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THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



mats in cold weather. That would not do 

 for us, although with careful attention 

 you can have a lot in the coldframes that 

 will give you flowers sometimes till 

 Christmas, and again in April, and for 

 later they are better than those grown all 

 winter inside. 



Prof. B. T. Galloway, of Washington, 

 D. C., in his grand little book, &quot;Com 

 mercial Violet Culture, gives us a list 

 of desirable double and single varieties. 

 We can remember when the old Neapoli 

 tan was the only double grown, now diffi 

 cult to find. We also well remember the 

 advent of the beautiful Marie Louise, 

 and what a sensation it caused among 

 the florists. This variety has been grown 

 in Europe for seventy years, but did not 

 find its way across the Atlantic till 1871. 

 And we think it was due to the large 

 size and the beautiful color of the Marie 

 Louise, greatly increasing the demand 

 for the sweet flowers, that was the in 

 centive for many men going extensively 

 into the precarious business of violet 

 culture. 



Lady Hume Campbell is undoubtedly a 

 distinct variety, but Mr. Galloway con- 



provided because it was thought most 

 necessary for the plant to be near the 

 glass, and so frail are we all that if one 

 man was successful with one of these 

 little houses a hundred followed suit. 

 Then gash houses were built because it 

 was thought a great advantage to be able 

 to remove the sashes in the summer 

 months to avoid the heat of the glass and 

 give the plants full benefit of light and 

 air; there are some advantages in such 

 houses. But gradually the specialists be 

 gan to grow them under a fixed roof, as 

 the great majority are now grown. We 

 have passed through and been a victim of 

 almost all these evolutions. 



About seven years ago we built espe 

 cially for violets what we still think a 

 good house with one important exception. 

 The house is 20x125. The side posts are 

 two feet six inches above the ground to 

 the plate, even-span, running north and 

 south. This gives two side benches of 

 four feet each with two paths eighteen 

 incnes each, and a 7-foot center bed. 

 From nineteen to twenty-four feet will 

 do. It will only mean difference of 

 width of benches. I am sure this is a 



beds. There would also be continuous 

 ventilation at the ridge. I put two 2x12- 

 inch planks against the side posts and 

 the same for each side of the paths, then 

 I excavated the paths a foot, throwing 

 the soil into the bottom of the beds. 

 This left the bottom of the paths and 

 height of the beds very convenient. 



A house twenty feet wide should have 

 five runs of 2-inch pipe on each wall, 

 two flows and three returns. If you had 

 the boiler power to make these pipes 

 good and hot it may be a little in excess 

 of what is needed, but it is better to have 

 the five pipes moderately heated than 

 three pipes almost the temperature of 

 steam. I have seen excellent violets 

 grown in almost every style of house, on 

 benches in six inches of soil and on solid 

 beds in a north lean-to house where 

 scarcely a ray of direct sunlight reached 

 them from November till March; they 

 were forty feet from the glass, growing 

 as compact and healthy as if only 

 forty inches from the roof, and many 

 other variations. They were new, clean 

 houses and new, vigorous stock ; that had 

 much more to do with success than the 



A House of Violets. 



siders Farquhar and Imperial as merely 

 vigorous strains of Marie Louise. In the 

 great violet growing region of the Hud 

 son river, it is Marie Louise, or one of 

 its selected forms, that are exclusively 

 grown. 



Of single violets the best all-round 

 variety is Princess of Wales. It is worth 

 noting that some three years ago it ap 

 peared as if the single violet would be 

 grown in larger quantities than any of 

 the doubles. You may say, they were 

 slightly the fad. It passed away. They 

 are now little asked for, and popular 

 favor has returned to the lovely Marie 

 Louise. 



In the days of the old Neapolitan 

 structures were built for violets, often a 

 lean-to on the south side of larger houses. 

 It was a gymnastic feat to gain access 

 to them, not to mention working in them. 

 These awkward, cramped quarters were 



better house than one of ten or twelve 

 feet, from the simple fact that, in pro 

 portion to the plants it will hold or the 

 bench room afforded, the larger house is 

 cheaper to build and easier to heat. I 

 put the hot water pipes properly on the 

 side walls, a foot above the plants. 



The exception I alluded to above was 

 the absence of ventilation in the side 

 walls. That was a big mistake. I had 

 a lingering belief that the glass in the 

 roof should be removed, and as it was 

 butted glass we removed the glass at 

 every third bar for a distance of six 

 feet up the roof. This was ventilation, 

 but it also let in the rain when it was not 

 needed. If I were to build again I 

 should make the walls three feet high, 

 of double boards (no need of glass), and 

 continuous ventilation of not less than a 

 foot deep. The ventilators would be 

 above, not level with the surface of the 



style of the house or the skill of the 

 grower. Yet of course it is most de 

 sirable that we should have houses where 

 the most favorable conditions can be 

 maintained. For several years the house 

 1 have described above grew good vio 

 lets, and if there was not continuous suc 

 cess it was the fault of the management 

 and not the house. 



Soil. 



We don t all have the ideal soil on our 

 places, even if we are in the country with 

 twelve acres to skin. It will pay to pro 

 cure the right quality, even if at infinite 

 trouble. Some think that one variety is 

 better suited by a heavier soil than 

 others. The soil we have seen used by 

 the Hudson river growers was a heavy, 

 yellow loam. Perhaps the ideal soil 

 would be the top three or four inches off 



