THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



\6\ 



der side of petals and in traveling 

 each one had to lay on a bed of bat- 

 ting and be covered with a layer of 

 the same. And the same care must 

 be taken with gardenias or their pet- 

 als will soon be a dirty yellow. 



Eucharis flowers should also be 

 packed in batting or their beautiful 

 flowers are easily bruised. 



I don't know that there is any spe- 

 cial method for the other flowers we 

 use. Common sense will suggest the 

 right plan. As before stated, the main 

 point is not to crush with over crowd- 

 ing, and don't leave room at ends, 

 sides or top of box for any shaking 

 or moving. 



A few months in the autumn and 

 again in the spring are the easiest and 

 safest times to send flowers on any 

 journey. The temperature is just 

 right, no fear of frost and no need of 

 ice, and during the cool days of Octo- 

 ber and November is when our chrys- 

 anthemums are mostly handled. Fine 

 flowers of these, like the good roses 

 and carnations, should be laid out in 

 rows with tissue paper between their 

 fine heads, and they are so heavy that 

 one layer of them is always enough. 

 In saying one layer it is always under- 

 stood that when you commence with 

 the first row of flowers, whatever they 

 are, that you have a roll of tissue 

 paper, or a roll of excelsior wrapped 

 around with tissue paper, and that 

 the first row of flowers rests against, 

 which brings them up as high in the 

 box as the last row put in, each suc^ 

 ceeding row laying just behind th^ 

 other, separated or not by a strip of 

 tissue. 



In the hot summer months there are 

 not many flowers going long distances. 

 When roses are sent a journey and 

 the thermometer is 85 or 90 degrees, 

 lumps of ice are distributed among 

 the stems or placed in the bottom of 

 the box; but if much is used it should 

 be fastened so that it does not roll 

 around. It is surprising how few 

 flowers we get frozen when the weath- 

 er is considered, but when going a 

 journey by rail in the winter months 

 always pack for zero weather. You 

 can't tell how long they may be on 

 the expressman's wagon, and there is 

 where we get the trouble, if any. 



There are other boxes besides pine 

 now used for transporting flowers, but 

 for very severe weather half-inch pine 

 boxes are the best. Paper seems to 

 be the best medium to resist the cold, 

 a number of sheets inside and plenty 

 more outside. Paper, if only common 

 newspaper, which is so inexpensive, is 

 excellent for the purpose. We all 

 know, or ought to know, that a news- 

 paper of a few thicknesses on our 

 chest will in a cold time keep off the 

 wintry blasts far better than the 

 heaviest undershirt (you may as well 

 have the undershirt, too). Paper is, al- 

 though thin, airtight, and a number 

 of layers will resist the coldest weath- 

 er for a long time. So either in cold 

 or hot weather plenty of it should be 

 used, and it should be always dry. If 

 wet it would be a conductor of cold. 



The above remarks have been most- 

 ly suitable for shipping flowers some 

 distance. The grower, and there are 

 many such, whose houses are only a 

 few miles in the country, who sees his 

 boxes aboard the train, and Fritz, the 

 express driver at the city end, knows 

 them and shoves them on his wagon 

 and soon delivers them, has not all 

 this care and trouble. We know from 

 experience that when we are quite 

 sure our boxes will be carefully han- 

 dled and promptly delivered, our car- 

 nations and roses and violets, mums 

 or gladiolus or asters, can be just laid 

 in the box, giving them lots of room, 

 and they will arrive at our store in an 



Roses are cut several times a day 

 when they are fit and should be in 

 water a few hours before ship- 

 ping. Once a day is enough to cut 

 carnations, which should be always 

 fully expanded. We prefer to cut (or 

 as some say, "pull" them) in the 

 morning and ship to town In the even- 

 ing. Violets we like to pick towards 

 evening and put their stems in wa- 

 ter, but not in a cellar; under a rose 

 or carnation bench is best; if kept on 

 ice or in a very cool cellar they lose 

 all their odor. Lily of the valley 

 should also be cut and bunched and 

 stood in water in the cool for twenty- 

 four hours before using. The stems 



Plants Prepared for Packing. 



hour or so just as they left the houses. 

 But very different would It be had 

 they to go into strangers' hands and 

 journey 400 miles. 



The cutting of flowers is hardly 

 within the scope of this article, but 

 here is an opportunity to say that our 

 leading flowers should not be cut and 

 at once packed. if you do, they are 

 unfit for sale in the store for ten 

 hours. A cool cellar is a great boon 

 to a florist, where he can store his 

 flowers a day or a night before ship- 

 ping. I may differ with some, but if 

 the cellar is moist as well as cool, 

 none the worse; for roses I am sure it 

 is better to be moist; for carnations, 

 perhaps not. 



get charged with water and last long- 

 er and are stiffer. Chrysanthemums 

 can be cut a day or several days ahead, 

 just before they are fully developed. 

 Here again my experience tells me 

 that if the cellar is moist as well as 

 cold it will keep the mums in fine or- 

 der. Cut all bulbous flowers a day 

 before you want to use them and then 

 they won't wilt. 



We are often sorely vexed at some 

 miserable breakdown in the very last 

 part of the packing or care of flowers, 

 and this is more than annoying. If 

 your crop had failed at the start you 

 could have perhaps replaced it, but 

 carelessness or "thickheadedness" in 

 the handling of flowers at the last mo- 



