.lAMAliV (1. IS'.H 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



267 



Hoigson' 



Hanft Eros. 

 NEW YORK STORES AT CHRISTMAS. 



the morrow," etc, the nineteenth cen- 

 tury florist was not within t]ie range of 

 his prophetic vision. 



Among pahns in general special men- 

 tion must be made of the fine stock of 

 Areca lutescens here in various sizes 

 and the houseofCocos Weddeliana would 

 be hard to beat, the plants so clean and 

 thrifty in appearance. In foliage com- 

 binations Wr. Harris is creating some 

 little specialties quite his own and it 

 would be hardly fair to give tlum away. 

 This refers to the planting together in the 

 same pot two palms of different leaf form 

 or planting little jardinieres with varied 



foliage, Dracaena Sanderiana showing up 

 pronnnently for this work, with some- 

 thing taller as a center. 



The house of genistas here will cer- 

 tainly render a good account of itself 

 later, while in the cycas house one 

 named siamensis was noted, a beautiful 

 variety deserving of greater popularity. 

 Lilium Harribii maybe mentioned as one 

 of the futures, promising well at pres- 

 ent. The system of starting in small 

 pots and shifting on later being practiced 

 with these, but more for economy of 

 space than for any other reason. 



Certainly the florist who would take a 



"course" at Philadelphia, cannot com- 

 plete it without including a visit to and a 

 close inspection of this estatilishment, 

 and he may rest assured that a cordial 

 welcome awaits him and all that there is 

 to see is open freely to view. Such at 

 any rate was the pleasant experience of , 

 A. Herrington. -^ 

 Madison, N. J. 



MISCELLANEOUS SEASONABLE 

 HINTS. 



The next few weeks will find us very 

 bus\-, for many things have been cramped 

 for want of space, but now you have it. 

 All lilies should now be in their flowering 

 pots without delay and better if they had 

 been there several weeks sooner, 



Metrosideros. 



I reminded you some time ago, that 

 metrosideros, the bottle brush plant, 

 should not be kept so cool as azaleas that 

 you are holding back for Easter. Last 

 year I learned this from the best of 

 teachers (experience). I kept a Vjatch of 

 a few dozen very cool till about four 

 weeks before Easter, and then seeing that 

 thev showed little inclination to flower, 

 rushed them with a high temperature. It 

 did not do. The flower came out imper- 

 fect, irregular and quickly dropped. 

 Keep them now at 50° to 55° at night and 

 thev will come along gradually. What 

 matter if a few were too early. It is such 

 a distinct and attractive plant that it will 

 always sell, as the supply is not yet over- 

 done. 



Lilacs. 



Lilacs for Christmas have never been a 

 success with me, but those brought in 

 now and after this date are always very 

 satisfactory. The earliest want a tempera- 

 ture of 70^, each succeeding lot less 

 as the season advances. We find them 

 useful and profitable if not overdone. A 

 few plants, according to your wants, 

 should be brought in every week. 



Geraniums. 



One of the greatest jobs we have just 

 now on hand is shifting our geraniums 

 from 2 to 3-inch pots, to remain in those 

 pots until middle of April, and then into 

 their selling pot. I fancy I hear some 

 haughty magnate of the trade say, 

 "How absurd, there is no money 

 in the geranium when all that 

 trouble is taken." That all de- 

 pends upon what you get for them and 

 what your trade demands. We get at re- 

 tail |i2 per hundred and our customers 

 want and deserve a good plant for that 

 price. We could not sell the stock that 

 is called geraniums which we see in some 

 cities and which unfortunately we some- 

 times receive from outside firms, the tops 

 of which are useful to make a cutting, the 

 plant being only good to throw away. 

 Alwaj-s pot geraniums firmly. You can 

 stand them prettv close, as about the first 

 of Februarv you can take the top of the 

 plant off fo'r a cutting and they make a 

 very acceptable plant to sell for bedding 

 purposes when the larger stock is cleared 

 out and this second crop can be sold at a 

 nnich lower figure, for you have not been 

 half the time growing them. 



