June 2, 1004. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



57 



flowers or as a florists' pot plant and yet 

 in private greenhouses or as a window 

 plant there is no genus of plants that 

 surpasses them for continued beauty and 

 interest. I have never discovered that the 

 begonia was particular about soil, yet if 

 I were catering to Gloire de Lorraine I 

 should choose a fresh, rather light loam 

 with one-fifth of well rotted stable man- 

 ure, one-fifth leaf -mold to three-fifths of 

 the loam. Begonias are all natives of a 

 tropical or sub-tropical clime, where the 

 bright sun shines on them. So don't 

 subject them to a dense shade while they 

 are occupying but a limited space on the 

 bench. Shade them when jiecessary but 

 morning, evening and on dull days give 

 them unobstructed daylight. 



-The Problem of Bench Material 



I feel sure there are at least a 

 thousand florists in the country who are, 

 or will be in a fow days, worrying over 

 the question of new benches or beds for 

 their carnations and roses, as well as 

 repairing the benches that are used for 

 plants. We can dismiss the plant benches 

 quickly by simply saying that for all 

 our small plants, our bedding plants and 

 our Easter plants there is nothing so 

 convenient as the bench some two feet 

 above the ground. Of what to construct 

 these benches is of great importance. I 

 am confident that a coming generation 

 will look back at us and smile and pity 

 us for building benches of quick-rotting 

 wood that had to be renewed every three 

 or four years. The benches of the future 

 will be of iron and tile or cement. 



A Survey of the Past, 



This is such a large subject that one 

 scarcely knows where to begin. To be 

 reminiscent a moment, many of us can 

 remember when the only roses to be had 

 in winter were Lamarque, Marechal Niel 

 or beautiful old Solfaterre. Then Sa- 

 frano, Isabella Sprunt and a few other 

 tea roses began to be grown in pots. 

 Then came planting them on beds of a 

 foot or more of soil. Next some genius 

 discovered that a bench that sloped to the 

 south about the same pitch as the roof, 

 or about eighteen inches in six feet, was 

 the correct thing. Then John N. May 

 and other good thinkers found that four 

 inches of soil was all that was necessary 

 to produce the finest roses, and the great 

 majority of rose and carnation growers 

 have not made any radical change from 

 the shallow raised bench for a number 

 of years. Where the house is a de- 

 tached three-quarter-span some twenty 

 feet wide you could not very well have 

 any other system than the raised bench. 



I have briefly reviewed the evolution 

 and changes that have taken place in 

 thirty years in a most important part of 

 our business merely to attempt to show 

 that progress and change may be ahead 

 of us, as we have emerged from it. Evo- 

 lution, progress and improvement must 

 and do go on in all spheres of life and 

 industry, theology included. 



So in building benches for roses or 

 carnations, it is a question whether 

 it is wise to put up too costly a struc- 

 ture, for if you are anywise of a pro- 

 gressive kind yoa may in two years be 

 altering your methods and adopting a 

 style of bench that you saw over at 

 "old Bill Jones', who had some gol darn 

 fine stuff"." Leaving these soil benches 

 for a moment, we must admit that for 

 our ordinary class of plants in pots there 

 lias been no change in style of bench. 



No Pipes Overhead. 



1 don't want to drag in that moment- 



Phalaenopsis Amabilis Grown by Dr. R. Scfiiffmann, St. Patsl, Minn. 



ous question of heating in these notes, 

 but I will say that imder benches devoted 

 to pot plants, particularly soft-wooded 

 plants, it is of the greatest benefit to 

 have two or three pipes, either hot 

 water or steam. The man who advo- 

 cates any hot water or steam pipes above 

 the plants or near the ridge pole is suf- 

 fering from paresis. The very best rose 

 grower the writer has ever known, al- 

 though only growing five or six houses, 

 told me, while looking around at his 

 wonderful Bridesmaids, that he would 

 not have any pipes beneath his benches. 

 He would consider it a real detriment, 

 and I most cordially agree with him. 

 The temperature of the soil is that of 

 the atmosphere and that is enough. Re- 

 member you are not forcing these roses 

 and carnations, you are simply partially 

 reversing their season of blooming. We 

 truly force lily of the valley, tulips, 

 scakale and rhubarb, known in the west- 

 ern hemisphere as pie plant, but we don't 

 force these roses and carnations that 

 are a staple of our industry. 



Bottom Heat Often a Benefit. 



Pipes beneath the bench are not an 

 absolute essential but many of our suc- 

 culent plants, such as geraniums and be- 

 gonias, are greatly benefited by a little 

 warmth from the boards. It is not so 

 much heat that is good to them aa dry- 

 ness. More especially is this the case 

 in the spring, when little fire is needed 

 and yet some is wanted to keep out the 

 dampness. With the exception of palms 

 and some few other large plants, I see 

 no likely change from the ordinary bench 

 that is, and has been, used for many 

 years and if you are sure that you will 

 never convert this or that house into 

 any other use than growing plants in 

 pots, then it will pay you splendid in- 

 terest to build a bench that will last as 

 long as you will last, or your son-in-law 

 included. 



An Ideal Bench. 



First cost is, of course, the great con- 

 sideration. Something cheap that will 

 last a few years "till I can afford to 

 build better" is the excuse. The neatest, 

 most substantial and consequently the 

 most durable bench I have lately seen 

 was at George Urban's, at Pine Ridge, N. 

 Y. Cost was of I no great consideration, 

 but you will generally notice that 



wealthy men are continually encourag- 

 ing and making money by buying at 

 wholesale, building substantially and 

 looking into the future. This bench had 

 for legs 4-inch vitrified sewer pipe, rest- 

 ing on a brick or flat stone. The pipe, 

 socket ujt was filled with a cheap con- 

 crete, four parts of sifted ashes to one 

 of cement. On the tile rested a tee iron, 

 running lengthwise of the bench and on 

 the iron were tiles 24x18. The tile was 

 about one and a half inches thick. To 

 make the bench a complete success there 

 was an edge of concrete two inches thick 

 at the bench, tapering to one inch. Now 

 there is a bench which will outlast the 

 roof and it is not so costly after all. If 

 there is a tileyard in your neighborhood 

 you will find that they are very pleased 

 to make any pattern of tile or hollow 

 brick that you desire, only give them the 

 pattern. 



Cypress the Besft Wood. 



After all, there will be more wooden 

 benches built and repaired than others, 

 and what are you going to use for ma- 

 terial? White pine that once covered 

 the great state of Michigan, is now pro- 

 hibitive in price and quickly decays. 

 Hemlock that once clothed the slopes of 

 our Alleghany mountains, is like the 

 American bison, fast disappearing from 

 the face of the earth, and a few men own 

 the good timber now standing and, with 

 the help of a high tariff known as "pro- 

 tection to American labor," these few 

 individuals have jumped the price of 

 hemlock within six years from $10 to 

 $19 per 1,000 feet. I have yet to learn 

 that the man who chopped the tree or 

 sawed it into boards has received a pro- 

 portionate increase in wages. Perhaps 

 his house rent and flour and coal have 

 gone up. So the poor fellow thinks we 

 are having prosperous times. Canada has 

 plenty of pine and tamarix, the Ameri- 

 can larch, which is a grand article for 

 our purpose, closely resembling our 

 southern cypress. Both are deciduous 

 conifers. 



Cypress is a great boon to we florists. 

 It seems indestructible except by fire. 

 Our greenhouse structural firmsi, of 

 which there are now many, all seem 

 to be conscientious, good people and send 

 out only pure and unadulterated quality. 

 You get ridge and plate sixteen feet long 

 with not the sign of a knot. Now there 



