403 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



MARCH 8, 1900. 



Review. These pictures were talten 

 by time exposures and under great dif- 

 ficulties. Tile reason wliy we don't 

 siiow you illustrations of tlie fine de- 

 corations done by New York florists 

 is because the proprieiors of the halls 

 where banquets and festivals occur 

 dread flash lights, and usually other- 

 wise the light is too poor. 



These pictures show you the interior 

 of the main hall of the Madison Square 

 Gardens; it is the finest exhibition 

 building in the country. It is a very 

 difficult building to decorate, perhaps 

 the second hardest we have in New 

 York: the stretch of roof is enormous 

 and the decorator must creep out on 

 each girder and carry his stuff with 

 him; even the nerviest man in such 

 a case holds his heart in his mouth 

 and carries his life on his finger tips. 

 Imagine yourself there struggling 

 with hands and feet to guard your life 

 and with eyes to create a beautiful 

 scene. 



These decorations are the highest 

 type of American work in the compo- 

 site class. Of course this is for a 

 masked ball; a hired ballet and sev- 

 eral floats are used, and all is ar- 

 ranged to produce the finest spectacu- 

 lar effects. The details of the affair 

 may be faulty, but the whole creates 

 a very beautiful picture. In the cen- 

 ter of the floor they erected a white 

 and gold pagoda; this was also a blaze 

 of electric lights. (We ourselves 

 would prefer an electric fountain 

 there.) A promenade walk about 20 

 feet wide is partitioned off all around 

 the hall; this is done by a 4-foot 

 hedge of hemlock; here and there, es- 

 pecially at the base oi the statuettes 

 shown, are grouped cinerarias, azaleas 

 and various kinds of bulb stock with- 

 out particular attention as to color 

 harmony, the idea being to give the 

 impression of what are known as 

 "Dutch Garden" effects. 



The ceiling is almost covered with 

 colored bunting and heavy garlands of 

 hemlock roping, to which are attached 

 strings of electric lights and paper 

 paeony flowers. Some very good deco- 

 rative work can be seen on the sides 

 of the building. Several thousand 

 yards of red, white, green and yellow 

 cheese cloth is gracefully looped and 

 outlined, and framed with garland or 

 greenery. 



At one spot near the center of the 

 ceiling is suspended an S-foot ball of 

 green; in this are heaps of favors and 

 fifty live doves; when the festival is 

 at full swing this ball is opened by 

 means of a cord and the contents scat- 

 ter over the floor. 



In these decorations aie used ten 

 thousand yards of hemlock roping, 10,- 

 000 pSper flowers, 250 bundles of hem- 

 lock branches, 20 cases of wild smilax, 

 several hundred long needle pines, a 

 great quantity of spangled banner- 

 ettes and bunting. The job was an 

 herculean one, and Fred Hanft, who 

 had charge of it, deserves great credit 

 for the manner in which it was done. 

 It affords us much pleasure to be able 



to show it to our readers, no matter 

 what part of the world they may live 

 in. It shows the kind of work no 

 American need be ashamed of, and 

 that the others may get points from 



The Carnation Cup. 



The ( onditions under which the 

 American Carnation Societ,'' offered its 

 silver cup for carnation design at Buf- 

 falo are vastly amusing. Some ge- 

 niu.-; twisted lots of spaghetti strings 

 around that little cup. Now if it could 

 only he awarded for some "new use" 

 for carnations, why didn't they gather 

 up a company of chefs to make con- 

 coctions of carnation soup, carnation 

 stew, carnation pie, a timbal, ragout 

 or compote of carnation? A "new" 

 use for tarnations, forsooth; what is 

 badly wanted is a new and sensible el- 

 ement on that schedule as well as in 

 many more, IVER.A. 



CYCLAMEN-SWEET ALYSSUM. 



Please tell us what culture is the 

 best for cyclamens, and how to keep 

 them in the summer. 



Where can we get the long-stemmed 

 al,vssum? B. B. & S. 



The culture of this most important 

 plant, the cyclamen, has been often 

 written up in the columns of the trade 

 journals. Presuming that you now 

 have small plants in 2 or 2V4-inch 

 pots that were sown in October or 

 November, the principal points to ob- 

 serve will be that they be given plenty 

 of light. If the house is not a mod- 

 ern one, then put the cyclamen on a 

 shelf near the glass. Shift into 3 or 

 4-inch as soon as well rooted in the 

 smaller pots. Put a little drainage in 

 bottom of pot, because the cyclamen 

 needs plenty of watering and syring- 

 ing. Never let them get killing dry, 

 and to avoid this a shade during the 

 brightest hour.s of the day is most de- 

 sirable, but a permanent shade that 

 would be on them at all hours would 

 be very hurtful to them. 



The finest cyclamen are now given 

 the hotued treatment during .lune, 

 July, August and September, and even 

 with care part of May and October. 

 The bottom heat of the hotbed is most 

 beneficial, but at no time should be 

 violent, as from a newly made bed. 

 Some growers keep the top of pot 

 about even with the top edge of frame, 

 and by a slight framework of wooil 

 keep the sash (either glass or slats or 

 cloth shading) a few inches above the 

 plants. By this method there is a 

 current of air continually over and 

 among the plants. This has a ten- 

 dency to make compact plants with a 

 moderate amount of foliage and very 

 lloriferous. 



Other growers, among them the 

 large market growers, sink the plants 

 lower, so that the sash when on the 

 frame in the ordinary way will be but 

 a few inches above the plants. The 

 sash can be tilted at one end, or on 



very warm days at both back and 

 front. By this latter plaff the largest 

 and finest plants are produced. The 

 ammonia arising from the fermenting 

 material of the hotbed has undoubted- 

 ly the result of producing fine leaf 

 growth, but by no means to the detri- 

 ment of the quality or nurabsr of flow- 

 ers. 



Briefly, cyclamen should never be 

 stunted for want of pot room up to 

 September, and never suffer from ex- 

 treme dryness. A good turfy loam, 

 with a third of well rotted leaf mould 

 does well for the soil. Few plants are 

 troubled more with greenfly and more 

 easily hurt. A regular fumigation is 

 most essential. This is not so easy 

 to do when in a frame, but then a 

 weekly syringing with a solution of 

 either the "Nikoteen" or "Rose Leaf" 

 extract will keep the aphis down. 



The sweet alyssum subscriber in- 

 quires about is the double form of the 

 well known little plant and is most 

 useful for edges of flower beds or 

 boxes. Look in the trade journals and 

 you will see that several people ad- 

 vertise rooted cuttings. It roots eas- 

 ily and quickly. It is continually want- 

 ing to fiower, so keep the flowers 

 pinched off or yon won't get growth. 

 WM. SCOTT. 



RATS DESTROYING CARNATION 

 FLOWERS. 



A distressed correspondent wishes 

 to know how to prevent this; and as 

 we have been annoyed as he is, and 

 have apparently solved the difficulty, 

 I hasten to give our brethren the ben- 

 efit of our experience. 



The rats destroyed several hundred 

 flowers for us in a very few nights; 

 and although we had box traps, spring 

 traps, steel traps, and wire traps set 

 in various ways and places, the loss 

 kept increasing, until Mus rattus be- 

 came a wholesale customer, and the 

 only collections we were able to make 

 on his account were of the shattered 

 remains of the flowers every morning. 

 We put strychnine in the center of lit- 

 tle blocks of fresh beef, which were 

 laid on the benches, convenient for rat 

 lunches, but although these were 

 moved about by them, I think we suc- 

 ceeded in poisoning but one rat. The 

 same poison was mixed with cornmeal 

 in little pot saucers, and temptingly 

 displayed, but they would not partake: 

 and poisons are always dangerous 

 things to have about, even if you do 

 succeed in killing some of the vermin 

 they are meant for. 



The situation grew worse, until a.s a 

 last resort we got a ferret and turned 

 it loose in a large potting shed con- 

 nected with our carnation houses. 

 The first night we had it about six 

 flowers were eaten, but since then 

 (now over two weeks) we have seen 

 no evidence of either rats or mice, and 

 mice are often very destructive about 

 the seed pans. 



The ferret so far has not injured an.v 



