174 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Dbcejibbk 17, 1903. 



seasonablo plants. There are shades oi' 

 ribbon made now to blend or harnu nizc 

 with all our flowers. Green blends with 

 all, for it is natnre's |)riniaJ color. Tin 

 brilliant sciu-let poinsettia has a ribbon 

 to match its brilliancy, or almost so. 

 There are shades, alike, for the begonia, 

 the light pink and dark pink azaleas, tlio 

 orange trees, the red-berried plants ami. 

 in fact, all of them. The Porto Eican 

 mat is the prettiest pot covering up to 

 date, and invaluable, and you can always 

 get twice its value in the price of the 

 plant. To those (if there are such) who 

 think that this embellishment is unnat- 

 ural, artificial and uncalled for, remenibor 

 the plant in a pot is unnatural to begin 

 with and perhaps seventy-five per cent of 

 all the trade, traffic and business of tho 

 civilized (so-called) world is in commodi- 

 ties that are dispensable and can be 

 called more or less luxuries. It would 

 take a greater philosopher- than the great- 

 est of the age.Herbert Speneer,just passed 

 away, to say where the necessary end and 

 the luxurious begin. It is merely a mat- 

 ter of degree and depends entirely on 

 what manner of life .you are assuming. A 

 new pair of pants would be a great lux- 

 ury to "the king of the Cannibal Is- 

 lands." With us they are simply a 

 necessity, so if Mrs. Newrich or dear Mrs. 

 Oldrich is willing to pay for $2 worth of 

 frills on a three-dollar plant, by all 

 means encourage a distribution of her 

 wealth. But just let me say that it's 

 not the divine woman that is the best 

 customer; at this season it's the sterner 

 sex that opens his wallet on these occa- 

 sions. 



System a Necessity. 



I have on more than one occasion trieu 

 to explain what I consider necessary to 



if cards are to be attached then mention 

 on the slip so it would read; 



Guthrie, Okla.. Dec. 22, 1903. 

 Charge Mr. Vernon Green 373 The Strand 

 I Azalea sent to Mr. J. P. Morgan. . 



.liT.i.OO 



Card V. G. 

 Deliv,er Dee. 24, P. M. 



Salesman, Tommy Atkins. 



Delivery. 



The boss, or siunebody as good, should 

 have the handling of all these orders, and 

 the evening or night (for there is little 

 time during daylight) before the day 

 they are to be delivered, with a space 

 given over to tomorrow 's deliveries, where 

 they can be stood and if possible ar- 

 ranged in lots for delivery, north, south, 

 east and west, you are ready to look over 

 the orders. Just let me say here that 

 what we call ' ' routing ' ' the deliveries is 

 a very important matter. Many a time 

 we have seen a wagon drive home with a 

 plant or two alone in the wagon. ' ' What 's 

 the matter with that plant?" "Why, 

 that delivery is away out near the pest 

 house, two miles out of our road; we 

 thought Jack and Fred could take that 

 when they went on the east side." Most 

 likely the plant has had such a ride thnt 

 it has to be replaced. A good router i,; 

 a valuable man on these occasions. The 

 boss at the desk, with his glasses on and 

 cap to keep the flies from his bald head, 

 begins: "Harry, here is your order; an 

 azalea and begonia ; there are the address 

 and cards. " " Tommy- Atkins, here is 

 your order," and so on and you will socn 

 get through it without confusion. It will 

 keep the boss busy writing the address 

 tags, but he likes to work, and if things 

 go nicely, work is the gi-eate.st and least 

 regrettable of pleasures. It often oc- 



Specimen Calceolaria, Flowered in a 6-inch Pot. 



prevent confusion in a retail establish- 

 ment. Very few, indeed, are the sales 

 that are made and the article taken by th 

 purchaser. They are either ordered an 1 

 left to the selection of the florist, or the 

 customer says, "I'll take that one and 

 that azalea," and you get his cards an-' 

 the address where they are to be sent. 

 Ev'ery order, whether paid for or not, or 

 whether selected or left t* your selec- 

 tion, should be brought to one central 

 office. The name and address of the pur- 

 chaser, whether cash or not, should be on 

 the order slip, the plant designated and 

 who it is to go to and their address, aii.i 



curs that the same person will buy plants 

 and flowers, or rather have a plant and 

 cut flowers delivered to the same house. 

 1 believe in keeping them entirely sepa- 

 rate, or it will create confusion. Take 

 care of the boxes of flowers at a ditferent 

 time. Then let us pray that it will not 

 be zero, with a strong wind, as it is at 

 this moment. WlLLl.^M ScoTT. 



CALCEOLARIAS AND MUMS. 



One of the acconipanyiiig illustrations 

 shows a specimen calceolaria grown by 

 n. riiishdlni, gardener to Lady Belhaven, 



Udston House, Hamilton, Scotland. The 

 group of which this is one had been 

 flowering for about three months when 

 photographed, so that Mr. Chisholm must 

 have brought them along slowly under 

 very cool treatment, with plenty of ven- 

 tilation. The photograph shows the 

 plant very much reduced in size; but in 

 reality each was twenty to twenty-four 

 inches in diameter, although grown only 

 in 6-inch pots. Mr. Chisholm describes his 

 success as due chiefly to the attention 

 he gave the calceolarias at the final pot- 

 ting. He finds that turf, clean leaf 

 mold and sand make the best compost. 

 Such a thing as old spent mushroom 

 dung is only of service when the leaf 

 mold is an impossibility, and should for 

 other reasons be avoided. Good, clean, 

 solid compost, and the plants not potted 

 too loosely, should grow this showy and 

 popular class of plants. The strain of 

 seeds was that of David AV. Thomson, of 

 Edinburgh. For conservatory or green- 

 house decoration in spring few plants are 

 more showy than calceolarias. The sec- 

 ond illustration shows a house of chrysan- 

 themums grown by Mr. Chisholm. 



AGAPANTHUS INSIGNIS. 



At a recent London exhibition Wm. 

 Bull & Sons, of Chelsea, showed what 

 appears to be a new and distinct species 

 of agapanthus. The common African lily 

 has for so long been regarded as the 

 one and only species that the newcomer 

 has created not a little surprise, and 

 many have considered that it must nec- 

 essarily be a form of A. umbellatus, 

 Whether the botanists decide that A. in- 

 signis is a distinct species or not, the 

 plant is certainly distinct from a horti- 

 cultural point of view. The chief dis- 

 tinctive features of A. insignis are the 

 milk-white color of the basal portion of 

 the green, arching, strap-shaped leaves, 

 this whitish color extending some distance 

 along the midrib; the unusually large 

 and many flowered heads of bloom; and 

 the very long pedicels. It will thus be 

 seen that the inflorescence is more spher- 

 ical than in A. umbellatus, and this is due 

 chiefly to the extraordinary number of 

 flowers produced, and to the elongated 

 pedicels, which permit the outer flowers 

 to droop around the scape as fast as the 

 central flowers expand and need more 

 room. The flowers are quite like those of 

 the well-known species as regards shape, 

 but their color is light lilac, faintly 

 tinted and shaded -with lavender. A. in- 

 signis was imported from South Africa 

 by Messrs. Bull & Sons, and will prob- 

 ably be distributed by them at an early 

 date. It promises to be as amenable to 

 cultivation as A. umbellatus. The accom- 

 panying illustration will convey a good 

 idea of the flower-head of this new plant. 



THE ASMUS WINDOW BOX. 



The accompanying illustration shows a 

 window box invented by E. Asmus, of E. 

 Asmus & Co., Chicago, on which a patent 

 has been applied for. It is designed for 

 either indoor or outdoor use, there hav- 

 ing previously been nothing which fully 

 met the requii-ements of the trying condi- 

 tions of a dwelling room. The ordinary 

 box is either too dry or too wet. usually 

 first one, then the other. Mr. Asmus met 

 this difBculty by making' a movable zinc 

 lining not quite so deep as his box. 

 This is in effect a false bottom and the 

 zinc being perforated, permits the sur- 

 plus water to pass through to the bot- 

 tom of the box which is filled with moss. 



