JUNB 3, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Store of the Fleischman Floral G>., Chicago. 



MEMORIAL DAY. 



From all parts of the country comes 

 the report that the Memorial day demand 

 was in excess of that of any previous 

 year. Por several years the flower busi- 

 ness for May 30 has been increasing rap- 

 idly, and this jesCr it seems to have made 

 a longer jump than ever before. A por- 

 tion of the increased demand felt in 

 wholesale centers was due to the remark- 

 able shortening of supplies caused by un- 

 favorable weathpr conditions. In the 

 middle of May there was unwieldy over- 

 production in almost all sections of the 

 country. Just as the last week of the 

 month came in there was a period of 

 dark, cold, stormy weather, first extend- 

 ing over the Atlantic states and then 

 moving inland through the Ohio and 

 upper Mississippi valleys. Coming just 

 at a time when a big crop had been 

 rushed off, the unfavorable weather pro- 

 duced an extremely sharp curtailment of 

 supplies, with the result that many who 

 usually have their own stock, or even 

 some to wholesale, were in the market to 

 buy to fill their retail orders. The de- 

 mand for carnations was particularly 

 strong. 



The season has been backward Over a 

 large section of the country and many 

 localities that usually are well supplied 

 with outdoor stock were compelled to rely 

 on the greenhouse product. Large plan- 

 tations of peonies, some of them put in 

 for the express purpose of meeting the 

 Decoration day demand, failed to give 

 any flowers. Cape, jasmines were not 

 ready. 



Outside of the wholesale centers prac- 



tically everything of usable character 

 found ready sale and Memorial day, if 

 it had not done so before, took its place 

 as the leading flower day of the year. 

 Far more stock was sold than at Easter. 



Except at the extreme north the de- 

 mand is that bedding out shall be done 

 before Memorial 4ay. This year the 

 business has been heavier than it ever 

 was before. The geranium is, of course, 

 the leading bedding plant and for red, 

 particularly, but also for othef bright 

 colors, therp has been a demand which 

 has taken practically all the stock which 

 was in flower. It again has demonstrated 

 that the grower who has his stock well in 

 flower May 15 will make a clean sweep 

 within the fortnight. There has been a 

 special call for Dracaena indivisa this 

 season, as it has been largely used as the 

 center of lawn and cemetery vases.. The 

 large increase in the number of window- 

 boxes and piazza-boxes now filled has in 

 some places made a shortage of vincas 

 and plants so small as to otherwise not 

 be salable have found a market at good 

 prices; but from one or two points come 

 reports that vincas have not sold. The 

 owners of this stock should have no diffi- 

 culty in finding a wholesale market, for 

 the plant trade will hold out longer this 

 year than usual because of the belated 

 spring. 



EUONYMUS RADICANS. 



Each year Euonymus radicans, the 

 beautiful, dark-leaved evergreen vine, 

 seems to be more and more in demand. 

 People are just beginning to appreciate 

 its many admirable qualities and its all- 



the-year-around beauty. It is the only 

 absolutely hardy climber we have in our 

 northern, states, English ivy ' being only 

 successful in occasional instances. Not 

 only ia it an admirable subject for cover- 

 ing walls, woodwork, rocks, etc., to any 

 or all of which it will cling ivy-like, but 

 if allowed to grow as an upright shrub 

 it makes a handsome spreading plant. 

 Not in the most severe winter have we 

 had any of our plants injured in the 

 least. It is sometimes classed as slow 

 growing, but in good soil it will make 

 shoots three to five feet long in a season. 

 A wall seventeen feet high covered with 

 it, the plants being set in a dry, gravelly 

 bank, shows what it will do even under 

 unfavorable circumstances. 



Euonymus can be safely planted from 

 April until October, but for the best re- 

 sults we like to set the plants out in May, 

 June or July, choosing if possible cool, 

 moist days for the work. There never 

 seems to be an overplus of stock in nur- 

 serymen's hands, but propagation is so 

 easy that no one need lack for stock. 

 Where planted against walls, the top 

 shoots are now pushing out quantities of 

 young roots. These shoots, cut off early 

 in June, planted rather thickly in a 

 coldframe in ordinary loam and kept well 

 watered and shaded, will be well estab- 

 lished and fit to go in nursery rows within 

 six or eight weeks. It is possible to get 

 two or three crops of cuttings in a sea- 

 son, for, when once the plants have at- 

 tained the desired height on a wall, they 

 will need trimming several times each 

 year to kieep them within bounds. Of 

 course, on rocks oi* when grown as bushes, 

 no trimming is needed. It is not possible 



