86 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



Hotbeds vs. the Greenhouse 



No greenhouse, no matter how well built, will grow better plants 

 in the way of Alternantheras, Heliotropes, Begonias, Coleus, Ge- 

 raniums, Fuchsias, etc. For the man with a Umited amount of glass 

 in the form of greenhouses, hotbeds are almost a necessity during 

 the Spring season. With enough of them on hand, he can devote 

 some of his benches to cut flowers such as Snapdragons, Gladioh, 

 double Cornflowers, Candytuft, Larkspurs, Stocks, double Fever- 

 few, Lupines, Schizanthus and others; or he can hold on to several 

 benches of Carnations which are producing a good crop of flowers 

 instead of having to use these benches for bedding plants. 



Greenhouses cost money not only to build, but also to run; 

 not only wiU coldframes and hotbeds frequently take their place, 

 but also their cost and maintainance are comparatively little. 



It may be news to some to learn that dry leaves gathered in late 

 FaU and piled up somewhere over Winter, wetted and packed down 



Fig. 27. — Shade Coldframes. Made, as illustrated here, out of laths and l-by2-iii. 



strips, shades for coldframes are of no small use to the florist. Such a combination 



affords ideal protection, especially for small stock outdoors 



