804 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



APRIL 14, 1898. 



growth, lifted in Novemlior, put in a 

 cold frame and brought in just right 

 for Easter, and sold at the magnificent 

 price of 25 cents. You can buy good 

 stock in the autumn of such noble 

 firms as Storrs & Harrison Co., etc., 

 but if you have them on your place 

 how much better to handle them. 



The demand for roses in pots was 

 quite a feature. "We had a few hun- 

 dred American Beauties that were just 

 about right, but not half enough to 

 satisfy the customer who wanted a 

 rose for a dollar. What is more profit- 

 able? Instead of importing a lot of 

 expensive azaleas grow Anne de Dies- 

 bach, even old La Reine. Jacque, Ba- 

 roness Rothschild, Capt. Christy or al- 

 most any H. P., for they all throw up 

 a glorious burst of bloom on their fir.5t 

 endeavor. Peter Henderson said many 

 years ago that the name hybrid per- 

 petual was a misnomer, and among 

 other great truths this was one. In our 

 hot and often dry seasons they are 

 not perpetual no more than is an aster. 

 When I last visited the British Isles 

 I expected to see roses by the million. 

 As good a place as you could see them 

 would be the Botanical garden at Man- 

 chester. A dear old man. with white 

 hair and sincere piety, showed me 

 around. I expected to see, particularly, 

 the roses and they were a dismal fail- 

 ure, unlike the roses that we knew in 

 our youth. Make up your minds that 

 instead of buying azaleas at a consid- 

 erable cost that roses in a 6-inch pot 

 with two flowers open and two buds to 

 come will sell at sight. How to just 

 do this will appear in the columns of 

 The Florists' Review a little later. 



Cinerarias. 



The cineraria a«! a house plant is a 

 humbug of the first water and not 

 worth any expression of an over- worked 

 intellect. It's cheap, always has been, 

 and although a fairly decent house 

 plant too often succumbs to natural 

 gas and society talk. 



Metrosideros (Bottle Brush). 



This is really an attractive plant and 

 as the public is always wishing some- 

 thing new, I would advise placing an 

 order for them. It is so novel and un- 

 like anything else that it sells on 

 sight. 



Cytisus (or Genista). 



It is not my nature to give a plant a 

 bad reputation, but I have this to sa.v, 

 that it is one of the most unsatisfac- 

 tory plants that you can palm off on a 

 customer. If they will keep it very cool 

 and very much wet, it inay last for 48 

 hours and then the symptoms of dis.so- 

 lution appear. Now is the time to buy 

 young plants of cytisus and plant them 

 out for they lift poorly. Keep on 

 growing them and never be afraid that 

 you are pinching them too much. You 

 can take the shears and clip them .is 

 the barber does your hair and it will 

 do them good as it does you. 



Mignonette — Violets. 



Plants grown in a violet house all 

 winter and were little sturdy plants 

 were lifted about five weeks ago and 



put in pans. They sold well. Pots of 

 violets sold well and there were not 

 enough to fill the wants of everybody. 

 The way to grow violets in pots is jus^t 

 so: When dividing your plants, or tak- 

 ing cuttings this spring, have several 

 thousand more than you need. Plant 

 in a cold frame end of May or early 



•^ 



Crimson Rambler Rose trimmed with 

 Lace Ribbon. 



June. I say cold frame, but no frame is 

 needed until the month of November, 

 then they should be covered with glass. 

 If the winter is what we usually ex- 

 pect, you will not pick violets after 

 Christmas and not again till the mid- 

 dle of March, but they are the stuff 

 from which you are to propagate, be- 

 cause they have not been subjected to 

 any conditions adverse to their norm.il 

 propensities. 



There are three great days when you 

 want violets, that is Thanksgiving, 

 Christmas and Easter, and of course 

 you want them at other times. For 

 two of these big days we can accom- 



plish this by the use of cold frames. 

 You can have them in better perfec- 

 tion in a cold frame for Thanksgiving 

 than any costly house, and certainly for 

 Easter they will be just as prolific, 

 just as sweet and will realize just as 

 many dollars. The violet genus is 

 above all plants the easiest to repro- 

 duce from transplanting, so you can 

 lift the dormant plants in February 

 and with judicious treatment have 

 them a lovely gift for Easter. Wishing 

 everybody had as good and profitable 

 an Easter as the old man, I am. most 

 respectfully, WILLIAM SCOTT. 



THE FLORIST AND THE FLOWER 

 SHOW. 



[Read bv Georee C. Watson, hefore the New York 

 Florists' Club. .April 11th. ISits. | 



It gives me much pleasure to appear 

 before the members of the New York: 

 Florists' Club this evening and tell 

 them what I think of the relations that 

 should exist between the florist and 

 the flower show. I believe I can inter- 

 est you for a few minutes on that sub- 

 ject without lugging in any of our 

 Philadelphia wheezes about New York 

 being such a sleepy Rip Van Winkle 

 old town. Our friend Lonsdale and 

 some more of his kidney tell me they 

 always like to come to New York when 

 they want a good rest, you know, but 

 I guess that is only just their airy way 

 of getting back at you fellows for some 

 sweet things you have got off in days 

 gone by about Philadelphia — the great- 

 est city in the country — which I could 

 easily prove to your satisfaction with 

 facts and figures, if necessary, only I 

 know that you know it in your hearts. 



One thing I will mention, however, 

 and that is that Philadelphia has the 

 finest home of hoi'ticulture of any city 

 in this country, if not in the world. 

 Artistically the building is n dream of 

 beauty both externall.v and internally, 

 and it represents an Investment of 

 over half a million dollars. That is 

 something for patriotic New Yorlcers 

 to ponder over and is respectfully sub- 

 mitted to the fourth estate. It will be 

 useful stuck up on the editorial desk 

 when the temptation to be witty is 

 strong. But that splendid monument 

 to horticulture, completed but a few 

 years since, took its birth away back 

 many generations ago among the ar- 

 dent commercial and amateur florists 

 for which Philadelphia has always 

 been noted. These men of old were 

 keen exhibitors. At first they had no 

 home to invite the public to, bat had 

 to hire a tent or hall; then they got a 

 modest structure, then a more ambi- 

 tious one, and finally the present pa- 

 latial edifice. 



The question naturally .irises: Does 

 the florist of today reap any benefit 

 from the exhibitions of his predeces- 

 sor? I answer unhesitatingly, of course 

 he does. Would the present generatioQ 

 be educated in horticulture to its pres- 

 ent extent without the stepping stones 

 laid for them by past generations? The 

 commercial florist of today in Phila- 

 delphia and Boston and New York and 

 other cities is being benefited by the 



