. On tak- 

 ing them from the box we had the 

 following broken: Five Maids, value 

 35 cents; 3 Brides, value 27 cents; 1 

 Meteor, value 5 cents; this makes a 

 total of 67 cents, which would surely 

 have paid for a box or would have 

 helped to pay commission. But the 

 worst point of all is that it helps to 

 bring down the average, for it is al- 

 ways the best buds that break off as 

 they are the ones with the stiff stems. 

 If they had been in trays, the quali- 

 ties kept separate, in a market like 

 the present one they might have 

 brought at least one cent more each, 

 and that brings the total up to 76 

 cents. 



Take a grower that ships to the mar- 

 ket daily, and allowing only half this 

 amount for breakage, he is losing 38 

 cents a day, or $2.44 a week. At that 

 rate he could buy a box factory and 

 have money left at the end of the year. 

 This same style of box can be used 

 for violets or carnations, though for 

 violets a smaller box can be used so 

 long as they are in trays to keep the 

 weight of one layer off of the others. 

 And this also keeps them from slid- 

 ing. When each tray is lined accord- 

 ing to weather, with oiled paper over 

 and under the flowers, it makes a nice 

 marketable package. 



When- packing Harrisii lilies cut 

 them in the evening and stand them 

 up in your potting shed over night, 

 BUT NOT IN WATER. This will wilt 

 them slightly and make the petals soft 

 and pliable so they will not break so 

 readily when handled. Then fold the 

 buds, if any, back of the open flowers, 

 and in this way you can put 100 Har- 

 risii in a box 12x10x60 if the stems 

 are long, or more if they are not. 

 Your commission man puts them in 

 water and if the flowers have been 

 properly wilted they will not show 



