THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



83 



heather, but heather is the Scotch name 

 of its native erica or heath. 



Acacia armata, called often Mimosa 

 paradoxa, is a beautiful plant, but 

 should not be offered for sale the sea 

 son that it is imported. Cut down 

 and grown in pots during the summer 

 it makes a beautiful plant the follow 

 ing winter or spring. It will be too 

 early for Easter unless kept very cool. 

 A. Drummondii is also very pretty and 

 can be treated the same way. 



Deutzia gracilis is most easy to force 

 and should be given seven to eight 

 weeks in the greenhouse. 



Cytisus, although a poor house plant, 

 is so floriferous and makes such a com 

 pact, pretty plant that it is always 

 worth growing. Keep very cool or it 

 will be gone too early. 



Spirasa (astilbe) is always wanted for 

 church decoration, and when people 

 learn that a spiraea should always be 

 stood in a saucer with an inch of water 

 in it they will find it a long lasting 

 house plant. 



Mignonette in 4-inc-h and 5-inch pots 

 sells well and should command a good 

 price, as it takes six or seven months 

 to grow a good pot. Plants can t be 

 forced; they must come along slowly, 

 with a strong, sturdy growth in a cool 

 house. 



Lily of the valley in pots and pans 

 sells well. 



If made up out of a bed when in 



Easter Plant Arrangements. 



full bloom they are just as lasting as 

 if grown in the pot and a much finer 

 show can be made. It is just water 

 they live on. 



The old Dutch hyacinth always will 

 be a favorite with many people. We 

 believe only good bulbs should be 

 used for this purpose. They are grown 

 singly in a 4-inch pot, and in groups 

 of three or more. A 10-inch or 12-inch 

 pan containing a dozen grand spikes of 

 one variety of hyacinth and trimmed 

 with the right shade of paper is a rich 

 affair and attracts the well-to-do. 



Tulips and daffodils are grown in 6- 

 inch, 7-inch and 8-inch pans and find a 

 ready sale because they are inexpensive. 



Eoses there is always a demand for, 

 especially hybrid perpetuals. Plants 

 that are lifted from your own grounds 

 after the wood is ripe and carefully 

 and gradually brought along need from 

 ten to twelve weeks in the greenhouse. 

 The best pot roses I have ever seen 

 of this class were a lot of American 

 Beauty that had grown on a bench the 

 previous summer, slightly dried off at 

 the end of October and lifted the mid 

 dle of November, potted into 6-inch 

 pots and kept in a cold pit away from 

 severe freezing till the middle of Jan 

 uary, when they were brought in and 

 st.-irtod very cool. By Easter, which 

 was then in about eleven weeks, they 

 wen- a great sight five or six good 

 blooms on 18-inch stems, with lots of 



buds to come. They outsold anything- 

 we had and would have been a splen 

 did paying crop had we not cut a rose 

 the previous summer. 



The Crimson Kambler, the Farquhar 

 Eambler, Dorothy Perkins all make 

 splendid Easter plants. Our experience 

 is that if the plants are lifted from 

 the ground the previous fall they must 

 be brought along very carefully and 

 slowly, so you must allow thirteen or 

 fourteen weeks under glass, the first 

 half of which they must be cool. If 

 the plants have made their growth the 

 previous summer in pots, the wood will 

 be better ripened and the roots, not 

 being disturbed, can be given more heat 

 at the start, so that ten weeks in the 

 houses will do. 



The white Marguerite, if well pinched 

 in the field and kept cool during win 

 ter, makes a grand plant for church 

 decorations. It is truly decorative and 

 is one of the very best house plants 

 known, blooming and flourishing in the 

 dry air of a room for weeks. 



Hardy shrubs of many kinds are oc 

 casionally tried as Easter plants, the 

 snowball (viburnum) particularly, but 

 we have not found people willing to 

 pay for cost of room they have occu 

 pied. 



Don t forget the 50-cent customers. 

 A good 4-inch zonal geranium, a hya 

 cinth or a 6-inch pan of pansies will fill 

 the bill. 



