THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



79 



with a 1 strong, sturdy growth .in a 

 cool house. 



Lily of the valley in pots and pans 

 sells well. 



If made up out of a bed when in 

 full bloom they are just as lasting as 

 if grown in the pot and a much finer 

 show can be made. It is just water 

 they live on. 



The old Dutch hyacinth always will 

 be a favorite with many people. We 

 believe only good bulbs should be 

 used for this purpose. They are grown 

 singly in a 4-inch pot, and in groups 

 of three or more. A 10 or 12-inch pan 

 containing a dozen grand spikes of 

 one variety of hyacinths and trimmed 

 with the right shade of paper is a 

 rich affair and attracts the well-to-do. 



Tulips and daffodils are grown in 6, 

 7 and 8-inch pans and find a ready 

 sale because they are inexpensive. 



Roses there is always a demand for, 

 especially hybrid perpetuals. Plants 

 that are lifted from your own grounds 

 after the wood is ripe and carefully 

 and gradually brought along, need 

 from ten to twelve weeks in the green- 

 house. The best pot roses I have ever 

 seen of this class were a lot of Amer- 

 ican Beauty that had grown on a 

 bench the previous summer, slightly 

 dried off during October and lifted 

 during November, potted into 6-inch 



Easter Plant Arrangements. 



pots and kept in a cold pit away from 

 severe freezing till middle of January, 

 when they were brought in and start- 

 ed very cool. By Easter, which was 

 then in about eleven weeks, they were 

 a great sight: Five or six good 

 blooms on 18-inch stems, with lots of 

 buds to come. They outsold anything 

 we had and would have been a splen- 

 did paying crop had we not cut a rose 

 the previous summer. 



The Crimson Rambler is, and per- 

 haps the other ramblers will become, 

 a standard Easter plant. Our experi- 

 ence is that if the plants are lifted 

 from the ground the previous fall they 

 must be brought along very carefully 

 and slowly, so you must allow thir- 

 teen or fourteen weeks under glass, 

 the first half of which they must be 

 cool. If the plants have made their 

 growth the previous summer in pots 

 the wood will be better ripened and 

 the roots not being disturbed they can 

 be given more heat at the start so 

 that ten weeks in the houses will do. 



The white Marguerite, if well 

 pinched in the field and kept cool 

 during winter, makes a grand plant 

 for church decorations. It is truly 

 decorative and is one of the very best 

 house plants known, blooming and 

 flourishing in the dry air of a room for 

 weeks. 



Hardy shrubs of many kinds are oc- 

 casionally tried as Easter plants, the 

 snowball (viburnum) particularly, but 

 we have not found people willing to 

 pay for cost of room they have occu- 

 pied. 



Don't forget the 25 and 50-cent cus- 

 tomers. A good 4-inch zonal gera- 

 nium, a hyacinth or a 6-inch pan of 

 pansies fills the bill. 



There is a small and select demand 

 for a pot of violets. If the spring is 

 mild and early you can get them from 

 the cold-frame two or three weeks be- 

 fore selling time, but if the season is 

 backward lift from the beds the plants 

 that show the most buds and only lift 

 them a week or two before you want 

 them. I may have missed some plants 

 that many readers grow in their lo- 

 cality, but remember that if I have 

 failed to notice them here I have un- 

 der their alphabetical order given 

 them due notice if in my opinion they 

 are worth growing especially as an 

 Easter plant. 



It is always well to be supplied with 

 a stock of moderate sized palms, pan- 

 danus, ficus, dracaenas, ferns and 

 ferneries, but these plants are of value 

 the year round and do not need any 

 special mention here. 



Don't think you can bring in a lot 

 of lilies or azaleas in the fall and by 



