J74 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



is a dull green. The properly grown 

 plants, even if the temperature has been 

 high, are quite different. They are 

 shorter, stouter, giving the plant the 

 appearance of having far more leaves; 

 they are a bright shining green and 



the least susceptible to any harm from 

 sun, wind or rain; in fact, they are 

 grand plants for a vase or the center 

 of a tropical bed. 



Some experience with kentias a few 

 years ago may be of interest. A 



Cocos Wcddelliana. 



are altogether more satisfactory to the 

 purchaser, wherever you put them. 



These remarks cover a good deal of 

 the ground relative to the culture of 

 most palms. For the commercial men 

 they must be grown without excessive 

 heat; this is particularly true of 

 arecas. They must have had plenty of 

 ventilation whenever it was possible, 

 room to develop their handsome leaves, 

 and not made soft by a heavy shade. 

 I can only see one use for these un 

 naturally grown tall kentias or latanias: 

 they make an effective appearance at 

 a decoration, but are so soft that a few 

 journeys to society soon deprive 

 them of their beauty. 



There is some difference of opinion 

 about the advisability of standing 

 palms in the broad sun. In the tropics, 

 as most all of our commercial palms 

 in a natural state rear their plumed 

 crowns to the tropical suns, there can 

 be little fear of their burning if their 

 roots are in the proper condition, and 

 I have proved time and again that if 

 their roots are not too crowded and 

 they are regularly supplied with water 

 that the kentias, latanias, chamajrops 

 and phoenix receive not the slightest 

 injury in the broad sun. If allowed to 

 get dry in 10-inch or 12-inch pots, they 

 will burn, and so will a geranium in a 

 pot with its roots parched. The arecas, 

 the most decorative of all palms, do 

 not burn, but they lose the color so 

 much that it is not well to put them 

 out in the sun. They are better al 

 ways under glass. The phrenix are 



the palms came very near being re 

 turned. Being faithfully watered they 

 made one or two new leaves during the 

 summer, leaves which did not burn and 

 now at the end of the fourth year they 

 have grown into splendid specimens 

 standing on the lawn every summer, and 

 we have the satisfaction of being re 

 minded often by the owner of these 

 kentias: &quot;You were right about the 

 palms; glad I kept them, they are 

 splendid. 



Temperature. 



All the palms we grow, either for 

 sale or for decorative purposes, are na 

 tives of a warm climate, and although 

 submitting for weeks to a lower temper 

 ature than they would ever be subject 

 to in their native climate, yet that is 

 not what they should be grown in. Men 

 who raise thousands of young plants to 

 sell to the trade must, to make it profit 

 able, give them a good, high tempera 

 ture, particularly in summer, although a 

 slow-grown palm is much better than 

 one quickly grown. A good tempera 

 ture for the florist who grows or keeps 

 a stock of palms for sale would be 60 

 to 65 degrees at night, with a rise of 

 15 degrees in the daytime during the 

 dark days of winter, and in spring and 

 summer 70 to 75 degrees at night and 

 as warm as you like in the daytime, 

 providing you have plenty of air. 



Large palms that you keep for deco 

 rations solely are better kept not higher 

 than 55 degrees during winter. You 

 don t want them to make young leaves 





Latania Borbonica. 



wealthy patron desired six large palms. 

 They were duly supplied from a large 

 Philadelphia firm. They had been stand 

 ing in a warm shaded house and when 

 exposed to our bright June suns burnt 

 slightly. Then the cunning busybody 

 came along and informed Mr. W. that 

 they would never do out of doors and 



while you are using them, which would 

 likely be injured by a chill in transit 

 in cold weather. 



Watering and Syringing. 



This same old advice must be given 

 with emphasis about drainage. A crock 



