48 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



nection, and had been admiring the progress made by our gar- 

 deners. He said we do not come here to make set speeches, but 

 should speak, as Webster used to say, " right onward." He 

 counselled the florists not to be discouraged, though they had to 

 carry their flowers home, as he knew to be the case with one 

 grower, but to reduce the price of their flowers, and, though it 

 might be humiliating, to find a customer at his own price, if they 

 could not at their own. 



President Strong thought Mr. Muzzey had touched on a very 

 important point — the question how to bring flowers within the 

 reach of all. 



A. P. Calder, who had been remarkably successful in forcing 

 the Lily of the Valley, was called upon to give his method. He 

 said that he commenced to force this flower because he found it 

 necessary in making up his work at the store. It has been con- 

 sidered very diflScult to force. There ai-e two very important 

 points, — plenty of bottom heat and plenty of moisture. After 

 the flower has formed, the plants must be kept ver}^ cool and have 

 no water. No water must touch the leaf or flower after the flow- 

 ers have two-thirds developed. Too much water rots not only the 

 flower stems but the leaves. He sold two hundred selected clumps 

 to a gentleman who allowed them to get dry, and they grew only 

 two inches high. Mr. Calder had gathered two hundred sprays 

 per day since the flrst of the year. On New-Year's day he 

 plucked forty-eight dozen. 



In answer to an inquiry as to the soil used, he said that his soil 

 was not particularly prepared, he took common loam from the field. 

 It requires a very strong bottom heat to start it ; afterwards it is 

 easily grown. He has five pipes under the bench, which give a 

 strong bottom heat. His plants are placed in boxes. Clumps 

 from the same box, without bottom heat, did not grow at all. - 



Mr. Rand, in answer to an inquiry concerning the rose-colored 

 variety, said that he had six or eight kinds, and that, as regards 

 the flowers, the common is the best of all. The so-called rose- 

 colored variety is a dirty pink. Some of the variegated foliaged 

 kinds, especiall}^ the golden-variegated, are valuable. 



Mr. Calder said, in reply to the question whether the lily of 

 the valley succeeds best in the sun or shade, that out-doors it 

 grows in the sun, and.in-doors his best plants are in a stove-house, 

 with seventeen pipes, and exposed to the hottest sun. 



