April 2-1. 1902. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



773 



New Light Pink Carnation Enchantress. 



liundreds of smaller concerns employing 

 hut little help or none at all, I wish to 

 lay special emphasis on adopting some 

 plan for keeping records. The one I 

 have outlined ma.v not be complete 

 enough for some, or be too intricate for 

 others. In either case get what good 

 you can from these few pointers, use 

 them as the basis for something better, 

 and begin at once to systematize your 

 work. 



Along with this daily record keep a 

 diary of the weather, in the same book 

 if you like. As much depends upon the 

 sunshine and bright weather in the florist 

 business, an intelligent comparison of 

 records cannot be made without the 

 weather conditions being known. 



Our readers may think that to follow 

 these suggestions may require a great 

 deal of time and labor. If your place 

 is small the time consumed in keeping 

 this record will not exceed three minutes 

 per day for each house. If your estab- 

 lishment, is large you have, or should 

 ha\'e, a compet'^nt bookkeeper, who can 

 do all this work without much extra ex- 

 ertion. But whether large or small, the 

 success or failure of your business and 

 of any business depends upon strict at- 

 tention to detail work. System. 



KEEPING CUT FLOWERS. 



A correspondent, "H. G. F.," asks the 

 following : ' ' Whether carnations and cut 

 roses put in water and in refrigerator 

 keep better than when laid on wet trays 

 in refrigerator." 



There is some difference of opinion 

 about where to keep cut tlowers, or, rath- 

 er, under what conditions. Some of those 

 big fellows who handle one hundred dol- 

 lars' worth to m.y one dollar's worth 

 ought to have most correct opinions on 



this subject, for they have had the ad- 

 vantage of great experience. But as to 

 whether the stems should be in water or 

 merely lying on a tray there can be no 

 reasonable doubt. The stems should cer- 

 tainly be in water. Without it unless the 

 atnuisphere surrounding them was heavily 

 charged with moisture they would as- 

 suredly wilt, and too much moisture 

 would be ruinous to the flowers, and in 

 a refrigerator there is little moisture. I 

 trust in the above I have answered the 

 specific question. 



Now, for my own opinion on this very 

 important question, I hate the verv name 

 of refrigerator in connection with cut 

 flowers, as his satantie majest.y is alleged 

 to have an intense antipathy to adulter- 

 ated and odorous water. Some people, 

 people who should know, say carnations 

 should be placed in ,iars of water and 

 j)laced in a cool, dry cellar or room. That 

 is not my experience. The cool cellar 

 is all right, but let it be rather moist. 

 As to roses, there is no d.oubt about where 

 to keep them for 24 or 48 hours, as oc- 

 casionally we must do— a cool cellar, and 

 let it be as moist as you like, and I know 

 of no flowers that are an exception to 

 this treatment except one or two. 



Violets should not be put in an ice 

 box or very cold room or they will lose 

 their odor entirely, and what is a violet 

 without its sweetness? and violets have 

 to be kept but a short time, but during 

 that few hours keep them wrapped in oil 

 paper and in a close box, each bunch in 

 a small vase or glass, but even if you 

 don't put them in water, being wrapped 

 in oil paper and not exposed to the air, 

 the.y will keep fresh as long as they 

 should. Stemless orchids, such as the 

 cattle.vas and coelogyne, will do very well 

 laid on wet paper in a cool cellar, or if 



you can get their short stems to touch 

 the water they will last a long time in a 

 room where the temperature is 40 to 50 

 degrees. 



The ice box, I realize, is the great at- 

 traction of a flower store and the very 

 best ' ' adv. ' ' you can make is a fine show 

 in the ice box, and nowadays they are 

 a most expensive and important part 

 of- all well regulated florists ' shops. But 

 if you carry a large stock or have to 

 keep unsold stock over night, for gracious 

 sake put it in a cool, moist cellar. I have 

 already extended these few remarks fur- 

 ther than I intended, but I say finally 

 that a cellar where the temperature is 

 about 35 to 40 degrees in winter and 40 

 to 50 degrees in summer is about ideal. 

 And the ice box is a humbug and abomi- 

 nation except for the display of flowers 

 which must be only considered as a sae- 

 ritice or outlay in the shape of an adver- 

 isement. 



There is a brilliant young florist of 

 Philadelphia who has two stores. In one 

 of them he has no ice box, ' ' flowers fresh 

 and high priced," the other "iee box 

 flowers and lower priced" flowers. He 

 is on the right track and is, I beUeve, 

 prosperous— at least he owes me nothing. 

 Avoid the refrigerator all you can except 

 for advertising purposes. " W. S. 



CARNATION ENCHANTRESS. 



Peter Fisher, of Ellis, Mass., has sold 

 the stock of his light pink carnation En- 

 chantress to the J. r>. Thompson Carna- 

 tion Co., Joliet, 111., and it is said that 

 the price paid was $10,000. 



The color is of the Daybreak type, but 

 deeper, and Mr. Fisher says the variety 

 is superior to Lawson in every way. Law- 

 son is the pollen parent. Anything that 

 Mr. Fisher announces as superior to Law- 

 son is certainly of the greatest interest. 



We present herewith an engraving 

 from a bloom of Enchantress. 



HEATING. 



I have a carnation house 70x18, the 

 side walls 3 feet high and the ridge 10 

 feet. The boiler is about 2 feet below 

 the level of the floor. There is a 4-inch 

 header above the boiler (which heats an- 

 other house also) from which two 2-inch 

 flows rise about 5 feet, enter the house 

 and immediately fall, are then carried 

 along the sides of the house and have a 

 fall of about 4 inches. The returns are 

 two 4-inch cast iron pipes which are 

 placed under the side benches. The head- 

 er of the boiler is about 9 inches higher 

 than the side of the house. 



I am told by an expert plumber that I 

 would get better results if I carried the 

 flow pipe under the benches. It would 

 then be about 6 inches higher than the 

 returns at the boiler, and if I followed 

 his advice would have to rise to connect 

 with the returns. A florist advises me to 

 carry them on the purlins with a fall of 

 about one foot, and thinks one return 

 would give better results. 



Is there enough pipe to keep the house 

 at 50 degrees in zero weather? And 

 what would you advise doing? The 

 boiler cannot be lowered on account of 

 the danger of flooding. F. M. 



In reply to the inquiry of F. M., he 

 has certainly a very badly arranged 

 heating system in his greenhouse and 1 

 am not surprised that he has been un- 

 able to secure the desired results. He 

 has sufficient heating surface in the 



