1022 



The Weekly Florists' Review,, 



Novi:mbkr 12, 1903. 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Tulips and Hyacinths. 

 Most of our patrons, as soon as the 

 geraniums and cannas are gone, are 

 anxious to get their tulips planted, and 

 may think they are neglected if there is 

 any delay. But really it is a mistake to 

 plant too early. The best tulips I ever 

 saw bloom in the spring were nut planted 

 until the end of November, and, if the 

 weather remained open, a few weeks later 

 would be just as well. The reason for 

 late planting of these hardy bulbs is, 1 

 flunk, that when they have too long a 

 time for root growth in the fall they 

 flower very early in the spring, have few 

 more roots to make and are soon ex- 

 hausted, while the late planted bulbs 

 make roots in the spring and the flowers 

 are not only finer but continue longer. 



Begonia Rex. 



This once valued foliage plant seems 

 to have gone out of favor both as an 

 indoor decorative plant and as a plant 

 for veranda boxes and vases in shady 

 positions. If they still enter into your 

 business they should be propagated just 

 as soon as the sand in your propagating 

 bed is warm from fire heat. If you 

 don't propagate early you won't have 

 plants of any size in the spring. Choose 

 strong, well matured leaves, but not by 

 any means those that are about to decay. 

 Slice them up into small pieces, say two 

 inches long, having at the base of each 

 piece a mid-rib, and insert in the sand 

 half their length. In four or five weeks 

 they will send up a small leaf and will 

 have a bunch of roofs, when they should 

 be potted and will grow freely if the soli 

 is light and the temperature not below 

 00 degrees at night. 



Begonia Vernon is now established as 

 a good bedding plant. Seed of it can be 

 sown now or soon. The seed is very 

 minute, so avoid sowing thickly, or the 

 little plants will smother before you can 

 get them transplanted. This class of 

 begonias is most useful for many pur- 

 poses. 



Lily of the Valley. 



"Very shortly the import orders of pips 

 of this very important florists' flower will 

 be arriving. The man who grows 50,000 

 and more knows how to handle the pips, 

 but there are many who force weekly only 

 perhaps 500 and have not the conven- 

 iences or experience. Unpack as soon as 

 they arrive and stand the bunches in a 

 box an inch or two deeper than the top 

 of the pips. If the roots are dry, dip 

 them in water for a moment. Between 

 each row of bunches pack some soil and 

 cover the pips with an inch of soil. 

 Where to store these boxes is of im- 

 portance. Whether it is necessary that 

 the pips be frozen before being brought 

 in to force is a question I will not ven- 

 ture to decide, but I hardly believe it 

 is an essential. Too much moisture in 

 the condition they are in, with their roots 

 packed in bunches, is known to be in- 

 jurious to them: therefore the boxes 

 should be placed in a frame and covered 

 •with sash or shutters to keep out the 



rains. When very hard freezing begins 

 four or five inches of leaves or stable 

 litter can be thrown over them. What- 

 ever quantity you force weekly, it is 

 most advisable that you should have that 

 quantity in one box. so that you know 

 i n s i what you are bringing in. If they 

 should be frozen, which certainly does 

 not hurt them, it is easy to get out a 

 box, or may be two or three, but it is 

 not so easy to pick out so many bunches 

 from a box or bed. It has been ad- 

 vised, and doubtless is a good plan with 

 large growers, to sort the roots on ar- 

 rival, sorting out the strongest pips for 

 early forcing and the weaker for later 

 months, but the quality of roots we have 

 been getting for some years we believe 

 this would be a waste of labor, as by the 

 tenth of January we have cut ninety per 

 cent of good spikes. Don't attempt to 

 force the fall imported roots before De- 

 cember 20 ; that is, don 't put them in 



the sand until thai date. Although we 

 have had them in flower by New Year's 

 ii is better to depend on cold storage 

 stock until early January. 



h i- amusing to recall the many early 

 theoi about the forcing of this deli- 

 cate flower. Sphagnum moss, crushed 

 coke and other mediums had their advo- 

 cates, with more or less success, but the 

 correct conditions were not understood. 

 1 think it. is understood that any old sand 

 is good enough, provided the conditions 

 are right, which are, briefly, warm sand 

 and cool air overhead, but I hope to have 

 more to say later on. 



Forcing Iris. 



A week or two ago I had something to 

 say about Spanish iris and unfortunately 

 I was made to say that ' ' as they do not 

 flower out of doors till the middle of 

 June they would force the same as early 

 tulips." It is evident that I m.eant to 

 say they would not force. Possibly I did 

 say so, "but the printer made the omission. 

 However, don 't waste any bulbs, even if 

 they are very cheap, in trying to get 

 them before Easter, and if Easter is 

 early even that may be a failure. Planted 

 now or any time before a freeze up, they 

 bloom out of doors with us about the 

 middle, of June and are a beautiful 

 orchid-like flower. 



William Scott. 



THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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DRAPERY STUDIES. 



Ill— Fabrics and Flowers. 



A floral design — we are speaking now 

 of the word in its broadest sense — is 

 a picture, and like other pictures needs 

 its unity of parts and its mountings. 

 Whatever materials are used as acces- 

 sories must either become a part of the 

 picture or a useless encumbrance. In 

 tying a bunch of flowers with ribbon 

 make the ribbon as much a part of the 

 picture as is one of the flowers itself, 

 or discard it. There are two ways by 

 which this entire harmony may be se- 

 cured — the union of coloring and the 

 union of form. 



One of the most unnecessary perplexi- 

 ties is trying to match flowers and rib- 

 bon. When I try to do that, I don't. 

 The difference in texture between a fab- 

 ric and a flower is accountable for the 

 difficulty. The same color in each will 

 appear duller in one than in the other; 

 therefore, so far as the eye is concerned, 

 the colors do not match. Get a harmo- 

 nious color, either deeper or lighter. 

 Within the color combination of flower 

 and foliage find a tint or shade that 

 will be a key to the harmony. Often a 

 blotch or a streak or a line in either, 

 or the hue of a stamen or pistil will be 

 the best suggestion for coloring. It is 

 especially difficult to find fabrics that 

 will even harmonize with the more bril- 

 liant colors, like those found in the 

 Joost or Lawson carnation, for instance. 

 Their intensity and depth are unap- 



proaehed in fabric coloring. So we turn 

 to the foliage for help, and find it an 

 easy task to get a light gray-green re- 

 sembling the leaves. This green, by the 

 way, will harmonize with any color of 

 carnation. With violets the tints are 

 much the best. 



This principle of merely harmonizing, 

 rather than trying to match colors, is 

 helpful when the flowers are more or 

 less off color. A rich tint of American 

 Beauty ribbon suitable for that rose in 

 its prime, will kill the colors which suc- 

 ceed each other in the fading process, 

 and although it may be profitable finan- 

 cially for a florist to keep a stock of 

 ribbon, he can never keep a large enough 

 stock to make selections for each case. 



Next to coloring, sizes and styles of 

 ribbon ties have much to do with the 

 appearance of bunches of flowers. As a 

 rule small, delicate flowers should be 

 tied with narrow ribbon, from No. 3 to 

 No. 9. The narrower the ribbon the 

 more is needed in cluster bows. With 

 the use of wider ribbon decrease the 

 number of loops. 



Not only union in coloring, but a con- 

 nection between the tie and the bunch 

 adds to the taking qualities. Instead of 

 always placing bows and ties over the 

 stem ends of a bunch of flowers, let one 

 long end run up through the bunch, draw 

 a bud or two through a loop of ribbon 

 or tie the bow on one side instead of on 

 top. Tie with twisted bows, irregular 

 bows, and once in a while no bows at all, 

 just knotted ends. 



Using ribbon as mounting makes a 



