THE HOME FLORIST. 



INTRODUCTION. 



r PHE cultivation of plants for the sake of their beautiful or fragrant flowers, and for other 

 pleasing attractions, has from the earliest ages received attention wherever civilization 

 has made considerable progress. Floriculture, however, is an art which is strikingly sus- 

 ceptible to influences of climate, soil, heat, cold and other conditions, and notwithstanding 

 its antiquity, uniform and universal progression has been impeded by reason of this fact. 

 Any experience and knowledge derived from the attainment of a certain degree of perfection 

 in the art, during one age or in one country, when applied to another, is practically useful 

 only to the extent in which it finds a state of adaptability in the other. In our own 

 country the cultivation of plants and flowers has only of late years received much attention, 

 while from the first it has been realized that a course of floriculture distinct from any 

 practiced in foreign countries, would be a necessity, and after years of practical schooling, 

 we may claim to have adopted a system which in the fullest sense is American. It has 

 been within the last dozen years, that a general manifestation of interest in floriculture, 

 by the masses of people has been appai-ent, and from a perceptible awakening early in 

 this time, there has been a continual and rapid increase, until the present time, which finds 

 nearly everybody devoting more or less attention to their culture. 



What is felt to be the greatest need of the day is, the more general dissemination of 

 practical, useful knowledge, for acquainting people with the kinds of plants and flowers most 

 suitable for the American cultivator, and also their culture, all adapted to the wants of 

 inexperienced amateurs. It is with a realization of this need, that the author and publishers 

 of the present little work, take pleasure in presenting it to the public, as a book of instruc- 

 tions, relative to the proper means of managing plants for the adornment of American homes. 

 It is designed to aid all classes of cultivators, but especially those who aspire to the rearing 

 of a higher and choicer order of plants and flowers than are common in perhaps the 

 majority of homes where floriculture has been receiving attention, aiming to carry those 

 who adopt its teachings, over obstacles which tend to cause failure and discouragement, 

 and to promote an interest in every plant, bulb, seed or tuber whose culture is attempted. 



A good indication of progression in American amateur floriculture is evinced in the fact 

 that people of floricultural taste are learning to act upon the knowledge that more than seeds 

 alone, or bulbs, or plants, are required for beautifying gardens and homes with flowers ; that 

 in the best kept gardens, are used judicious selections of some of each, with most gratifying 

 results. No matter, scarcely, to how limited an extent the culture of plants and flowers is 

 engaged in, it can be more advantageously done, and becomes more interesting, by including 

 in the stock cultivated, perennial greenhouse and hardy plants, bulbs, and tubers, annual and bi- 



