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THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



ing beds, more interesting than hand 

 some, but are instructive and to those 

 who love plants are attractive. 



A very simple and well known ar 

 rangement of a bed that I saw very 

 recently pleased me very much, and still 

 more when the &quot;Missus&quot; of the grounds 

 said: &quot;Mr. S., we are delighted with 

 the bed this year. Don t you think it is 

 beautiful?&quot; It was surrounded here 

 and there, but not densely, with a few 

 trees and the bed was some thirty yards 

 back from the street. It was simply a 

 center (about two dozen) of a tall, nar 

 row leaved, dark almost blood red 

 canna (I wish I could give you its cor 

 rect name) surrounded by Caladium escu- 

 lentum, then two rows of Coleus Ver- 

 schaffeltii and next the grass a circle 

 of Golden Bedder coleus. This is quite 

 a conventional arrangement with us, but 

 hard to beat and generally pleasing. 



The landscape architect, especially of 

 the most approved style, would, I feel 

 sure, declaim against this bed on the 

 lawn find say it was bad taste, not in 

 harmony with the grass and the shade of 

 elm and maple and linden. The up-to- 

 date landscape artist doesn t want you to 

 plant a golden elder or variegated cornus 

 or Prunus Pissardii in shrubbery group 

 ings because the coloring is abnormal 

 and not in accordance with nature. What 

 does the proprietor care about such 

 things? He wants to be cheerful. This 



natural coats of the animals they had 

 slain very comfortable on their own 

 backs, and now clothing has developed 

 into adornment and frills as well as be 

 come a necessity. 



It is the mission of the florist to sug 

 gest the most appropriate style of bed 

 ding to his customers where advice is 

 asked for, and poor policy to crowd in 

 more than is discreet when it is left to 

 his judgment. In residence streets a 

 flower bed between the house and the 

 street is not good taste and should not 

 be advocated. At the side or slightly 

 to the rear of the house is much better. 

 Houses of a moderate size with veran 

 das at side and front have often a row 

 or two of the flowering cannas in the 

 border surrounding the veranda, and very 

 handsome they look. 



Florists are now divided into several 

 classes. The strictly store man has no 

 interest in bedding plants, nor has the 

 wholesale grower more than to dispose 

 of them, but the great majority of the 

 florists of the country raise bedding 

 plants for their spring crops and de 

 pend upon their sale for a good part 

 of their income. If well and carefully 

 done and a fair and just charge made 

 your customers will be very unlikely to 

 leave you and you can depend on the 

 order from year to year. 



The profit will largely depend upon 

 your ability to keep a good stock of 



A Long Bed of Geraniums. 



sticking to nature is carried to excess. 

 To be true to nature we would have to 

 undergo a great change. We would not 

 cut our hair or pare our finger nails or 

 use knives and forks and would retro 

 grade to ,the days of the fig leaf. Our 

 early ancestors, when crawling or leap 

 ing from limb to limb, or wading 

 through bogs when emigrating to the 

 northern regions of the globe, found the 



flower garden plants in a comparatively 

 small space till after Easter. From 

 fall till after Easter our benches are 

 wanted for successive crops, but Easter 

 sales largely clear them except those 

 planted with roses and carnations. Ge 

 raniums can be then given their last 

 shift, and so can ageratum, feverfew, 

 heliotrope and salvia. Coleus can be 

 grown from a cutting to a fine bedding 



plant in eight weeks. Cannas and caladi- 

 ums can be kept in flats till middle of 

 April and then make fine plants by 

 June 1. Petunias can be pricked out in 

 pans and then in six weeks will make the 

 best of bedding plants. Centaurea, co 

 leus, achyranthes, verbenas, heliotropes, 

 many of the geraniums, lobelias, aloy- 

 sias, and all the carpet bedding plants, 

 are far better in the hotbeds than in 

 the greenhouses, giving you plenty of 

 room for the spreading out of your 

 fine zonal geraniums, cannas and calad- 

 iums. 



A great mistake made by too many 

 florists, especially by those who have 

 only three or four houses, is to be short 

 of help just at the time it is most needed. 

 For the first two weeks after Easter a 

 man with 20,000 feet of glass occupied 

 by a general run of plants could use 

 twenty men with profit, though during 

 February and March only five men were 

 needed to keep up with the work. I am 

 aware of the fact that you could not get 

 the right kind of men even if you wanted 

 them, but many times you allow a batch 

 of plants to spoil for want of handling 

 when a little more help would have saved 

 them. 



Bedding plants are all soft-wooded 

 and while they rest largely, or can be 

 just kept slowly growing during winter, 

 they feel the suns of spring and must 

 have attention when it is needed or it 

 is too late. How often you hear the 

 remark: &quot;No, I am short on this or 

 that. Was too busy and neglected 

 them. This attention is not science ; 

 it is only close application and good 

 management; and having sufficient help 

 at the right time, and setting the men 

 at the work most suited to them, is the 

 very best of good management. 



I don t know any business where neg 

 lect to do work at the proper time will 

 bring about worse results. A tailor, a 

 jeweler, a printer or a parson can lock 

 his shop or office for weeks; his business 

 may suffer, but his goods will not. Ours 

 must be fed and aired and moved and 

 shifted as they need it. 



Half the success with bedding plants 

 depends upon the planting out. We 

 charge nothing for planting if the bed 

 is dug and prepared and the plants to 

 fill it amount to $10 or more. If not 

 prepared we charge for labor, manure, 

 etc. We always prefer to plant where 

 there is only a coachman kept, for then 

 it is properly done. Sufficient plants 

 are put in to make a good appearance. 

 If enough are sent on the wagon there 

 is none left over to call for another day, 

 nor three more to be delivered to fill up. 

 Nor are four dozen stretched out over 

 a bed where six dozen should be planted. 

 If the bed looks skimpy you don t want 

 it to be known that they were your 

 plants, and you will perhaps get the 

 blame for poor general effect, for there 

 are plenty of unreasonable people about. 



We insist on our men arranging the 

 plants carefully, just placing them in 

 the holes, but not filling in the soil, 

 and then when all are in place giving 

 each plant a good soaking and in a 

 few minutes filling in with the dry 

 ground. That watering is worth ten 



