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NOTKMBKB 10, 1004. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



J253 



liked the camp fires of the plain old 

 soldier best. He liked to say that he 

 had lived near upon 300 years iu 

 Massachusetts and his build and char- 

 acter were such that made you love anil 

 respect the name, New England Yan- 

 kee. Shortly after seeing him in De- 

 troit last March we received a kind in- 

 vitation to visit and stay with him a 

 week or two. If we did not want to 

 sponge on his hospitality we could ad- 

 vise on laying out his front yard of 

 60 acres, and so on. We shall ever 

 cherish that kindly friendship he must 

 have had for us and deeply regret that 

 we could not see our way to accept his 

 kind invitation. One of the greatest 

 treats of our later years was to listen 

 to Mr. Peirce's anecdotes and remin- 

 iscences of the war or of his winter 

 visits to the West Indies, Mexico, Ber- 

 muda, etc. He spread merriment, light 

 and wisdom wherever he was. I could 

 say much more of our dear old friend, 

 and what little I have said is prompt- 

 ed, because outside of his New England 

 friends, thousands of our brothers do 

 not know and never will realize that 

 in the death of Elisha Peirce the flor- 

 ists have lost one of the very bright- 

 est, broadest, deepest, wittiest and 

 withall kindliest of men. We admire 

 and respect many men of our craft, but 

 none did we love as we did dear old 

 Farmer Peirce. 



William Scott. 



CYMBIDIUM LOWIANUM. 



The accompanying illustration of 

 Cymbidium Lowianum is from a pho- 

 tograph of a plant in the collection of 

 Harry G. Selfridge, Lake Geneva, Wis., 

 whose head gardener, C. H. Gebhardt, 

 supplies the following description and 

 cultural details : 



' ' The stems of Cymbidium Lowianum 

 pseudo-bulbous, four to six inches long, 

 leaves linear ligulate, twenty-four to 

 thirty inches long; racemes robust, 

 arching, bearing eighteen to twenty- 

 five fiowers three to four inches across 

 transversely; sepals and petals similar, 

 oblong, lanceolate, greenish yellow with 

 reddish veins; lip three-lobed, the side 

 lobes roundish oblong, erect, light buff- 

 yellow, the intermediate lobe red crim- 

 son with buff-yellow margin, white at 

 the base. 



"Cymbidium Lowianum is from 

 Burmah. We pot them in a mixture 

 of two-thirds chopped fibrous loam, one- 

 third chopped osmunda root fibre, a lit- 

 tle sand and a little chopped live 

 sphagnum moss. We give plenty 

 drainage, of broken pots, not less 

 than one-third of the depth of the 

 pots. We give them ample pot room, 

 as the roots are thick and fleshy 

 and freely produced. We also add, for 

 strong plants, one part of old rotten cow 

 manure. The flowers will last on the 

 plants for three months and if cut for 

 six weeks in a cool room. 



"The watering must be regulated ac- 

 cording to the season of the year, plenty 

 in summer and on the dry side in win- 

 ter. We keep them all the year around 

 in our Mexican house, which is in win- 

 ter at night from 50 to 55 degrees and 

 5 degrees higher in the day time. In 

 summer we give plenty of ventilation 

 from top and bottom. We shade heavi- 

 ly and syringe twice a day and damp 

 down the paths three times a day in 

 summer but only once a day in winter. 

 This cymbidium could be grown suc- 

 cessfully in any other cool greenhouse 



Cymbidium Lowianum. 



with similar treatment. It is of easy 

 culture and if given good care it pays 

 well." 



RECDRD KEEPING PAYS. 



I noted with pleasure some notes in the 

 last issue, I think it was, regarding rec- 

 ord keeping, and while it was not written 

 in reference to violets, nevertheless it is 

 a subject that I have mentioned before, 

 and which bears repetition. If in this 

 way I can persuade some one to com- 

 mence keeping records this season who 

 has heretofore neglected to do so, I shall 

 have done a good work. 



Get a convenient sized blank book and 

 rule it to suit your individual needs, 

 which will vary with different establish- 

 ments. The most simple way is to keep 

 a total of daily cut, but where there is 

 more than one house it is much better to 

 keep the cut of each house separately, 

 thereby enabling you to determine which 

 house is doing the better and, if in the 

 charge of different men, giving you a 

 pointer on which is the letter grower, 

 always taking into consideration other 

 things being equal. It is also condu- 

 cive to some good natured rivalry, which 



never comes amiss and does all good, 

 both employer and employe. 



But, leaving these considerations out 

 of the question, unless growing a very 

 limited quantity, it is the proper thing 

 to keep complete records if you would 

 know thoroughly where you are at. You 

 will find it a very useful and interesting 

 record if you elaborate it still farther 

 and keep the temperature, both inside 

 and out, in connection with the figures 

 showing the daily cut. 



These are suggestions which everyone 

 can carry out more or less fully to meet 

 his individual needs, but whatever you 

 do, keep at the very least a record of the 

 daily cut of each variety. 



Use Care in the Packages. 



Everyone is now settling down to the 

 regular routine work of picking, packing 

 and shipping and this brings to mind the 

 fact that violets are even more particu- 

 lar than are most of cut flowers about 

 their surroundings. Never take any 

 chances about where they stand when 

 picked, or about the packages that you 

 ship them in, for if there is the least 

 foreign odor there, the violets will be 

 sure to absorb the same, to their ruina- 

 tion, for violets without fragrance have 

 lost half their value and with an odor 

 of soap from the boxes they are worth- 

 less, for most people buy them for their 

 own fragrance and not fo* their looks. 



For your retail trade have a special 

 violet box and never allow them to go 

 out in candy, shoe or other boxes of 

 that kind, as I have sometimes seen done, 

 for if you do it will surely react on your 

 trade sooner or later. Besides, if for 

 no other reason, the appearance of the 

 packages that go out of your place now- 



