OCTOBER n, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists* Review* 



547 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



i'yr^'fe»> 



Evergreens. 



A few words with you on the use of 

 evergreens as decorative material. It 

 Is the duty of, and should be a pleasure 

 for, every florist doing a retail business 

 to encourage a greater use of the 

 things which are most beautiful when 

 winter is most dismal. The products 

 of the greenhouse may constitute the 

 greater portion of our trade, but that 

 does not justify a disregard for the 

 minor parts. The majority of florists 

 have to recognize everything which 

 may produce a recompense. 



There are a great many conserva- 

 tories attached to city homes in which 

 It is impossible to keep palms or warm 

 grown plants; it often occurs that a 

 frozen plant also kills the desire to 

 continue to have plants in the house, 

 and this is where an intelligent intro- 

 duction of evergreens is likely to 

 produce much good. It is quite true 

 that you may not be able to produce 

 tropical effects with such material, 

 but it is possible for you to create 

 much beauty in a carefully selected 

 and properly arranged winter garden 

 or cold house of shrubs and vines. Bay 

 trees are supposed to stand the cold 

 down to ten degrees of frost but it is 

 best not to go to the limit. 



For Cool Conservatories. 

 Many of you know of places where 

 in coldest weather there may be one 

 or two degrees of frost creep in, and 

 though your fancy ferns and high 

 priced palms will not live there, there 

 are many beautiful things that will 

 prosper and give pleasure in such a 

 place, for in addition to the endless 

 variety of conifers, such plants as 

 Aucuba japonica, andromedas, rhodo- 

 dendrons, hollies, euonymus, Ma- 

 honia aquifolium, agaves, yuccas, box, 

 bay trees, Vinca minor. Daphne 

 cneorum are suitable and many more 

 worthy of consideration. South of 

 Washington D. C, almost every kind 

 of evergreen will stand the winter; 

 north of that point many of the tender 

 ones have to be protected in very 

 severe weather; but the number of 

 varieties that will stand the severest 

 climate renders It an easy matter to 

 dispense with tender ones. 



For Hotels, Clubs, Etc. 



We have noticed with a great deal 

 of pleasure, the increasing demand for 

 evergreens for use in decorating 

 modern city buildings, and this part 



of the trade is growing to such an ex- 

 tent that no florist can afford to ignore 

 It. Examine the new hotels, club 

 houses, dwelling houses, yes, even 

 office buildings, and you will see that 

 the architects have planned with a 

 view to both interior and exterior 

 plant decoration, and these intentions 

 are often not fully understood by the 

 owners. There are many cases where 

 suggestions from the florist would be 

 acted upon, and a highly deserving 

 branch of the trade be thus greatly 

 encouraged. 



There are many corridors, balconies, 

 alcoves, windows, door entrances and 

 back and front spaces at city homes 

 and buildings which would look all 

 the better were a few conifers nicely 

 arranged. 



The reason that more of this class 

 of work is not done is simply because 

 it is neglected, given over to peddlers 

 to do, or else done carelessly, yes, 

 and most often ignorantly by picked 

 up day help and temporary florists who 

 know little beyond the names and 

 values of the commonest every day 

 cut flowers. Even in New York here 

 in the winter time in front of the 

 world renowned restaurants and palaces 

 you can see vases filled with ever- 

 greens in the most ludicrous fashion. 

 Irish junipers are often made to poke 

 out slantingly from the midst of dwarf 

 retinosporas at the edges of vases, and 

 other plants are placed as if they were 

 tumbled out of a wagon. The wonder 

 to us is how any man with even a 

 slight knowledge of plants can do such 

 things, and that any person can per- 

 mit the front of his place to be thus 

 disfigured. 



For Window Boxes and Vases. 



A thing well done most always 

 creates a desire for repetition, and 

 whatever is worth doing, particularly 

 in a business sense, is worth doing 

 well. You can display as much art 

 in a way in arranging a window box 

 of evergreens as you can in fixing a 

 basket of flowers; just because they 

 appear coarse outdoor stock and re- 

 quire soil and dirty fingers should not 

 make them objects of careless regard. 



We find that many of the failures in 

 this work are directly traceable to 

 having it delayed until very cold 

 weather sets In, when frozen Soil and 

 fingers are sufficient reasons for much 

 that is committed. If you are a prac- 

 tical man and wish to plant fancy 

 evergreens on your lawn or about your 



house you would not wait till all was 

 frozen, and this should guide in much 

 you are required to do tor others. 

 We have never had good permanent 

 results rrom newly imported conifers. 

 They may look bright and very pretty 

 and all that, but beware, many of 

 them are dead, even though they look 

 beautiful, and the rest will not stand 

 severe storms. Better for you to pat- 

 ronize the nurseries within a hun- 

 dred miles of where you want to use 

 the stock and then you can be sure 

 that it will be acclimated. 



Evergreens put into a vase or win- 

 dow box or other form of ornamenta- 

 tion should be planted with the same 

 care as those put out in the garden 

 to grow. Alas, how often the work is 

 done otherwise, roots are sawed and 

 hacked with the sole view of making 

 them fit into impossible spaces, and 

 then we pretend not to know the rea- 

 son why they died. Then again, the 

 receptacles contain soil that has done 

 duty for years, and because it is handy 

 or too troublesome to renew, we con- 

 tinue to use it and the consequence 

 is it soon gets as hard as cement, and 

 this renders it impossible for anything 

 to live in it. It is quite true that 

 evergreens remain dormant in most 

 situations during the winter but then 

 they require soil which permits air 

 and moisture to get to the roots. 

 They need but little attention, an oc- 

 casional syringing or watering over- 

 head, to make them clean and bright. 



Be careful not to use anything that 

 will not stand the hardest freeze if 

 that element can reach them. We 

 have seen well-known florists plant 

 Aucuba japonica out along Fifth ave- 

 nue in winter time. They ought to 

 have known better, but you know how 

 it is. 'Twas only the other day we 

 happened to be in the store of a suc- 

 cessful florist, when one of his cus- 

 tomers came in and asked him if 

 "Rose of Sharon" would stand out all 

 winter. 'Oh, no," said the florist, 

 "it is not hardy." The customer re- 

 ferred to a plant of the same kind 

 on his neighbor's place. "You must 

 be mistaken." said the florist. "Rose 

 of Sharon (althea) is one of the ten- 

 derest of plants and must be taken In 

 before the first frost." We could not 

 say anything, but thought much. 



Visit the Nursei-ies, 

 A few hours inspecting and making 

 one's self acquainted with the many 

 beauties in nearby nurseries will more 

 than repay any plantsman or florist. 

 There is too much of the commonest 

 and unsuitable stock used, much of 

 it because there is a lack of knowl- 

 edge of the value and perhaps the ex- 

 istence of choicer kinds. The gen- 

 eral public are apt to class all they 

 see as Christmas trees, and often the 

 material and the way it is used jus- 

 tifies the lack of proper appreciation. 

 There is no building so beautiful, no 

 entrance so grand, no window curtain 



