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Dbcbmber 8, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



123 



View in the Store Recently Opened at Cincinnati by W. K. Partridge. 



ceptionally fine, the stem long and erect 

 and the habit of the plant good. The 

 red one is equally promising, its free- 

 dom being one of its best traits. The 

 crimson is of the Harlowarden type but 

 somewhat brighter in color. The 

 pink is of a pleasing color, nne form, 

 splendid habit and vigorous growth. 



Mr. Partridge's new store in Cincin- 

 nati, an account of the opening of which 

 has appeared in the Review, bids fair 

 to prove a great success. The attend- 

 ance at the flower show given at the 

 opening and the business resulting sur- 

 passed his most sanguine expectations. 

 The accompanying illustration shows 

 part of the decorative effect during the 

 opening week. X. 



HANDLING POINSETTIAS. 



On December 10 stop watering and syr- 

 inging the poinsettias ; this hardens them 

 and they will get into good shape to cut 

 any time after December 20. If yo-.i 

 want them sooner cease your watering 

 accordingly. 



I have tried every imaginable way of 

 treating the cut bracts and I have ob- 

 tained the best results, but with a litt'e 

 trouble. Have a small oil stove at the 

 end of your greenhouse walk, with bnil 

 ing water and cut your poinsettia tl;e 

 desired length. You want to be a liftle 

 quick about this work as you want to g? 

 :ibout three or four inches of the stem 

 in the hot water; hold them in it ab'^ut 

 ten or fifteen seconds and take tiiom 

 right out into cold water. I find th ' 

 by cutting just what one can handio, 

 say six or eight of the lonjr stems, you 

 can have the ends together* for tho li ' 

 Avater. The idea is not to let the stems 

 bleed, or as little as possible. Work, 

 this pro|>erly and your flowers will ro' 

 wilt. 



Now, one other matter, and very im- 

 portant. If you cut a part of a stem 

 after you have cured it, it will be nec- 



essary for you to go through the same 

 process as you did when you cut them 

 in the greenhouses. It would be well 

 for all florists to remind cut flower buv- 

 ers not to cut the poinsettia stem, or if 

 they should, be sure to burn or boil three 

 or four inches of the stem; also avoid 

 a draught on them. 



Don't take up your plants until Janu- 

 ary 1, and, whatever you do, don't give 

 them any water, but have them perfectly 

 dry. Take them up carefully, see that j'ou 

 •Ion 't bruise the roots, bunch them close- 

 ly together and heel them in a bench in 

 your shed. C. W. Reimers. 



AN EXPERIENCE WITH LILIES. 



In the, Review of November 17 there 

 was an article on lilies in answer to a 

 subscriber. The article intimates that 

 lilies will not do anything if they are put 

 into heat before making good roots. As 

 you often ask for people's experience in 

 (iiflferent matters,, we would like to tell 

 you an experience we had with our lilies 

 last year. 



They were .Tapan longiflorums and 

 through various causes we did not get 

 them until November 10, at which time 

 they were potted and put down in shallow 

 cellar under our barn, where we have al- 

 ways, been in the habit of keeping our 

 bulbs. 



Along in December, about the middle, 

 we looked at them to see if they had com- 

 menced to make roots and we were rather 

 alirnied to ree that they had made abso- 

 lutely no sign of either root or top 

 growth. We wrote to a large grower in 

 Philadelphia and he told us that it was 

 hopeless to expect them to do anything 

 that year. 



Now comes the part that we would like 

 to have some one explain. At the first of 

 .Tanuary we took them all up and put 

 them into a house with a temperature of 

 S.") to GO deerrees at night and in the full 

 light. At that time they had shown no 



sign of life, as we had the bulbs out of 

 the pots, and yet by the end of March we 

 had the finest lilies we ever had, stems 

 twenty-five to thirty inches high, fine 

 foliage and from four to eleven flowers 

 from medium-sized bulbs. 



Now, we don't claim we have discov- 

 ered anything new, nor do we expect to 

 try it again; but as we came very near 

 throwing the whole lot away, it would be 

 well for anyone, who is in the same fix 

 as we were to do what we did. We ran 

 short before Easter and we went up to 

 the city to try and get more, but did not 

 see any finer ones than ours. 



W. &. N. 



A NEW IDEA. 



Here is a source of new business which 

 may not have occurred to others than 

 the originator. It happened not long 

 since that Jones & Smith were opening 

 a pretentious clothing store on Main 

 street of a good sized town. They called 

 in a local florist and gave him an order 

 for a modest quantity of flowers for the 

 opening. He was a nimble-witted gen- 

 tleman and obtained from the new firm 

 the names and addresses of a number of 

 the firms from whom they had bought 

 their new stock, also he obtained, from 

 a copy of the clothing trade journal 

 which he saw in their store, the names 

 of a number of other firms whom he 

 shrewdly suspected might like to sell 

 goods to Jones & Smith. Returning to 

 his store he wrote these people something 

 as follows: "Dear Sirs: It may in- 

 terest you to know that Jones & Smith 

 are to have a formal opening of their 

 handsome new store on November 28. I 

 Jim writing thinking that you might like 

 to express your good will through the 

 medium of a floral offering to be de- 

 livered on the day of the opening." The 

 result was that half a dozen firms re- 

 sponded with orders for very fine floral 

 pieces. 



