SEPTEMBER 6, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



421 



different class from the carnations 

 grown in England. 



An- American florist with 10,000 feet 

 of glass in England, planted with Am- 

 erican carnations grown as we grow 

 them here, would cause a sensation 

 there, especially if he would stage his 

 flowers as we do here. 



A. MITTING. 



A NEW ASTER. 



We present herewith an engraving 

 from a photograph of pink, white and 

 lavender flowers of Carlson's Improv- 

 ed Paeony Flowered Aster, which 

 seems to be a vei'y desirable addition 

 to the varieties of this useful flower. 

 Mr. Carlson gives the history of this 

 aster as follows: 



"In 1S95 I bought a paper of mixed 

 aster seed from which I obtained only 

 three plants of any value, but these 

 were remarkably flne. They were of 

 three beautiful colors — white, pink and 

 lavender, the flowers were the largest 

 I had ever grown, and the plants grew 

 fully two feet in height, the flowers 

 with well furnished stems flfteen to 

 eighteen inches long. Since then the 

 blooms have increased in size so that 

 it is quite common to have them meas- 

 ure 2M, inches in diameter." 



We understand that Mr. D. S. Hef- 

 fron, Washington Heights, 111., con- 

 trols the entire crop of this aster. 

 Blooms shown us by him were very 

 fine, and were fully up to the size in- 

 dicated. 



STARTING AS A GROWER. 



The writer, wishing to start in ,the 

 floral business as a wholesale grower, 

 wishes you to give some suggestions, 

 etc., that would prove of some use. 



I have had one year's experience in 

 a retail flower store of this city, but I 

 think there is a better future in rais- 

 ing flowers for the market. And not 

 having capital enough to erect green- 

 houses kindly give advice as to how 

 to start in that line. Have had no ex- 

 perience as a grower, but thought I 

 would get a start by raising outdoor 

 flowers such as Russian violets, paeo- 

 nies, peas, asters, etc. I also counted 

 on the help of an experienced grower 

 whom I may hire by the month. 



A. G. 



The easiest and probably the best 

 answer we could give the above in- 

 quirer would be, "Don't attempt it," 

 but it IS bad to check even premature 

 ambition. With only one year's expe- 

 rience in a florist's store and a limited 

 capital it is hard to see how you can 

 succeed; let's argue the case. 



First, to start as a grower it would 

 be necessary to take a lease on an es- 

 tablishment or purchase grounds; 

 second, the desired stock would neces- 

 sitate an outlay of considerable 

 money; and third, the first year 

 would demand sacrifices very few are 

 willing to make. 



There is too much poor stock com- 

 ing into the cut flower markets today, 



and the growers of it know to their 

 sorrow what it is to depend on that 

 class of goods. To succeed one must 

 specialize on desirable material, and 

 in order to do this brains and capital 

 are necessary. 



It is quite true that many of the 

 successful florists of today started on 

 very little, but they had experience 

 as growers, and there were opportuni- 

 ties then which do not exist today. 



If a person could get a long lease, or 



other line, but don't attempt growing 

 flowers without experience. 



IVERA. 



better still, purchase a few acres of 

 land near a town or clt.v and could 

 erect, even by his own hands, a small 

 greenhouse, the chances are that with 

 lots of will power and a watchful eye 

 he may succeed; but as in your case 

 where you depend entirely on possible 

 crops of outdoor flowers, which whilst 

 in season are the drugs of the market, 

 all the chances of success are against 

 you. 



Our advice to you is to save what- 

 ever few dollars you may have, go to 

 work for some good grower, study the 

 growing business thoroughly and the 

 market, and in a year or two if you 

 still desire to start for yourself as a 

 grower, you will find that experience 

 in many ways is more valuable than 

 money. If your ambition to start a 

 business is too red hot, start jn some 



COLOR. 



However much our eyes may be de- 

 lighted by the infinite variety of tints 

 displayed by our favorite flowers and 

 the subtle grades of verdancy exhibit- 

 ed in their foliage, we rarely give a 

 thought to the underlying wonder it- 

 self of color-production that is the 

 breaking-up of the component light of 

 the sunbeam, which we see as white 

 light, into all the innumerable tints 

 in question. The familiar example of 

 the rainbow teaches us that all these 

 tints exist in the white sunray, and 

 the scientists will tell us that every 

 tint has its own special wavelength or 

 light undulations, so that when it 

 passes through a raindrop or a prism 

 it is differently affected to its fellow 

 tints, the end results being that the 

 crowd of all sorts is marshalled into 

 an orderly regiment known as the 

 spectrum. 



A very little study will enable us to 

 grasp the phenomenon of color so far, 

 but when we take some of our lovely 

 flowers in which one and the same 

 petal may display several colors merg- 

 ing harmoniously the one into the 

 other, and the same flower may be 

 composed of scores of precisely simi- 

 lar ones, more or less sheathed per- 

 haps in a tinted calyx and bearing 

 in its bosom stamens and stigma and 

 brightly colored pollen, it is by no 

 means easy to grasp the subtlety of 

 process which enables all these va- 

 riously colored items to throw off to 

 our eyes those light rays we call their 

 colors and absorb all the rest, select- 

 ing and rejecting with the utmost 

 nicety, so that in no case shall we 

 detect a false color-note, the tint may 

 be paler or darker, i. e., weaker or 

 stronger, but that is all. 



The flower is a modified leaf, and 

 leaves are usually green, hence we are 

 struck with the fact that in the course 

 of ages, during the evolution of the 

 flower, its original scheme of selection 

 has been entirely altered and intense 

 crimsons and scarlets are produced, 

 wherein the green rays are entirely 

 absorbed instead of being wholly re- 

 flected. The unbroken poppy-bud of 

 olive-green bursts open and displays 

 its very antithesis of color in the pet- 

 als. How do those wonderful little 

 cells perform these marvels? If we 

 could view them with unlimited pow- 

 ers of vision we should find the flower 

 surfaces in the sunshine subjected to 

 a constant storm of light-waves beat- 

 ing millions of times per second, and, 

 as we have said, of different sizes and 

 velocities, shorter waves beating oft- 

 ener upon the shores of the flower- 

 petals than the longer ones. 



We have two flowers of same spe- 

 cies, but different color, side by side, 

 and now as we watch them with our 

 mind's eye we see in one flower that 

 all waves up to and beyond a certain 

 length slip through and into its sub- 

 stance and are mainly lost, while all 



