August liO. liui;; 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



491 



Heating Apparatus and Material Exhibits at Milwaukee. 



wide by 400 or 500 Or 600 feet long, and 

 each and all of these have their especial 

 use and claim to modern construction. 



Some are built of practically all iron, or 

 rather steel ; others a combination of iron 

 and wood; others again nearly all wood. 

 Which of these is the most desirable, all 

 Ihings considered, is yet an open question. 



For the general florist, the flrst question 

 in building a greenhouse to be considered 

 is the cost, and with many, this is a verv 

 important matter, as every additional dollar 

 expended on it means additional yearly cost 

 in interest on the investment; for no matter 

 how you figure it. the money put into anv 

 kind of a business should be charged with 

 the interest yearly — whether it may be 

 linn-owed monev. or ready cash on hand. 

 This brings us face to face with the differ- 

 ent kinds of greenhouses most desirable to 

 build. 



In deciding this point, the next question 

 that comes up is that of durability in con- 

 junction with flrst cost. If a house, say, 

 of any given size, costing 50 per cent more 

 when built of the most expensive material-- 

 than another built of a cheaper grade of 

 material, but with the same quality of 

 glass in each, if the more expensive' one 

 can be safely guaranteed to stand in good 

 order for twice the length of time than 

 the cheaper one will, then it would be a 

 safe investment to adopt the higher priced 

 one as a general rule. But this is another 

 open question, which I. for one, would not 

 like to venture an opinion on. Many of 

 our younger florists will have ample oppor- 

 tunity to judge of this in a few years. 



That there have been improvements made 

 in modern greenhouse building within the 

 last twenty years, no one will deny, but 

 not all the changes made in construction 

 can. I think, be called improvements. The 

 adoption of much larger glass, with a cor- 

 responding lighter grade of woodwork, pro- 

 ducing, as it does, a much brighter light 

 in the interior of the greenhouse, is, un- 

 questionably, an improvement in producing 

 a better and larger quantity of cut flowers 

 (luring the dull, cloudy months of winter. 

 But, are such extra light houses any benefit 

 for general plant culture — as a general rule. 

 I think not. 



Another point of improvement, consid- 

 ered so at least by many, is the size of 

 the greenhouse. It is an undisputed fact 

 that a large volume of air enclosed in a 

 greenhouse can be maintained at a more 

 even temperature much easier than a small 

 volume can; In other words, a house, s- 

 .'10x100 f»et, can be kept at a much more 

 even temperature than two houses each 

 15x100. The two having the same rela- 

 tive amount of glass and volume of air as 

 the one larger one. This is an advantage, es- 

 pecially as the consumption of coal is less 

 to maintain an equal heat in the large 

 house than in the two small ones, hence 

 the reason why some of our live florists 

 are building much larger houses than for- 



Some will probably ask. what is the best 

 form or style of house to build? This is 

 purely a matter of choice with each one 

 contemplating building, because there are 

 so many different forms in use, and all 

 have their advocates, and as far as my 

 limited observation goes, almost all of them 

 will produce good flowers in quantity. 



The system of ridge and furrow built 

 house without any partitions, leaving a 

 clear open space 



vords. a large area covered with u 

 ■ertainly has many features to comt 

 t. In a little trip around among 



florists - establishments last winter, I was 

 particularly struck with the fine, healthy 

 growth and abundance of bloom (roses) 

 which I saw in one such a range of green 

 houses near Chicago. I considered it at 

 the time the best I saw in my whole trip. 

 There are also very large establishments. 

 practically all built in this style, around 

 Toronto, Canada. 



In other sections I saw what is known as 

 the short-span to-the south style of house. 

 These never struck me as favorable, for 

 rose growing especially. In fact, I have 

 yet to see where any advantage is gamed 

 for any class of flowers or plants by this 

 method of construction and it is certainly 

 tile most expensive to heat of any system 

 I know of. having much the largest area of 

 glass exposed to the north. 



Another style of house, which is gaining 

 in favor to a. large degree, is a very wide 

 house with equal span, each being a sep- 

 arate structure. These are very light and 

 have many points of advantage over the 

 others named above and for certain vari- 

 eties of roses, such as American Beauties, 

 they are certainly much better adapted, 

 when the side walls are made high enough 

 to allow the walk next to the side wall 

 and with low benches or raised beds from 

 the surface of even height all throughout 

 the house. 



Such very wide houses should have a 

 double row of ventilators at the ridge and 

 side ventilators, also to give ample circula- 

 tion of air in hot weather ; and as far as 

 my observation and experience goes should 

 have a pitch of the roof of 34 to 3G de- 

 grees : or. in other words, a fall of from 7 '•■; 

 to 8 inches to the foot. This applies to 

 all and every class of greenhouse, whether 

 large or small, for the production of cut 

 flowers in winter. 



In conclusion I would suggest that those 

 contemplating adding new- greenhouses to 

 can-fully investigate ea.-h of the different 

 classes of buildings before deciding in every 

 case. I think it would well repay them to 

 see the houses several times and under dif- 

 ferent conditions of weather, to enable 

 them to form a fair and correct opinion of 

 which particular style of house will best 

 suit their purpose: and remember that soil 

 and location of the greenhouse, combined 

 with proper management, is a very large 

 factor in producing the best quality of flow- 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Buds. 



We are once more arriving at an im- 

 portant period and that is, the time 

 for the selection of the buds. Many 

 growers seem afraid to take what is 

 known as the crown bud, some because 

 they have happened at some time or 

 other to take it too early and lost the 

 flower altogether, and others because 

 they are unacquainted with the bud and 

 its possibilities. The grower for exhibi- 

 tion takes the crown bud on practically 

 all the varieties. He has to take some 

 chances by so doing, but he knows that 

 flowers produced from crown buds are 

 infinitely superior in size and depth to 

 the ones produced from terminals. 



Many commercial growers have an 



idea that if they take buds in August 

 the flowers will come much earlier. There 

 may be some difference in the times of 

 flowering between crowns and terminals 

 but it is hardly worth considering and 

 in fact with some varieties the terminal 

 bud will open first. I have taken buds 

 on Robinson, for instance, on August 

 21. These were of course crowns, and 

 I have taken terminals the 12th of Sep- 

 tember and had the flower from the 

 terminal bud cut on October 18, while 

 the flower from the crown bud was not 

 ready until October 23. 



The flowers from the crown buds were 

 worth more than double the price of the 

 others, because while the later growth 

 had been making stem and foliage the 

 crown bud had been laying up to itself 

 treasures of petals so that when the 

 flowers developed the early bud had 

 produced a flower more than twice the 

 size of the others. 



An argument against the taking of the 

 crown bud with some growers is that 

 the plants make a long, weak neck which 

 is unable to hold the' flower erect. This 

 is true in some cases, but it is almost 

 always the fault of the grower himself. 

 When a man crowds his plants on the 

 benches so that the growth is long- 

 jointed and sappy, he will always get a 

 long neck to his flowers, but if the 

 plants are grown right, that is, given a 

 reasonable space to develop in, with lots 

 of ventilation so that they will make a 

 short-jointed, hardy growth, there will 

 be no trouble about the long, bare neck. 

 There is a time and place for everything 

 and while we may admire a long, grace- 

 ful, swan-like neck when it is attached 

 to a charming girl in a fashionable ball- 

 room, we do not like to see Mrs. Robin- 

 son with a neck so weak that her head 

 is falling over onto Colonel Appleton's 

 shoulder when they are growing together 

 on the greenhouse bench. 



Some few varieties do have a weak 

 stem, but they are kinds that are handled 

 only by the exhibition grower, such as 

 Madam Carnot, Durbin's Pride and so 

 on, and the chief reason they fall over 

 is because they make such enormous 

 flowers. 



Some wholesale growers catalogue 

 varieties in what I think is a misleading 

 manner, thus: Take first crown on such 

 ;i variety. Now it may happen that a 

 hud will be produced in June or July and 

 this would certainly be a first crown. 1 

 have often seen buds taken too early 

 where the grower was more or less of a 

 novice and was interpreting the informa- 

 tion he read literally, whereas had the 



