no 



THE FLORISTS* MANUAL. 



forefinger of either hand is a marvelous 

 attachment, and can guide and divide 

 the stream of water in any form or 

 direction you choose. You can t talk 

 to a fellow workman and intelligently 

 and faithfully water a lot of plants in 

 pots, mueh less syringe them. Your 

 work needs all your thought and atten 

 tion, and. I will conclude this chapter by 

 saying that a man who chatters or 

 smokes at his work is of little use. Work 

 in work hours, give all your mind to 

 your work, and when the noon and even 

 ing hour comes you will enjoy the rest 

 far better than if you had been discus 

 sing your mother-in-law or last employer. 



GARDENIA. 



In the days when short-stemmed 

 flowers were used, the flowers of Gar 

 denia florida were much prized. Flowers 

 are often sent from the southern states, 

 but by the time they reach our northern 

 cities they are much the worse for the 

 journey and often useless. There is at 

 present a growing demand for these 

 delightfully fragrant flowers and as the 

 home grown flowers are so much finer 

 than the southern article, we believe 

 their culture will yet be taken up and 

 specialized by northern growers. 



The gardenia is a dwarf evergreen 

 shrub. The double form of G. florida, 

 called the cape jasmine, resembles the 

 flower of a small camellia. They are 



to keep down mealy bug, thrips and red 

 spider. During summer the leading 

 shoots should be pinched once or twice. 

 Early in September they should be lifted 

 and potted into 6-inch or 7-inch pots, 

 kept warm and close till they are well 

 rooted in the pots. They can then be 

 kept about 50 degrees at night, and a 

 few plants started at intervals with more 

 heat. It is difficult in our northern 

 greenhouses to induce them to flower 

 before February. 



A method more adapted to the com 

 mercial man would, I think, be better 

 especially in our northern cities. 



Take young stock from 3-inch pots in 

 the month of June and plant on benches 

 in a light, sunny house. Let the plants 

 be fifteen inches apart, and place each 

 plant on a little mound where the soil is 

 six or seven inches deep, and between 

 plants let the soil slope down to three 

 or four inches. They want such frequent 

 syringing that the soil would be over- 

 wet unless every care was taken to drain 

 it. 



GERANIUM. 



All the geraniums that are so popu 

 lar with us the show, fancy, ivy-leaved, 

 tricolor, zonal, etc., are botanically 

 known as pelargoniums, but the name 

 geranium is so firmly and popularly 

 associated with our favorite bedding 

 plants that it would be absurd for me 



Geranium Little Pink. 



propagated from side shoots of well 

 ripened wood in strong bottom heat in 

 December and January and kept rather 

 close. In May or June they can be 

 planted out in a coldframe or spent hot 

 bed in six inches of good, light loam. 

 Daily they should be thoroughly syringed 



to write of them under the much less 

 familiar name of pelargonium. The 

 show and fancy pelargoniums that so 

 strangely are known to some people as 

 Lady and Martha Washingtons, I will 

 treat under their proper name. 



The geranium needs no introduction, 



for if there is a plant known uni 

 versally by every one it is the geranium. 

 Within thirty years an immense improve 

 ment has taken place, both in the habit 

 of the plant and the grand form and 

 color of the flower. The earliest double 

 ones were a curiosity when first they 

 came out, but they were so double that 

 they were of little use, and now a form 

 called semi-double has entirely displaced 

 them. The semi-doubles have one ad 

 vantage, the petals are not knocked off 

 by a rain storm, and they have also a 

 disadvantage. Some of the varieties, al 

 though excellent growers and remarkably 

 free flowering, become unsightly by the 

 inner florets losing color or decaying 

 before the outside florets have opened. 



The single varieties are still most use 

 ful for bedding. The ivy-leaved section 

 has been improved as much as the 

 zonals, having beautiful semi-double 

 flowers, and now we have double flowers 

 on the bronze and variegated type. Some 

 of the variegated kinds, such as the use 

 ful Mountain of Snow, are as vigorous 

 as the zonals, and so are the yellow and 

 bronze varieties, but the tricolor type are 

 less robust. 



When Peter Greive some fifty years 

 ago raised the lovely Mrs. Pollock it 

 was a great departure from any other 

 geranium. I have seen great beds of 

 it, or rather edgings of beds. It likes 

 a rich soil and a slight shade. It will 

 burn up and grow less in our hot suns 

 with the ordinary treatment we give the 

 flowering zonals. 



Mme. Salleroi is a type of itself, form 

 ing no stems, but a mass of short shoots 

 spring from the crown and the plant 

 makes a compact little clump, very suit 

 able for edging. 



Propagation. 



When planting out for your own stock 

 give the plants plenty of room to grow 

 and do not crowd or the growths will 

 be soft and unsuitable for cuttings. Un 

 less the season is very dry geraniums 

 seldom want water, and if you must 

 water give them a thorough soaking and 

 then hoe before the ground bakes. That 

 is pretty good advice to apply to a 

 whole lot of things. Keep all flowers 

 picked off as soon as they are fully de 

 veloped; it will encourage the plants to 

 grow. 



About September 1 take off your first 

 batch of cuttings and pot firmly in 

 214-inch pots. A coldframe will do for 

 the cuttings, but an ordinary bench is 

 just as good and less liable to neglect. 

 They should be shaded during the hottest 

 hours of the day only, and that can be 

 done with newspapers,, which is better 

 than any fixed shading because on dull 

 days a shading would be injurious. 



Potting firmly with a good, sifted 

 loam is an important point. Don t 

 thumb the top of the soil, but get your 

 finger and thumb down by the side of 

 the cutting like a wedge, and make the 

 soil around the base of the cutting firm. 

 The watering will take care of the sur 

 face without your wasting any time with 

 your thumbs. 



They want a good, thorough watering 



