MARKET FLOWERS FOR BUNCHING. 



343 



times, and dianthuses are also handy for bunching. Annual gaillardias of the picta 

 type are not much wanted, and ornamental grasses can often be bought more cheaply 

 than they can be grown, though a few of the more elegant sell well occasionally for table 

 decoration. Helichrysums scarcely pay for growing, but there is a fairly good demand 

 for the white bleached seed-pods of Honesty (Lunaria biennis). Not many marigolds 

 are wanted. Mignonette at times pays well, but nemesias are failures. Pansies, purple 

 in colour, are frequently massed in wreaths and crosses, and pay for growing. Phlox 

 Drummondi mixed, also pink and white, separately, are saleable, and there is a good 

 demand for Iceland poppies (Papaver nudicaule), which should be treated as biennials. 

 Stocks, notably Princess Alice, and other 

 good whites, not forgetting the hardy Bromp- 

 tons, often pay their growers very well ; but 

 there is not so much to be made out of sweet 

 peas as formerly. Sunflowers, Sweet Sultan, 

 and Zinnias are favourite flowers with some 

 buyers, while wallflowers are among the most 

 profitable of all bunching flowers. 



Hardy Perennials. — Achillea Ptarmica 

 flore pleno, which spreads rapidly, is of service 

 early in the summer, as it is largely em- 

 ployed for the foundations of cheap wreaths. 

 Bupthalmium cordifolium is imposing in 

 bunches, and pays for growing. The best 

 of the Campanulas for bunching is C. persici- 

 folia alba, this flowering in July and August. 

 Carnations, both named and seedlings, pay 



many growers well. Chrysanthemum maximum, as flowering later than the wild Ox- 

 eye Daisy, is useful, while columbines, or aquilegias, bunch up prettily and sell well. 

 Doronicum plantagineum excelsum, syn. Harpur Crewe, is a general favourite. Gaillar- 

 dias are fine for bunching and those who can grow the blue gentian (Gentiana acaulis) 

 well will find it profitable. Gypsophila paniculata is in great demand. Helianthuses 

 (sunflowers), in variety, flower abundantly and pay for growing, as also do white hellebores 

 (Christmas Eoses). Hemerocallis flava bunches up well, and the free-flowering Heu- 

 cheras : — bracteata and sanguinea are worth growing. The same may be said of German 



Fig. 195. Neatly Bunched Violets. 



