THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



167 



The Lower Box Shows the First Layer of Blooms. The Upper Box is Filled and Iced, Ready for Closing Up. 



few that are annuals. The two well- 

 known species mentioned are easy to 

 grow and very free blooming. 



PACKING FLOWERS. 



The author might have called upon 

 one whose business it is daily, and 

 perhaps all day, to pack flowers, but 

 since he received a letter from Chi 

 cago a year or so ago which acknowl 

 edged the receipt of a box of orchid 

 flowers which conveyed the pleasant tid 

 ings, The coelogyne flowers arrived 

 in the most perfect order; they were 

 finely packed,&quot; and as no one but 

 myself had a hand in it, I feel com 

 petent not only to pack flowers but to 

 tell others how to do it. 



This is an opportune time to repeat 

 a short story of that great man, Horace 

 Greeley, who embittered and shortened 

 his days by accepting the nomination 

 for president. In his young days he 

 edited an agricultural paper somewhere 

 in our state, and a delegation of western 

 farmers called on him. After a pleasant 

 chat in his office the leader of the party 

 said : Now, Mr. Greeley, we should 

 like to see your farm.&quot; &quot;H 1; farm! 

 Gentlemen, you don t expect a man to 

 write and farm too,&quot; was the forceful 

 rejoinder. So it s not necessary for a 

 man to be continually at the calling 

 to be able to write about it. In fact, 

 if he is too well posted on a specialty 

 his brain is liable to be clouded. 



In no part of the business (for this 

 part is purely a business, unlike the 

 cultivating, which is a profession) is 

 there more need of good sense and 

 judgment, which with constant prac 

 tice makes an expert packer of flow 



ers. In the first place, some men have 

 a knack or gift of handling cut flow 

 ers different from others. Some men 

 will take up a few dozen roses from 

 the counter and move them or show 

 them off to a customer as quickly but 

 as gently as a mother handles a two- 

 months-old baby, while I have often 

 been annoyed to see others slap them 

 down as if they were a bundle of salt 

 codfish. Every time the soft petals of 

 a rose get a knock there is a bruise 

 that does not show at once, but does 

 in a few hours. 



It is not the distance they travel; 

 the quick ride in the express car can 

 do but little harm; but they get jarred 

 about many times before they are 

 placed on the retailer s counter. The 

 grower may handle them roughly; they 

 get a bump at the local station, and 

 another when thrown into the express 

 car; another jar or two before they get 

 into the express wagon to be delivered 

 at the stores, and if they are going to 

 the commission man their troubles have 

 only begun. 



There are, broadly, two rules to ob 

 serve. Flowers should never be put into 

 a box crowded so that they are actually 

 squeezed, and, what is quite as bad, 

 so loosely that they can shake or move 

 about. 



Koses should not be packed more than 

 one layer deep. Their flowers should 

 be sufficiently far from the end of the 

 box that there is no possibility of their 

 petals being jammed against the end. 

 If they have any distance to go there 

 should be a layer of tissue paper be 

 tween every row of buds, and in warm 

 weather, with varieties like American 

 Beauty and Ulrich Bruuner, every rose 



should be wrapped in tissue. The box 

 should be long enough to take the steins 

 at full length. 



Small and tight buds may have an 

 other layer of buds on top, but with 

 the choicest flowers one layer deep is 

 enough. A great many buds will go 

 into a shallow box because the flow 

 ers lie close behind each other. Some 

 tissue paper over the lot and news 

 paper to keep them firmly in place, 

 and then the lid. Flowers going by 

 express, particularly where (as often 

 there is) a change of cars on the road, 

 should be packed so that no harm comes 

 to them whether the box is standing on 

 its side, bottom or upon end (which it 

 frequently does). 



Carnations don t bruise so much as 

 roses, but their petals get crushed if 

 crowded in and they have to remain 

 hours in cellar or ice-box before they get 

 their perfect shape restored. What 

 a change there is in the box suitable 

 for carnations. Thirty years ago we 

 thought a cigar box was handy to carry 

 a few short -stemmed carnations in. A 

 few years ago we had wooden boxes 

 made, thirty inches long, and now we 

 want a box five feet long, if it is to 

 hold any quantity. 



The best flowers of carnations should 

 be laid in flat boxes, one row of flow 

 ers behind the others, as you do roses, 

 but they need no tissue paper between 

 them. If you can give the flowers a 

 few hours in a cool cellar before offer 

 ing them for sale then you can lay 

 them in the box in bunches of twenty- 

 five, but the less weight you have on 

 the flowers the better for their petals. 



Violets are easy to pack and are 

 usually sent in bunches of twenty-five 



