6o MARKET NURSERY WORK 



The houses now filled with plants should not be regularly 

 heated until wintry weather demands it. Occasional^ the fires 

 might be started if it is foggy and wet, for damp is more injurious 

 to the bloom than any but the sharpest frost, and the manipula- 

 tion of the ventilators can only counteract it up to a certain 

 point. Beyond this occasional firing, we have frequently 

 gone some way into December before regularly heating the 

 houses, and even then we keep to a moderate temperature 

 with the ventilators still open. If the heat is too great the 

 flowers prematurely burst open, and lose much of their substance 

 and of their lasting qualities. There exists no solid reason why 

 chrysanthemums housed in this way should be anything but 

 little inferior to the pot-grown plants it is all a matter of careful 

 treatment. 



Grown in accordance with the foregoing, the cost of production 

 is remarkably small, our own estimate being at least 50 per cent, 

 in their favour as compared with those grown in pots. It is 

 this low cost of production which has fostered and built up 

 the popular demand for it as cut flowers, by bringing them 

 within reach of myriads who are ready to gratify their tastes 

 so long as they are realisable within the limits of their means. 



