J60 



OXALIS. 



A very large genus, of which a 

 few are very familiar plants. O. 

 rosea (floribunda) and O. lutea (yel- 

 low) are grown as pot plants and sold 

 in the spring, and they make excellent 

 basket plants, but not mixed with 

 other plants. They do much better 

 and have a finer effect when in a mass 

 by themselves. An earthen basket or 

 suspended pan is better for the oxalis 

 than a wire basket, but either will do. 



They divide readily, which is best 

 done in winter when the plants are 

 partly dormant. They dislike a wet, 

 heavy soil, and need a good, light 

 loam, well drained, and an airy, sunny 

 exposure. In the fall give them less 

 water, and for December , January and 

 February they could rest under a dry 

 bench in a cool house with very little 

 water. In March start them growing 

 and divide if you wish. 



They can also be raised from seed. 

 There are a great many species, hav- 

 ing yellow, white, pink and violet 

 flowers, all greenhouse perennials, be- 

 sides a 'few that are annuals. The two 

 well knoiwn species mentioned are 

 easy to grow and very free blooming. 



PACKING FLOWERS. 

 The author might have called upon 

 one whose business it was to daily, 

 and perhaps all day, pack flowers, but 

 since he received a letter from Chi- 

 cago a year or so ago which ac- 

 knowledged the receipt of a box of or- 

 chid flowers which conveyed the pleas- 

 ant tidings, "The coelogyne flowers ar- 

 rived in the most perfect order; they 

 were finely packed," and as no one 

 but myself had a hand in it, I feel com- 

 petent not only to pack flowers, but to 

 tell others how to do it. 



This is an opportune time to repeat 

 a short story of that great man, Hor- 

 ace Greeley, who embittered and 

 shortened his days by accepting the 

 nomination for president. In his 

 young days he edited an agricultural 

 paper somewhere in our state, and a 

 delegation of western farmers called 

 on him. After a pleasant chat in his 

 office the leader of the party said: 

 "Now, Mr. Greeley, we should like to 

 see your farm." "H 1; farm! Gen- 

 tlemen, you don't expect a man to 

 write and farm too," was the forceful 

 rejoinder. So it's not necessary for a 

 man to be continually at the calling 

 to be able to write about it. In fact, 

 if he is too well posted on a specialty 

 his brain is liable to be clouded. 



In no part of the business (for this 

 part is purely a business, unlike the 

 cultivating, which is a profession) is 

 there more need of good sense and 

 judgment, which with constant prac- 

 tice makes an expert packer of flow- 

 ers. In the first place, some men have 

 a knack or gift of handling cut flow- 

 ers different from others. Some men 

 will take up a few dozen roses from 

 the counter and move them or show 

 them off to a customer as quickly but 

 as gently as a mother handles a two- 

 months-old baby, while I have often 

 been annoyed to see others slap them 



THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



down as if they were a bundle of salt 

 codfish. Every time the soft petals of 

 a rose get a knock there is a bruise 

 that does not show at once, but does 

 in a few hours. 



It is not the distance they travel; 

 the quick ride in the express car can 

 do but little harm; but they get jarred 

 about many times before they are 

 placed on the retailer's counter. The 

 grower may handle them roughly; 

 they get a bump at the local station, 

 and another when thrown into the ex- 

 press car; another jar or two before 

 they get into the express wagon to be 

 delivered at the stores, and if they are 

 going to the commission man their 

 troubles have only begun. 



There are, broadly, two rules to ob- 

 serve. Flowers should never be put 

 into a box crowded so that they are 

 actually squeezed, and, what is quite 

 as bad, so loosely that they can shake 

 or move about. 



Roses should not be packed more 

 than one layer deep. Their flowers 

 should be sufficiently far from the end 

 of the box that there is n& possibility 

 of their petals being jammed against 

 the end. If they have any distance to 

 go there should be a layer of tissue 

 paper between every row of buds, and 

 in warm weather, with varieties like 

 American Beauty and Ulrich Brunner, 

 every rose should be wrapped in tis- 

 sue. The box should be long enough 

 to take the stems at full length. 



Small and tight buds may have an- 

 other layer of buds on top, but with 

 the choicest flowers one layer deep is 

 enough. A great many buds will go 

 into a shallow box because the flow- 

 ers lie close behind each other. Some 

 tissue paper over the lot and news- 

 paper to keep them firmly in place, 

 and then the lid. Flowers going by 

 express, particularly where (as often 

 there is) a change of cars on the road, 

 should be packed so that no harm 

 comes to them whether the box is 

 standing on its side, bottom or upon 

 end (which it frequently does). 



Carnations don't bruise so much as 

 roses, but their petals get crushed if 

 crowded in and they have to remain 

 hours in cellar or ice box before they 

 get their perfect shape restored. 

 What a change in the box suitable for 

 carnations. Thirty years ago we 

 thought a cigar box was handy to 

 carry a few short-stemmed carnations 

 in. A few years ago we had wooden 

 boxes made, thirty inches long, and 

 now we want a box five feet long, if 

 it is to hold any quantity. 



The best flowers of carnations 

 should be laid in flat boxes, one row 

 of flowers behind the others, as you do 

 roses, but they need no tissue paper 

 between them. If you can give the 

 flowers a few hours in a cool cellar 

 before offering them for sale then you 

 can lay them in the box in bunches of 

 25, but the less weight you have on the 

 flowers the better for their petals. 



Violets are easy to pack and are 

 usually sent in bunches of 25 and 50, 

 all tied by the "grower ready to retail. 

 They are often huddled into a box a 



foot deep. That may do for some 

 grades, but the finest should have a 

 box some six or seven inches deep and 

 the bunches placed one behind the 

 other and each bunch wrapped in tis- 

 sue paper. 



Lily of the valley is easily handled, 

 and if each bunch is wrapped you can 

 pack quite closely, but let each bunch 

 be reclining on the other and only one 

 layer deep. It is weight that express- 

 men charge for and not space, so when 

 supplied with suitable boxes it is use- 

 less to crowd and spoil flowers for the 

 sake of another box. 



Orchids are not packed every day. 

 except by a few specialists, but laid 

 on a bed of cotton batting, with the 

 same material put between the flow- 

 ers and sufficient covering to keep 

 them from shaking, they travel all 

 right. Cypripediums will, of course, 

 travel with less care than the softer 

 flowers of cattleya, odontoglossum and 

 coelogyne, but with plenty of batting 

 they travel well and two days' journey 

 to them is the same as two hours. 



The Liliums Harrisii and longiflorum 

 are the most troublesome flowers to 

 pack and have arrive without a grum- 

 ble. If you let them rest on tissue 

 paper their own weight will break 

 their petals, and even if every flower 

 was stuffed full of batting and every 

 flower surrounded with it, there would 

 be a great many damaged flowers. We 

 have found the best plan is to get a 

 box of sufficient depth and across it, 

 say a foot from the bottom and the 

 same from the end, fasten a strip of 

 wood (an inch square will do). Then 

 take half a dozen spikes of lilies and 

 bunch them up with their flowers fit- 

 ting in among each other and fasten 

 that bunch on to the strip of wood a 

 few inches behind the flowers. See 

 that the flowers do not touch bottom, 

 sides or any part of the box, or an- 

 other bunch of flowers. The lily flow- 

 ers will swing, but move all together, 

 and not be bruising each other. 



This principle we found a good plan 

 when carrying lilies to town at Easter 

 time. If you loaded up a hundred 

 plants in the wagon and let them 

 - stand up singly, however mild and 

 quiet the day. they would swing into 

 each other and many would be brok- 

 en; but if half a dozen are tied to- 

 gether and cannot swing into another 

 bunch, they will travel perfectly. 



In packing the cut stalks in a box 

 you can put as many bunches as you 

 choose, but never let one bunch touch 

 another, or any chance to do so. 



Bulbous stuff does not travel well 

 when unexpanded. You should not at- 

 tempt to pack them more than one 

 layer deep, and lightly covered with 

 tissue, but a great many can be put in 

 a box, as they do not hurt in the 

 least to be packed tightly together. 



We do not have any more camellia 

 or gardenia packing, and there is a 

 vast army of young florists who per- 

 haps never handled one. The slight- 

 est touch of your fingers on the petals 

 of a camellia would leave a mark. 

 You had to handle them from the un- 



