104 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



the broken-hearted and sincere mourner 

 does not want to attract attention. 



The crowding of flowers in a design 

 is no longer permissible. Every flower 

 should if possible show its individuality. 

 The whole should blend and every flower 

 and leaf should be fresh and spotlessly 

 clean. And let me add in conclusion 

 that when you take an order for a de 

 sign and promise it at a certain hour 

 see that it is delivered on time. Punc 

 tuality gets a large credit mark in the 

 public favor. 



FREESIA. 



These graceful, fragrant flowers are 

 of the easiest culture. The bulbs are 

 now sold remarkably cheap, cheaper in 

 fact than you can save them. The 

 species called refracta and refracta alba 

 are mostly grown. The latter is pure 

 white, without the yellow blotch in the 

 throat. We too often plant a large lot 

 of freesia bulbs at one time, thus hav 

 ing more than our demand makes profit 

 able. You receive the bulbs in July, 

 and every two or three weeks a few 

 hundred can be started. 



Their treatment is entirely different 

 from the so-called Dutch bulbs, and 

 sometimes mistakes are made. We 

 usually plant seven to nine bulbs in a fl 

 inch pot. Put the bulbs a little under 

 the surface and place the pots in a 

 coldframe. Later batches you will start 

 inside. The pots want no covering of 

 any kind, as the top and roots start 

 together. Water moderately till the 

 foliage is well developed. When the pots 

 are full of roots they should not suffer 

 for water. They like a temperature of 

 about 50 degrees at night and should 

 always have the -fullest light. 



Those growing large quantities plant 

 the bulbs in flats of three or four inches 

 of soil. After November a bench in a 

 ;greenhouse is used for the purpose, put 

 ting the bulbs two inches apart in the 

 TOWS and six inches between rows. 



A good loam with some well rotted 

 manure or leaf -mold will grow them ; 

 do not give them poor, worn-out soil 

 as you can a tulip. 



Pots that have flowered can be stored 

 away after the foliage is ripe and the 



The Bride s Shower Bouquet. 



bulbs shaken out and started again the 

 following fall, but as stated above the 

 bulbs are now produced so fine and 

 cheap that it is better to buy every 



year. Freesias will endure a few de 

 grees of frost without any harm, but 

 don t let the dry bulbs freeze when 

 out of the ground. 



FUCHSIA. 



Plants that have been grown in 

 greenhouses for more than a century, 

 and a favorite with all. There are a 

 great many species, mostly all from 

 South America, but the true species are 

 now seldom seen. The hybrid varieties 

 are those of the commercial florists, and 

 firms that make a specialty of soft- 

 wooded plants are continually sending 

 out new varieties. Many of my readers 

 will remember old Fuchsia fulgens, with 

 its clustered raceme of flowers at the 

 end of the shoots; and many are also 

 acquainted with F. macrostema; both 

 true species, but very unlike. 



In the milder parts of Great Britain 

 you will see such varieties as Eose of 

 Castile trained up the front of verandas 

 as we do clematis, showing that they 

 withstand a good freezing, and many 

 of the species are treated as hardy 

 shrubs, the winter killing the tops, but 

 the plant makes a strong growth again 

 in the spring, just as our basket willows 

 are cut down and an annual growth is 

 made. Where the thermometer does not 

 go below 15 degrees these species will 

 winter very well. We treat the fuchsia 

 as a very short-lived plant, seldom grow 

 ing the plant more than one year, but 

 in its native Andes it is a shrub, or even 

 small tree. 



With us fuchsias are often used for 

 summer bedding, but they never can 

 be any part of a formal flower garden 

 because they would conform with no 

 other beds. Nor will they thrive in 

 the broad sun. Behind buildings or 

 hedges or where they will get only the 

 morning sun, and where they are no 

 part of any design, they make very 

 pleasing beds. The soil should be deep 

 and rich and where the hose can reach 



A Table Dccorat on of Roman Hyacinths and Smilax. 



