56 Commercial Gardening 



plant among dwarf er subjects such as Aubrietias, Forget-me-nots, Violas, 

 Alyssums, &c. 



Hop (Humulus Lupulus). The rootstocks of the common British 

 Hop find a good sale in spring, and are put up in boxes for market during 

 the season. The female kind is most appreciated, as it produces the large 

 bunches of greenish-yellow scale-like flowers during the summer months. 

 The Hop grows in any good garden soil, and is easily increased by division. 

 The Japanese Hop (H. japonicus) is an ornamental annual species, having 

 strong-climbing hairy stems 15-20 ft. long, and five- to seven-lobed leaves. 

 There is also a variegated form worth growing. As both can be raised 

 easily from seeds sown in heat in March, it is possible to have young plants 

 ready for sale and hardened off by the middle or end of May. 



Hyacinth. The florist's Hyacinth has descended in the course of 

 centuries from the wild Hyacintkus orientalis, and there are now hun- 

 dreds of varieties on the market. A good trade is done not only in the 

 bulbs in autumn, but also in forced flowering plants in pots or ornamental 

 bowls early in the year, and in the cut bloom. The bulbs for planting in 

 gardens may be purchased wholesale from Dutch growers from 90s. and 

 upwards per 1000 in mixed varieties; while bulbs in separate colours, 

 requiring more care and selection, will cost anything from 110s. to 130s. 

 per 1000. The choicest varieties, however, true to name and colour, will 

 cost from 20s. to 50s. and more per 100 wholesale, to which carriage, &c., 

 must be added. Prices fluctuate every year according to good or bad 

 seasons, and other trade influences. 



For market purposes Hyacinths are usually grown in pots. Three 

 bulbs are placed in a 5-in. (48) pot, in fairly good soil, the bulbs being 

 about half-buried, with the tops level with the rim of the pot or a little 

 above it. They are potted up as soon as possible in September and 

 October, and the pots being placed side by side are covered over with 

 about 6 in. of soil or sifted ashes (not, however, before an inverted 

 flower pot is put over the bulbs) as a protection against frost, and also to 

 encourage the development of roots. As required for market, batches are 

 brought into a warm greenhouse, with a night temperature of not less than 

 60 or 65 F., where they soon push their leaves and flower spikes under 

 proper attention to watering, &c. When the "bells" as the flowers are 

 often called are nicely open, a slender stake is driven into each bulb, and 

 the flower spike is tied to it with a piece of raffia. This prevents it falling 

 over, and enables the plants to ride better in transit to market by road 

 or rail when packed in shallow boxes. Some growers only use one stake, 

 and tie the raffia from that round the three spikes of bloom thus saving 

 stakes, raffia, time, and labour. Hundreds of thousands of pot Hyacinths 

 find their way to market every winter and spring season from Christmas 

 to the end of April and one can imagine the weight and expense in pots 

 and soil this involves, apart from the money spent in firing to bring the 

 flowers on at the proper time. Something like 200 varieties of single- 

 flowered and from 60 to 100 double-flowered Hyacinths are catalogued, 



