General Aspects of Commercial Gardening 5 



While exhibiting is one of the best means of doing business for the 

 grower of hardy plants, it must be remembered that it entails a large 

 expense. The mere carriage of the plants by rail or road, apart from 

 hotel and other expenses, often means a substantial sum, the recovery 

 of which will depend largely upon the weather and upon the class of 

 visitors to the exhibition. 



Some growers of hardy plants rarely exhibit, but rely upon the post 

 and advertisements to dispose of their goods. Hundreds of thousands 

 of young plants and cuttings are sent through the post to the most 

 remote parts of the kingdom, to fill orders that have come to hand as 

 the result of reading an advertisement. Some, indeed, spend from 50 

 to 100 a week during the season in advertising alone, and this will 

 give some idea as to the volume of the trade. Not only are hardy 

 plants disposed of rapidly in this way, but also half-hardy and tender 

 plants during the season, as may be seen by referring to the advertise- 

 ment columns of the trade and amateur papers. 



From what has been said it will be gathered that the great trade in 

 hardy plants of all kinds, and in seeds and cuttings, as well as in bulbous 

 and tuberous plants, is largely done by means of judicious advertising. 

 The plant grower not only supports the newspapers, but he also places 

 large orders with the printers for thousands of catalogues that are issued 

 broadcast, but not without considerable expense. Some of the larger 

 firms issue as many as eighty thousand beautifully prepared catalogues 

 every year, weighing in the aggregate from 90 to 100 tons; while smaller 

 men print and distribute catalogues according to their means. In all 

 cases, however, the General Post Office, the printers, and newspaper pro- 

 prietors have had the first pick at the seedsman's or hardy-plantsman's 

 purse, and he is left to settle his account with a more or less fickle public. 



The Nursery Trade. This branch of commercial gardening has 

 extensive ramifications all over the kingdom. All kinds of plants, fruits, 

 flowers, and vegetables are grown for sale in the open or under glass, 

 and thousands of gardeners are employed to propagate and grow them. 

 There are many special branches in the nursery trade. Thus some make 

 a speciality of Roses, some of fruit trees, some of ornamental trees and 

 shrubs, some of stove and greenhouse plants, some of Ferns, some of 

 Orchids, some chiefly of forest trees, some of hardy herbaceous perennials 

 and alpines, and rock and water plants and perhaps not one of these 

 nurserymen ever sends a plant to a market. The nurseryman is quite 

 distinct in his methods of trading from the market grower and the market 

 gardener. He makes a speciality of various classes of plants, and has every 

 nook and corner of the globe ransacked by horticultural travellers, who are 

 on the lookout for any new plant likely to attract attention. 



Besides pushing his trade by means of travellers, advertisements, and 

 catalogues, the nurseryman proper also relies largely upon exhibitions. 

 These are held regularly not only in London, where the finest class of 

 trade is done, but in almost every town of any importance in the kingdom, 



