JTTNE 22, 1899. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



71 



A Plain Crescent Wreath.- Simple Floral Arrangements. 



adiantum, make up fine; so do Me- 

 teors or Jacques. Bridesmaids are 

 awful washy looking; pansies are 

 good yet; orchids, of course, are the 

 best, of all, and some very fine Cat- 

 tleya Mendelii are obtainable. Cat- 

 tleya gigas are commencing to appear 

 and last year they were in great de- 

 mand in the latter part of the sum- 

 mer. They are the finest of all the 

 flowers we see and are usually too 

 scarce in July and August. Holly- 

 hocks, particularly the single ones, are 

 very effective for vase work, and we 

 would like to see more of the finer 

 varieties of delphiniums. A few of the 

 Cactus dahlias are in, and welcome 

 they are for their gaudy splendor. 

 Yellow cornflowers are prominent in 

 many windows; they have a fine, rich 

 shade of color. Yucca filamentosa 

 blooms are splendid for large decora- 

 tions; we are getting them from the 

 South. IVERA. 



SIMPLE FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



A Plain Crescent Wreath. 

 The wreath illustrated was made of 

 pink and white carnations and roses; 

 (he darkest flowers being at the broad- 

 est part, and shading to white at the 

 top. The small white flowers were 

 Rhyncospermum jasminoides, very 

 suitable for this purpose, and deli- 

 ciously fragrant. The garnishing was 

 done with mell-matured sprays of 

 heath; and the piece was used as 

 shown, without ribbon. 



W. T. BELL. 



PLEASE let us have your advance 

 oiiler now for a copy of the Florists' 

 Manual, to be delivered by August 1. 



BULB GROWING IN AMERICA. 



At the last meeting of the Chicago 

 Florists' Club a paper on "Bulb Grow- 

 ing in the State of Washington" was 

 read by Mr. Andreas Simon, who has 

 made four visits to the Pacific coast 

 to personally investigate the bulb 

 growing industry that was inaugu- 

 rated by Mr. Geo. Gibbs, of Orcas, 

 Wash. Mr. Simon expressed himself 

 as firmly convinced that it is only a 

 question of time when this section will 

 furnish a sufficient supply of Dutch 

 bulbs to meet all the demands of 

 America, and that importations will 

 be unnecessary. Roman hyacinths 

 have also been very successfully 

 grown, and Mr. Gibbs reports an in- 

 crease of a thousand per cent in his 

 bulbs since last October. 



Following we give some extracts 

 from the paper: 



Mr. Gibbs is pleasantly located on 

 the southwest side of Orcas Island, 

 having a fine water frontage and a 

 grand view of the adjacent islands; 

 the land is rolling in character, entire- 

 ly protected from severe winds, well 

 drained and, owing to the higher lands 

 surrounding, well supplied with mois- 

 ture, even in the driest weather. The 

 bulb beds are located on the lower 

 lands, but perfectly drained, so that 

 there are but few days in the entire 

 year that one cannot work on them, 

 the character of the soil being a dark 

 sandy loam, underlaid with a sandy 

 clay subsoil, never leaching or becom- 

 ing lumpy in wet weather, or baking 

 if worked when a little moist. While 

 Mr. Gibbs' work has been limited to 

 some extent on account of the lack of 

 capital, one is hardly prepared to find 



such results as shown there for the 

 comparatively short time he has devot- 

 ed to his work. 



* * * 



The results achieved in the growing 

 of bulbs plainly show that a pro- 

 nounced similarity exists between 

 western Washington and Holland, and 

 that the experiments carried cm in 

 the vicinity of Bellingham Bay have 

 fully demonstrated that these bulbs 

 can be grown in western Washington 

 just as well and successfully as in 

 Holland. 



I am morally certain of the fact thai 

 when this industry is thoroughly es- 

 tablished out there on a commercial 

 basis and the bulbs grown there arc 

 found to be the equals of the import- 

 ed bulbs in every respect, or are per- 

 haps in some instances even superior 

 to the latter, this business will become 

 one of the foremost and most impor- 

 tant ones in the evergreen Puget 

 Sound country. The essential feature-s 

 in the cultivation of these bulbs, and 

 which are found to prevail in said 

 country, are according to Mr. C. T. 

 Canfield, of Fairhaven, who is at pres- 

 ent cultivating a, large number of hy- 

 acinth and tulip bulbs at Fort Bel- 

 lingham, and who is a great enthu- 

 siast on the subject of horticulture, 

 and a firm believer in a glorious fu- 

 ture for the bulb industry in What- 

 com county, plenty of moisture in the 

 growing season, a period extendfhg 

 usually from October to July follow- 

 ing, an average temperature, the 

 ground rarely freezing to the depth 

 the bulbs are planted; hence there is 

 no check in root growth, which check 

 would result in immature only par- 

 tially developed bulbs with few or no 

 offsets and a correspondingly imper- 

 fect bloom. Then there is a period of 

 from sixty to ninety days in midsea- 

 son without rain ensuring the well 

 ripening of the crop, which is essen- 

 tial for a perfect bloom, as the seven 

 or eight months vigorous growths 

 give larger and better developed 

 blooms and a correspondingly larger 

 increase of stock than even Holland 

 growers can attain. 



Another prominent feature of bulb 

 growing in the vicinity of Bellingham 

 Bay is the remarkable short period in 

 which the bulbs mature. This is main- 

 ly accounted for by two causes: first, 

 from the time the bulbs are planted 

 or commence their fall growing until 

 after the blooming period there is no 

 cessation in growth on account of 

 frost, and, secondly, during the sum- 

 mer months, that being their period 

 of rest, the rainfall being very slighi, 

 the bulbs get thoroughly ripened off 

 before the growing period commences 

 again, ensuring vigorous stock with a 

 certainty of the fine blooming quali- 

 ties. 



The soil requires, as you all know, ;i 

 sandy or gravelly subsoil which will 

 ensure perfect drainage with at least 

 sixteen inches (more is better) of a 

 surface soil of a light sandy character; 

 this is best for hyacinths and tulips', 



