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300 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



June 20, 1905. 



work a great change and start a healthy 

 circulation. 



With the great majority of green- 

 house men the fires are let out the mid- 

 dle or end of May and remain so until 

 October. This does well enough with 

 most of our stock, but if you want your 

 young palma to grow fast it is any- 

 thing but right and a little fuel is 

 money well spent. 



Herbaceous Plants. 



You do not have time in the busy 

 spring months to do everything and 

 among other things that can be done 

 now is the sowing of hardy herbaceous 

 and biennial plants. Many are useful 

 for cut flowers and there is also a good 

 demand for the plants. If sown now 

 they can be planted in frames in early 

 September and will be a good size be- 

 fore hard winter sets in and in good 

 condition to set out next spring. Among 

 the best and most ' useful are Anemone 



Japonica, aquilegia, the hardy asters, 

 boltonia, campanula, centaurea, coreop- 

 sis, delphinium, Dianthus barbatus, the 

 lighter shades of the old sweet william, 

 doronicum, digitalis, dictamnus, gypso- 

 phila, heuchera, lobelia, lychnis, ori- 

 ental poppy and pyrethrum. 



Many could be added to the above. 

 I have only chosen these because they 

 are sure bloomers the following year 

 and perfectly hardy. Usually a stock 

 of hardy perennials is obtained by buy- 

 ing small plants in early spring, and 

 with some kinds this is the most prac- 

 tical way, but most of them you can 

 raise at much less expense by sowing a 

 little seed. Sow in flats or in the cold 

 frame. Shade until the seeds are well 

 up through the ground and never let the 

 surface of the ground become parched. 

 That is what destroys so many small 

 seedlings, just as they are pushing 

 through the ground. 



William Scott. 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



t 

 _i $ 



A LAVN DECORATION. 



One of the most difficult decorations 

 we were ever called upon to execute 

 was that for the lawn fete at the home 

 of J. D. Lippincott, of Philadelphia. 

 The residence stands in grounds sur- 

 rounded by tall office buildings and 

 the season of the year was early May, 

 in a backward season, when there was 

 no growth in the garden, which is one 

 of the finest in the country, Mr. Lip- 

 pincott being a horticultural enthusiast 

 and having brought together a very fine 

 collection of trees and flowering shrubs. 



It was the season for lilacs, haw- 

 thomes, magnolias, dogwood, etc., and 

 so on the morning of the entertainment 

 we used six wagon-loads of this kind 

 of material, fastening the flowers to 

 the shrubbery and trees so that only 

 a few of the many guests realized that 

 the bloom and foliage did not grow 

 there. Lar^ beds of roses were made 

 to bloom over night by simply plung- 

 ing a lot of Crimson Eamblers in beds 

 on the -lawn. The same was done with 

 pots of hydrangeas and produced a very 

 fine effect. One of the accompanying 

 pictures gives the idea of the lavish- 

 ness of the decoration at the scene 

 of the May-pole dance. The other pic- 

 ture shows the flower booth where we 

 arranged flowers for sale by twelve 

 flower girls, who went among the audi- 

 ence with baskets of flowers supported 

 by wide ribbons passing over their 

 shoulders. They sold the flowers for 

 whatever money the purchaser offered, 

 no change being the rule, as the enter- 

 tainment was for the benefit of the epi- 

 leptic hospital. I saw one gentleman 

 exchange a ten-dollar bill for a bunch 

 of sweet peas. There were also a num- 

 ber of other booths similar to the flower 

 booth, each one a rustic arbor embel- 

 lished with flowers. 



Since this garden party at the Lip- 

 pincott mansion we- have had many 



similar orders for work of this char- 

 acter and recently had an exception- 

 ally large order for an affair of this 

 kind at Lindhurst, John Wanamaker's 

 country seat. Charles H. Fox. 



A CEMENT BENCH. 



In a recent issue of the Eeview a 

 note was published with regard to the 

 cement benches which are taking the 

 place of the less permanent benches 

 at the establishment of the George 

 Wittbold Company, Chicago. The illus- 

 tration on page 299 shows one of 

 these benches in course of construc- 

 tion. The supports are vitrified tile 

 set in cement foundations. For a 

 bench of this width there are three 

 rows of supports. In building the 

 bench, a temporary flooring of boards is 

 laid on the top of the tiles. This is 



merely to hold the pipes, sides and ce- 

 ment in place until the cement has set, 

 when the temporary boards are knocked 

 away and the bench settles upon its 

 permanent supports. The sides are 

 made of galvanized iron and are held 

 together by tie rods running through 

 the half-inch iron pipe shown in the 

 illustration. On the pipe the chicken 

 wire is laid to strengthen the cement, 

 which is one inch in thickness. 



The pipe down the center of the 

 bench, which is raised at one end to 

 permit of working with the cement,^ 

 is the mechanical sprinkler which has 

 been installed in practically all the 

 Wittbold houses. They are very well 

 pleased with it and have made arrange- 

 ments to supply a number of other 

 growers. Another style of the sprinkler 

 system is shown attached to the sash 

 bars on the left side of the picture. 



HERBACEOUS CALCEOLARIAS. 



[A paptT by John Heeremans, read befor* 

 the Morris County Gardeners' and Florists' So- 

 ciety, at Madison, N. J., Jane 14.] 



Herbaceous calceolarias when well 

 grown take a foremost position among 

 decorative flowering plants, during the 

 months of April and May. The wonder- 

 ful markings and vivid color to be seen 

 in a collection of these flowers at once 

 attract attention and there is no reason 

 why they should not be much more gen- 

 erally grown, especially in private gar- 

 dens, than is now the case. 



I propose in the following few short 

 lines to give a short outline of their cul- 

 tivation that will be likely to lead to 

 success. 



First a packet of seed must be ob- 

 tained from a reliable source and the 

 latter end of July is a good time to sow 

 it. Procure some pots or pans that are 

 thoroughly clean, which must be well 

 drained and filled with a light sandy 

 soil, also seeing that the surface is quite 

 level. Water well before sowing and, 

 on account of the very minute size of the 

 seeds, it is best not to cover it at all with 

 soil, simply scattering it evenly over 

 the surface. 



When sown place the pans in a 

 cool, shady place in the greenhouse and 

 cover with a sheet of glass. The seed 

 should not require watering until it is 

 up, but if it should get anything like 

 dry of course it must be watered and 

 the best way to do this is to hold the 



Flower Booth and Employees of C. H. Fox, at Philadelphia Lawn Fete. 



