18 



The Weekly Horists' Review. 



FSBBDABT 20, 1012. 



verize the soil just as much as possible. 

 Then, if enough are to be planted so 

 that it would pay to work a horse, the 

 furrows should be three feet apart. 

 When the furrow is open it is a good 

 plan to go through with some sort of 

 leveler, to pulverize the soil still fur- 

 ther and to get a good, even surface. 

 The bulbs are then planted similarly 

 to onions. If they are planted in quan- 

 tity, it is advisable to cover about five 

 inches deep in the first instance, and 

 after the bulbs have been planted about 

 ten days or two weeks the weeder can 

 be used, which will accomplish two 

 things; namely, it will break up the 

 surface and destroy all young weeds 

 and will level down some of the soil, 

 which after three or four weedings will 

 be reduced at least one inch from the 

 original ridge. 



There is just one drawback that I 

 see in the growing of gladoli for cut 

 flower purposes, and this is not really 

 serious. The bulk of the growers usual- 

 ly come in crop during the month of 

 August, when, if we are depending on 

 the city trade, the prices are likely 

 to be at a low ebb, as the flower-buying 

 population is usually away from the 

 city, but if we can get in touch with 

 the large summer resorts, there is a 

 chance of supplying the blooms for the 

 decoration of hotel dining rooms, etc., 

 and they are fast becoming popular 

 for these purposes. While we can never 

 get a fancy price in the summer for 

 field flowers, we have a condition which 

 offsets it, and that is that we are not 

 bothered with the constant care of a 

 greenhouse, which needs watching 

 night and day, to say nothing of the 

 enormous coal bills that are to be met. 



Tie Profits from Gladioli. 



As to the prices we can expect for 

 the flowers, this will vary in different 

 parts of the country; for instance, dur- 

 ing the month of August in the city of 

 New York the flowers bring about 50 

 cents to $1 per hundred, but the early 

 ones that reach market in July and the 

 late on^ that reach there in Septem- 

 ber bjrlng as high as 75 cents and $1 

 per iQozen, Prices in Pittsburgh and 

 Ghiciago usually run somewhat higher. 

 The bulbs of the standard commercial 

 varieties sell at wholesale all the way 

 from $10 per thousand up to $50 per 

 thousand. Some fancy varieties are 

 usually quite valuable, owing to the 

 limited quantity of stock, and it is pos- 

 sible to get excellent prices from en- 

 thusiastic amateurs, even as high as 

 $25 per bulb in some cases. Of course, 

 this is the exception, but there are a 

 good many varieties that sell every 

 year as high as $15 to $30 per hun- 

 dred. It is usually the case, however, 

 that the high priced, fine varieties are 

 slow propagators, so that it is impos- 

 sible to get a large stock. It is possible 

 to grow 40,000 or 50,000 large bulbs 

 to the acre. 



On the face of it, this may seem a 

 large return, but we must remember 

 that we are obliged to spread our ac- 

 count over three years, because it prac- 

 tically takes three years to get a sala- 

 ble bulb from the bulblet, and the ex- 

 pense of cultivation and care of gla- 

 diolus bulbs is somewhat greater than 

 of ordinary farm crops. 



As suggested before, gladioli are 

 among' the easiest flowers to ship. I 

 have known a shipment to be packed 

 up on Saturday 'morning and shipped 

 by express to a distant city, and when 

 they were opened on Monday afternoon 



and put into water they revived splen- 

 didly, keeping in good condition for 

 exhibition purposes during the entire 

 week, and this was in the warm month 

 of August. 



Peonies. 



Now a word as to peonies. Where 

 is there a person who does not ex- 

 perience a thrill of joy when this noble 

 flower is mentioned? When you show 

 me such a person, I will show you one 

 that is not familiar with the peony of 

 today. They are such gems of beauty 1 

 How I should like to be able to express 

 in words just what I feel when I think 

 of them I And I believe that when they 

 are generally known they wUl be 

 grown extensively. To be sure, har- 

 vesting the flowers of peonies is hard 

 work, as their season lasts only about 

 three weeks. The work usually comes 

 fast and thick during that time, if we 

 expect to realize on all of the blooms. 



Peonies have an advantage over gla- 

 dioli in that they are perfectly hardy 

 in almost any part of the country and 

 do not have to be lifted and planted 

 each year. In fact, to get the best re- 

 sults it is necessary to leave them un- 



Ptychosperma Eleeans. 



disturbed for at least three years; they 

 can even be left six to ten years with- 

 out any disadvantage, and they will in- 

 crease in size of bloom and plant each 

 year. Therefore the return from the 

 flowers will be greater each year, and 

 when you come to lift the plants for 

 dividing there will be a splendid in- 

 crease, as the clumps can be cut up 

 into divisions containing two or three 

 eyes each. No flower loves care and 

 attention as does the peony, and the 

 more we feed it and cultivate it, the 

 more it will respond to our care. 



Planting Peonies. 



The planting should be done with 

 the greatest care and it is not enough 

 simply to dig a hole and drop in the 

 root, but the ground should be thor- 

 oughly prepared if one expects to real- 

 ize tb«u highest quality in the flowers, 

 as well- 4^8 the highest prleesj If ywi! 

 are planning to grow p«oittie«, it 'Will 

 pay to select ;i'our groDnd at lenst' a 

 year in advance and -begin to prepare 

 it by enriching the soil with a liberal 



quantity of well rotted matfare, plow- 

 ing this under to allow it to become 

 incorporated with the soil. The roots 

 should be planted in furrows at least 

 four feet apart and the plants shoul() 

 be three feet apart in the rows. By 

 giving them this space you will be en- 

 abled to cultivate them thoroughly, aii;} 

 they will not need to be moved f(,r 

 four or five years or more. 



The best time to plant peonies i» 

 during the months of September and 

 October, as they are dormant at that 

 time and stand transplanting better 

 than at any othgr time of tne year. 

 The eyes usually make so early a start 

 in the spring that it is with indifferent 

 success that they can be planted ut 

 that time, and if they are planted in 

 September under good conditions they 

 will give some flowers the first year. 



The Betums from Peonies. 



To realize the best prices for the 

 flowers we ought to get the earliest va- 

 rieties, as they are recognized as the 

 principal flowers for Decoration day 

 trade, and if we can be fortunate 

 enough to have them in bloom on that 

 day we can realize good prices. It is 

 better to have a few standard varieties 

 than a large number, and the foUow- 

 inpr list can be depended on: 



White — Festiva Maxima, that glori- 

 ous white, with just a dash of crimson 

 in the center; Couronne d'Or, Duchesse 

 de Nemours, Mme. de Verneville and 

 Queen Victoria. Pink — Edulis Superba, 

 Lady Bramwell, Livingstone and M. 

 Jules Elie, claimed by some to be the 

 finest of its color in size and form. 

 Bed — Adolph Rousseau, Felix Crousse 

 abd Officinalis Rubra. 



Everything about the flower business 

 is not rosy, as flowers, if anything, are 

 more perishable than fruit and vegeta- 

 bles, and much depends on cutting at 

 the proper time, even to a day. While 

 some use is made of cold storage facili- 

 ties, it is only on occasions that it 

 works out well to put them in storage, 

 for while they can be kept in fair con- 

 dition while in storage, they go down 

 fast when taken out and it is far better 

 to handle them as fresh flowers. 



Another point in favor of gladioli 

 and peonies from the fruit .grower's 

 standpoint is that they flt in well as to 

 seasons of blooming. The flowers of 

 the peonies come usually ahead of 

 strawberries, and gladioli come ahead 

 of peaches, or will if planted early 

 enough, which is quite possible and de- 

 sirable, both from the standpoint of 

 better prices and getting them out of 

 the way of other crops. 



TALSSSA^ Z4OS ANGELES, CAL. 



The accoftipiteying illustrations will 

 give eastern readers a good idea of the 

 tropical growth of palms and other 

 plants in the favored clime of southern 

 California. The specimen of Jubsea 

 spectabilis is growing at the Homer 

 Laughlin home at Los Angeles, and, 

 while it might not be safe to say that 

 it is the finest specimen growing out- 

 side in the United States, there cer- 

 tainly are few, if any, to beat it. J- 

 spectabilis is a native of Chile and is 

 said to grow farther south than any 

 other American nriH|iB|^^|U. 



Ptychosperma clMHHHpbrhaps' bet- 

 ter known to the Iffiw^ Seaf orthia 

 elegans and is of Australasian origin- 

 It makes a handsome palm outdoors at 

 Los Angeles, thriving best in partial 



