554 



HORTICULTURE 



April 27, 190T 



women and boys are at work and we notice the blooms 

 are wrapped in thin paper and packed in deep wicker 

 baskets upright. The nursery itself is not of any great 

 extent as it is only about four acres. The glass accom- 

 modation absorbs a good portion of the area. There 

 are about a dozen low pitched, rough-made houses and 

 several others larger in which we see some really first- 

 class blooms. 



In one large house constructed in the way previously 

 described there is an immense collection of Julian HiU- 

 pert plants, fi feet high in 10 inch or 11 inch pots with 

 noble looking buds all swelling and showing color freely. 

 These are for late season purposes. A sport from tins 

 Tariety called Soliel de Novembre is also in fine form. 



Some of the smaller houses are visited in turn. They 

 look like portable structures with loose lights en top. 

 Tliey are about 5 feet in height and are disastrous for 

 the visitor's hat. Ventilation is secured by propping an 

 inverted flower pot under each corner of the light and 

 when shut down and the weather unpropitious straw 

 mats are unrolled and cover up the lights. A few odds 

 and ends arrest attention, the main early crop of bloom 

 having already been cut and marketed. Gloire Poitevine 

 is a fine crimson with gold reverse. Mme. Louis Dupuis 

 is of medium size, a Jap, color creamy white. La Mauve 

 is a very nice shaped flower— its color is indicated by 

 its name. Edith de Clausonne is a very large Japanese, 

 creamy white ; and Eobert Lefort, an incurved Jap., very 

 large, color reddish crimson, reverse gold. Among the 

 better known sorts there is a very large quantity of 

 Mme. Paolo Radaelli, which appears to be a favorite 

 everywhere in England and France. 



We wander on toward the far end of the nursery and 

 there find another very large roughly constructed glass 

 shelter under which stands a most imposing sight, one of 

 the most striking and effective we have ever seen. Here 

 there are in close array 10,000 plants in large pots of 

 that solid looking Jap., Duchesse d'Orleans. They all 

 bear four or five blooms of full size and the effect is 

 one to be remembered. Tliis pure white noble Jap, with 

 its deeply grooved florets has long been a popular 

 variety with exhibitor and decorator alike. 



Another interesting sight close at hand is a large 

 batch of a deep rich yellow sport from the Duchesse, 

 called Ami Nonin. These are grown and flowered in 

 the same style. Mme. Rene Oberthur is another big 

 fine white Jap. that is grown in quantity. Souvenir de 

 Mme. Buron, and Lt. Col. Ducroiset are two good yel- 

 lows that come early. Le Peyron is also a golden yellow 

 of fine form. Immense quantities of these flowers are 

 sold for All Saints Day and for the purpose of dec- 

 orating the graves on All Souls Day, a custom relig- 

 iously observed in France, but one scarcely known in 

 England. 



Tlie weather fitful and uncertain has not made our 

 progress an easy one. We are now oS to Montrouge to 

 see the nursery of M. Lemaire who is also a large cul- 

 tivator of the "autumn queen." An immense down- 

 pour signalizes our start and lasts for the remainder of 

 the day. The darkness cau.sed by the heavy rain clouds 

 overhead practically spoils our afternoon's stay at Le- 

 maire's and although under cover we wander about amid 

 streams of water falling through the temporary roofs 

 and up to our ankles in mud. 



Lemaire does not cultivate for the late season. He 

 begins cutting in September and finishes in November. 

 His plants are all grown on the big bloom system and 

 are for the florists in the Paris market. His chief col- 

 lection comprises about 100 varieties of which he grows 

 about 75,000 plants all in pots. He, too, has under trial 



others of more recent introduction. We start our visit 

 of inspection here by a tour round the poking shed. 

 Several women and young people are getting a vanload 

 ready for market. Big tubs are filled with immense 

 blooms, all cut with long stems and foliage ready for 

 packing. We note in the tubs many familiar sorts. M. 

 Lemaire's flowers are very largely used for wedding 

 parties, church decoration and the ornamentation of 

 apartments, four hundred blooms of this type often 

 being used at such festive gatherings. His chief aim 

 is to get only large-flowering varieties and his collection 

 is composed of such as will allow him to supply hi& 

 customers with big blooms of every possible color at 

 intervals of a fortnight during the season. Ampng them 

 are Bandenier, a carmine reddish incurved, flowering in 

 October. Princesse Alice de Monaco, a fine white Jap., 

 end of September to middle of October. Volcan, an in- 

 curved, crimson red, reverse old gold, flowers in Septem- 

 ber and October. M. Antonin Marmontel, purple rose, 

 Jap., October blooming variety. Cal vat's Sun, golden 

 yellow, a fine Japanese incurved, October. Mile. Lucie 

 Duveail, medium sized incurved, pure white, October 

 flowering. 



As in the other places the plants grown here are all 

 placed in rows under their glass coverings and the pots 

 partly sunk in the ground with spaces left at intervals 

 for access. M. Lemaire's nursery is not more than about 

 2 1-2 to 3 acres in extent but the space is economized 

 everywhere. After flowering, the old plants are cut 

 down and the old stools are put out in the open for 

 cuttings which are struck in April to May. 



The day was now far spent and friend Nonin and I 

 hurried off to the show to meet our womankind who 

 under the cover of the greenhouses of the Cours la Reine 

 had spent a far more comfortable afternoon in strolling 

 round the exhibition which is always crowded with vis- 

 itors at that time of day. 



British Horticulture 



"nueserywomen" 



Lately there has been a controversy in a London 

 daily paper, as to the suitability of gardening work for 

 women. Some of the writers have questioned whether 

 women can successfully engage in the arduous work of 

 tilling the soil. It is somewhat late in the day to raise 

 difficulties of this kind, seeing that there are several 

 notable instances of the fair sex carrying on profitable 

 nursery and market growing businesses. Two sisters 

 are carrying on a violet nursery in Sussex, whilst I am 

 acquainted with several women who are doing a large 

 business in supplying plants of their own raising. I 

 liave lately heard of the achievements of three sisters 

 who have started a nursery near Southsea, on the Hamp- 

 shire coast. The founder of the business commenced at 

 the age of 19 with practically no capital, and she had 

 to first clear a thistle covered, neglected piece of land. 

 A commencement was made by growing vegetables for 

 market, a glass-house for tomato culture being eventu- 

 ally added. The enterprise proved so prosperous that 

 six large glass houses were required, and these are fully 

 occupied all the year round. Tomatoes have been found 

 the most profitable item, these being in constant de- 

 mand at the shops in the neighborhood. Pupils are 

 also being trained at the nursery, and in five years a very 



