

May 4, 1911. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



13 



New Retail Store of the Bemo Floral Co., Mansfield, O. 



Friday, the thirteenth day of the 

 month; it brought him no ill luck; he 

 cannot answer for the man to whom he 

 sold the goods. 



The Boddington lunch over, we 

 packed our trunks and boarded the 

 Mauretania. But the hand of good fel- 

 lowship is not yef^l^ose. J. C. Scott, 

 Elmsford, N. Y., comes on board, the 

 last to say * ' good-bye, ' ' and the Mau- 

 retania sails away. Is all over now? 

 No, not yet; another surprise! On en- 

 tering my cabin I find a large box from 

 William Sim, Cliftondale, and a letter 

 from S. J. Goddard, Framingham, Mass. 

 William Sim provided glorious sweet 

 peas and antirrhinums for the adorn- 

 ment of our table from New York to 

 Liverpool — the envy of our fellow voy- 

 agers. S. J. Goddard 's envelope con- 

 tained an American flag and a request 

 to me to bring it back personally, con- 

 cluding, ' ' You will always be welcome 

 under our flag." Mr. Goddard 's sen- 

 timents were the sentiments expressed 

 in words and actions all along the line, 

 while our hand was within the grasp 

 •of the hand of good fellowship of the 

 American florists, and certain I am of 

 this: The sentiments are permanently 

 recorded. J. S. Brunton. 



A DES MOINES STORE. 



The accompanying illustration is re- 

 produced from a photograph made in 

 the cut flower department in the down- 

 town store of the Iowa Seed Co., Des 

 Moines. The cut flower business is 

 run under the name of the Iowa Floral 

 €o. and is growing with the same rapid- 

 ity that characterizes the retail flower 

 business in all the cities in the great 

 grain states. 



MANSFIELD'S FIRST STORE. 



With the development of the flower 

 business, those who operate greenhouses 

 in the cities of moderate size are finding 

 it profitable to open retail stores in the 

 business center; with flowers an article 

 of every-day necessity to a constantly in- 

 creasing number of people, the trade can- 



not be satisfactorily served from an es- 

 tablishment located as greenhouses usual- 

 ly are, in the outskirts. 



In this issue there is an illustration 

 showing the first retail store opened at 

 Mansfield, O. The date of the opening 

 was March 6 and the manager, Lee E. 

 Bemo, says that 4,500 souvenirs had been 

 provided for the visitors, the supply run- 

 ning short before the closing hour ar- 

 rived. The Bemo Floral Co. is well 

 known in the trade through Ohio, doing 

 considerable wholesale business, as well 

 as operating the retail end. The concern 

 has something over 35,000 feet of glass 

 on Foster street, Mansfield, and has fitted 

 up the new downtown store in first-class 

 shape. Business since the opening day 

 has fully warranted the venture. 



MORE ABOUT PRIMULA OBOONIOA 



I noted with interest the up-to-date 

 article on page 12 of The Eeview for 

 April 20, regarding Primula obconica. 

 The writer says he was first introduced 

 to the plant in England in 1888. I 

 handled it first in 1890, while serving 

 as an apprentice in a commercial place 

 in the southern part of Sweden. As the 

 plant was new and no one seemed to 

 know much about it, it was kept in 

 too low a temperature during winter 

 and threw up a couple of small flowers 

 once in a while. 



I changed- positions in. the fall of the 

 following year, goin^ to a private place 

 as first assistant gardener, having full 

 charge of the greenhouses. In the cold 

 graperies some hundreds of primulas 

 were standing on shelves, among them 

 a large number of obconica. The plants 

 were full of buds and were fed week- 

 ly with strong liquid manure. As the 

 plants did not seem to make any head- 

 way where they were, I placed them in 

 the palm house, in a higher temperature, 

 setting them on pots near the glass on 

 the west side of the house. In about 

 ten or twelve days the plants were cov- 

 ered with blooms, and I have never 

 seen finer plants of the old variety of 

 obconica. 



I raised them from seed the follow- 

 ing year and was equally successful in 

 flowering them in the winter, keeping 

 them at a low temperature during late 

 fall and feeding them heavily with 

 liquid manure while they were making 

 their buds. Then I brought them into 

 a warm house near the glass and forced 

 them into bloom. They seemed to re- 

 quire rich soil. I used a soil contain- 

 ing one-third old, well-rotted horse 

 manure, with plenty of sand, for the 

 first potting. I flowered the plants in 

 4-inch pots. They seemed to grow best 

 in coldframes during the summer, a 

 deep frame with the high end turned 

 to the sun and ventilation on both ends 

 of the sashes being the best. 



Here, in California, Primula obconica 

 does quite well outdoors and makes a 

 splendid edging for beds in shady posi- 

 tions. J. L. 



Cut Flower Department of Iowa Seed Co., I^es Moines. 



