30 



THE FLORISTS* MANUAL. 



wants to be cheerful. This sticking 

 to nature is carried to excess. To be 

 true to nature we would have to un- 

 dergo a great change. We would' not 

 cut our hair or pare our finger nails 

 or use knives and forks and would 

 retrograde to the days of the fig leaf. 

 Our early ancestors when crawling or 

 leaping from limb to limb or wading 

 through bogs when emigrating to the 

 northern regions of the globe found 

 the natural coats of the animals they 

 had slain very comfortable on their 

 own backs, and now clothing has de- 

 veloped into adornment and frills as 

 well as becoming a necessity. 



It is the mission of the florist to 

 suggest the most appropriate style of 

 bedding to his customers where ad- 



your ability to keep a good stock of 

 flower garden plants in a compara- 

 tively small space till after Easter. 

 From fall till after Easter our benches 

 are wanted for successive crops, but 

 Easter sales largely clear them except 

 those planted with roses and carna- 

 tions. Geraniums can be then given 

 their last shift, and so can ageratum, 

 feverfew, heliotrope and salvia. Ooleus 

 can be grown from a cutting to a fine 

 bedding plant in eight weeks. Cannas 

 and caladiums can be kept in flats till 

 middle of April and then make fine 

 plants by June 1st. Petunias can be 

 pricked out in pans and then in six 

 weeks will make the best of bedding 

 plants. Centaurea, coleus, achyran- 

 thes, verbenas, heliotropes, many of 



must have attention when it is need- 

 ed or it is too late. How often you 

 hear the remark: "No, I am short on 

 this or that. Was too busy and ne- 

 glected them." This attention is not 

 science; it is only close application 

 and good management; and having 

 sufficient help at the right time, and 

 setting the men at the work most 

 suited to them, is the very best of 

 good management. 



I don't know any business where 

 neglect to do work at the proper time 

 will bring about worse results. A 

 tailor, a jeweler, a printer or a parson 

 can lock his shop or office for weeks; 

 his business may suffer, but his goods 

 will not. Ours must be fed and aired 

 and moved and shifted as they need it. 



vice is asked for, and poor policy to 

 crowd in more than is discreet when 

 it is left to his judgment. In resi- 

 dence streets a flower bed between the 

 house and the street is not good taste 

 and should not be advocated. At the 

 side or slightly to the rear of the 

 house is much better. Houses of a 

 moderate size with verandas at side 

 and front have often a row or two of 

 the flowering cannas in the border 

 surrounding the veranda, and very 

 handsome they look. 



Florists are now divided into sev- 

 eral classes. The strictly store man 

 has no interest in bedding plants, nor 

 has the wholesale grower more than 

 to dispose of them, but the great ma- 

 jority of the florists of the country 

 raise bedding plants for their spring 

 crops and depend upon their sale for 

 a good part of their income. If well 

 and carefully done and a fair and just 

 charge made your customers will be 

 very unlikely to leave you and you 

 can depend on the order from year to 

 year. 



The profit will largely depend upon 



Design Bedding. 



the geraniums, lobelias, aloysias, and 

 all the carpet bedding plants, are far 

 better in the hot beds than in the 

 greenhouses, giving you plenty of 

 room for the spreading out of your 

 fine zonale geraniums, cannas and 

 caladiums. 



A great mistake made by too many 

 florists, especially by those who have 

 only three or four houses, is to be 

 short of help just at the time it is 

 most needed. For the first two weeks 

 after Easter a man with 20,000 feet of 

 glass occupied by a general run of 

 plants could use twenty men with 

 profit, though during February and 

 March only five men were needed to 

 keep up with the work. I am aware 

 of the fact that you could not get the 

 right kind of men even if you wanted 

 them, but many times you allow a 

 batch of plants to spoil for want of 

 handling when a little more help 

 would have saved them. 



Bedding plants are all soft-wooded 

 and while they rest largely, or can be 

 just kept slowly growing during win- 

 ter they feel the suns of spring and 



Half the success with bedding 

 plants depends upon the planting out. 

 We charge nothing for planting if the 

 bed is dug and prepared and the 

 plants to fill it amount to $10.00 or 

 more. If not prepared we charge for 

 labor, manure, etc. We always prefer 

 to plant where there is only a coach- 

 man kept, for then it is properly done. 

 Sufficient plants are put in to make a 

 good appearance. If enough are sent 

 on the wagon there is none left over 

 to call for another day, nor three' 

 more to be delivered to fill up. Nor is 

 four dozen stretched out over a bed 

 where six dozen should be planted. If 

 the bed looks skimpy you don't want 

 it to be known that they were youiS 

 plants, and you will perhaps get the 

 blame for poor general effect, for_ 

 there are plenty of unreasonable peo-; 

 pie about. 



We insist on our men arranging the 

 plants carefully, just placing them in 

 the holes, but not filling in the soil, 

 and then when all are in place giving 

 each plant a good soaking and in a 

 few minutes filling in with the dry 



