THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



14* 



festivities. This is a truly broad-leaved 

 evergreen, but as I had occasion to re 

 mark under the head of Hardy Shrubs, 

 it is in most soils and localities very dis 

 appointing when transported away from 

 its native mountains. Those who have 

 never seen a mountain-side covered with 

 the pinkish white flowers of the kalmia 

 have little idea what a lovely shrub it 

 is on its native Alleghanies. It is widely 

 distributed. 



For an early June wedding (about the 

 time it is usually in full flower) we have 

 tried it in wreathing. Its appearance is 

 fine, but the waxy florets never cease 

 dropping, which precludes its use when 

 in flower. 



Neat little plants, well set with buds, 

 are now imported from Europe suitable 

 for forcing. They can be potted and 

 kept in coldframe till time to start them 

 in the houses. If wanted for Easter give 

 them six weeks in a temperature of 50 

 degrees, and near flowering time a little 

 more. Though very beautiful when in 

 full flower, we do not attach much value 

 to them, and nine customers out of ten 

 would in preference buy an Indian 

 azalea. 



KOENIGA Sweet Alyssum. 



The double form of this little plant 

 is quite important to the florist whose 

 business includes flower gardening, and 

 particularly for the edges of veranda- 

 boxes and vases. Sprays of its small 

 white flowers were formerly much in de 

 mand for funeral designs, and plants 

 were often grown on the edges of carna 

 tion beds where the flowers could hang 

 over the walks, and I have seen whole 

 benches devoted to its cultivation. As 

 a cut flower it is not now so much in 

 favor, but as a flower garden plant it is 

 most useful. 



We lift a few old plants in September, 

 cutting them back, and from the young 

 tender growths get lots of cuttings, or 

 young, suitable growths from outside 

 will give you stock. During winter you 

 can multiply it by cuttings ad libitum. 



Here is another plant that we find 

 the mild hotbed suits finely. You should 

 have a large lot in 2-inch pots early 

 in April, when if shifted into 3-inch 

 and put in the hotbed they make fine 

 plants for use in boxes and vases at the 

 end of May. 



The large, double-flowering kind is the 

 most useful. The single or true species 

 is always raised from seed which is sown 

 out of doors in spring with the summer 

 annuals. 



Tom Thumb is a very dwarf, com 

 pact form and is used for carpet bed 

 ding. Raised from seed sown in Febru 

 ary. 



LANTANA. 



A genus of tropical evergreen shrubs 

 having very pretty flowers, mostly white, 

 pink and orange. They are sometimes 

 used as greenhouse plants for summer 

 decoration, but it is as flower garden 

 plants that we use them. Our summer 

 climate suits them finely and they grow 

 very freely. They cannot be used for 

 any set design, but for the mixed border, 



or even in a mass, they are effective. The 

 odor of the leaf is not at all agreeable 

 and the flower is useless for cutting, but 

 for all that it is a very desirable, free 

 growing and flowering summer plant. 



It is troubled with no insects or dis 

 eases and thrives in any ordinary com 

 post. Grow a plant or two of each of 

 the most desirable varieties in 4-inch 

 or 5-inch pots over summer plunged 

 outside and at the approach of frost 

 bring them in and store in any house 

 where the temperature does not go below 

 50 degrees. After New Year s cut these 

 plants back a little and start in a warmer 

 house, and keep syringed. You will soon 

 have a number of young shoots, which 

 root readily in our ordinary propagating 

 bed. From the time you bring in the 

 plants in the fall till you start them 

 growing, keep them rather dry. We sell 

 them in 3-inch pots, which are large 

 enough, as they grow very fast when 

 planted out. 



LAPAGERIA. 



This is one of the handsomest green 

 house climbers. The pendent flowers 

 are so rich looking that when a long 

 .spray of the plant is cut with its flowers 

 attached nothing can surpass it in 

 beauty. Such sprays were seen at the 

 Boston convention in 1890, being part of 

 the decoration of the exhibit that re 

 ceived the first premium for wedding ar 

 rangement. The flowers are three or 

 four inches long, resembling a miniature 

 inverted wine glass, and of great sub 

 stance. They appear at the axils of the 

 leaves. The leaf is rather small, dark 

 green, and the stems long and wiry. 



They want a cool, shaded house in 

 summer and will thrive in a very cool 

 house in winter. A magnificent plant of 

 the variety alba covers the roof (or did) 

 in the glazed corridor at the entrance to 

 Veitch s nursery, Chelsea, England, and I 

 was informed it had many times had to 

 endure several degrees of frost. It was 

 then (August) covered with its magnifi 

 cent flowers. Unfortunately, cut close 

 to the stem, the single flower would be 

 of little use to us, and you would have 

 to possess a fine plant to afford the cut 

 ting of flowering sprays. 



It is often grown in large pots and 

 trained on a wire trellis. It is, how 

 ever, much better planted out in the bor 

 der of a house with a limit to the amount 

 of room the roots can spread. I have 

 tried it here and find it does not like 

 our hot summers, so it should be in a 

 position where you can shade during 

 summer and give plenty of air. A thor 

 oughly good drainage to the border or 

 tub in which it is planted is of first im 

 portance. A good compost would be 

 coarse fibrous loam with a tenth of de 

 cayed cow manure, and to that add an 

 other tenth of old broken up mortar or 

 Crushed charcoal. 



They are propagated by layering the 

 ends of strong snoots or from seed. 

 Young plants were once very expensive. 

 They are now obtainable at a moderate 

 cost. When raised from seed they vary 

 both in size and color, so fine varieties 

 are increased by layers. 



Slugs will eat the tops of the young 



asparagus-like shoots, but cotton-batting 

 will stop them. Tobacco smoke will keep 

 down fly and thrips, and syringing, 

 which the plant delights in throughout 

 the spring and summer, will prevent red 

 spider and mealy bug. 



There is only one species (Lapageria 

 rosea), but there is a pure white form 

 and from seedlings have been produced 

 intermediate colors. It is not a florist s 

 plant, but yet one that any gardener 

 should be proud to grow well for its aris 

 tocratic beauty. 



LAWNS -Making and Their Care. 



A fine, well-kept lawn is a source of 

 pleasure and pride to the owner, and 

 how unseemly it would be to see a fifty- 

 thousand-dollar mansion surrounded by 

 a weedy, ill-kept lawn. I have remarked 

 some years ago, perhaps only to myself, 

 that the lawns of the temperate and 

 moist parts of Europe (such as Great 

 Britain) were made to walk on; ours are 

 made to look at. &quot;Keep off the grass&quot; 

 is assuredly more frequently seen here 

 than there. The Emerald Isle gets 

 its poetic designation because the grass 

 is green the year round. Ours in sum 

 mer is brown in color, and for months 

 in winter an &quot;invisible green.&quot; So we 

 prize our lawns, spend money on them, 

 and pay large water bills for the privi 

 lege of frequently spoiling them, but 

 withal I must say that for trinmess and 

 neatness and greeness in our cities our 

 lawns will compare most favorably with 

 those I saw in England twenty years ago. 

 In fact, the latter were a disappointment, 

 and badly needed the water-cart or hose. 



Whether you use sod or seed to make 

 a lawn, the ground should be dug or 

 plowed a good eight or nine inches deep; 

 the deeper the roots can go down in the 

 soil, the less your grass will dry out in 

 summer. If you cannot afford that 

 amount of good top soil you should at 

 least have the soil dug that deep, and 

 into it work a good lot of well rotted 

 manure. Break it up with plow or spade, 

 so that the roots will go down into it. 

 If for sodding, you should have at least 

 two inches of good surface loam, so that 

 the roots will quickly take hold. 



In grading a piece of ground you may 

 have had depressions to fill up in some 

 spots several feet deep. In other places 

 you have had to take off the surface, 

 leaving that part very solid. The filled 

 up portion will be sure to sink, so it 

 should be got down to its permanent 

 grade either by ramming or by water. 

 In small areas, such as where excava 

 tions have been made for sewers, there is 

 no rammer equal to the hose. Flood 

 it with water, if practicable, and that 

 will take it down solid. This is particu 

 larly true of clay. 



Obtain the best and cleanest sod you 

 can, and here is a chance for you to pull 

 out the dandelion and plantain; their 

 roots are severed in cutting the sod, and 

 it takes little time to pull out the tops 

 with the short pieces of root. It is sel 

 dom we get sod that is evenly cut, but 

 if the ground has been nicely graded and 

 the soil not too solid, you can overcome 

 that, and a good heavy roller will flatten 

 down small inequalities. There is noth- 



