U6 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



ready lightly tapped in, and when the 

 two men laying the glass call for the 

 cap, up it goes, and the men who have 

 ratchet screw-drivers soon have the 

 screws down in their place. Don t screw 

 down too tightly, just firm and solid is 

 enough. You will, of course, need one 

 screw within an inch or so of the ridge. 



Be sure to have the ventilators made 

 the same way with cap and bar, and to 

 take the same size glass. Have but one 

 size glass on the place, if possible, and 

 as little cutting as possible. I do not 

 like to disparage any device that is made 

 and sent abroad in good faith by a fel 

 low florist, but in justice to those who 

 will follow my advice I must candidly 

 say the zinc strips that are made to 

 go between glass when butted are a 

 miserable failure and a nuisance. You 

 want nothing between them or under 

 them; simply the cap. 



Any size glass can be butted. We 

 have it on 12-inch, 14-inch and 16-inch 

 square and always double thick. We 

 prefer to use glass that is square, that is, 

 14x14 or 16x16. Then you have the 

 choice of two edges, and if one is a 

 little rough you can use the other. If 

 glass is laid as described above it will 

 save you many dollars. It is a smooth, 

 fine roof, more air-tight than lapped 

 glass. The drip is nothing, absolutely 

 nothing, if well and properly laid; if 

 there should be a trifle it is always at the 

 bottom, which in commercial houses 

 would fall in the path. And if a little 

 dust creeps in. and it will creep in where 

 water won t, it can be washed annually 

 as clean as the day you put it up. 



In our last addition we used cast iron 

 gutters. If you should have occasion 



up the sound, and before night you are 

 whole. 



Without considering these contin 

 gencies, it is the ideal way for a com 

 mercial man to build. I have twenty-two 

 houses glazed with butted glass. I had 

 no one to tell me how, but I persevered, 

 and when I had built five or six I had 

 it down fine and have given you the 

 mature fruits of my experience. 



Most of the above was written eight 

 years ago and since then we have built 

 and rebuilt more than a dozen houses, 

 but have never altered our mind with 

 regard to glazing. We have heard lately 

 extravagant praise as well as censure 

 of this method. If houses are truly and 

 squarely built and the butting method is 

 properly followed it has many points in 

 its favor over lapping and the use of 

 putty. 



GLECHOMA. 



The species that is useful to the florist 

 is called by many names. Ground ivy 

 is one, and the Germans apply the ele 

 gant name of louse krout. The varie 

 gated form of this little weed is one 

 of our best basket plants. It starts 

 to grow so well and makes such a fine 

 appearance in a vase or basket that, 

 weed as it may be, it is w T ell worth 

 growing. 



The ends of the growths, a few inches 

 long, should be put into 2-inch pots 

 in September, three or four in each pot, 

 and placed in a coldframe. Kept shaded 

 and moist they will soon be rooted, and 

 then the glass should be removed till 

 severe weather arrives, when the glass 

 should again go on. Leave them in the 



Gloxinias. 



to put in these iron gutters see that the 

 check in the gutters that the bottom light 

 butts against is a full one-eighth of an 

 inch. In the cast iron gutters we have, 

 though satisfactory in every other re 

 spect, the check is scarcely one-sixteenth 

 of an inch and occasionally a light slips 

 over. 



Fancy the luxury of painting such a 

 house. Eemove the glass, thoroughly 

 paint an/1 relay again. If you were 

 visited by a hail storm you have only 

 to break out the shattered lights, shove 



frame till end of March, when they 

 should be got out and shifted into 3-inch 

 pots and started growing in the green 

 house. We place them along the edges 

 of benches or shelves where their quick 

 growing shoots can hang down. 



Few plants will make such a veil of 

 growth to cover the woodwork of our 

 rustic baskets or the moss of our hang 

 ing baskets as this little creeping 

 Jenny, but do not attempt to keep it 

 in the greenhouse all winter or it will 

 be useless. 



GLOXINIA. 



These tropical American plants are 

 well adapted to house culture. I have 

 seen plants with fifteen perfect flowers 

 in the window of a humble cottage. 

 We seldom get complaints about their 

 failure. They are essentially summer 

 flowering. 



Gloxinias are raised in large quantities 

 from seed by specialists, but the florist 

 who grows only a few hundred will do 

 much better to obtain his supply of 

 corms (usually called bulbs) from some 

 firm that raises them in large quantities. 

 The price of the bulbs is now very low. 

 Seed is usually sown in February. Sow 

 on a wet surface and don t cover the 

 seed; it is too small. Cover the pan 

 with a light of glass till the seeds are 

 up. A warm house is needed and the 

 pans should be kept away from the direct 

 rays of the sun. 



As soon as the seedlings can be 

 handled, transplant them two inches 

 apart in flats in two or three inches 

 of loam and leaf-mold. In June plant 

 them in four inches of soil in a cold- 

 frame, or better still, a hotbed that has 

 lost its violent heat. When growing 

 they like plenty of Avater, and should 

 be shaded on all bright days. Many of 

 these seedlings will flower the same sum 

 mer and will make good bulbs for grow 

 ing in pots the next season. 



In September water should be grad 

 ually withheld till the foliage has 

 dried up, when the bulbs should be lifted 

 and stored away in dry sand or soil 

 during winter. As previously said, for a 

 few hundred you cannot begin to raise 

 seedlings at the price you can buy good 

 flowering bulbs from the specialist. 



February to March is the best time 

 to start the bulbs. We put them first 

 in 4-inch pots, just covering the bulbs. 

 One watering is sufficient till the leaves 

 begin to start. A good loam with a 

 third of its bulk composed of leaf-mold 

 and well rotted cow manure will grow 

 them finely. The house you start them 

 in should not be less at night than 60 

 degrees, but as the season advances they 

 delight in our warmest weather. When 

 the leaves extend over the pots they 

 should be shifted into their flowering 

 pot, a 6-inch, and well drained. 



Gloxinias really w y ant a warm, moist 

 temperature without any water lying 

 on their leaves, although before flower 

 ing they should be daily syringed, which 

 should always be done in the morning. 

 I have had the best success with 

 gloxinias when the plants stood on in 

 verted 5-iuch or 6-inch pots on the 

 bench; -you can syringe the under side 

 of the leaves better, and the plants seem 

 to thrive much better with the increased 

 circulation of the air they get in this 

 position. 



Shading is the most particular part 

 of their cultivation. They don t like 

 the dense shade that whitewash affords, 

 neither do they want the bright sun, 

 or their beautiful flowers will wilt and 

 droop. A light shade, or best of all, 

 one that could be applied only in the 

 hottest hours, would be ideal. Never 

 let them get dry or you will lose their 

 flowers. This is a plant that in water- 



