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NovKMBUU 14, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



most entirely confined to the eastern 

 states, the specialists of the west devot- 

 ing themselves in most cases to the cut 

 flower industry, in which many of them 

 are remarkable examples of success. 



Use of European Methods. 



Broadly speaking, our cultural meth- 

 ods are adaptations of the methods long 

 in vogue in Europe. By adaptations is 

 meant that climatic differences have had 

 to be observed, and some of our methods 

 adapted to those differences. For ex- 

 ample, the intense sunlight of our sum- 

 mer season makes necessary rather more 

 shading on the glass than is required in 

 some parts of Europe, and, again, the 

 longer period of hot weather in the cen- 

 tral and southern portions of our country 

 gives us an advantage in the rapid 

 growth of heat-loving subjects. 



As a rule American plant-growers are 

 impatient of delays in the production of 

 marketable stock, the consequence being 

 that the slower growing plants are not 

 handled to any great extent, such sub- 

 jects being imported from Europe, where 

 labor is a little cheaper and where time 

 seems to be less of an object. As a re- 

 sult of these conditions, such plants as 

 bay trees, box bushes, aspidistras, aza- 

 leas and various other plants that require 

 much time and labor in their culture are 

 imported from Europe. 



Palms. 



The palm industry has made wonderful 

 advances of late years, but up to the 

 present time there have not been enough 

 palms of all sizes to supply the demand, 

 this condition causing the importation of 

 large quantities of these beautiful plants 

 from Belgium each season. It is true 

 that a few small palms have been occa- 

 sionally exported from this country to 

 Europe, but these exports do not ap- 

 proach the imports in value. 



The centers of commercial palm grow- 

 ing in this country at the present time 

 are New York, Philadelphia and Boston, 

 the neighborhood of these three cities 

 doubtless producing more palms than all 

 the rest of the country together, and 

 from these cities is shipped the choicest 

 stock of this description that is offered 

 in the interior cities and towns, even out 

 to the Pacific coast. 



Palms from Seed. 



By far the larger part of the palms 

 that are annuaUy sold in the United 

 States are grown here from seed, the im- 

 ported stock being chiefly in the larger 

 sizes, such as are used for decorating. 

 The species thus used are few, and but 

 little change will be noted in the cata- 

 logues from year to year, as the quali- 

 fications of a useful commercial plant 

 are somewhat exacting. 



To fulfill the requirements of a plant 

 for this purpose, it must needs be a spe- 

 cies that is readily obtainable, so that a 

 regular supply of seeds may be had each 

 season, and it must also be of reasonably 

 quick growth, of considerable grace and 

 beauty, and having foliage of an endur- 

 ing character. Thus we find that out of 

 a possible hundred of new species of 

 palms that have been introduced to cul- 

 tivation in the last thirty years, there are 

 less than a dozen to be found in the 

 average trade lists. 



The most popular palms of the present 

 day are the howeas (otherwise and more 

 generally known as kentias), the seeds 

 of which are imported by the million 

 each season from a certain small island 

 in the South Pacific ocean. 



Oaddium Omithorhynchum Album. 



Temperature for Palms. 



The howeas, or kentias, are grown best 

 in a night temperature of about 60 de- 

 grees, and this may be considered as 

 the low average temperature for palm 

 growing, in comparison with the high 

 average palm temperature of 68 degrees 

 that is ordinarily given to Areca lutes- 

 cens. There are more pinnate-leaved 

 palms in the florists' list than there are 

 of the fan-leaved section, the latter find- 

 ing less favor with the general public, 

 about the only representatives of the fan- 

 leaved section of palms that are grown in 

 quantity being a few species of livis- 

 tonas and chamserops. 



Some of the date palms, or pha?nix, are 

 used for decorating, and these are also 

 used quite extensively for outdoor plant- 

 ing in the extreme south and southwest. 

 As already hinted, there is a dearth of 

 novelties of real value in the palm trade, 

 but among the few of recent introduc- 

 tion there is one phoenix that is being 

 taken up extensively, namely, P. Rcebe- 

 lenii, a very charming dwarf species 

 from Siam, this palm now being procur- 

 able in quantity, owing to the more lib- 

 eral supply of seeds received in this 

 country during the last three years. 



Ferns. 



Next in importance to the palms among 

 the commercial ornamental plants are the 



ferns, and to one unfamiliar with the 

 trade the numbers of these plants that 

 are annually distributed in our large 

 cities would seem marvelous. 



The fern trade may properly be di- 

 vided into two sections, the first compris- 

 ing those that are grown into specimens 

 in pots of 5-inch size and upward ami 

 the second including the various ferns 

 that are grown for the purpose of filling 

 table ferneries and making other decora- 

 tions. 



These latter ferns for small ferneries 

 are grown by the million in small pots, 

 2-inch to 3-inch being the sizes most 

 used, and while the wholesale prices are 

 not high, yet the crop is grown in a rea- 

 sonable time and is fairly remunerative. 

 The species most in demand are various 

 species of the pteris and nephrodium 

 groups, the chief essentials for a plant 

 that is to be thus used being rapidity of 

 growth, compactness of habit and dis- 

 tinctiveness of foliage. 



Among the ferns that are grown into 

 larger-sized plants for house and store 

 decoration we find a greater variety, 

 there being some of the maidenhairs tr 

 adiantums, a number of nephrolepis, 

 some pterises and an occasional represen- 

 tative of the tree ferns, among the most 

 notable and satisfactory of the latter be- 

 ing Cibotium Schiedei. 



[To be conclued.) 



