THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



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Plant of Deutzia Gracilis, trimmed with ribbon. 



foliage and flowering, that are useful 

 in decorating. There are few plants 

 but what have a distinct beauty if 

 well grown. And you will have many 

 tastes and many grades of purses to 

 accommodate. 



No plants should go to a decoration 

 unless they are clean and in good or- 

 der. No dirty pots should ever go, 

 never mind whether they are to be 

 hidden or not. It's enough to turn 

 the hostess against you when she sees 

 them enter her door. 



One very important thing is this: 

 All plants that are taken out and ex- 

 pected to keep their heads up and look 

 well all the afternoon and evening 

 should be well watered an hour or two 

 before they are packed for their dress 

 parade, which the entertainment is to 

 them. 



We find it unwise to mix up the 

 palms and dracaenas that we use for 

 decorations with the stock that is 

 kept for sale. However careful you 

 are some little marring will be sure 

 to occur, and if you are not careful you 

 will have your whole collection, per- 

 haps a fine one to look at in the aggre- 

 gate, but when you want a perfect 

 kentia, green to the very tips, you 

 won't find it among those that have 

 been out visiting. 



Let the line be drawn between those 

 you loan and those you want to sell, 



and if you do much decorating you 

 will want every summer a good house 

 cleaning. Give your worn-out palms 

 to the nearest botanical garden, or to 

 the rubbish pile when beyond a certain 

 degree of shabbiness. It is most un- 

 profitable to occupy space with use- 

 less old runts. 



DEUTZIA. 



Several of the species are among our 

 earliest and best known flowering 

 shrubs, and gracilis, the smaller grow- 

 ing pure white species, is largely forced 

 as an Easter plant. It is sold in pots 

 or used for decorations, or the cut 

 sprays are used. There is a new form 

 of gracilis called Lemoineii, quite 

 double, a beautiful flower and more 

 lasting than the single. The double 

 form is not yet quite so common and 

 consequently is more expensive, but it 

 will soon be grown as plentifully as 

 gracilis. Plants for forcing of any size 

 can be imported so cheaply and so 

 well and compactly grown that it is 

 useless to attempt to grow plants for 

 forcing; they would cost you far more. 



Those wanting to grow them to raise 

 in the nursery for flowering shrubs 

 can root them most easily from the 

 young tender shoots taken from forced 

 plants in February or March and put 

 into the ordinary propagating bed or 



from outside cuttings in June put into 

 sand in a hot-bed. 



When you receive the deutzias in 

 the month of November don't expose 

 them to zero weather. They are a 

 hardy plant, but after their sea voy- 

 age are poorly prepared for a hard 

 freeze. The stems are studded to their 

 tips with their flowering buds, so they 

 want no pruning or you will get no 

 flowers. Keep them protected by a 

 cold-frame and their roots covered till 

 you pot them up for forcing. They 

 should have about seven weeks under 

 glass in a night temperature of 50 de- 

 grees, then they will be nicely out and 

 not unduly forced. 



For forcing we prefer to buy every 

 year, but unsold plants if planted out 

 make good bushes for selling with 

 >ther hardy shrubs. 



DIANTHUS. 



To this genus belongs our Divine 

 flower the carnation, which has been 

 treated at length as its value deserves. 

 D. barbatus is the well known Sweet 

 William, a splendid border plant while 

 in bloom but not of any commercial 

 value. Perhaps because seen too often 

 in the humblest gardens, or for some 

 reason not apparent, it is not a flower 

 that can be used in the commonest 

 bouquet, though in June and July it 

 makes a splendid show of bloom of the 

 richest tints and markings. 



The seed of the Sweet Williams can 

 be sown in May in a cold-frame and 

 when the plants are large enough 

 transplanted into flats or placed at 

 once in the borders where they are to 

 flower. They will make fine spread- 

 ing plants, and being entirely hardy 

 will send up a mass of bloom the fol- 

 lowing spring. They are biennials, 

 but a few straggling plants and flow- 

 ers are often seen to survive two or 

 three years. 



The Dianthus chinensis and its 

 splendid varieties, Heddewigii and its 

 many forms, are the most useful to 

 the florist. They also are biennials 

 but are invariably treated as annuals 

 and sown every spring. For their 

 culture follow instructions given un- 

 der the heading Aster and you will 

 have no trouble. They look well in 

 either the mixed border or in a solid 

 bed. 



DRACAENA. 



In garden nomenclature the names 

 Dracaena and Cordyline are inter- 

 changeable, but I prefer to call them 

 dracaenas, by which name they are 

 commonly known, although botanical 

 authorities class some of our dracae- 

 nas as cordylines. 



The dracaenas are noble, erect grow- 

 ing foliage plants, grown entirely for 

 the beauty of their leaves and stately 

 habit, for the flower is small and in- 

 conspicuous compared to the plant. 

 They do not usually flower till they 

 attain considerable size, although oc- 

 casionally they flower when quite 

 young, possibly through some check to 

 the vigor of the plant. 



