162 



THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



ment is heartbreaking. You have built 

 the houses, watched and labored at 

 the crops; perhaps through the curl- 

 ing smoke of a 10-cent domestic you 

 have viewed your Flora Hill carna- 

 tions or Marie Louise violets and 

 through a hazy but pleasant day- 

 dream figured on the proceeds, pencil- 

 ling on the nearest plate or rafter so 

 many thousand at so much per hun- 

 dred, and all this is wrecked "by some 

 poor or careless handling at the last 

 moment. 



We are often called upon to send 

 designs away by rail. There is only 



store, when frozen, they would be use- 

 less. 



PACKING PLANTS. 



Among the large commercial houses 

 of this country the packing of plants 

 of every kind and at all seasons is 

 reduced to a science and most admira- 

 bly done; and still better, the pur- 

 chaser has nothing to pay for their 

 expeditious work and material. The 

 Belgians are excellent packers, but 

 we have to pay for their old boxes. 

 The English are clumsy, old fashion- 

 ed and antediluvian packers, but one 



Plants in Pots Prepared for Packing. 



, one way; they must be so fastened 

 to the box, bottom and sides, by wire 

 that they cannot move, and lightly 

 covered with tissue paper and pro- 

 tected from frost. If any considerable 

 amount and the distance is not too 

 far, it is always more satisfactory to 

 send a competent man with the flow- 

 ers, to unpack and fix any little dam- 

 age done in transit. 



When receiving a box of flowers that 

 you think are frozen, put the box 

 without unpacking in a cool cellar, 

 that the frost may come out very 

 gradually. Many flowers are not much 

 the worse for a degree or two of frost, 

 but if suddenly unpacked in a warm 



part of their packing is not obsolete 

 and that is the charge for boxes, 

 hampers and mats, which are always 

 charged at full price. Strange that 

 a people so great in horticulture are 

 so old-fashioned in packing a few 

 plants. Possibly it's because the Eng- 

 lish houses do not export so much as 

 the Continental. 



To this day when two dozen gera- 

 niums or calceolarias or a few bed- 

 ding plants (if it was epacris or heath 

 there wouldi be more reason for it) is 

 sent thirty miles to the Rev. Arch- 

 deacon Slowpay, D. D., The Frogs, 

 Frogingham, Slopshire, they are sent 

 in a large, round hamper that would 

 hold five bushels of corn in the ear. 



Then there are from eight to fifteen 

 stout hazel stakes rammed in around 

 the edge and brought to a point at the 

 top, the whole enveloped by a Russian 

 mat or mats which with a large sail 

 needle is carefully sewed to the 

 basket and stakes to prevent a cy- 

 clone from removing it. The whole 

 when completed would make a most 

 comfortable dog house or council 

 chamber for a Lilliputian king and 

 his cabinet. We must make one ex- 

 ception to these rather sweeping re- 

 marks. The English firms who send 

 out orchids know how to pack them 

 to perfection. 



Good as our shipping firms are at 

 packing, the general florist is not 

 called upon to pack often enough to 

 keep an expert for that branch of the 

 business and sometimes the wrapping 

 and boxing of plants is crudely done. 



Small plants, such as small ferns 

 or palms or asparagus, or the general 

 run of bedding plants that are not 

 wanted for immediate effect, are very 

 easily handled. One plant, or in case 

 they are from 2-inch pots, three or 

 four plants, are wrapped lightly in 

 paper (a tough but light and pliable 

 quality of brown paper is best), a 

 plant or bundle of plants is laid flat 

 in the box with the roots against end 

 of box. The next row is reversed so 

 that the papers that protect the tops 

 overlap each other and so you pro- 

 ceed till you have the bottom of the 

 box covered. If you think the plants 

 are heavy put in an inch or so of 

 marsh hay or excelsior before you 

 begin another layer, but if there is 

 not much top to the plants, as in young 

 carnations, then a sheet or two of 

 brown paper is enough between the 

 tiers of plants. Always fill the box, 

 if not with plants, then with dry moss 

 or papers, so that the plants cannot 

 move. This way of packing small or 

 medium sized plants where the bloom 

 is not considered is entirely satisfac- 

 tory with the lid of the box tightly 

 nailed down. 



In summer the sides and top of box 

 can have spaces left between boards 

 and in winter the box must not only 

 be tightly made but well lined with 

 several sheets of paper. This plan is 

 quick, safe and inexpensive when the 

 plants are going by express or freight 

 and will be sure to arrive at their 

 destination in a week or less, but it 

 would never do to send plants this 

 way in the hold of a vessel across the 

 Atlantic, for they would rot. 



Small plants that are wanted for im- 

 mediate use in the spring, such as 

 geraniums, coleus or cannas, should 

 be stood up straight in a box, the ball 

 and plant always wrapped, and you 

 can generally squeeze in another plant 

 on the ball of the lower plants, thus 

 almost doubling your capacity, and 

 doing no harm to the plants These 

 boxes, however mild the weather, 

 should be covered lightly but strongly 

 a few inches above the tops of the 

 flowers or leaves, or the express 

 charge on them will be just double, 

 and the freight house will refuse them 



