December 'i. is'j; 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



H 



Cross of Eucharis Amazonica. 



they will bear up their reputation and 

 flower with good stem at Xnias. which 

 the "talk" assured nie the}' would do. 



If Romans and Paper White pay at all, 

 it is certainly at Christmas and roimd 

 that time. I have often remarked how 

 much superior both of these flowers are 

 when forced slowlv, particularly the 

 latter. 



For some years I have not seen much 

 profit in trying to force tulips for the 

 holidays. It is difficult to do unless you 

 have just the place and conditions, and 

 does not pay unless you are in the 

 specialty to a large extent. If there is 

 one tulip more than another that would 

 pay to produce at Christmas and for two 

 weeks after, it is "La Reine"; true 

 enough a white tulip when allowed to 

 come along slowly, but with certain treat- 

 ment assumes the most lovely pink 

 shades. It requires great heat till the 

 flowers are pretty well developed, then 

 can be removed to an ordinary bench 

 where the temperature is that of a rose 

 house, its flowers will then put on that 

 exquisite .stripe of pink. My experience 

 is that at no time do tulips like their roots 

 roasted. A box built over the pipes 

 where violent heat will not strike the 



bottom of the flats, but where the tem- 

 perature surrounding the growing tulips 

 will be steadily at 85° will force up the 

 growth. Keep the top of the box cov- 

 ered with boards or a cloth, like duck- 

 ing, till the flower is well developed; 

 allow three weeks to force them. Don't 

 attempt to force a double tidip of any- 

 kind, or a Dutch hyacinth, for many 

 weeks yet. 



Pansies. 



I %\ill remind you that if you want 

 pansies that will sell before your neigh- 

 bors, it pays to cover them with glass, 

 and if that is not convenient, a layer of 

 hemlock boughs is a far better covering 

 than litter from the stable. 



Cannas. 



I don't know where you have stored 

 your canna roots, but I do know that it 

 nmst be somewhere where no drip from 

 a bench falls on them during the winter 

 or you will lose a large proportion. A 

 dry cellar is too dry. Under a rose or 

 carnation bench is an admirable place, 

 but have provision to keep the drip from 

 them. Wm. ScoTT. 



CROSS OF EUCHARIS AMAZONICA. 



The accompanying engraving is from H 

 photograph of a cross arranged bv Mr^ 

 Samuel Murray, of the Probst 'Bros, 

 Floral Company, Kansas Citv, Mo. Mr, 

 Murray is very fond of the eucharis, and 

 grows large quantities of the flowers. 

 He finds them a very profitable addition 

 to his stock of flowers and has kindly 

 favored us on request with the following 

 notes on his method of cultivating the 

 eucharis: 



"We grow them in our asparagus house 

 on narrow lienches over hot water pipes. 

 Our present crop, which is about gone, 

 was eighty-three .spikes, and would have 

 been more but from the fact that about a 

 month ago during a hea\-y rain water 

 leaked into the bed from the gutters, 

 started part of them up, giving us fifty 

 spikes. But for the past five vears we 

 have had no trouble to have a full crop 

 in during our show, giving us good ma- 

 terial for floral work. They are planted 

 in good turfy loam and nuilched with well 

 decayed cow and sheep manure. After 

 flowering we give them plentv of water 

 by syringing, so as to keep them free of 

 mealy bug until growth is made. Then 

 we keep them at rest by withholding 

 water. 



"We get two crops a year from our 

 liench. We used to grow them in pots, 

 but find the bench .system less trouble 

 some and very satisfactory." 



HARDY FLOWERS FOR FORCING. 



Although flowers enter so largelv into 

 the every-day life of the public in all our 

 large cities and towns, it is surprising 

 what a limited range of choice is offered 

 to those who daily purchase them. What 

 wonder then if stagnation frequentlv oc- 

 curs when surely the most ardent flower 

 lover must at times experience a sense of 

 nausea, or, if not as bad as this, a strong 

 desire to change off from the never-ending 

 monotony- of certain staples in daily sup- 

 ply the year round. Ro.ses and carna- 

 tions we have always with us, and violets 

 for three-fourths of the year. No won- 

 der indeed the chrysanthemum usurps the 

 throne of the Queen of Flowers and is 

 esteemed so highly during its bright, 

 brief season. 



None will deny there is room for more 

 variety among market flowers, but all 

 hesitate to break away from the old, sharply 

 drawn lines of trade. Some have found 

 out to their loss what missionary work in 

 the flower trade involves, although it 

 sounds very nice to talk about educating 

 the public taste to this, that, and the 

 other. Still the path of progress knows 

 no termination, and only down this path 

 will come relief from the present-day 

 congestion with staple market commodi- 

 ties. This does not arise from the pau- 

 city of available material but from our 

 own exclusive choice therefrom. 



Take, for example, the vast famil\ of 

 hardy flowers now under cultivation, av- 

 eraging considerably over a thousand 

 species, with varieties innumerable be- 

 sides. Are they ignored because the}- 

 are hardy? Numbers are certainly amen- 

 able to forcing treatment and would 

 prove a welcome change to present day 



