80 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



is to kill most any plant when the water 

 remains in the pot and keeps the soil 

 for a few days saturated. So plants 

 want water to pass through the soil but 

 not remain there, and with all plants 

 that are going to remain any time in the 

 same pot (azaleas are a good example) 

 they should have- what we call drainage. 



With pots not over five inches in 

 diameter a broad crock at the bottom 

 covered with a piece of green moss, 

 is enough, and with larger pots in ad 

 dition to the piece of crock covering the 

 hole an inch or so of broken crocks. 

 The green wood moss is much better 

 for the purpose than sphagnum because 

 the sphagnum soon rots and the com 

 post gets down among the crocks. You 

 will sometimes see the healthiest and 

 strongest roots of a plant down among 

 the crocks. I believe it is because they 

 find there the conditions to suit them 

 best perfect drainage. 



How particular we are that the 

 benches of our carnations and roses are 



plant has taken its place. It is the day 

 on which thousands visit the cemeteries, 

 perhaps the first visit of the spring to 

 the resting place of the departed, that 

 for montns has been covered with snow. 

 So several causes tend to make this a 

 busy time with the florist, but the most 

 commendable fashion of remembering 

 friends near, and even distant, with a 

 pretty flowering plant and Easter greet 

 ing surpasses all other demands for 

 flowers and plants, and I see no reason 

 why this virtuous practice should ever 

 drop from public favor. 



There is no other occasion when plants 

 and flowers must be just right, just in 

 perfection, so much as at Easter. Nine- 

 tenths of all the plants are delivered 

 on the Friday and Saturday, and must 

 be at their best on Easter morning. If 

 a batch of flowering plants are at their 

 best one week ahead of time, they will 

 be very unsatisfactory to your custom 

 ers, and if a few days too late it is 

 often nearly a total loss. Many of us 



ought to be straightened out. Easter 

 Sunday and the days preceding it are 

 supposed to commemorate events of 

 solemn moment to sincere Christians, 

 but as the moon, or the tide, or some 

 thing else, dodges these anniversaries 

 all over the month of April, how can 

 they have any significance? We be 

 lieve that ages after the events that 

 gave rise to Easter and Good Friday 

 are lost in oblivion, there will still be 

 holidays kept, and let us hope that in 

 the coming century the date will be fixed 

 for that holiday and that many more 

 will be added to the calendar. 



Life is a continuous holiday to some 

 and endless and hopeless drudgery to 

 others. This is all wrong and was never 

 ordained so. We have only recently 

 (for five centuries is but a speck in the 

 history of man) emerged from the 

 feudal system, and but yesterday emanci 

 pated millions of slaves. Hopeless starv 

 ation wages is also slavery with a tinc 

 ture of uncertainty added to its bitter- 



Easter Lilies in Celluloid Basket. 



Hydrangea Trimmed with Crepe Paper. 



drained by simply keeping the boards 

 one-half or three-quarters of an inch 

 apart, so that if watered heavily it can 

 pass quickly away. And so long as our 

 flower pots are made with that one small 

 hole we will have to make provision to 

 let water escape freely. The author who 

 thirty years ago laughed at the old fogy 

 notion of draining a flower pot lived to 

 alter his opinion and freely acknowl 

 edged it. 



EASTER PLANTS. 



Easter day is undoubtedly the great 

 est floral festival of the entire year. 

 For many years it has been the cus 

 tom to trim and decorate our churches 

 of all denominations with plants and 

 flowers, but, apart from that, it is the 

 custom now to give and receive from 

 friends a pretty plant or box of flow 

 ers. The Easter card is gone and a 



can remember having some hundreds of 

 lilies that would have sold for a dollar 

 each on Easter morning, or rather the 

 day before, had they each two or three 

 flowers open, but were sold the follow 

 ing week at 10 cents a stalk, and the 

 same with other plants. The quantity 

 grown for Easter, if attractive, would 

 bring a good price, but if late the sup 

 ply is ten times in excess of the de 

 mand, the day is over, and they are 

 given away. Another feature of the 

 Easter trade is the fact that it is a 

 movable festival and occurs any time be 

 tween March 22 and April 25, and we 

 have seen Easter Sunday a day of ice 

 and snow, and again, late in April, I 

 remember having nights of 70 degrees 

 and fanning ourselves on the veranda. 



To digress a moment. Why can t 

 Easter Sunday be fixed for a certain 

 date, say the second Sunday in April? 

 In these days of common sense this 



ness. The &quot;white man s burden&quot; is 

 not so much a care to the millions of a 

 race or races who never yet have evolved 

 to a high state of civilization and are 

 still happy in their primitive life. The 

 great burden of all of us is to bring 

 about a better and happier condition of 

 the fellow being whom we meet and see 

 every day. Although in a wretchedly 

 imperfect state as yet, a better time 

 on earth for every man, woman and 

 child must surely come. And then there 

 will be more holidays for all. &quot;Man s 

 inhumanity to man makes countless thou 

 sands mourn, but every age brings 

 more humanity, and justice and right 

 will follow and equality for all must 

 come. 



I consider the ability to get in crops 

 just when the market is ready for 

 them quite equal to that which pro 

 duces the plants and flowers, and at 

 Easter time is when you want to exer- 



