234 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



House 35x200, Planted to Marie Louise Violets. 



water. I admire the idea of Prof. Gal 

 loway on the subject of watering, 

 although it is contrary to what I have 

 heard from expert rose growers, whose 

 theory was to keep l^ieir beds in a con 

 tinual, uniform degree of moisture. A 

 plant either in a pot or bed I like to see 

 occasionally on the dry side. Instinct 

 seems to teach* me that the plant is not 

 suffering but that it is going to enjoy it 

 and thrive greatly when refreshed with 

 water; so while anything like wilting 

 dryness must be avoided let the beds get 

 occasionally on what florists call the dry 

 side. When November s dark aays set in 

 be still more careful not to allow the bed 

 to get overwet. Evaporation is slow at 

 that time. 



Some growers put on a mulch in early 

 August. It keeps down weeds and pre 

 vents too rapid a drying out of the soil, 

 and is also a cleaner resting place for the 

 recumbent blossoms of Marie Louise. 

 Sifted decayed refuse hops make a nice 

 clean mulch, but there are few fertilizing 

 qualities about them, and sifted dry horse 

 manure is generally used for the pur 

 pose. Unless your plants are making a 

 strong, healthy, vigorous growth there is 

 no need of any mulching. 



Temperature must be guided by com 

 mon sense and judgment; 40 to 45 de 

 grees for night temperature after firing 

 commences is known to give best results, 

 but that can be varied some without 

 harm. For instance, if it was 20 degrees 

 outside, then 45 inside the house would 

 be all right. If it was down to zero out 



side and took much fire heat to keep the 

 house above 40, then be satisfied with 40, 

 and if a few degrees lower no harm. A 

 very good rule for day temperature 

 would be to let the sun raise the tempera 

 ture 10 degrees higher than night tem 

 perature. But if it is to be raised purely 

 by fire heat then don t try to get it over 

 45 degrees, and very seldom by sun heat 

 over 60 degrees. 



When Easter has come at the middle 

 of April or later we have more than once 

 been much disappointed in our violets. 

 We looked lor a pick of many thousand 

 blue beauties, but when the great day 

 came our violets were a mass of leaves 

 with but a few small and poorly colored 

 flowers. The cause of this was that for 

 some weeks in March we were unable to 

 keep the temperature down and started 

 them into an unnatural growth. There 

 is no plant we grow that needs and de 

 lights more in abundance of fresh, pure 

 air, yet a cutting draught is to be 

 avoided. Better let the temperature go 

 above the rule by sun heat than subject 

 the plants to cold draughts; here is 

 where judgment comes in, and never- 

 ceasing watchfulness is the only sure 

 road to success. 



The diseases of the violet are not con 

 sidered numerous or formidable, yet if 

 we consider tne effects of aphis and other 

 insects as disease they are bad enough. 

 I must beg of the reader who is inter 

 ested in violet culture to obtain Prof. 

 Galloway s splendid little book. There 

 he will find correct descriptions with 



causes and best known antidotes or cures 

 for all the troubles that the violet is heir 

 to. The Plant Bureau of the Depart 

 ment of Agriculture has done great work 

 with some of our commercial plants and 

 it will do much more in the future with 

 its widely scattered stations for observa 

 tion and experiments. It has done good 

 work with the violet and it would be im 

 possible for me to give you such scientific 

 but explicit information on this subject 

 as will be found in Mr. Galloway s ex 

 cellent work. 



Then there is another most valuable 

 contribution to violet literature, &quot;How 

 to Make Money Growing Violets, by 

 George Saltford. Mr. Saltford is almost 

 the father of that great industry, violet 

 growing, along the Hudson river, and is 

 not one of that great army who have 

 dropped out of the industry due to bad 

 luck (?), but with good common sense 

 and the exercise of a big brain he is 

 still at the front as a violet grower. 

 Both books are indispensable to all in 

 terested in violet culture and are sold at 

 a nominal price, out of all proportion to 

 their value. 



I am going to conclude this long but 

 important chapter by saying that it is 

 proverbial that men by the hundreds have 

 started into violet growing with all kinds 

 and shapes of houses and the majority 

 met with success for a few years. We 

 have heard of scores, we know iptimately 

 a dozen such cases. The collapse or en 

 tire failure does not come suddenly. 

 There is a decreasing crop of several 



