. ,^., 



OCTOBBB 5, 1911. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



17 



found that two hours is as little time 

 in water as can be given to insure good 

 keeping quality, and four hours is 

 given when possible. 



Bunching, Packing and Shipping. 



After the flowers have had their 

 drink they go back to bunching tables, 

 where thirteen identical buds are 

 picked out and tied with the heads per- 

 fectly even. Then they go under a 

 knife which cuts all the stems to the 

 length of the shortest in the bunch, 

 the sorters in the first place having 

 graded to approximately even lengths. 



After bunching and wrapping in 

 paper, a different colored paper to in- 

 dicate each variety, the bunches go 

 into the shipping cases. Trips to the 

 train are made twice a day, at noon 

 and at evening. With thirty or forty 

 people on the job, thousands of dozens 

 can be handled in a day when the sea- 

 son is at its height. 



For next year Mr. Beiman plans not 

 only the additional acres of plants, but 

 will build a cooling shed, a large ice 

 house with ice chamber overhead and 

 cool room beneath, in which to work his 

 stock. He also is planning a shipping 

 case to try icing the bunches, just as 

 the wholesale houses do with shipments 

 of cut flowers. It is not certain how 

 this will work, but the aim is to avoid 

 the heating in transit which has de- 

 stroyed some of the shipments. 



Not far from Mr. Beiman 's peony 

 fields there is a commercial cold storage 

 warehouse. This year his crop was so 

 far ahead of Decoration day that he 

 felt it necessary to store in this ware- 

 house some 8,000 blooms reserved for 

 his own local trade. When these came 

 out. May 29, they were found to give 

 larger, better developed flowers, with 

 better keeping qualities, and gave bet- 

 ter all-around satisfaction to his cus- 

 tomers than were given by the flowers 

 fresh c^t from the field. 



Next season Mr. Beiman will have 

 an auto truck to carry his harvest 

 hands back and forth from Vincennes 

 and to shorten the time between pack- 

 ing room and express office. 



When asked for a portrait to accom- 

 pany these notes, Mr. Behnan wrote: 

 "I appreciate your desire to place my 

 portrait or a picture of my peony field 

 in The Beview, but have neither. Nor 

 do I care for too much publicity, rather 

 pursuing the even tenor of my way, 

 ambitious only to own and manage the 

 largest peony farm in this country. 1 

 will plant between two and three acres 

 this fall, making between fourteen and 

 fifteen acres of peonies, and am now 

 preparing ground for several acres next 

 season. ' ' 



THE CHBISTMAS ROSE. 



With the advent of autumn, one's 

 attention naturally is called to things 

 that will lend beauty and variety to 

 the monotony of winter. There are 

 many things one can do to bring cheer 

 and life to the otherwise dreary win- 

 ter months. Window and porch boxes 

 can be filled with evergreens. But per- 

 haps there is nothing that gives more 

 satisfaction or real pleasure than a 

 bed or even a clump of Christmas 

 roses, Helleborus niger. Its beautiful, 

 dark-green ^ foliage, which retains its 

 brightness throughout the winter, is in 

 itself attractive, but added to this is 

 the charm of the beautiful, waxy-white 

 flowers, which appear in amazing pro- 

 fusion at a time when all other flowers. 



Helleborus Niger. 



even the lingering hardy chrysanthe- 

 mums, have been discolored by frost. 

 When Mother Earth has had her first 

 covering of snow, then, when all veg- 

 etation is seared and when flowers are 

 especially appreciated, the Christmas 

 roses begin. The rain, the snow, the 

 sleet and cold may come and go — 

 bravely and persistently these little 

 plants hold their own; and when a few 

 days of sunshine warm the earth even 

 a little, they send up their wealth 

 of flowers, which, when perhaps at their 

 best, are again frozen and covered with 

 a foot or two of snow, there to remain 

 till the elements again give them a 

 chance, when they will resume their 

 development and continue to do so all 

 winter and spring. Few plants will 

 stand freezing and thawing like the 

 helleborus, and few plants possessing 

 such interesting characteristics are so 

 little known. It is deserving of a place 

 in every collection of hardy plants. 



The propagation of the helleborus is 

 soniewhat slow and it is due to this 

 fact, perhaps, more than to anything 

 else, that it has never become more 

 popular. But when correctly handled, 

 a goodly stock can be created in a few 

 years. It is a good plan to lift the 

 clumps in the autumn after the early 

 or mid-season chrysanthemums are 

 done, and plant a quantity of them in 

 a cool hopse or pit with but little arti- 

 ficial heat, giving all the air possible 

 at all times. They will surprise one 

 with the abundance of bloom which 

 can be cut November 20 to January 10, 

 just when the weather is darkest and 

 flowers are at a premium. Blooms 

 grown under these conditions are of 

 a finer quality than those grown in the 

 open, and the crop comes more quickly. 



These plants may then be taken up 

 and, after the soil on the much matted 

 roots has all been washed' off at the 

 hydrant, one can see to make the divi- 

 sions with a knife without waste or 

 injury to the plant. These divisions, 



which should all have at least one leaf 

 left on them, may be heeled into a box 

 and stored in a cold cellar or pit until 

 they can be planted out in the spring. 

 For this planting out, choose a shady 

 situation, under the eaves on the north 

 side of a building, or under trees, for 

 they suffer in a hot, sunny exposure 

 and from extreme drought. If left thus 

 two years they will be large enough to 

 give a good crop of flowers in the 

 cool house again. 



Many uses for these flowers will 

 suggest themselves to the live florist, 

 for they are serviceable in made-up 

 work and effective when used in con- 

 junction with their own foliage and 

 bronze and green leucothoe and galax 

 leaves. W. C. K. 



CINCINNATI. 



The Gateway to the South. 



The average quality of stock of all 

 kinds is everything that could be de- 

 sired. The cooler nights have helped no 

 that now, no matter what you buy in 

 seasonable flowers, it is firm and holds 

 up well. The supply up to this week 

 was a little more than the demand. 

 Now they seem to balance nicely and 

 unless indications fail, and history of 

 corresponding periods of other years 

 does not repeat, the market will soon 

 tighten up until the advent of the first 

 heavy crop of chrysanthemums. 



For all practical purposes the strictly 

 outdoor summer flowers are out of the 

 market. Still, even at as late a datoTW-' 

 the first few days of this week gladioli 

 and asters were offered. Cosmos and 

 dahlias, especially the former, are en- 

 joying a degree of popularity. The 

 steady demand has, however, swung 

 around to lines which it will continue 

 to seek for the next eight or nine 

 months. These lines include, of course, 

 roses and carnations. The former are 

 in a heavy supply, and while they 



,.* 



I-- — ^'_j»J *. . 



