18 



^ The Florists^ Review 



Fbbbdabt 20, 1910. 



ed. In the rear of the office is located 

 the workroom, above which, on a mez- 

 zanine floor, is a large room designed 

 solely for handling, packing, wrapping 

 and deliveries in rush times. 



The ground being higher in the rear 

 of the building, trucks enter from the 

 street level, thus facilitating the get- 

 ting out of orders and receiving of 

 goods. This part of the store is par- 

 ticularly interesting, as it represents 

 vastly improved methods taught by 

 many years of experience. 



A peculiar condition is responsible for 



the erection of the building which 

 houses this fine store. The phenomenal 

 growth of the Rubber City in the last 

 five years rendered the limited business 

 section greatly inadequate to its needs 

 and many changes became necessary. 

 In order to protect themselves, the 

 Heepe brothers, in company with three 

 other business houses similarly situated, 

 obtained a fine site on the busiest street, 

 near their old location, and built there- 

 on a modern fourteen-story structure, 

 each of the builders taking a store on 

 the main floor and securing a permanent 

 home. Mac. 



6x8x30 inches and 6x8x36 inches. We 

 do not attempt to'' mail larger boxes 

 than these. 



For long trips into neighboring states 

 and especially large cities, we find the 

 mail service convenient and the flowers 

 arrive in good condition. All flowers 

 are wrapped carefully in wax paper, 

 with moist paper around the stems, 

 while the boxes are carefully lined with 

 newspapers. The flowers are tied in 

 the boxes, which are wrapped first in 

 newspaper and then in wrapping paper. 

 In this way the contents is protected 

 from both heat and cold. 



Joseph Bancroft & Son. 



a>CN U^rm^y^ READEn^ 



OH! FOR A STANDARD GRADE. 



I look for The Review every Friday 

 and go all through it, taking note of 

 every item. I enjoy it, and the classified 

 ads make it easy to look up anything 

 one needs and one will come pretty near 

 to finding just what one wants. We have 

 read and heard a lot about high prices 

 on cut flowers and I think we ought 

 now to give the plant end of it a lit- 

 tle noise. The plant ads mostly all show 

 advances in prices and nearly all read 

 "Cash, please." You send the cash 

 and you take just what some of them 

 care to send and when they get ready. 

 Some of them never even acknowledge 

 receipt of orders they cannot ship at 

 once. Many times I look at stock re- 

 ceived and say to myself, "The coal men 

 ain't in it." You esCnnot grow good 

 stock with puny, weakly plants to start 

 with. 



I often think it would be a grand 

 thing to have some kind of examin- 

 ing board to class all stock, its worth, or 

 whether it ought to be dumped. Of 

 course, that would be a hard thing to 

 regulate. All I have to say is that it's 

 a shame the quality of stock some peo- 

 ple send out. W. M. Tiplady. 



XANTHOSOMA MARSHALLII. 



Last year, in answer to an ad in The 

 Review, I purchased ten young plants 

 of Xanthosoma Marshallii, intending to 

 try out this variety. I have been grow- 

 ing these plants in pots and they make 

 beautiful pots for a conservatory while 

 young, but the leaves tend to become 

 too large as they grow older. These 

 plants grow erect and the foliage stands 

 straight out instead of drooping, as do 

 the leaves of Caladium esculentum, pro- 

 ducing a picturesque effect. I believe 

 X. Marshallii stands to become as pop- 

 ular in the trade as C. esculentum. 



H. "W. Peterson. 



LIKES SPECIAL DELIVERY. 



We note a number of articles in The 

 Review on the subject of maiUng flow- 

 ers. For the last three years we have 

 mailed large numbers of small orders of 

 cut flowers and always with a special 

 delivery stamp. We use from fifty to 

 HOO special delivery stamps each week 

 and find much better service in the 

 larger towns and cities than could be 

 obtained by express. In some of the 



smaller towns the post-offices do not de- 

 liver so quickly as we feel they should, 

 but in towns where there are special 

 delivery departments the packages gen- 

 erally are delivered within an hour or 

 two after their arrival. 



Since the change of express rates, a 

 great number of people request that 

 their packages be sent by mail, as there 

 is a saving of about 10 cents that way 

 and delivery is .more prompt by mail. 



All special delivery packages are re- 

 quired to be in the post-office in Cedar 

 Falls half an hour before trains are 

 scheduled to leave, and are put into 

 sacks used only for this class of mail. 



Under separate cover I am mailing 

 one of our special delivery cut fiower 

 boxes. [The sample was a one-piece cor- 

 rugated box made by the American Pa- 

 per Products Co. and arrived in good 

 order.] This box is made in sizes 3x5x 

 18 inches, 3x5x24 inches, 3x5x30 inches 

 and 4x6x30 inches. Larger sizes are 

 not a success in one-piece mailing boxes. 

 We use for this purpose regular corru- 

 gated boxes, in sizes 6x6x30 inches. 



FANSIES UNDER GLASS. 



I have a ground bench in a low house 

 with a night temperature of approxi- 

 mately 50 degrees. I intend to plant 

 pansies to bloom in the spring. If you 

 consider this house suitable for pansies, 

 will you kindly advise me as to the cul- 

 ture of these flowers under glass f 



A. S.— lU. 



Pansies do well under glass, but a 

 temperature of 50 degrees at night is 

 too high for them. They will do better 

 with 40 to 42 degrees at night. The 

 same treatment as that given violets is 

 required. Sow the seeds early in July 

 and bench the plants in September. Al- 

 low a foot between the rows and ten 

 inches between the plants. You can 

 plant them closer than this, but if you 

 do, towards spring the plants will smoth- 

 er one another. If you want merely a 

 spring and not a winter crop you can 

 keep the house down to freezing, mulch- 

 ing the plants with straw or leaves. 

 Start them up about the middle of Feb- 

 ruary for spring blooming. Or you can 

 carry the plants over in a coldf rame and 

 plant them inside at this season. There 

 is an advantage, of course, in having es- 

 tablished stock, as compared with fresh- 

 ly planted stock. Use a generous com- 

 post containing a good proportion of 

 well rotted manure and be sure to grow 

 them cool and airy. * . C. W. 



iJLVS/JlxS^WWliSAl^^l^l^tiSill^E^IiS^^^ 



SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS 

 FOR SOUTHERN FLORISTS 



^n/'*^1r?i^1^?s^1irsx1l?iVl^?SY^r«vlrrsvlr?i?1^^ 



BEDDING GERANIUMS. 



The winter has be^lTa^indly one for 

 the commercial grower an\ stocks of all 

 kinds look well. The only disgruntled 

 people are those who closed their entire 

 ranges last fall, fearing another severe 

 winter and an acute fuel shortage. It 

 is now apparent that stocks of many 

 plants are far short of the country's 

 needs. This is true particularly of 

 geraniums. If you have a large stock 

 of geraniums you are to be congratu- 

 lated. Geraniums will sell at higher 

 prices the coming season than ever be- 

 fore. Take good care of your plants. 

 They grow rapidly now and will need 

 more frequent spacing from now on. 

 Pot along any plants that need it before 

 they become matted and starved and 

 you will be able to find a good many 

 nice tops which will root readily aud 

 make nice little plants before spring. 



Do not make the too common mistake of 

 growing your geraniums warm. They 

 need sun, fresh air in plenty and a dry, 

 buoyant atmosphere. 



VERBENAS. 



You can sow seed of verbenas as late 

 as a month hence and get nice bloom- 

 ing plants in May, but January or Feb- 

 ruary sowing is preferable. This gives 

 time to pot off the plants. Pinch then- 

 and get nice early little plants before 

 the selling season opens. Cover the 

 seeds lightly. I find a light dusting o^ 

 coal ashes answers perfectly for a cover- 

 ing. You cannot depend on seedlings of 

 verbenas coming true to color and for 

 that reason cuttings taken in the fall 

 and carried over are preferable. These 

 plants are now producing an abundance 

 of cuttings, which root easily. By the 

 way, if you have never tried verbenas 



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