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550 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



August 3, 1005. 



turnings over," and that we should not 

 be disturbed. 



I had frequently passed the "flower- 

 house" — situated in one of the main 

 streets of Hermanus — and had been told, 

 in answer to my inquiries, why it was 

 thus called, and for what special purpose 

 it had been built; but as it was always 

 locked and empty (save when the local 

 musical society occasionaly held a 

 concert in it for some charitable pur- 

 pose) I had concluded that the one- 

 time flourishiug helichrysum industry 

 had met the fate of many similar vent- 

 ures and come to a bad end, unaware 

 that the whole business, upon which a 

 few men had grown wealthy, was car- 

 ried on only during the months of No- 

 vember and December. 



Although I have hud experience enough 

 and to spare of the drying process, I find 

 it difficult to get information respect- 

 ^ing the business side of this industry. 

 In reply to my inquiries I have been 

 politely told that the prices given and 

 obtained were "business matters" — af- 

 fairs of Egypt, in fact, and not com- 

 municable. I know, however, that the 

 price paid to the gatherers — who pluck 

 the flowers with about an inch of stem 

 attached — is only Is 6d per three-bushel 

 bag, the contents of which, when dried, 

 •would probably weigh thirty pounds. I 

 have also been assured by a man whose 

 father was one of the pioneers of this 

 industry that some twelve or fifteen years 

 ago these flowers sold in Cape Town for 

 £1 sterling per pound! It is well known 

 that this same pioneer was a compara- 

 tively poor man upon his entering upon a 

 lease of a farm on which these flowers 

 grow in great profusion, and that after 

 a few years' tenancy he purchased the 

 farm for £6,000, being mostly money 

 made out of everlastings! From all 1 

 can glean they now fetch on the Euro- 



pean continent from 5s to 10s per 

 pound. They are exported through a 

 German house in Cape Town, and go to 

 Hamburgh in the first instance. Messrs. 

 Haage & Schmidt, of Erfurt, a wholesale 

 seed house, used to do a large trade in 

 these flowers, selling the best quality in 

 white as imported, and dyeing the in- 

 ferior or off-colored flowers in the endless 

 series of aniline colors. 



For carefully collected seed of the 

 helichrysum as high as 10s per ounce 

 has been paid to the collectors. This was 

 sold — "at a good profit," says my in- 

 formant — to Vilmorin & Andrieux, of 

 Paris, under agreement to let them have 

 a monopoly of the gathering. Hence, 

 presumably, these flowers are now pro- 

 duced under cultivation in the south of 

 France, and this may account for the 

 decline in price here. 



The hugh snow-white heaps of these 

 flowers in the packing house are a most 

 entrancing sight. They are packed for 

 export in large paper-lined boxes, made 

 specially for the purpose. Every layer 

 of flowers of a foot or so deep is 

 pressed down by boards and weights, by 

 which means about 100 to 130 pounds 

 weight of flowers is got into one of these 

 large boxes. They are conveyed by bul- 

 lock wagon to the nearest railway station 

 (some twenty miles off) en route to 

 Hamburgh via Cape Town. 



A gentleman who has for some years 

 past been engaged in the everlasting 

 flower industry, and who, besides pos- 

 sessing in his own right extensive prop- 

 erties, has acquired concessionary rights 

 for gathering these flowers over many 

 other farms, has recently sold such rights 

 to a syndicate for the sum of £45,000 

 sterling! This fact serves to convey 

 some idea of the extent and value of 

 this curious industry. — S. A. I>eacon, 

 in Gardeners' Chronicle. 



WATERING. , 



During the period when growth is most 

 rapid the plants require copious supplies 

 of water to reduce the food to an. assim- 

 ilable condition and particular pains 

 should be taken to keep the soil supplied 

 with the requisite amount of moisture to 

 effect this purpose without causing any 

 sogginess. 



The first condition required to enable 

 us to perform the operation effectively 

 is to have the drainage as perfect as 

 possible, for without this even the most 

 skillful cannot bring about 'good results, 

 and with the drainage perfect there is 



less danger of the careless or incompe- 

 tent endangering the crops. 



A careful examination of the condi- 

 tion of the soil should be made previous 

 to applying the hose and all dry spots 

 noted and toned up before the general 

 watering, so that the whole mass may be 

 equally ipoistened. 



The art of watering with the hose is 

 only learned after long practice and ob- 

 servation and is one of the most difficult 

 to describe, for more can be done in a 

 short object lesson than in columns of 

 directions. Some young men acquire the 

 art very quickly, while others with all 

 sorts of lessons never seem to master it, 

 possibly because they have never troubled 

 themselves to find out the reason why 

 they had to use water at all. 



If the house needs syringing care 

 must be taken not to moisten the bench 

 too much when watering, as the subse- 



quent syringing may cause the soil to 

 become saturated, a condition which 

 should be carefully avoided, especially 

 where Beauties or other varieties which 

 are susceptible to black spot are con- 

 cerned, as this condition causes a chill- 

 ing of the feeding roots and a conse- 

 quent stagnation of sap, reducing the vi- 

 tality of the plants. 



During cloudy or chilly weather it ig 

 safer to allow the soil to become rather 

 dry and keep the surface well stirred 

 than to run any risk of giving more 

 water than the plants can use, just keep- 

 ing the soil mellow enough to keep the 

 plants' from suffering. 



By carefully studying attending condi- 

 tions and quality of soils, some of which 

 are much more retentive of moisture than 

 others, the requisite supply to keep the 

 plants healthy and growing can soon be 

 gaged and success attained. Kibes. 



MANURE. 



I am about to plant a house of roses 

 and cannot secure any cow nianure and 

 would ask if you could advise a substi- 

 tute? Can I count on any success, not 

 having any cow manure? The plants 

 are in 3% -inch pots and growing nicely 

 at present. H. B. S. 



When cow manure cannot be had, well 

 decomposed horse manure is a good sub- 

 stitute, especially where the soil "is of a 

 heavy, clayey nature. 



It is well always to bear in mind that 

 there are different grades of hofse ma- 

 nure, the best quality being that pro- 

 duced by grain and hay fed animals, the 

 poorest that which is produced by ani- 

 mals fed on brewery products. 



The manure should be thoroughly in- 

 corporated with the soil and should be 

 turned over a few times before using to 

 prevent heating in the bench. By hand- 

 ling the compost in this manner, and ap- 

 plying good cultural methods, there is 

 no doubt but that satisfactory results 

 will be achieved. Kibes. 



DRAUGHT ON ROSES. 



In the Florists' Manual we read: 

 "From the time roses are planted till 

 frosts occur they cannot possibly have 

 too much ventilation." Are we to un- 

 derstand that ventilators and doors 

 may be left open day and nighf, or in 

 other words will a draught from an 

 open door or ventilator during the warm 

 days of summer cause mildew? 



J. W. M. 



This question enters into the most 

 important part of rose growing, or at 

 least their management. In saying that 

 roses cannot have too much ventilation, 

 I should have written "till you begin 

 to fire." I certainly did not mean by 

 ventilation that you could leave the 

 doors open, either night or day. We 

 remember very well some years ago 

 looking through the houses of a first- 

 class rose grower in the city of Phila- 

 delphia. As I was the last of a small 

 party to enter a house of Bridesmaids 

 I was about to close the door and the 

 proprietor said, "Never mind the 

 door." This was in early October. I 

 did not notice any mildew. This would 

 not do for western New York. 



Mildew is caused or produced by sev- 

 eral conditions. Extreme heat, a chill 

 after being kept steadily at 58 degrees 

 at night to drop to 48 degrees for a few 



