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The Weekly Florists' Review. 



MARCH 23, 1S93. 



canes being arched in so as tc form 

 a plant from 21,2 to 3 feet tlirough at 

 the top and dressed with foliage to 

 the pot. Buds are already showing 

 all over the plants and they will each 

 carry from 150 to 200 ti usses of bloom. 

 The plants are but two years old and 

 were lifted from the field last Octo- 

 ber, being then placed in the pots they 

 now occupy. A pair of these plants 

 was recently sold to a florist for $50. 

 There are many other Ramblers in 

 smaller pots. 



Lilacs are considerably grown and 

 always meet with good demand. Gen- 

 istas are seen in large quantities, a lot 

 of canariensis being now in good 

 bloom, the sort being an earlier 

 bloomer than racemosus which forms 

 the bulk of the stock The genista 

 fell off somewhat in demand for sofne 

 years but the call is now increasing 

 again. The plants are not sheared 

 back so closely as formerly and they 

 present a more graceful appearance, 

 the pretty wands of yellow flowers 

 showing to better advantage. The 6- 

 inch pot size is most largely sold, 

 though there are many larger speci- 

 mens that are demanded by special 

 customers. 



A large house filled entirely with 

 Otaheite oranges was an interesting 

 sight. They aim to have the plants 

 bloom just before Easter to set fruit 

 for the following season. 



Pandanus Veitchii is much in evi- 

 dence in all sizes, from freshly potted 

 cuttings up to large specimens in 8- 

 inch pots. They are also working up 

 a stock of the variegated pineapple, 

 illustrated in The Review a few 

 months ago, and it will evidently be 

 as popular as the pandanus and as 

 generally useful. They are also grow- 

 ing a number of specimens of the com- 

 mon pineapple with the view of their 

 use in decorations when in fruit. Most 

 of the larger plants of pandanus and 

 pineapples are on pedestals and these 

 economizers of room are seen all over 

 the place. In fact, the iron pedes- 

 tal now so common originated with 

 Mr. Harris. 



They have a lot of two-year-old 

 plants of Bougainvillea Sanderiana 

 that will make fine Easter plants. 



A large stock of Dracaena Sanderi- 

 ana was noted and they think there 

 is a splendid future for it. To secure 

 quick effect they place 5 plants in a 

 6-inch pot. A combination that they 

 have found to be an excellent seller 

 is a plant of Dracaena Sanderiana in 

 the center of a 10-inch pot with five 

 plants of Dracaena teiminalis around 

 it. Dracaena fragrans goes very well 

 in plants of some little size. 



Of hydrangeas about as many are 

 grown as formerly but the blooming is 

 spread over a considerable period and 

 not so many are brought in for Easter. 



A house of longiflorum lilies was a 

 beautiful sight. They were largely in 

 10-inch pots, seven bulbs in each, and 

 there were many 8-inch pots with four 

 bulbs each. They will certainly bn 



grand when in bloom and will be Just 

 about right for Easter. 



Pandanus utilis seems as popular as 

 ever and an immense stock was noted 

 in all sizes. 



Rubbers are still in it. though Mr. 

 Harris aims to sell only well developed 

 plants rather than small stock, and his 

 well known branched specimens are 

 seen in perfection. 



Daffodils are increasing in demand, 

 especially the single Golden Spur, but 

 tulips are going less freely. All the 

 daffodils are grown five and six bulbs 

 in a 6-inch pot as they can be handled 

 to better advantage in this way than 

 in flats. 



There was a whole houseful of Deut- 

 zia gracilis in 8 and 10-inch pots. 

 These are two and three year old 

 plants that were lifted from the fleld 

 last August and after being potted 

 were left outside with a little manure 

 between the pots and covered with 

 salt hay. They were brought inside 

 about the middle of January and kept 

 in a temperature of about 50 degrees. 

 They will be in splendid bloom by 

 Easter and as the best plants whole- 

 sale at $2.50 each it is a very profitable 

 crop. 



There is house after house of palms 

 and among them many combination 

 plants, such as an areca and two Pan- 

 danus utilis in the same pot, a largs 

 Kentia and several small latanias. 

 etc. Mr. Mills finds that Latania ro- 

 tundifolia moves well in 4-inch pots, 

 but sells slowly when larger. 



Cycas siamensis is a beautiful thing 

 and it is believed may have a future 

 commercially. There is a grand speci- 

 men of Pandanus Kerchoveana. one 

 of only three in the country. 



An excellent feature of this estab- 

 lishment is a wide shed that runs 

 through the entire range of houses. 

 Into this their largest covered wagons 

 can be driven and turned around, and 

 plants safely loaded in the severest 

 weather. 



The entire place is heated by a bat- 

 tery of three 60-horse power boilers. 

 They have been using coke tor fuel, 

 but will change to coal next season. 



HOW TO ORDER FLOWERS. 



By special request I take up the 

 subject of how to order fiowers. While 

 again emphasizing all that has been 

 so frequently said and written as to 

 the necessity of writing orders plainly 

 and separate from the body of a letter. 

 I wish to add, by all means do not 

 use the word "duplicate." It is this 

 word "duplicate" that calls me to 

 write this letter. 



Admitting that all orders are care- 

 fully filed, remember that yours is not 

 the only one and that there may have 

 been others from you the same day. 

 For instance, we get a letter in the 

 morning's mail ordering 50 Maids, 50 

 Brides and 100 white carnations. A 

 few hours later we receive another 

 letter from the same party saying: 



"Add 200 mixed carnations. 50 Ro- 

 mans and 300 violets." Then comes a 

 telegram saying: "Cancel mail order, 

 duplicate last order and add 300 mixed 

 carnations, 200 violets, some white." 

 The above would be all right were it 

 not that we shipped this party on two 

 trains the day before. He says dupli- 

 cate last order. Now, the order sent 

 out on the early train the day before 

 was a fair sized order, something like 

 that covered by the two letters, tut 

 the last order received was for "300 

 mixed carnations. 200 violets, some 

 white." We don't claim (nor do other 

 commission men) to be mind readers. 

 In the above case we sent out the 

 large order and hit it right, but in do- 

 ing so we did not follow instructions, 

 which said plainly "duplicate last 

 order." In a word we did what the 

 party wanted us to do Ijut not what he 

 told us to do. But it is a bad cliance- 

 to take. The instructions should be 

 so clear that there need be no guess- 

 ing. 



When you mail an order write it oa 

 a sheet of paper separate from your 

 letter. If necessary to use the wire 

 don't hazard clearness for the sake of 

 a few pennies. Use the code which 

 you will find in the Review. Always 

 spell out the names of the flowers. 

 There is no saving in abbreviations 

 for the Telegraph Co. charges by the- 

 word and an abbreviation costs as 

 much as the full word. There is much 

 less chance of error in transmission 

 when the names are spelled out. I will 

 try to show you how easily a commis- 

 sion man can get your order wrong 

 without any fault on his part. Here 

 is a sample order as received: "Send 

 to-day fifty Brides Maids Perles one 

 white carnation." Note that there is 

 no punctuation in the telegram. We 

 sent a hundred roses and the hundred 

 carnations, but it appears the man 

 wanted 150 roses. Had he written his 

 order: "First train fifty each Brides- 

 maids, Brides, Perles, one white car- 

 nation," there could have IJeen no 

 possibility of a misunderstanding. It 

 is fair to suppose that the commis- 

 sion man is not always right, but the 

 least you can say in the above case is 

 that he lost the sale of 50 roses 

 ($3.50). was blamed for the mistake, 

 and it will take a long time to con- 

 vince the sender of the order that he 

 was wholly at fault. 



Use the telegraph code freely so as 

 to let the commission man know when 

 you can use a specially fine grade of 

 stock even if it costs a little more, or 

 when something short stemmed at a 

 cheaper price will answer your pur- 

 pose. All commission men can in most 

 cases buy when they happen to be- 

 out of the class of stock wanted, and 

 would then know just what to do and 

 do It right. 



Try to follow the above and you will 

 get your orders filled more to your 

 satisfaction. And by all means do 

 not use the word "duplicate." 



CHARLEY'S AUNT. 



