400 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Kebki'ARY 5. 1903. 



paths will leave you 2.400 feet of bench. 

 Some things will return mure than otli- 

 ers Some things will be in great de- 

 mand, but vour stock of them is short; 

 what you are rather long un the people 

 are a 'little tired of. and so on; but the 

 above figures are about reasonable. 



I will say without, I hope, any egotism 

 that when I was first forced into busi- 

 ness on my own hook, in 1870. by my 

 employer saying. •William, you will have 

 lo rent inv greenhouses." I did for the 

 first few years make every foot of bench 

 return much more than $1, but those 

 were the days when I handled every 

 plant myself." watered them, sat up my- 

 self to watch the temi)crature, got the 

 fuel, if there was a foot of empty space, 

 made cuttings, and washed pots by the 

 brilliant liglit of a kerosene lamp. I did 

 not go hunting or to conventions, read 

 the Gardeners' Monthly in two minutes 

 and fifteen seconds, had no idea that I 

 would ever attempt to give my brother 

 florists a hint, and when I was not hold- 

 ing the baby read Darwin, Huxley and 

 Spencer, and am all the better for it. 

 William Scott. 



ANTIRRHINUM. 



Please tell me how to grow the antir- 

 rhinum or snap dragon. Do you grow 

 them to single stem ; how and what do 

 you stake tliem with; hoxv far apart do 

 you plant them ; what do you fertilize 

 with; and what tem|)crature do you 

 keep? SotJTiiBRN Florist. 



My expcricmc in growing these is not 



can add a 5-inch pot of bone flour to 

 every bushel of soil. The method of 

 tying carnations now adopted by so 

 many grower.s will do admirably for the 

 snap dragons. This is a wire running 

 the length of the lx>ncli between the rows 

 of plants and a string running across 

 the bench between the plants. You can, 

 however, do very well with a slight 

 slake and string or raffia encircling the 

 plant 5 or G inches from the bench, as 

 the antirrhinum is by no means a 

 "floppy"' plant. William Scott. 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY. 



R. R. Rates to the Convention. 



The Central Passenger Association, 

 the Tiunk Line and New Kngland Pas 

 senger Associations, have all made a 

 rate of one ami one-third fares for the 

 round trip, on the certificate plan, to 

 the coming convention of the American 

 Carnation Society at Brooklyn. X. Y.. 

 Feb. 19 and 20. Be sure to get a cer- 

 tificate when you buy your ticket. 



This includes the southern half of 

 Michigan, all but a small i>i)rtion of the 

 northern part of Illinois, the whole of 

 the states of Indiana, Ohio. Pennsylva- 

 nia, New York, Maryland, Jlaine. New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts. Rhode Island 

 and Connecticut; also the northern half 

 of West Virginia and Virginia and that 

 portion of Canada south of Toronto. 



This plan lessens the expense of at- 

 tendance considerably and it is earnestly 

 requested that all members buy their 

 tickets on this plan. Parties who in-' 



blc dis))Utc between the retailer and tlic 

 grower as to wlio is niaking the money 

 tliis winter. The grower says that he is 

 paying so nuich more for coal that the 

 slight advance in price is no considera 

 tion. The retailer says he has to pay 

 so much more for the stutt', and can get 

 no more for it, that he is out. How- 

 ever, we will soon be able to ignore the 

 coal man and sing "In the Good Old Sum- 

 mer Time." 



W. J. Lawrence's establishment in 

 North Toronto is in very good shape at 

 present, although it is coirsiderably otl' 

 crop, yet the pros))ccts are good. He cut 

 Ills first dall'odils .lanuary 26, and 

 they were very good, both in stem and 

 flower. Piinceps have Ijeen in for a con- 

 siderable time. 



Toronto Floral Co., which has lately 

 put in a forcing bench for valley, is now 

 cutting some very good stuff. 



Violet day, January 22, which has been 

 iiiauguraletl by the l>aughters of the Em- 

 pire to be kept in memory of our late 

 beloved queen, made a big run on vio- 

 lets, a.s it was a nice day and flowers 

 were worn extensively on the street. 



We are informed, on the side, that 

 the new Gardeners' and Florists' union, 

 mshing to test its strength, took a fall 

 out of one of the local employers and 

 after the smoke had cleared away it was 

 diflicult to .say just what had happened, 

 but I guess we ^-ill not hear much more 

 of the union. D. .T. 



A PRIVATE PLACE. 



The accompanying engravings give 

 some glimpses of the private greenhouses 



Private Greenhouses of Mr. H. G. Selfridge, Lake Geneva, Wis. 



very extensive, but 1 have noticed the 

 method pursued on some fine benches of 

 them. The antirrhinum we force is a va- 

 riety of A. major an<l is a ])erennial. .\ 

 very fine strain can Ix' grown along by 

 cuttings taken from the ]ilants on the 

 bench , before you throw them out — say 

 just after Easter. Don't attempt lo 

 grow the plants the second year. Either 

 seedlings or young propagated plants 

 should be planted every sea.son. Sow the 

 seed end of April, grow along in flats, 

 and plant on benches early in August. 

 They sometimes are planted .5 or inches 

 apart and grow to one single spike. We 

 do not think this as desirable for the 

 general florist as planting them 12 inches 

 apart, and b}' stopping the young plant.-; 

 once or twice, getting five or six nice, 

 moderate sized spikes. 



A carnation house temperature suits 

 it first-class. It should have G inches of 

 soil, for it makes lots of roots. Any 

 good loam with a fifth or sixth of stable 

 manure will grow them well, but vou 



tend becoming members at the meeting 

 can buy these tickets but if they do not 

 join at the meeting they will not l>e able 

 to get the return rate. 



.\lbekt M. Herh, Sec'y. 



TORONTO- 



Trade the p.i^l week has improved con- 

 iderably from what it wa.s during the 

 first two weeks of the inontli. and tliis 

 may be more noticeable as the .supply 

 has shortened, and it is at present, as a 

 local dealer put it. "being chopped off 

 at both ends."' 



Eoses have been, and continue to be 

 very scarce. The supply of carnations is 

 fair and bulb stock is coming in in con- 

 siderable quantities to relieve the strain. 



The scarcity of coal is becoming more 

 and more felt by the growers, and those 

 who last fall considered they had enougti 

 to carry them through are commencing 

 to feel anxious, especially some of the 

 larger concerns. 



It is at present a matter of considcra- 



of Mr. H. G. Selfridge, Lake Geneva. 

 Wis., where Mr. C. Gebhardt is gardener. 



The hou.ses contain a total of 8,000 

 square feet of glass and are of course 

 devoted solely to the growing of plants 

 and flowers for jirivate use. One pic- 

 ture gives a goo<l general view of the 

 hou.ses, with the gardener's ix)ttage in 

 t he background. 



The rose house is 24x100 and contains 

 a fine assortment of all the leading va- 

 rieties, and evidently all in the be.st of 

 condition. The gardener on a place of 

 this sort has to meet and solve many 

 problems of a character similar to those 

 that confront the small grower who is 

 unable to devote a full house to each 

 variety. The roses seen in the picture 

 were housed June 1st and the photo- 

 graph was taken last fall. 



The chrysanthemums are flowered in 

 the carnation house, shown in another 

 picture, and as wiU be seen very satis- 

 factory results are obtained. 



The' orchid house is 20x100. dirided 



