120 



flowers and plants equal to the best. 

 And if you are a builder yourself, not 

 necessarily able to handle a jack 

 plane, but to boss the job, you can 

 build first class houses at least 50 per 

 cent cheaper than the iron frame 

 houses of the horticultural builder, 

 and 200 per cent cheaper and better 

 than the local carpenter, glazier and 

 steam fitter. 



It will be asked why don't" I say 

 what would be the cost per lineal foot 

 of a house about 20 ft. wide. As near 

 as I could keep a record of the last 

 house I built, 19 ft. wide, heated for 

 carnations by hot water, using double 

 thick glass, the Challenge ventilator, 

 the best clear cypress lumber, red 

 cedar posts and wooden benches, they 

 cost about $8 per lineal foot. This was 

 a year ago before the high tariff had 

 had a chance to shed its beneficent 

 blessings on the florists' calling. 



Possibly at present .prices of pipe 

 and glass the same houses could not 

 be built for less than $12 per lineal 

 foot, but as glass is principally made 

 of sand and fire and wind, with which 

 we are well supplied, and there is iron 



enough in our mountains to last the 

 world ten thousand years, neither the 

 folly of alleged statesmanship nor the 

 greed of corporations can long keep 

 those commodities up to these arti- 

 ficial and preposterous prices. 



We trust lumber will not go up in 

 sympathy with the manufactured ar- 

 ticles. There are broad miles (and I 

 hope thousands of miles) yet in the 

 southern states of cypress, and its 

 great value seems only within this 20 

 years to ha^ve become widely known. 



The Canadians use the wood of the 

 Larch (Tamarax) for benches, and a 

 most excellent wood it is for the pur- 

 pose, possessing largely the good qual- 

 ities of the cypress. They are both 

 deciduous conifers. The tamarax is 

 the larch of our northern swamps, and 

 the southern cypress is a beautiful 

 tree, Taxodium distichum. 



GREVILLEA ROBUSTA. 



There are many species of these 

 small trees or shrubs, some of them 

 very ornamental, but G. robusta is the 

 easiest to grow and most useful to the 

 florist. It is often called the Austra- 



Aquilegia Ctrysantha. 



lian silk oak. We use it in vases and 

 veranda boxes, and plants a foot to 

 two feet high make very useful plants 

 for winter decoration. It withstands a 

 good deal of rough treatment and does 

 very well in winter in a cool green- 

 house, subject to no insects and thriv- 

 ing in any soil. 



It is always raised from seed, which 

 should be sown in flats in March or 

 April, and shifted along as required. 

 Keep them in doors on the benches if 

 you can afford the room, and give 

 them little or no shade and they will 

 make useful plants the following 

 spring. It is best to sow seeds every 

 spring, as the plants when over three 

 feet high lose their value as decorative 

 plants, or rather there are other plants 

 occupying no more room that are bet- 

 ter for the purpose. Avoid getting 

 them into large pots, a 5-inch pot will 

 do very well for a plant two to three 

 feet high, and that is a great advant- 

 age when you are using decorative 

 plants. 



HARDY PERENNIAL PLANTS. 



This term is usually meant to apply 

 to our long list of herbaceous plants, 

 a few of which are useful to the florist 

 as cut flowers. The demand of late 

 has greatly increased for hardy plants, 

 and where the florist has some good 

 land at his disposal he should be sup- 

 plied with a collection of the lead- 

 ing kinds so that he can supply the 

 demands of his customers. 



The increased demand for this class 

 of plants is to be attributed to so 

 many of our people of means having 

 summer homes in the country. They 

 have usually more land than they can 

 take care of, and not wishing to go 

 deeply into the formal flower garden 

 with our tender plants they turn to 

 the hardy herbaceous perennial kinds 

 to fill up the beds and borders. 



In preparing ground to receive these 

 perennial plants, either to produce 

 flowers for your own cutting or for 

 your customer, remember you cannot 

 very well dig too deeply or manure too 

 heavily, and with the great majority 

 it should be well drained and dry. You 

 can top dress and manure annually, 

 but you can never recover by subse- 

 quent cultivation the mistake of plant- 

 ing in shallow, poor soil. 



Although called perennials they 

 wear out and most of them are greatly 

 benefited by lifting and dividing every 

 four or five years. There are so many 

 species cultivated of this class for the 

 herbaceous border, and they differ so 

 widely, that no rule for their propa- 

 gation and treatment will do for all. 

 It is generally conceded that early fall, 

 as soon as the foliage or stems are 

 about dried up, is the best time to 

 transplant, and hence it is the best 

 time to fill your customers' orders. 



If you- cultivate a row or two of the 

 leading kinds, keep them in straight 

 lines and far enough apart to run the 

 horse cultivator between them. Many 

 thousand plants will go on one acre, 

 but they want keeping clean and must 

 be constantly hoed, and should be al- 



