26 
San Francisco’s Year Round Floral 
Exposition at Its Best in February. 
That sparkling bit of Vanity Fair, the 
Market street afternoon parade, passes in its 
course two corners where masses of gor- 
geous blooms are set like snares for the con- 
tents of the passer’s pocketbook. Yet the 
lure is not a serious financial danger. A 
small amount commands a large gratifica- 
tion. It would hardly be correct to say that 
everybody buys flowers, but it is true that 
everybody that wants them can have them, 
for the prices are ridiculously small. All 
the long summer through, and a large part 
of the winter, 25 cents will buy a corsage 
bouquet of Roses, or a spray of Carnations 
and Maiden-hair, or a cluster of huge Chrys- 
anthemums larger and more perfectly devel- 
oped than ever grew in Japan. 
In February, fifty cents will buy exactly 
such a mass of Acacia bloom as it takes ten 
dollars to buy in New York. A great, fra- 
grant bunch of Violets that will perfume a 
room can be bought for a dime. 
San Francisco is the only city in the 
United States that permits flower vending at 
free street stands, and one of the very few 
in which the climate would allow these 
perishable wares to be exposed for sale the 
year around. Most of the trade is centered 
at Market and Kearny streets, but the vend- 
ers are all through the shopping district and 
are patronized by all classes. 
The long-stemmed and odorous Princess 
Violets are especially noteworthy. Possibly 
the little district of Brasse, in Southern 
France, grows Violets as fine as the San 
Francisco variety, but no other part of the 
world does. Most of them come from the 
vicinity of Colma, just across the San Fran- 
cisco line, in San Mateo county, where some 
four hundred acres of them perfume the 
air all through the long blossoming season. 
From San Francisco they are shipped up and 
down the coast, from San Diego to Canada, 
and other shipments go as far east as Kansas 
City and Chicago. 
From March to June you will see the 
satin-petaled, shining glory of California 
fields and hillsides, the golden Poppy, called 
by the Spaniards “ Copa de Ora,” or Cup of 
Gold. It is a brave and living thing of fire, 
making in the valleys pools of dazzling radi- 
ance, and in places pouring itself down the 
western slopes of the coast hills in glowing 
carpets that can be seen far out at sea. 
t3l)e~nower (Brower 
Named botanically for the first naturalist 
that described it, Eschscholtzia Californica, 
it has been formally and by statute adopted 
as the state flower. 
The regular retail florists, doing business 
in their own stores, make bewildering dis- 
plays of Orchids, Lilies of the Valley and 
Poinsettias, showing a prodigal abundance 
of stock that only a vigorous and general 
demand would justify carrying. 
Arrive by 7 A. M., or earlier, at the San 
Francisco Wholesale Growers’ Flower Mar- 
ket, at 347 Bush street, just below the Stock 
Exchange. Here you will find assembled 
in a dim basement scores of gardeners and 
flower dealers, with such an abundance of 
floral beauty as you will seldom see else- 
where, for San Franciscans are a flower- 
loving people. It matters not what the 
season may be, June or December, January 
or August, there will be a wealth of bloom, 
and it does not have to be protected from 
freezing, even in the open air. The flower 
venders along Market street draw a large 
part of their supplies from this point.— West- 
ern Fruit Jobber. 
Pansies for Spring Trade. 
There is an increasing number of market 
gardeners who find it profitable to grow 
Pansies in cold frames for the spring trade. 
Thousands of sash are devoted to this pur- 
pose by gardeners in Philadelphia County, 
Pa., and there is no reason why gardeners in 
various parts of the country should not make 
this a profitable side issue to their business. 
It is important to use strictly high grade seed. 
This seed is very expensive, but it is abso- 
lutely necessary to use such seed if you want 
large, finely colored flowers. The second 
essential is a very rich, well drained soil. 
Sow seed in August and transplant to cold 
frames in from six to eight weeks. Water 
carefully and place sash on frames in the 
North about the first of November or when 
the weather gets quite severe. Ventilate on 
warm days in the fall and spring, and re- 
move sash for other purposes about the first 
of April. This is a splendid line of work for 
boys and girls who want to make their own 
spending money . — ( Market Growers’ Journal.) 
There is much valuable information 
in articles which are necessarily held 
over until the March issue. 
February, 1920 
Levi H. Read. 
The death of Levi H. Read, of Deer 
Park, Ala., occurred on January 15, 
1920. While we were not personally 
acquainted with Mr. Read, we knew 
him well by correspondence and his 
activities and enterprise were a matter 
of much interest to us. His plans for 
the future embraced a very wide range 
of subjects and we looked forward to 
his accomplishing some very important 
work during the next few years. His 
passing, therefore, comes as a great 
shock and disappointment to us. 
Levi H. Read was born 57 years ago 
near Cabot, Vt. Here he grew to man- 
hood and later emigrated to the state 
of Wisconsin where he spent several 
years. About twenty years ago he 
again changed his home to Southern 
Alabama where he has remained since. 
Mr. Read early developed a love for 
flowers and plant life and has always 
been a student along that line. While 
still in his boyhood he began experi- 
ments with hybridizing and selecting, 
and was the originator of several im- 
proved varieties of vegetables which 
he disposed of to other growers and 
they were widely distributed. Many 
of them are still on the market. Mr. 
Read was a very close observer of na- 
ture and was ever looking for something 
new and better. 
While a resident of Alabama he had 
associated with him another ardent 
plant lover and together they had es- 
tablished a plant, seed, bulb and nur- 
sery business under the name of L. H. 
Read & Co., and this concern had 
already met with some measure of 
success. After struggling all his life 
against the handicap of poor health 
and of restricted means, Mr. Read was 
removed from this life just as he could 
see light and success ahead and just as 
he could see the goal of some of his 
dreams. 
Mr. Read undertook a unique cam- 
paign of advertising in The Flower 
Grower which we in every way tried 
to assist and he developed a descrip- 
tive style in the preparation of copy 
which we believe was destined to 
make a notable success. 
Mr. Read succumbed to an attack of 
pneumonia. He was first stricken with 
typhoid fever and was recovering from 
that, but pneumonia set in. 
H. E. Meader, Dover, N. H., president 
of the American Gladiolus Society, who 
last year offered one dozen corms of 
Kunderd’s beautiful variety, Myrtle, to 
every person joining the American 
Gladiolus Society before August 18th, 
the date of the last annual show ; re- 
ports that he has received a list of 
such new members from Secretary A. 
C. Beal, and that there are 38 of them, 
and that they have all been booked for 
a dozen Myrtle for delivery about 
April 1st. 
Bound volumes of The Modern 
Gladiolus Grower and The Flower 
Grower are still available, but may 
not be for any considerable time. 
San Francisco Flower Market. 
