14 



The Florists^ Review 



January 16, 1913. 



1850 tbey had 1,500 plants to offer to 

 the trade, making a wonderful sight for 

 those days. 



Origin of the Tricolors. 



This Flower of the Day was the 

 founder of the entire race of tricolors. 

 In the year 1850 Mr. Kinghorn raised 

 from Flower of the Day the first silver 

 tricolor, named Attraction, the leaf of 

 which has a silver margin, with a dark 

 zone diffusing rays of red and rich 

 brown into the creamy margin. Mr. 

 Greive here took up the work, crossing 

 a dark zoned sort, named Cottage Maid, 

 with Attraction. One of these seedlings 

 was the parent of Emperor of the 

 French, the parent of the golden tri- 

 colors. 



From Cottage Maid and Golden Chain 

 he obtained Golden Tom Thumb, and 



six inches long, rubbed off with a heel 

 and placed in a cutting bench with a 

 brisk bottom heat. They can also be 

 increased from seeds, but cuttings are 

 comparatively easy to root and soon 

 make fine plants. C. W. 



WARMING THE WATER. . 



For watering plants, is it all right 

 to use the water that we get by put- 

 ting on the pressure from the city 

 hydrant and running it through the 

 boiler, thereby warming the water to 

 about 65 degrees? The water from the 

 city hydrant is too cold to use. 



S. & S. 



Water of a temperature of 65 de- 

 grees will be all right to use for water- 

 ing plants. However, experiments 

 made some years ago on coleus and 



New Store of E. Friedrich, Austin, Texas. 



from Emperor of the French and Golden 

 Tom Thumb he obtained Golden Pheas- 

 ant, the first true golden tricolor. By 

 crossing Golden Pheasant back on Em- 

 peror of the French, he produced the 

 two most famous tricolor's. Sunset and 

 Mrs. Pollock. 



The Double Oeraniums. 



The proper history of cur double ge- 

 raniums begins with Wilmore's Sur- 

 prise, in 1850. He found it in a patch 

 of hollyhocks, and it was such a depart- 

 ure from former types that it was 

 thought by some to have been a true 

 hybrid between a geranium and a holly- 

 hock. The double zonale geraniums 

 were of a later date. In 1869, seven- 

 teen double zonales were introduced. 



In the few following years the floral 

 world went mad on this subject and 

 geraniums were everything and all 

 other flowers nothing. Gardeners' 

 heads were so filled with zones, mar- 

 gins, trusses, pips and beds that they 

 could talk of nothing else. 



The geranium has continued to add 

 to its friends every year since then, 

 until it stands today our most popu- 

 lar bedding plant, more geraniums be- 

 ing sold annually than all other bed- 

 ding plants combined. F. H. De Witt. 



other plants in cutting benches, wa- 

 tered at a variety of temperatures, 

 showed no advantage gained by the 

 plants from using water at 65 to 75 

 degrees, as compared with 35 to 40 de- 

 grees. You need not be afraid to use 

 your city hydrant water. Hundreds of 

 florists are doing so and the plants do 

 not show any ill effects from its use. 

 By using warm water, the plants would 

 probably be caused to flower a little 

 earlier, but whether the quality would 

 be any better is an open question. C W. 



REMOVING HARD PUTTY. 



In The Review of December 26, page 

 17, we find an item with reference to 

 removing hard putty from sashbars. 

 The method there suggested is to 

 soften the putty by running a hot 

 soldering iron over it. We are now 

 taking extremely hard putty off about 

 250 bars with a blow torch, which 

 works well. In fact, we believe it i» 

 a much better and easier way than the 

 use of either a chisel or a soldering 

 iron, though we have not tried either 

 of these tools. It requires two men, 

 however, to do the work with the 

 torch. 



We write this so as to give other* 

 the benefit of our experience in this 

 work, which is none too easy at best. 

 Wensel & Hecht. 



A TEXAS ACORN. 



There is an old saying that "Great 

 oaks from little acorns grow," and it is 

 well known that some of the largest 

 greenhouse establishments have been 

 developed, in a few short years, from a 

 beginning made with no more than a 

 few hotbeds. In a good many instances 

 the beginning has been in combination 

 with some other line of business. The 

 United States census in 1910 counted 

 as florists all those who derived twenty 

 per cent of their income from any de- 

 partment of the flower business. E. 

 Friedrich, of Austin, Texas, two views 

 of whose establishment are shown in 

 the accompanying illustrations, com- 

 bines a number of lines. Over the awn- 

 ing on the front of his new store there 

 are the words "Groceries and Florist," 

 but a part of the building is used for 

 the manufacture of the famous Texas 

 champagne, otherwise known as Mus- 

 tang wine, and he also deals in seeds. 

 The building was put up last summer 

 at a cost of $4,000. It covers a ground 

 area 30x56 feet and has a basement 

 eight feet high. Twelve feet of the 

 length of the building are used for 

 wagons, with an automobile in early 

 prospect. A space 16x40 is used for 

 the wine industry, and 14x16 for the 

 storage of large palms. The glass, 

 mostly used for plants, is shown in one 

 of the pictures. There are two green- 

 houses and a number of rows of hot- 

 beds. Mr. Friedrich is planning to 

 build a modern range of greenhouses 

 durins: the summer of 1913. 



PASSION VINES. 



Will you please tell us how passion 

 vines are propagated? L. S. 



Passion vines are propagated from 

 cuttings of half ripened wood, four to 



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Rear of the Establ'shment of E. Friedrich, Austin, Texas. 



