16 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



August, 1909 



to a few varieties. My own were in great 

 variety, and in making up consignments I 

 took the trouble to give a good assortment 

 with from twenty-five to one hundred of a 

 sort. There is much variation in both 

 form and color in daffodils, and a store 

 might be filled with a well assorted lot without 

 giving the impression of monotony. I 

 found that by assorting I could sell more 

 flowers, and at the end of the season my 



disappointment, the early singles were a 

 pleasant surprise. I had not expected 

 anything from them, and had planted 

 them in very late, cool positions, and 

 watered freely. They grew splendid flowers 

 with good stems, and although months before 

 the short-stemmed, forced tulips had gone 

 out, these sold at forty and fifty cents, and 

 not enough to in any way satisfy the demand. 

 I had so handled early tulips that I shipped 



The better kinds of peony are always wanted for floral decorations in the summer 



customers had not tired of daffodils, but 

 wanted more. 



The larger portion of my tulip stock 

 was Darwins, which are very large, long- 

 stemmed tulips in dark or neutral colors. 

 They had cost me nearly double the price 

 of other strains, yet sold for less, and I 

 had to make material concessions on some 

 colors, and at the last failed to market a 

 portion of them. If the Darwins were a 



some of them with the latest shipments of 

 late tulips. 



Having learned at some cost the lesson 

 that it is well to distribute widely, I thought 

 it well to try other cities. Los Angeles, 

 which seemed to be the nearest available 

 point, is about six hundred miles from 

 Ukiah, and takes some thirty hours to 

 reach. I made a number of successful 

 shipments of narcissus and tulips to that 



point, and tried one consignment of dog- 

 tooth violets, which arrived in passable 

 condition, but did not take. I demon- 

 strated to my own satisfaction that I could 

 readily ship as far as Chicago. 



Some of my tulips were purchased at 

 Los Angeles, sent to a wedding at Galveston, 

 and arrived in perfect order. A trip to 

 New York would have been easier. 



I also turned my attention to the wild 

 flowers in which our region is rich. Perhaps 

 the favorite among the spring flowers 

 native to our mountains is the cream-colored 

 dogtooth violet (Erythronium giganteum), 

 but the flowers seemed too fragile to possibly 

 stand the trip. When they are in water 

 their keeping qualities are often remarkable. 



I took with me to the mountains a clothes 

 basket with damp moss in the bottom, 

 newspaper torn in half-sheets, and twine. I 

 had the flowers picked in bunches of twenty- 

 five stems of average size, fewer if large, 

 more if small, my aim being to send uniform 

 sized bunches. 



I also tried other wild flowers with some 

 success, but, on the whole, found that 

 neither the florists nor the public are edu- 

 cated to a right appreciation of the delicately 

 beautiful things. They prefer cabbage- 

 like chrysanthemums, American Beauty 

 roses, and gaudy tulips to woodland beauties; 

 but while this is true, every large city con- 

 tains a considerable number of people who 

 appreciate and would buy wild flowers 

 if they could get them in good order. 



With wild flowers I had fair success, 

 and I tried some shipments of redbud or 

 Judas tree and Rhododendron Calif omicum, 

 the lovely evergreen form prevalent along 

 our immediate coast. For the redbud I 

 used a stout, very light skeleton frame lined 

 with burlap, while for the rhododendron, 

 after making four models i settled upon a 

 chest constructed exactly like my flower 

 boxes, 18x40 inches on the bottom, and 

 12 inches high, with trays to set in. Damp 

 moss could be put under the bottom tray, 

 then the box be filled, each tray set in on 

 top of a well filled compartment, and water 

 spinkled on top to filter down through the 

 branches. It worked perfectly, and was 

 scarcely any trouble to pack. 



The Western representative of Trillium 

 grandifiorum is equally pretty, and feeling 

 that it would certainly sell well, I made a 

 trip into the redwood region and secured a 

 fine lot. My customer did not sell a dime's 

 worth. 



Out of the abundance of experiences 

 which I had in this little venture none 

 struck me more forcibly than these local 

 tastes. It would seem that some kinds of 

 roses and carnations are everywhere in 

 demand; but that outside of that, each 

 city ■ — even different parts of the same 

 city — has its local taste in flowers. 



At Lbs Angeles my Darwin tulips were 

 more in demand than the other sorts. One 

 San Francisco dealer on Market Street could 

 not sell a single bunch of dogtooth violets 

 at the same time that another was calling 

 'for almost daily shipments. One florist 

 wanted tulips with the longest stems, while 



