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J 54 



The Weekly Florists' Review- 



JUNE 16. 1904. 



meaning of some of the questions. If 

 your paper grows in the future corre- 

 spondingly with the past few years you 

 will undoubtedly keep a staff of Slavonic, 

 Latin and Scandinavian interpreters for 

 the advantage of your European and 

 transcaspian subscribers. 



Perhaps the best way I can help this 

 gentleman with my knowledge of Spanish 

 iris is to say thai in our climate in the 

 fall t>f 1900 I planted several thousands 

 in the open ground about the middle of 

 November. The soil was a heavy, rich 

 loam that had been well prepared the 

 previous spring with animal manure. T 

 can scarcely believe that if the bulbs 

 are sound and of good size its quality 

 would make much difference to the flow- 

 ers produced the following spring. About 

 the time heavy frost occurred we put 

 three inches of stable litter over the 

 beds, but that did not prevent frost from 

 penetrating the ground at least a foot, 

 so the bulbs are perfectly hardy. They 

 did not flower with us till June 20. Beau- 



tiful as they are, they are so late i» 

 flowering that they are not desirable as 

 spring flowering bulbs because they do 

 not admit of the summer flowering plants 

 occupying the beds. 



I don't know the part of France this 

 subscriber resides in, yet I do know there 

 is a great difference between the clittiate 

 of Brittany and Normandy and the south- 

 ern provinces bordering on the Pyrenees. 

 It seems to me, in any part of France, 

 that if these irises were planted in frames 

 in October, protected from hard freez- 

 ing up to February 1 and then glass put 

 over them, that they could be had in 

 flower by the middle of April. You can 

 buy them in several colors and it is 

 merely a matter of guess what will be 

 in most demand. We think, the white 

 and blue are most admired. As a forc- 

 ing bulb they are not a great success and 

 it is difficult with us to get them into 

 flower before April 1. In the open 

 ground no fertilizer is needed in the 

 spring. W. S. 



COMMERCIAL FLOWERS. 



It is safe to say that the greatest pjirt 

 of the flowers sold commercially are 

 grown from plants set out after the mid- 

 dle of June and, considering the compara- 

 tively short time they have to grow, the 

 results are remarkable. Conditions with 

 the commercial grower are very different 

 to those governing the private individual, 

 who only grows a few plants and does 

 not have to worry about the outcome of 

 the crop financially. The margin in 

 growing for the market is today so small 

 that it sometimes calls for some close 

 figuring to determine whether or not a 

 crop has paid for handling. 



A good deal depends on what is used 

 to fill the houses in the winter time, after 

 the chrysanthemums are marketed. Some 

 use the space to good advantage in hand- 

 ling bedding plants, others grow lettuce, 

 or tomatoes, or carnations that have been 

 carried along in pots until they can be 

 planted in the benches. "While it may 

 seem out of place at this time to be dis- 

 cussing what crop to follow with, instead 

 of the chrysanthemum crop itself, still the 

 careful man is he who plans long enough 

 ahead so that he is not caught unawares. 



I have several times been asked how 

 much I think the grower should receive 

 for a crop of flowers of the best possible 

 grade, that is to say of the exhibition 

 size and finish, and my answer is $50 per 

 hundred, wholesale, and I do not believe 

 there is much of a future in growing them 

 for that. For the past year or two very 

 few flowers have wholesaled at that figure 

 in New York, or anywhere else, so far as 

 I can find out. The question for the 

 grower to figure out is whether it will 

 pay him better to plant ten inches apart, 

 keep to one stem and grow the very best 

 flowers, than to plant closer, run two or 

 more stems to a plant and take about 

 three medium flowers from the same 

 bench space that he w:ould take one. 



Every grower must be influenced by 

 his market, though personally T always 

 like to grow the best only, and this will 

 probably hold true for anyone shipping 



to a wholesale market. In times of ex- 

 cessive glut the best flowers will always 

 sell, even though they may sometimes run 

 much lower in value than they should, 

 while small, poor stock has to be merci- 

 lessly sacrificed and sometimes never sold 

 at all. There always seem to be more than 

 enough poor mums from the time the 

 market opens till it closes, though ono 

 can once in a while make a ten strike 

 with the special stock. 



The florists living in smaller towns can 

 generally do much better with a medium 

 grade of flowers, though I would advise 

 anyone to have a few just as fine as it 

 is possible to get them for the sake of the 

 advertising they give. Such flowers often 

 prove valuable in educating your custom- 

 ers up to a better grade of stock at a 

 correspondingly enhanced price. The pro- 

 vincial florist finds he can sell ten flowers 

 for a quarter each to one at 50 or 75 

 cents each, and grows accordingly, and 

 many of them can use best a grade that 

 runs much cheaper, even, than that. 



The chrysanthemum has come to be so 

 generally regarded as a cheap flower that 

 some people will exhibit a tendency to 

 heart failure if asked to pay a good price 

 for good stock and they profess to see 

 no difference between your good flowers 

 and the rubbish the street man is selling 

 outside the door. If every grower grew 

 good flowers, would not try to undersell 

 his competitor and preached the gospel of 

 good flowers at a fair price there would 

 be more money in growing chrysanthe- 

 mums. 



We hear sometimes of a new variety 

 that is particularly recommended as a 

 commercial sort. I have never yet solved 

 the problem of what constitutes the dif- 

 ference between a commercial and an ex- 

 hibition variety. I realize that some va- 

 rieties do not ship well and cannot stand 

 the rough usage that market flowers aro 

 subjected to; but, admitted that for a 

 shipping trade one has to grow incurving 

 varieties, why on earth has every florist 

 in the country to blindly follow some- 

 one else's lead and grow just Appleton, 



Eaton and one or two others when he can 

 sell his flowers direct from the plants at 

 home without having to face the problem 

 of shipping them away? 



The general public is always attracted 

 by the odd colors in an exhibition and 

 does it not follow that they would buy 

 them more readily than the eternal wluto 

 and yellow if they could only get them? 

 Why not experiment in this line a little? 

 I had a conversation the other day with 

 a florist who grows several houses of 

 mums for his home trade and it developed 

 that he runs almost entirely on what aro 

 generally classed as exhibition kinds, fan- 

 ciful shapes and colors, and, what is most 

 important, he is making money. He ha^ 

 discovered that his customers are always 

 craving for something new and distinct 

 and his customers have discovered that 

 they can depend on him to supply flowers 

 that they cannot buy elsewhere; the re- 

 sult is pleasing to both parties. 



Why do not other florists with a home 

 trade do likewise? I have personally 

 sold at a good price varieties like Nellie 

 Pockett and Mrs. T. W. Pockett, kinds 

 that the average wholesale grower does 

 not dream of growing, as they have not 

 been officially classed as commercial va- 

 rieties. My idea of a commercial variety 

 is one that sells, no matter what its shape 

 and color, though if one has to ship the 

 flowers any distance to market, kinds like 

 Eaton or Appleton will stand more hard 

 knocks than the loose petalled varieties. 



Brian Boru. 



ALPINE PLANTS. 



[A paper by Carl Blomberir, of North Easton. 

 Mass.. read before the Boston Gardeners and 

 Florists' Club, May 17, 1904.] 



Among hardy perennials and shrubby 

 plants we have many which love to live 

 on ledges and rocks, or between crevices. 

 They call them alpines because a great 

 many of them grow on the highest Alps 

 and near the region of snow, at eleva- 

 tions of 13,000 feet or more. There are 

 some which cannot be cultivated in the 

 New England states, but a great many 

 of them, under a skillful cultivator's 

 hand, will give good results. It is not 

 my intention to say that these plants are 

 all useful for the florists' trade, or to 

 use a more vulgar expression, commer- 

 cially, but for the individual who loves 

 plants and can appreciate their beauty, 

 however inconspicuous their flowers may 

 b(, they are interesting and we certainly 

 have among the alpines many gems. 



The most common way of cultivating 

 alpines is upon what are called rockeries, 

 or rough stones laid together in dif- 

 ferent forms and methods. No wood or 

 tree roots should be used to supplement 

 any of them. They must be all stone. 

 The kind of stone is seldom a matter of 

 importance; everyone will use what is 

 most convenient. The rougher and more 

 unshapely the blocks the better. They 

 must be firmly wedged and interlocked 

 and depend upon one another, and not 

 on the soil between them, to keep them 

 in their places. This rule is of the ut- 

 most importance and if it be neglected, 

 a long frost or an excessive rainfall 

 may cause the whole structure to col- 

 lapse. 



Wherever there is a steep bank, facing 

 south or east, it may be utilized for the 

 growth of alpines. The stones, as before 

 advised, should be large and unshapely 

 and should be buried to two-thirds of 

 their bulk and form a very uneven sur- 

 face, all being interlocked from top to 

 ' bottom. Rockeries of this form are less 



