THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



Sometimes \ve find the roots very dry. 

 1 prefer to dip the roots for a few mo 

 ments in a tub of water before putting 

 outside. Let a frost come, a good, hard 

 one, so that the covering is frozen, and 

 no harm if the roots are, then put a foot 

 of hay or excelsior over them and cover 

 with shutters to. keep off rain. It is not 

 well for the roots to be too wet. Glass 

 sash would keep off the rain, but it 

 would also raise the temperature on 

 bright days during a thaw, and that is 

 just what you don t want. These con 

 ditions will do for all the pips that you 

 force during winter and up to the time 

 that we get the flowers outside. But long 

 before this you must have removed to 

 the cold storage the roots that are wanted 

 for summer and autumn. 



The time to put them in cold storage 

 may vary by a month because the weather 

 varies. They must be absolutely dor 

 mant when removed to the cold storage, 

 and that must be closely watched. We 

 have tried repeatedly to store away a few 

 thousand in our local cold-storage ware 

 houses, and if we could be always suc 

 cessful with them it would be a great 

 convenience and cheaper than building 

 one of your own. But it is very uncer 

 tain work and we have often blamed our 

 selves when perhaps it was the cold- 

 storage management that was at fault. 



Mr. Simpson at some length gives in 

 structions how to build a cold-storage 

 house, but were I to repeat it I am sure 

 you could not build one by it without 

 visiting some one who has one and seeing 

 for yourself how to do it. The most 

 comforting part of it is that he says 

 a cold-storage house that will hold 400,- 

 000 valley roots can be built for $600. 

 The interest on that sum seems very 

 trifling when the success of even a quar 

 ter of the above number is grown. 

 Whether you have your own cold storage 

 or hire it, the conditions which you should 

 try to preserve are these : 



Get boxes of convenient size, six or 

 seven inches deep, line them with moist 

 sphagnum moss and between the bunches 

 of roots put moist sand, not saturated, 

 and cover pips with an inch or two of 

 sphagnum. To occupy little space you 

 will have to put slats or boards on top 

 of each box, so that they can be piled 

 up one above the other. In renting space 

 in cold storage this would be a great con 

 sideration. When first put in give them 

 10 degrees of frost and in a few days 

 let the temperature go up to 28 or 29 

 degrees and remain at that. 



In large cold-storage houses they have 

 rooms at all temperatures and will ask 

 you what degree you want, so the same 

 plan can be carried out by moving the 

 boxes. If when removing the roots from 

 the frame to cold storage they appear 

 dry, give the whole box a watering be 

 fore putting it away, but it is not well 

 for the sand to be too wet or the roots 

 may rot. Those small growers who hire 

 the local cold storage for their arrested 

 lilies may as well put them in suitable 

 boxes when first receiving them in tho 

 fall; then with the addition of some 

 moist sphagnum over the pips they can 

 be easily removed at short notice to their 

 cold surroundings. 



There have been many ways of forc 

 ing the pip into flower. The English 

 growers use ordinary loam as we use 

 sand, and Mr. Simpson asserts that they 

 (the English) produce larger spikes and 

 finer flowers than are grown here, but 

 does not attribute that to cultivation so 

 much as obtaining a uniformly high 



Flower Spray of Lily of the Valley. 



grade of roots and being very particular 

 that they are first-class. A firm that 

 grows annually six millions of pips, as 

 does Thomas Rochford, near London, de 

 serves certainly to get the best there is 

 in the market. Germany supplies them 

 and is likely to Supply them for a long 

 time. 



In obtaining the pips get the very best 

 you can. Don t be guided by any 

 tacked-on, absurd title, but find out a 



good source or good man, and when you 

 are well treated stick to that man. Un 

 less you get a well developed crown that 

 contains a good spike of flowers in an 

 embryonic size your most skillful and 

 faithful care will not produce a good 

 flower. 



When brought in to force the tips of 

 the roots are chopped off. They make 

 no fibrous root while growing, but I 

 don t believe the roots should be chopped 

 off too short. So the boxes, if you use 

 boxes, should be five inches deep, leaving 

 the pips just above the surface of the 

 sand. You can place the roots as close 

 as they will conveniently go in the trench 

 of sand and three inches between the 

 rows. Some growers place an inch of 

 sphagnum between the pips on the sur 

 face of the box and when the boxes s are 

 going on the pipes I think it a good plan. 

 Large growers who use beds of sand do 

 not bother with moss, and under the con 

 ditions it is not necessary. 



I have grown fairly good valley in 

 boxes placed on the pipes. Raise the 

 boxes a few inches from the pipes by 

 strips of wood. The first ten days we 

 place over pipes that have a good, strong 

 heat, then remove for a few days to some 

 pipes that are not so warm and a little 

 more light, and when color begins to show 

 remove them to the top of a bench, but 

 still shaded from the sun. Always avoid 

 wetting the bells after showing color, 

 but before that syringe frequently and 

 water the sand daily. When lily of the 

 valley is about fully expanded (that is, 

 the top bells) the sprays can be cut and 

 placed in water in bunches for twenty- 

 four hours. They travel and keep bet 

 ter than those freshly cut, as do most all 

 flowers. 



Large growers (and this plan is better 

 far than the boxes with those that want, 

 say, from 1,000 to 2,000 a week) is 

 to put the roots at once into six inches 

 of sand in the bed. A small, narrow 

 house, with a northern aspect, such as 

 you often see on the north side of an 

 old-fashioned, three-quarter-span house, 

 would be an excellent place to grow the 

 valley. Top, or atmospheric, heat is not 

 of consequence, but one or two pipes on 

 the side of the wall or path are advisable 

 to be used in very severe weather. The 

 bench should be boarded up back and 

 front. If you don t have any pipes except 

 under the bench have one of the front 

 boards hinged so that it can be opened in 

 very severe weather to warm the air of 

 the house, for in those times when you 

 are firing so hard you can spare the heat 

 from beneath the bench. In a section of 

 bench in an ordinary house this is not 

 needed because the house is always warm 

 enough. 



The bench should be of roofing slate 

 over which you spread half an inch of 

 cement, all of which is a good conductor 

 of heat. Mr. Simpson says that under 

 the bench should be four 2-inch pipes 

 or three 4-inch. If steam, that would 

 do, but better have five 2-inch hot w r ater 

 pipes or four 4-inch. There should be 

 a 12-inch board above the bench, back 

 and front, the front one movable for 

 convenience in planting, cutting, etc. 

 These boards should be high enough so 



