THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



of hot water circulation is yet awfully 

 crude, and the carpenter, who is per- 

 haps capable of building a winding 

 stair case, is a failure at greenhouse 

 building unless you are able to tell 

 him "just how you want it." So the 

 amateur or man of wealth should al- 

 ways employ one of those firms who 

 make a business of glass structures. 

 Perhaps there are many such firms. 

 Of my acquaintances, who are masters 

 of their business as well as honorable 

 men that are bound to perform all they 

 agree, there are Lord & Burnham Co., 

 of Irvington-on-the-Hudson, N. Y.; 

 Hitchings & Co., and Thomas W. 

 Weathered's Sons, of New York. All 

 of these firms are constantly building, 

 not only private establishments, but 

 commercial houses all over the coun- 

 try. 



Shape and Aspect. 



Plant houses, i. e., houses for raising 

 palms, pandanus or ferns, m flowering 

 lilies and azaleas, or growing the bulk 

 of our bedding plants, in fact for any 

 purpose except for roses and carna- 

 tions, can run north and south. A 

 house with its ridge running north and 

 south with good sized glass will give 

 you all the light that these plants 

 need, and in the summer when too 

 much sun is the trouble they are not 

 so hot. 



There is no doubt that houses that 

 are built communicating, or simply a 

 partition wall between them, are a 

 great saving in fuel, and in latitudes 

 where we get great snows, and often 

 weeks of zero weather, it is most ad- 

 visable that blocks of houses be built 

 together with only two outside walls, 

 providing you are sure you will not 

 want to change your business and con- 

 vert them into rose or carnation hous- 

 es; for this purpose they would be 

 very unsuitable. 



The conventional house of this kind 

 is usually 20 ft. wide, with a middle 

 bench of 6 ft. 6 in., and two side 

 benches of 3 ft. 6in. each, allowing 2 

 ft. for each path and keeping the 

 benches away from posts 2 or 3 inches 

 on each side to avoid any drip on the 

 plants. Whenever I speak of the width 

 of a house as 20 or 22 ft, I always 

 mean the dimensions to be from out- 

 side to outside of posts if detached or 

 from center to center of posts if 'at- 

 tached. For the general run of our 

 plant houses the top of the posts from 

 outside grade of ground is usually for 

 these equal span houses 4 ft 6 in 

 with the plate on top of post and the 

 bar about 11 ft. 6 in.; this gives you 

 nice head room for the paths. 



The middle bench is used for tall 

 growing plants and the side benches 

 for the dwarfer ones. Often the space 

 that would be occupied by the bench 

 is used by standing the plants on the 

 floor or planting them out, as you do 

 with smilax, etc. If four or five houses 

 are used for the same kind of plants, 

 for instance chrysanthemums, ferns! 

 lilies, then geraniums, or maybe all 

 palms, then there is no need of a par- 

 tition wall, but unless you are in a 

 big way of business you will find it 



much safer to have a partition between 

 them. You so often want to keep one 

 house a little warmer or cooler than 

 others, or in fumigating you may find 

 it very inconvenient to have to fill 

 the whole lot with smoke when there 

 were plants in some that you did not 

 want to smoke. 



Another style of house for general 

 plant growing that is, I think, more 

 economical to build and easier to work, 

 is one of 22 ft. This will allow an 

 18-inch path against each wall, three 

 benches a little short of 5 ft. 6 in. 

 each and two more paths of 1 ft. Gin. 

 each. The heating would be but a 

 trifle more, the first cost of glass and 

 bars but a fraction, and the walls and 

 the gutters no more. In these houses 

 the heating pipes, whether of steam or 

 hot water, are against the walls, 

 away from the plants, where there is 

 no danger of encouraging red spider. 

 Where the houses are built in this 

 way the posts should be 5 ft., so as to 

 give head room in the outside paths. 

 The benches in these houses could be 

 any height to suit your plants. 



Benches. 



I will say here about benches, that 

 it is often thought necessary to raise 

 them up, sometimes to an awkward 

 height, with the view of getting more 

 light. "Keep plants near the glass," 

 is an old maxim oft repeated. What is 

 intended by this advice is give them 

 light. In our modern houses where 

 the glass is never less than 12 inches 

 wide, and the light is unobstructed, 

 the plants receive as much light eight 

 feet from the glass as they do two feet 

 from it. Years ago violets were always 

 grown in a pit near the glass. They 

 are grown as well today 10 feet from 

 the glass. 



Board benches are continually wear- 

 ing out; even if made of 2-inch plank 

 their life is short. For roses and car- 

 nations there is perhaps no substitute 

 for wood as when their roots touch the 

 moist wood it is congenial to them, 

 which slate and cement are not, but 

 plants in pots are quite different, as 

 they are seldom stood on the bare 

 boards but usually stand on a layer of 

 ashes or sand. Heavy slate is too ex- 

 pensive for the commercial man and 

 roofing slate would need so much sup- 

 porting. 



We saw at the South Park, Chicago, 

 an excellent device for the plant ta- 

 bles, the invention of Mr. Kanst, we 

 think. The frame of the tables was 

 angle and T iron. For the floor of the 

 bench he had a composition flagging. 

 They were about two feet square and 

 if I remember correctly one inch thick. 

 It is obvious they could be made any 

 reasonable length and breadth, and 

 thicker if desired. It would be only a 

 matter of making a mould. A frame of 

 inch strips of wood was made, or a 

 number of them, the frames were set 

 on a surface of boards and a mixture 

 of fine gravel and cement thrown 

 in and struck off with a straight-edge. 

 After the concrete, as we will call it, 

 had set, which cement quickly does, 

 the frame and bottom boards were re- 



moved. I am not certain that I am 

 exactly clear how the boards and 

 frame were removed, but that is a tri- 

 fling part of it, and will quickly occur 

 to any ingenious workman. 



When dry there was a lot of ever- 

 lasting material for the plant tables, 

 and as most of the tables were so con- 

 structed with the iron supports and 

 concrete flooring they were practically 

 indestructible. And to show us that 

 a large plant would not break these 

 slabs of cement and gravel Mr. Kanst 

 jumped on the middle of one about two 

 feet square and gave us one step of 

 the Highland fling. These tables can- 

 not be expensive and where the mate- 

 rial is near by cannot exceed the cost 

 of a 2-inch plank of pine or hemlock, 

 and would in ten years be much the 

 cheapest. 



Often, though, we have not the time 

 to do these things and turn to the 

 readiest and quickest methods, so we 

 resort to the same old boards. The 

 uprights should be 2x6 and the cross 

 pieces of the same dimensions. I think 

 it cheaper in the end to use for the 

 surface of the table 2-inch plank. The 

 pulling out and rebuilding is half the 

 cost, and that you certainly save. We 

 mix up a pail of hydraulic cement, 

 which with us is called water lime, 

 and with a whitewash brush give the 

 top of planks or boards a thorough 

 coat of the cement, and on top of the 

 cross pieces and top of uprights, in 

 fact wherever wood is laid on wood, 

 for that is where we find decay first 

 begins. 



Wooden benches are supported on 

 iron frames made of gas pipe. They 

 are most easily put up, look neat and 

 are of course long lasting. It would 

 take too long to describe here, and 

 unnecessary, as you have only to send 

 to the Jennings Bros., Olney, Philadel- 

 phia, for their illustrated circular 

 which shows you the whole thing. 



Where the bench is not over eigh- 

 teen inches from the ground we believe 

 the bench should be solid, that is walls 

 built up with 4-inch brick walls laid in 

 cement or concrete walls, and filled 

 in with stones or ashes, and surfaced 

 with any material you choose. It is 

 easier for the workman to handle the 

 plants when- the benches are about 

 three feet high, but no better for the 

 plants, and saves much repairing and 

 "fixing" of benches; and what a fine 

 bench for palms, azaleas, lilies and 

 later for cannas, in fact for anything. 



Ventilation. 



The ventilation of these houses, or 

 any house, should be ample always. 

 You may not need it except in sum- 

 mer, but you want the means for the 

 largest amount of ventilation that is 

 of benefit to the plants in the hottest 

 weather. Our prevailing winds are 

 from the west, and a large proportion 

 of the country is the same. So we 

 ventilate on the east side. There is 

 also another advantage in ventilating 

 on the east side. In February and 

 March particularly, the thermometer 

 may indicate 15 degrees of frost, yet 

 the sun be very bright, compelling us 



