EASTER AND ITS ACTIVITIES 



173 



Bleeding Hearts potted 

 up during January, kept in 

 a cool house and given 55 deg. 

 about twenty-one days before 

 Easter will be in full bloom, 

 by then and the same with 

 the variegated Funkia. 



All the above-mentioned 

 stock can be gotten ready 

 by practically every florist. 

 Besides these things and, 

 with many, of even greater 

 importance, is the bulbous 

 stock. Easter week is the 

 time to dispose of pans of 

 single and double Tulips, 

 miniature Hyacinths, Daffo- 

 dils and the many other fine 

 varieties of Narcissi. If 

 Easter doesn't come too 

 early the Darwins are at 

 their best, not only in pans, 

 but also to cut from, and 

 this holds good with the 

 Narcissi and all the other 



Tulips. By planting Freesias in dishes during December and carry- 

 ing them in a house just a little above freezing up to five weeks or 

 so before Easter, you can have them all in flower. 



. Dutch bulb stock, however, when timed properly can be had 

 at its best and in greater variety than at any other time of the year. 

 As I mention under Dutch bulb stock, elsewhere, it pays any 

 retail grower who looks forward to a big Easter business to keep the 

 flats and pans filled with Dutch bulb stock intended for that day 

 separate from those that are going to be forced during Winter. 

 You cannot afford to depend upon what is left being good enough for 

 Easter, and of all the stock you purchase for that day, none is more 

 subject to prevailing weather conditions, or will suffer more when 

 on the road several days, than Hyacinths, TuUps or Narcissi in pots. 



There are seasons when, with a forward Spring and Easter 

 coming on, late date bulb stock is past its best, but as a rule it is 

 among the most important of Easter plant materials. This is true 

 not so much in the case of the large city florist, perhaps, who has just 

 a store, is altogether dependent on the out-of-town grower to ship 

 him the stock, and is without proper facilities for carrying it, as in 

 the case of retail growers in the smaller cities and towns who 



Fig. 58. — Hyacinths for Easter. You 

 can sell more Hyacinths during Easter 

 week than during the three months previ- 

 ous, but you should try to have them at 

 their best just on Easter Sunday and not 

 a week beforehand 



