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1006 



The Weekly Florists^ Review 



October 13, 1904. 



ing in gardening matters. By the word 

 gardening I mean in its full sense, viz., 

 the cultivation of plants, fruits and flow- 

 ers, both under glass and outdoors. It 

 quite frequently happens that a man will 

 make a start in the florists' business by 

 growing vegetables under glass, princi- 

 pally lettuce, radishes, etc., knowing full 

 well that such subjects are much more 

 easily handled than flowering or foliage 

 plants. If successful with the first he 

 may add another house or two for the 

 growing of the latter, and if he succeeds 

 here he may be tempted to go still further 

 and attempt the growing of cut flowers, 

 and this is usually the rock upon which 

 such men either go to pieces or decide 

 to return to the growing of vegetables. 

 With regard to the other side of the 

 question, the turning from flowers to 

 vegetables, I really cannot offer a satis- 

 factory explanation, excepting that some- 

 times the flower market is overdone in 

 certain localities, and a grower sees that 

 he can do better at growing vegetables. 

 But here is a little of my own experience 

 which may throw ^ome light on the sub- 

 ject: 



Up to 1900 I had been growing violets 

 successfully for a period of nearly twenty 

 years, but at that time my stock became 

 badly diseased with the so-called leaf- 

 spot, and every season since it has been 

 growing worse, until at last I realized 

 that if I did not wish to lose any more 

 money in violet growing I would have 

 to grow something else in the same space; 

 consequently I have decided to drop vio- 

 lets entirely (at least for a few years) 

 and to grow lettuce in the same space, 

 for there is a good local demand for 

 choice lettuce, and I feel sure it will pay 

 me to cater to it. Here is another illus- 

 tration: We have one house (without 

 benches) which we devote to chrysanthe- 

 mums, and these are always followed up 

 with cauliflower. Last winter a friend 

 connected with one of the leading hotels 

 in New York induced me to send to said 

 hotel a box of three dozen heads of cauli- 

 flower. Immediately upon unpacking the 



the United States, Peter Eeinberg, of 

 Chicago, began business under glass as 

 a grower of vegetables, and it was doubt- 

 less due to a belief that the cut flower 

 business promised greater profits that 

 he ultimately changed to cut flowers. This 

 alert man of business now owns nearly 

 or quite one million square feet of glass, 

 and is a shining example of the success 

 that sometimes smiles upon the florist. 

 Many men who now grow flowers began 

 with vegetables because they needed quick 

 returns for the investment, and a ready- 

 money crop could be had in vegetables 

 in less time than in flowers, but no hard 

 and fast rule can be laid down for the 

 beginner from the fact that so much de- 

 pends upon locality and the available 

 market. The latter conditions are un- 

 questionably the chief factors in making 

 a choice between these two branches of 

 horticulture, though where equal oppor- 

 tunities are offered for each, it is prob- 

 able that the flower end would give the 

 greater profit, but would require a larger 

 outlay and be consequently a greater risk. 

 There are some growers who combine the 

 two branches profitably, for example, 

 Robert Klagge, of Michigan, who grows 

 both cucumbers and violets very well, but 

 I am unable to say which end of his busi- 

 ness Mr. .Klagge finds most profitable in 

 proportion to the space occupied. I 

 cannot recall an example of a cut flower 

 man who changed to vegetable growing 

 entirely, but have known of several who 

 combined carnations, mushrooms and to- 

 matoes in one establishment, the object 

 Iwing to get a quicker and larger return 

 from their glass than was possible by 

 growing one crop only. W. H. Taplin. 



THE POINSETTIA. 



r.V pappr by Charles W. Reimers, of Lonis- 

 vlUe. re.Td hofore tho Kentucky Society of Flor- 

 ists. October 2, 1904.1 



With its very bright and imposing 



])ra(ts. Poinsettia pulcherrima is classed 



in botany as euphorbia, a genus named 



in honor of Dr. Euphorbus. Its native 



Ik'iiu- is Centril Anirrica. It is nature's 



A St Louis Florist's Wagon in a World's Fair Parade. 



same the proprietor telegraphed for more, 

 and later by letter offered me $3.50 per 

 dozen heads for all I could grow, a bet- 

 ter price than I could get here at retail. 

 Now I am considering the advisability of 

 giving up chrysanthemums and devoting 

 the house to cauliflower entirely, or of 

 building another house for the cauliflower 

 crop. In either case you see I am pretty 

 sure of a good market for the cauliflower 

 at remunerative prices. 



Jesse Eobbins. 



The largest grower of cut flowers in 



Christmas flower, a button hole for 

 Santa Claus, and a corsaga for Xris 

 Kringlc, a flower that will remain with 

 us as long as we observe Christmas; in 

 time I feel assured that- it will come 

 more in prominence than holly is today. 

 Nothing is brighter and more chearful 

 than a large vase bouquet arranged with 

 scarlet bracts on stems four and a half 

 or five feet long and set up in a church, 

 or in a hall, or in some s^uitable resi- 

 dence. Short-stemmed flowers as well as 

 short plants can be worked to a great 



advantage for a table center-piece. There 

 are numerous ways of beautifying a 

 window with small plants in fern pans 

 or jardinieres. It is a flower of profit 

 in a commercial way; no one has ever 

 heard of a market being over-stocked; 

 every season you can see a steady gain 

 and wonderful increasing demand. It 

 will never come amiss, and every grower, 

 no matter how small he is in commercial 

 life, should have a stock of them, it 

 adds so much to the beauty of a green- 

 house when in bloom. 



The poinsettia is very easily grown. 

 Old plants that have been from January 

 to the middle of April on a high, dry 

 shelf in your shed, heeled in with a little 

 soil and in a temperature never less than 

 60 degrees, no water, kept perfectly dry, 

 should by the end of April be potted in 

 a suitable sized pot, all depending on 

 the size of the plant. Use rose soil from 

 a bench that yon had forced roses on, 

 to which add some old hot-bed manure 

 and a little sand and a little bone. See 

 that your plants are potted firmly anu 

 given good drainage. Give them a good 

 Avatering and place in a warm, light 

 house and syringe daily. Cut back the 

 old, long canes that may be on the 

 plants to two or three eyes from the 

 main stem. In six weeks you will have 

 a crop of cuttings. Never take a cut- 

 ting less than three inches long. In 

 making them see that you will have one 

 or two leaves on the stem that you have 

 taken the cutting off of, and in eighteen 

 or twenty days you will have another 

 batch of cuttings. Trim the lower leaves 

 off your cutting so as to avoid touching 

 the sand. They should be syringed daily. 

 Give them bottom heat, lots of shade 

 and air. On hot, bright days give them 

 a soaking every day. Morning and 

 noon throw the water all over the house, 

 under the benches and on the glass. In 

 twenty days they will have from one- 

 half to a quarter-inch root, which is the 

 best time to pot, as you will find the 

 roots very tender and therefore very apt 

 to break. 



Pot them in 2% or 3-inch pots. Give 

 them new made soil that you have pre- 

 pared for roses and add a little sand and 

 a trifle bone ; pulverize and mix your 

 soil; don't have it soggy; see that the 

 drain hole is open. Place the plants in 

 a light house, but shade for four days 

 should it be bright; otherwise omit the 

 shading. Give them a good watering 

 and syringe every day and from then on 

 all the air and light you possibly can 

 and you will never be troubled with 

 mealy bugs. 



Once out of the first pot you can feed 

 freely; let the last of September be the 

 final. Treat your plants on benches the 

 same way. Temperature to have good 

 flowers should never be less than 65 de- 

 gress and 70 degrees will be much bet- 

 ter. Never cultivate the soil in beds or 

 pots and never disturb the roots in pot- 

 ting or planting them ; don 't loosen the 

 roots as you would when you plant rose 

 plants. Never let them get pot bound; 

 disturbing the roots at any time is very 

 fatal and it is very important for you 

 to be careful. Plants for benches should 

 be out of 2\<2 or 3-inch pots. Follow the. 

 above closely and I can assure bracts 

 eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. 



Don 't plant in benches or solid beds 

 later than the middle or end of June. 

 This holds good for the plants you take 

 your cuttings from, or plants out of 

 small pots. You can take cuttings from 



