Febbuaby 20, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



u 



THE READERS' CORNER. 



A Good PropagaUnc Bench. 



There appears in "Seasonable Sugges- 

 tions," in the Review for February 13, 

 the oft-repeated instruction to put gera- 

 niums into soil in 2-inch pots, as a better 

 way than to root them in sand. Our ex- 

 perience is not extensive, but we succeed 

 better with the sand. We can safely say 

 that with our potted cuttings this winter 

 we have lost ten per cent, while with 

 those in the sand we have lost le&s than 

 three per cent. 



As we have what we think is a very 

 good propagating bench, I will describe 

 it. We built a new house last fall, run- 

 ning it right over the boiler-pit. We 

 built our propagating bench directly over 

 the boiler, with the floor of the bench 

 thirty inches above the floor over the 

 boiler-pit. The bench is five feet wide. 

 Across the frame of the bench, on three 

 supports, are laid old buggy tire irons, 

 just far enough apart for the ends of the 

 brick to meet on them. On these irons 

 we laid a floor of smooth, even sized 

 brick and slushed the joints with thin 

 lime mortar. Around this we put a 6- 

 inch board, and filled in with medium 

 coarse sand. We left one board out of 

 the floor that covers the boiler-pit, just 

 over the boiler and under the bench. 

 This gives us a temperature of about 65 

 degrees in the sand. We purpose enclos- 

 ing the bench between the two floors, 

 which will give us a higher temperature. 



Our geraniums are exposed to the sun 

 and are not shaded at any time. 



W. N. Tharp. 



GODD FLOWERING CLIMBER. 



I am anxious to find a few hardy flow- 

 ering shrubs that would be suitable to 

 grow as climbing plants in Montana. We 

 have tried several, such as hop vines and 

 others on the same order, but have had 

 no luck with them. It is true that we 

 are far north, have a severe winter and 

 usually have no spring until the middle 

 of May. I wonder if clematis would do? 



A. C. W. 



You could have nothing better than 

 Clematis paniculata. It is a rapid 

 grower, soon covering a trellis. Its 

 glossy, dark green foliage is beautiful in 

 itself, and 'during late summer the pro- 

 fusion of starry, fragrant flowers almost 

 hides the leaves. It will grow in any 

 situation. It dies to the ground in a 

 very severe climate, but this is imma- 

 terial, as the shoots springing from the 

 ground soon cover all space allowed them. 

 Protect slightly the first winter; after- 

 ward it will care for itself. 



Rose Crimson Rambler will withstand 

 20 degrees below zero. If your tempera- 

 ture runs lower than this, lay the plants 

 down early in the winter and throw some 

 straw or soil over them. The climbing 

 honeysuckles, or loniceras, also the wis- 

 tarias and bignonias, are handsome, but 

 less hardy than the other two sorts 

 named. C. W. 



Baltimore, Md. — M. Thau states that 

 February 3 he made a lease of The Fern- 

 ery greenhouses, which will hereafter be 

 conducted under the name of M. Thau 

 & Co. 



Pekin, III. — George A. Kuhl has 

 leased the vacant store room in the Fred- 

 crick block and will occupy it about 

 March 1. It will give him an excellent 

 location for the flower business. 



Charles Henry Fox. 



CHARLES HENRY FOX. 



The name of Fox is as closely identi- 

 fied with the advancement of floriculture 

 in Philadelphia today as it was with the 

 reform in English politics, which did so 

 much to secure American independence a 

 century and a quarter ago. In the latter 

 case it was Charles James Fox, who, with 

 Burke, battled in the House of Commons 

 for the cause of freedom. In the former 

 case it is, as the Review readers know, 

 Charles Henry Fox who is striving to 

 secure a better appreciation of true art 

 in the arrangement of flowers. 



Charles Henry Fox is the son of 

 Charles Fox, one of the best known and 

 most respected members of our profes- 

 sion. Charles Fox secured his early train- 

 ing with Karl Milller, one of our most 

 famous spring plant growers, doing busi- 

 ness on the extreme outskirts of West 

 Philadelphia. From there the senior Mr. 

 Fox went to Robert Buist, the well-known 

 seedsman. Later Mr. Fox joined forces 

 with Hugh Graham, Sr. Mr. Graham 

 had a few greenhouses on the ground at 

 the rear of his residence at Eighteenth 

 and Thompson streets, and there the 

 start of the new enterprise was made. 

 Some years later, in 1883, Mr. Fox 

 started on his own account at Broad and 

 Master streets, where there were four 

 or five small greenhouses at the rear of 

 the store and dwelling. Here his son, 

 Charles Henry Fox, started with him. A 

 few years later Mr. Fox, Sr., sold this 

 property and moved to his present loca- 

 tion at 1307 North Broad street, where 

 he has a fine store, with a conservatory 

 and second-story greenhouse in the rear. 



Mr. Fox, Sr., sent his son, Charles 

 Henry, to Trenton for his apprentice- 



ship in the nursery and greenhouse busi- 

 ness of C. Ribsam & Sons. After a little 

 over a year there, Charles Henry Fox re- 

 turned to Philadelphia to go into busi- 

 ness with his father. Seven years later 

 he opened a store at Twenty-first street 

 and Columbia avenue. This business has 

 prospered and today the store is one of 

 the busiest in the northern section of the 

 city. Mr. Fox noticed that the depart- 

 ment store idea of bargain sales was be- 

 coming increasingly popular and he was, 

 1 think, the first to introduce this idea 

 into our business, establishing plant bar- 

 gain sales at his Columbia avenue store. 

 His plan was to buy entire blocks of a 

 certain variety of plants for cash and 

 then oflFer them at attractive prices. 



Mr. Fox was, however, not satisfied 

 with this kind of business. He aimed 

 !it something higher than mere business 

 success, and in the fall of 1903 he opened 

 an English flower shop on the old Dun- 

 dash place, on the west side of Broad 

 street, just north of Walnut street. 

 When this property was sold to make 

 room for the Arcade building, Mr. Fox 

 moved a block farther south, but his 

 shop has remained as first designed, an 

 English flower shop, with all its appoint- 

 ments substantial and in the best taste. 

 This shop was "The Sign of the Rose," 

 described in the Review of October 17, 

 1907, and two following issues. Review 

 readers are familiar with some of Mr. 

 Fox 's ideas in floral arrangements which 

 have appeared each week since then, and 

 his unique ideas are greatly appreciated. 



Phil. 



MoLiNE, III. — William Knees has 

 placed the order for material for a new 

 house, 27x130. 



