Vol. LXIV. No. 2889 
NEW YORK, JUNE 10, 1905. 
WEEKLY', $1.00 PER YEAR. 
GREENS UNDER GLASS. 
A FLORIST WHO GROWS NO FLOWERS. 
How Foliage is Prepared for Market. 
VARIEIIES GROWN.—Foliage for the cut flower 
trade is now an important branch of glass gardening, 
and while a number of ferns are used the stock ma¬ 
terial is confined to smilax and climbing asparagus. 
Several of the graceful maidenhair ferns 
are grown for fine decorative work, but 
this may be regarded as a separate branch 
of the foliage business. In addition to 
the aesthetic value of the asparagus vines 
they can be economically grown in large 
quantities, and they are very lasting, 
whereas maidenhair ferns quickly deteri¬ 
orate. A recent visit to an establishment 
in the “rose belt” of New Jersey, where 
between 95,000 and 100,000 feet of glass 
are devoted to “greens,” shows this cul¬ 
ture under factory conditions. 
SMILAX CULTURE.—The entire area 
of glass at this place is in asparagus, 
only three things being grown, smilax 
(Asparagus medeoloides), A. plumosus 
nanus and A. Sprengeri. The smilax is 
sown as soon as the new crop seed is 
received, usually in January and Febru¬ 
ary. The seed is grown in California, and 
sells for about $1 a pound. Old-time 
florists used to grow their own smilax 
seed, but in a foliage factory, where four 
full crops, and sometimes a fifth, are cut 
in a year, the strings are not expected 
to reach the fruiting stage. The seed is 
sown in flats (shallow boxes) about one- 
fourth inch deep, and kept in a temper¬ 
ature of 60 to 65 degrees. Most grow¬ 
ers transplant the seedlings into pots or 
other flats when they have made a little 
growth, but at the place visited the seed¬ 
lings are planted out on side benches at 
10 or 12 weeks in three to four inches 
of soil, the plants being 2(4 inches apart 
each way. They are kept in the same 
temperature, and the little plants are 
pinched back (we might call it pruning) 
three or four times before they get their 
final shift. This is for the purpose of 
making them strong and stocky. 
PLANTING THE CROP.—About June 
or July the plants are put where they will 
make their crop, in the center bench of 
the greenhouse, with enough headroom to 
produce a five or six-foot string. Many 
growers put smilax in a solid bed, run¬ 
ning it for two or three years before re¬ 
planting, but here it is only run one year, 
and the bench is preferred. The soil is 
sod and cow manure, such as would 
be selected for roses, but made very rich, 
as smilax is a gross feeder. The plants 
are set 8 x 8 inches apart; if small, light 
plants, two axe set together. The plant¬ 
ing may be described as quite similar to 
the setting of small strawberry plants. A 
stout wire is put across the bed at each 
row, and another parallel wire across overhead, strings 
extending by each plant from the lower wire to the 
one above. The material used is green silkoline, made 
for the purpose, which does not show when the string 
is cut. Old-time florists who have struggled to draw a 
stout white cord out of a twisted string of smilax can 
appreciate the reason for the green twine. Light shade 
is given when the smilax is first planted. It will be 
ready to cut from the middle to the end of August, 
and a crop is then expected every six or seven weeks. 
1 he side benches of the house are planted with aspara¬ 
gus, from which sprays are cut instead of strings. 
GENERAL CARE.—In cutting, an effort is made to 
cut evenly over the bed, which is at once restrung. 
I he plants are given less water until growth begins 
again; if watered too freely after cutting the smilax 
suffers; foliage curls and grows yellow, and one crop 
is lost. Ordinarily smilax takes a good deal of water, 
SUBSTITUTING FOR HIRED MAN IN WEST VIRGINIA. Fig. 188 
A PENNSYLVANIA WOMAN HELPS UNLOAD. Fig. 189 
but it must be given with discretion, and the inexperi¬ 
enced grower may gain a good deal of melancholy ex¬ 
perience before he learns just what a sufficiency of 
water is. Under ideal conditions there should be no 
insect pests or fungus diseases in a smilax house, but 
sometimes in extremely warm, dry weather there is a 
visitation of red spider, which is removed by vigorous 
syringing. Thrips and green fly are also occasional 
visitors, which are removed by fumigating with tobacco, 
but the grower interviewed, who markets from 40,000 
to 50,000 strings of smilax a year, says fumigation is 
rarely needed. Fire heat is given from the middle to 
the end of September, or whenever the temperature in 
the houses begins to drop to 50 degrees at night. The 
whitewash shading, put on when the smilax is planted, 
is allowed to wash off in the Fall. 
SOIL AND RESETTING.—These benches of smilax 
are only run one year. When time for planting comes 
again they are emptied of plants and soil, 
and reset. The boards in the bottom and 
sides of the bench aire whitewashed 
roughly, as a cleansing agent, and then 
filled with soil. The cow manure used is 
from stockyards where little or no bed¬ 
ding is used, and is very rich; about 200 
tons have been used this year, costing 
$1.75 to $2.50 a ton. The sod used costs 
$2.50 a load; 300 to 500 tons are used an¬ 
nually. The spent soil removed from the 
benches is sold to jobbing gardeners, who 
use it for top-dressing lawns. 
ASPARAGUS PLUMOSUS NANUS. 
—This feathery vine, which is often called 
asparagus fern, unites great durability 
with the most delicate beauty. It is not a 
dwarf variety, as the adjective Nanus 
would imply, but is distinguished from 
the type, A. plumosus, by the fullness and 
flatness of the fronds, which are much 
more desirable for decorative work, and 
also by the fact that it cannot be propa¬ 
gated by cuttings. Commercial propaga¬ 
tion is by seeds, though it can also be 
increased by division of the plants. The 
seed is sown, like smilax, just as soon as 
the new seed comes into market, usually 
about January. Most of it is greenhouse 
grown; some comes from Florida and 
Carolina, some from California, and much 
from growers here in the North, many 
florists ripening the seed they use them¬ 
selves. It is sold by the thousand seeds, 
the price varying from $2.25 to $5 a thou¬ 
sand seeds. The highest price is paid for 
greenhouse stock, because it comes in at 
the most convenient time. The California 
crop, coming in about February, is late 
for growers of cut fronds, but suits those 
who wish to grow plants for fernery and 
basket use. It is very necessary that the 
seed should be pure; the type plant (A. 
plumosus) does not produce as many 
sprays at the bottom, and is less compact, 
so if carelessness has permitted it to 
creep in among Nanus it means a decided 
loss. Cases have been reported where ir¬ 
responsible sellers have mixed seed of 
common field asparagus with the foliage 
variety, which would cause irremediable 
loss to the grower. 
STARTING ASPARAGUS.—This is 
sown in flats like the smilax. It often lies 
six weeks before germinating; 30 days is 
a short period for it. When 10 or 12 
weeks old the little plants are shifted from 
the flats to a bench where they are planted 
out. Here they remain until June, July 
or August, according to growth and convenience, when 
they are replanted on side benches, where they spend 
the Winter. The plants do not run to vine the first 
year, hence the old-time growers made no profit on 
asparagus until over a year old. Under these newer 
methods, however, sprays are cut all the first Winter, 
and a strong, stocky plant is provided for permanent 
planting the next year. In June or July of the second 
year—that is, about 18 months fiom the time the seed 
was sown—the plants are set in solid beds, where they 
