VJ' 



10 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Apbil 16, 1008. 



HELLENTHAL'S HOUSE. 



J. R. Hellenthal, at Columbus, O., re- 

 ports that this winter he has bad an 

 unusually small proportion of split car- 

 nations and he gives credit for this fact 

 to the more than ordinary amount of 

 sunshine, ^he accompanying illustration 

 is from a photograph of a house in which 

 he grows Enchantress, Rose-pink En- 

 chantress, Ethel Ward, Lady Bountiful, 

 Queen and Victory. He-' says the gen- 

 eral health , of the stock has been ex- 

 cellent all through the season, better 

 than in any previous years. 



His Easter plants are in excellent shape 

 and he is looking for the best Easter 

 business on record, for Columbus is an 

 excellent flower town and growing bet- 

 ter every season, in spite of increased 

 competition, both of the best class and 

 low-priced. The low-priced competitors 

 seem merely to be educators of the pub- 

 lic, for the people turn to the best stores 

 when the need is for a good s^jrticle. 



TROUBLE WITH GARDENIAS. 



Please advise me how to save a lot 

 of gardenias. I have just transplanted 

 them into 5-inch pots. In mixing my 

 soil I use one-half well rotted manure, 

 one-third leaf-mold and a little sand. 

 They are in a 75-foot house. Plenty of 

 air is given them and not too much 

 water. Some of the small branches are 

 drying up and the foliage is fast los- 

 ing the rich green luster it had before 

 being repotted. From these particulars 

 can you give the probable reason for 

 this continued withering of the plants? 



H. J. M. 



You have used too large a proportion 

 of manure V in your compost and it 

 would have been better not to add 

 any leaf-mold at all. You do not state 

 whether your potting material was 

 lumpy or had been screened. At the 

 first potting from the cutting bench, a 

 mixture of half leaf-mold and loam 



with some sand added is suitable, but 

 at the next shift a somewhat coarser 

 and heavier compost is to be preferred. 

 Two-thirds fibrous loam, with the finer 

 particles discarded, and one-third well 

 dried and lumpy cow manure, with the 

 addition of a little soot and broken 

 charcoal, I have found an ideal soil. 

 Gardenias do not like a fine compost. 

 No matter whether in pots or benches, 

 coarse material well firmed will give a 

 porosity which passes the water 

 through it quickly and prevents any 

 souring. 



After repotting or rebenching, gar- 

 denias should have a close, moist at- 

 mosphere until established, after which 

 air can be admitted freely. The tem- 

 perature at night should not fall be- 

 low 60 degrees, while for winter bloom- 

 ing 65 degrees is better. 



If your plants are not doing well, 

 why not start a fresh lot of cuttings 

 now? If you have a propagating 

 bench with a good bottom heat and 

 can maintain a night temperature of 

 70 to 75 degrees, you can root them 

 easily in a month. The cuttings must 

 be kept saturated with water and well 

 shaded. By starting now, you will have 

 fine stock for flowering next winter and 

 spring, either in pots or benches. It 

 hardly pays to carrv these plants over 

 a second season. C. "W. 



MAIL ORDER ADVERTISING. 



[A synopsis of a paper by Robert Pyle, of 

 West GTove, read before the Florists' Club of 

 Philadelphia, April 7, 1908.] 



For our purpose tonight advertising 

 may be said to be applied salesmanship, 

 with the possibility of sales multiplied 

 to the * * nth ' ' power, "^he first and indis- 

 pensable thing for a mail order salesman 

 to consider is his catalogue, or, primarily, 

 a list of the things he has for sale with 

 the prices thereof. But the successful 

 catalogue man knows that bare lists and 

 prices themselves will bring little busi- 

 ness; therefore, he devotes time and 



earnest effort and spares no expense to 

 arrange, amplify and beautify his cata- 

 logue. He will take care to have the 

 plants properly classified, to have them 

 carefully and accurately described, and 

 also to include, if possible, directions 

 for their culture, until it becomes a 

 veritable encyclopedia of the things list- 

 ed. He also engages the services of the 

 best artists, will have his own photo- 

 graphic department or go where he can 

 to get illustrations that will speak louder 

 than words and make his catalogue to vie 

 with the modern magazine in rare at- 

 tractiveness. 



In making up a catalogue we think it 

 is always well to bear in mind the atti- 

 tude of the men or the women who will 

 read it. Amateurs, as a rule, want to 

 know and are glad to be shown. Of 

 course there are some women who will 

 read a catalogue from cover to cover, 

 no matter how long the descriptions; 

 but the general tendency, and a good 

 one, is to cut down these long descrip- 

 tions and to insert in a clear, readable, 

 well arranged manner only such things 

 as would stand the test of actual use- 

 fulness and give an accurate picture 

 of the thing the purchaser is asked to 

 buy. 



G)st of Gitalogfues. 



Before leaving the subject we would 

 like to call attention to the fact that 

 the English florist of today is ahead 

 of his American brother, as evidenced 

 by the splendid specimens of catalogue 

 making which are furnished patrons, not 

 only as regards fine paper and beautiful 

 illustrations, but the comprehensive text- 

 book-like treatment of the subjects list- 

 ed make them really delightfully enter- 

 taining in every way, and if the high 

 prices which they seem able to get are 

 any criterion we believe they must be 

 good pieces of advertising. 



We have here a sample of one of the 

 English catalogues, nearly 400 pages — 

 heavy plate paper, exquisitely executed 

 color work — weight, two and a half 



Carnation House of J. R. Hellenthal, G)Iumi>uSt O. 



