322 
PARK AND C EM ET E.RY. 
FLORAL DISPLAYS WITHOUT RAIN 
Address before the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents by Wm. 
Ohlweiler, Manager, Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis, October 8, 1914. 
NEW CONSERVATORIES, MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN, FINISHED NOVEMBER, 
1913. PLANTATIONS DEVELOPED IN TWO DRY SEASONS. 
While the growing of floral displays has 
been perhaps more in the province of the 
park superintendent than in that of the 
cemetery superintendent, there is no ques- 
tion but that the tendency of the modern 
cemetery is toward a more cheerful and 
landscape effect than it has been. With 
this tendency granted, there is a distinct 
community of interests between the efforts 
of the park and the cemetery superintend- 
ents. There is perhaps no more distressing 
feature of any landscape scheme than to 
see the floral exhibits confined to selected 
area, usually in prominent places, while 
those areas that are isolated from the water 
supply are given over to vast spaces of 
dead grass, poor shrubbery, or nothing at 
all. Inability of placing any confidence in 
the amount or distribution of the rainfall, 
and the inability of supplying sufficient 
moisture by artificial means, are the main 
causes for such neglect. That these condi- 
tions are not prohibitive is the purpose of 
this article. 
It is not the purpose of this article to 
advise the production of floral displays in 
the total absence of rainfall, but to show 
the methods of treatment where the rain- 
fall is somewhat erratic. Such conditions 
are met with nearly every summer in all 
the states of the middle west. In Saint 
Louis during the past few seasons the 
amount of rainfall has been very much 
below normal and this has been intensified 
by the long periods of extreme drought. 
By quoting the weather summary from the 
August number of the Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin some idea will be gained 
of the conditions that we have had to con- 
tend with here. The quotation follows : 
“The unprecedented drought of the sum- 
mer of 1914 has at last been broken and 
the Garden is beginning to show the effect 
of the recent rains. According to the 
meterological summary of the weather 
bureau, ‘the period extending from March 
1, 1914, to July 31, five months, was the 
driest of which there is a record in Saint 
Louis. The record covers a period of 78 
years, from January, 1837, to date. The 
total precipitation was 5.48 inches. The 
normal amount for this period is 20.48 
inches. Previous to this year the least pre- 
cipitation for the five months ending on 
July 31, was 9.06 inches in 1871 ; the great- 
est precipitation for a similar period was 
40.31 inches in 1848. In the months of 
May, June and July, 1914, the total was 
2.31 inches, which is by far the lowest 
amount on record for a similar period ; 
previous to this year the lowest amount 
was 4.24 inches in 1911; before 1911 the 
lowest record was 5.32 inches in 1870. May 
and June, 1914, were phenomenally dry, the 
total precipitation for these two months 
being .79 inch, or 8.33 inches below the 
normal.’ ” 
The water requirements of plants are 
far in excess of the amounts that have been 
available in Saint Louis during the past 
summer. The production of two tons of 
dry matter of the staple crops under the 
best conditions of management would re- 
quire the equivalent of from four to fifteen 
inches of rainfall. This is greatly in ex- 
cess of the amount given by the weather 
bureau, i. e., .79 inch. If, then, the amounts 
of rainfall have been so exceedingly low, 
how are we to proceed to produce floral 
displays under such conditions? 
There are two factors that are usually 
available to the grower of flowers out of 
doors, which with proper handling may be 
made to yield good results. These are 
cultivation and irrigation. 
Cultivation of the soil together with the 
addition of water retaining constituents as 
humus or other organic substances, will 
nearly solve the problem where only a 
moderate amount of moisture is available. ; 
This moderate amount of moisture may be 
the rare summer shower or the systematic 
application of water by artificial means. In 
any case the problem confronting the 
grower of plants is the conservation of the 
moisture that is available. Thorough culti- 
vation of the plants is the easiest and the 
cheapest method and when practised from 
the early spring to late fall will be pro- 
ductive of good results. Weeds should not 
be the excuse for cultivation, for cultiva- 
tion should primarily be practised for the 
conservation of the water supply and not 
for the eradication of weeds. In fact where 
thorough cultivation is the rule, weeds will 
not grow. When weeds will grow luxuri- 
antly then there is no necessity for the cul- 
tivation of the soil for the conserving of 
the water supply, for flowering plants are 
but cultivated weeds and require but little 
additional attention as such. 
A mulch is of course any loose materia! : 
that by covering the surface of the ground 
breaks up the capillary action of the soil so 
COSMOS PLANTING PHOTOGRAPHED OCTOBER 20, 1914. 
