SEPTEMBER 7, 1899. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



367 



;£w 



Specimen Calceolaria. 



in it as there is in a middle class. For 

 society swells you need lots of the 

 very finest stock, give long credits and 

 are very often fleeced by frauds. The 

 rich people live on the poor trades- 

 people by the execrable system of 

 "charge accounts." You lose the in- 

 terest on your money and are often 

 turned into a beggar; you insult them 

 if you ask them for what is yours, 

 and they will often run away to Eu- 

 rope or somewhere else to avoid pay- 

 ing their bills. Perhaps there is no 

 one knows more about the flimsy pre- 

 texts and meanness of the rich, or 

 those who pretend to be, than the 

 poor florist. 



Funeral work is about the best 

 paying part of the business, and if you 

 can manage to get it without stoop- 

 ing to the detestable system of "crape 

 pulling" all the better. An undertak- 

 er's friendship is even desirable to 

 this end. Never mind flashy effects, 

 loud accoutrements and letters plas- 

 tered over your window. You might 

 even leave trotting horses alone and 

 endeavor to pay your bills once a 

 month. There's nothing like good 

 habits and that is one of the best. 

 Don't be ashamed of starting in a 

 small way and roll up your sleeves 

 and build up your own edifice; there 

 is all the more glory in it. Remem- 

 ber that almost every florist in this 

 country started on nothing. 95 per 

 cent, of them worked for others, and 

 they deserve all the more credit for 

 I lit- places they occupy today. 



A mistake is often made by consid- 

 ering the large city the best place to 

 start in. There are better opportuni- 

 ties in small manufacturing towns. In 

 such places of course more attention 

 must be given to plants. In many 

 cases the greenhouse and office must 

 take the place of the store, and the 

 same principle applies to both. Many 



a vast range of glass sprung from 

 some small frame or pit, and today 

 the man who grows stock for his own 

 local trade, or rather the florist who 

 can sell all he grows, has one of the 

 best ends of the business. A concern 

 so conducted should not, as is some- 

 times the case, be a hospital for rub- 

 bishy plants, nor yet a botanical gar- 

 den. Many growers are carrying 

 stock today which they have had for 

 years and will have for several more, 

 and then have to throw it away. A 

 man with a small area of glass can 

 ill afford to have it occupied with 

 plants that are of no value to him. 

 Many will grow any old thing in or- 

 der to fill up, and that is wrong; a 

 good propagator can soon surround 

 himself with an abundance of desira- 

 ble stock, and in the matter of deco- 

 rative plants a well-timed purchase 

 of desirable kinds will always increase 

 in value. 



An abundance of flowers suitable for 

 cutting should be the first thing to 

 strive for, and with flowering shrubs, 

 showy annuals and perennials this is 

 a pleasant task. Never mind orchids. 

 Beauties, Meteors, violets, etc., until 

 you can grow them satisfactorily; 

 they require what few beginners can 

 give them. Go for the easy grown, 

 showy flowers and plants, and even in 

 your poorest days be generous; let no 

 opportunity pass whereby you can do 

 yourself some good by a few well 

 placed flowers, for, as we have said 

 before, popularity is wealth to a new 

 beginner. IVERA. 



SPECIMEN CALCEOLARIA. 



It's a beauty, isn't it? It is from a 

 photograph of a specimen plant shown 

 by Sutton & Sons, at an English ex- 

 hibition. We reproduce the engrav- 

 ing from the Gardeners' Magazine. 



While some truly magnificent plants 

 are produced by American growers our 

 English cousins seem to still lead us a 

 little in this department. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 



Feeding. 



Feeding must be carried on con- 

 tinuously if the finest flowers are 

 looked for. If a weak solution is ap- 

 plied every time the plants need water 

 it will be found much better than one 

 ^remg dose, and then switching off 

 to clear water again. By keeping the 

 liquid weaker and using regularly, the 

 delicate root fibres are not injured and 

 the plants will keep moving right 

 along. Injury to the rootlets often re- 

 sults if the dose given is too strong, 

 and this applies more particularly to 

 chemical manures than natural ones. 

 Cow or sheep manure used alone are 

 fairly safe, but chicken or pigeon man- 

 ure is very caustic, and must be used 

 with caution or it will burn up the 

 surface roots and do much more harm 

 than good. 



The drainings from the barnyard 

 make the finest possible liquid when 

 diluted down, but the average florist 

 cannot obtain this, and has to manu- 

 facture his own, which can be easily 

 done by putting cow or sheep manure 

 into water and letting it stand for a 

 day or two. About a bushel of either 

 of these manures to 50 gallons of water 

 will make a good liquid and if it does 

 not stand over two days before using 

 can be filled up with water again. 

 Sheep manure is our staple, though 

 cow manure when fresh and pure is 

 much better. The sheep we soak in 

 bags, but the cow manure is dumped 

 right into the barrel or tank, as it does 

 not seem to soak through a sack so 

 well. Chicken manure we use by put- 

 ting a 6-inch pot full in with the cow 

 manure. 



Nitrate of soda is one of the finest 

 possible manures, but its use should 

 not be long continued, certainly not 

 after the first signs of color in the bud, 

 or it makes the flower soft and flabby, 

 and the petals fall out easily. It is 

 safe used at this season, once in ten 

 days in the proportion of one pound 

 in fifty gallons of water, and its ef- 

 fect on the hard husky covering of the 

 crown bud is very marked. 



Sulphate of ammonia is the manure 

 that is relied on largely by the ex- 

 pert for finishing the flowers, as it can 

 be used beneficially and safely till the 

 flower is half way developed. It tones 

 up the colors wonderfully, particularly 

 the pink shades, and can be used in 

 the same proportion as the nitrate of 

 soda. 



It is agreed on by everybody that 

 it is better to use these manures each 

 separately than to mix up the whole 

 business together. Thus sheep ma- 

 nure one week, then say a dose of ni- 

 trate of soda; after that cow manure 

 and so on. The plants are benefited 



