GARDENING UNDER GLASS 349 

 FRAME CULTURE OF FLOWERS. 



From Virginia southward the simple cold frame, constructed and oper- 

 ated as for the lettuce crop, can be made a very profitable means for the pro- 

 curing of a supply of many kinds of flowers during the winter. While from 

 North Carolina southward the single Luxonne violet grows and blooms with 

 hardly any care all winter, in the open air, yet at times the prevalence of frost 

 will seriously damage the flowers. Then, too, the double flowered sorts, such 

 as Marie Louise and Lady Hume Campbell, are more tender and apt to be 

 damaged in the open ground in severe spells, while they bloom freely and con- 

 tinuously in the frames treated just as we do lettuce. With the rapid im- 

 provement in the means for transportation, the florist of the Upper South 

 should be able to put his cut flowers on the New York market in the best 

 condition. The florists in all the Southern cities now get large quantities of 

 cut flowers from the commission men in New York, and they are sent here in 

 fine condition. These flowers are cut in New Jersey and other districts 

 around New York and sent to the commission men, and if they can then send 

 them South safely, there is no reason why the more cheaply grown product 

 of the Upper South at least, should not find a market in the North. Violets 

 can be grown as well and as plentifully here in cold frames as they are grown 

 in the greenhouses North, and if as well grown they will command as good 

 a price. Then, too, the various members of the Narcissus family and the 

 Roman hyacinth, which here bloom in the open ground from December for 

 the Romans, to February and March for the Narcissus, and are then subject 

 to be damaged by the sudden freezes, can be protected in the frames and the 

 flowers cut in as good condition as from the forcing houses North, while the 

 bulbs can then be left to fully mature and are as good as ever, or even better. 

 Frame-grown Narcissus and Roman and White Italian Hyacinths will, ere 

 long, be a regular article for winter shipment from the Upper South, wherever 

 there is a chance for their arrival in twelve to fifteen hours. 



Cold-frame culture of flowers can even be carried further than the vio- 

 lets, Narcissus and hyacinths in the Upper South, for with well constructed 

 frames giving more head room than for lettuce and other low crops, the carna- 

 tion can be grown and bloomed here, with certainty and more healthily, than 

 in the heated houses of the Northern florist. Of course the sides of the frame 

 must be well banked and the mats must be used to exclude frost. This is 

 no mere theory, for we have grown carnations successfully in this way 

 at Old Point Comfort, Va. In that case we had our frames banked thickly 

 with seaweed, which was an abundant material, and which packs closely and is 

 not blown off by the wind. A foot thickness of the seaweed was packed all 



