July 7, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
709 
FLOWERS: COVENT GARDEN. 
{Concluded/romp. 695.) 
The Cut Flower Trade. 
Now, for the cut flowers. Difficult as it is to 
convey any adequate notion of the pot-trade, the 
cut-flower trade is more difficult still. People do 
not replenish boxes of window-plants very often, or 
plant out their gardens every day. Many have no 
garden to plant, and do not keep window-boxes. 
But with cut flowers it is quite another thing; with 
great care and attention they can rarely be kept 
fresh many days, and require constant renewal. 
Then they are used for so many purposes where pots 
could not serve. Everybody can find a place for 
cut blooms: the table, the sideboard, the mantel¬ 
piece, the button-hole, 
wreaths, baskets and bou¬ 
quets. When you think 
what the daily consump¬ 
tion of cut flowers in 
London amounts to, and 
look at the number of 
florists’ shops, and the 
barrow-loads of the street- 
hawker, and baskets of the 
flower-girls, you must 
think whatCovent Garden 
cut-flower trade is. When 
we consider again that 
market-growers not only 
supply London, but send 
many hundreds of boxes 
of cut-bloom daily into 
the largeprovincial towns, 
you will get some notion 
of the importance of this 
branch of the business. 
Now, this cut-flower 
trade is divided into two 
sections,like the pot-trade, 
viz., the regular daily 
flower-grower,and the oc¬ 
casional or season grower. 
In addition to these, we 
have the amateur or gen¬ 
tleman’s gardener, who 
uses the market for sur¬ 
plus. There are also dis¬ 
tant senders who supply 
the market with goods, for 
cut flowers, can be sent 
almost anydistance. These 
distant and occasional 
senders have necessitated 
the commission-salesman 
as a stand-holder in the 
market .Another personage 
also finds employment in 
the cut-flower trade, viz., 
the " higgler " or middle- 
dealer. The London mar¬ 
ket in flowers, as in fruit, 
is practically open to 
receive anyproduce which 
can reach it in a saleable 
condition; and many thou¬ 
sand packages arrive from 
France, Italy, Holland, 
Belgium, Germany, the 
Channel Isles. Scilly Isles, 
and every nook and cor¬ 
ner of the British Isles. 
These often arrive at a 
time when the flower 
market is closed, and if in 
bulk are sold by auction, generally on the bye-day, 
to the higglers, who retail to buyers on market 
mornings. 
This competition between the local home-grown 
and the distant and continental flowers, is becoming 
every year more pronounced, and is especially trying 
to certain growers. The advantages' of climate 
enable the French and Riviera flower growers to 
send blooms to this country, grown at little expense 
in the open air, which compete against similar goods 
forced here under glass. 
It is a matter of opinion whether a certain amount 
of foreign trade, especially in flowering shrubs, such 
as the Acacia, and in Ferns, does not encourage and 
extend the flower trade generally, and whether the 
earlier produced continental flowers, does not, 
to the same extent, create a demand for the same 
flowers produced naturally in England later on. 
The Foreign Producer. 
Whatever view we take, one thing is certain, and 
that is that the foreigner has felt the pulse of his 
English customer, and will be more and more a rival 
of the English producer. 
One thing the foreign producer of flowers has not 
yet, and probably never will be able to do, and that 
is to touch the best grown and choicest varieties of 
market stuff. Take Tomatos and Grapes as samples 
in fruit particularly. What foreign goods of these 
kinds can equal the home grown article ? (I con¬ 
sider Guernsey goods home grown). No out-of-door 
Grapes or Tomatos can ever equal English hothouse 
fruit, and for the foreigner to attempt house cultiva¬ 
tion, would place him in on an equal footing with 
English growers, while his distance from the market 
would prevent any danger of his competition being 
ruinous to the home grower. So with our best 
grown English forced flowers, the Roses, Carnations 
Scarlet Pelargoniums, Azaleas, Bouvardias, Tube¬ 
roses, Eucharis, Lilies, Gardenias, &c. ; they need 
fear no rival from beyond the sea. The admirable 
manner in which they are grown, and the excellent 
condition in which they are marketed, defies com¬ 
petition. There are so many features in our cut- 
flower trade, that I may, perhaps, be excused if I 
overlook some of them. Next to the wondrous 
succesion of blooms, passing in gorgeous array, 
each in its time and season like a revolving 
panorama, from the earliest flowers of spring to the 
latest Chrysanthemum of autumn, I am much 
struck with the excellent judgment displayed by the 
grower in timing his produce to suit the occasion, 
take Easter and Whitsuntide festivals for example ; 
no matter when they fall, or how varied the season, 
there always seems an abundance of specially grown 
white flowers to meet the occasion. 
Perhaps I can best illustrate the growth of this 
cut-flower trade, within my own experience, when I 
say that ten years or so ago the flower market was 
never opened during what we call the dull season, 
i.e., from August i to April i, on the bye-days, 
Mondays, Wednesdays, and P'ridays. What little 
cut trade there was to do on those days during the 
winter months, was done on the old market stands, 
letter H. The inconvenience from want of space 
necessitated its removal ; 
ist, into a covered road¬ 
way adjoining the flower 
market, and finally into a 
portion of the flower mar¬ 
ket itself. The space 
allotted to this business 
has had to be enlarged 
from time to time, till 
now about one third of the 
market is used for it; and 
if it continues to grow, it 
is only a question of 
time now soon it may be 
desirable to open the 
whole flower market daily 
for morning market all 
the year round. 
The Hardy Flower 
Trade. 
In speaking of the cut- 
flower trade, I must not 
overlook the out-of-door 
farming flower grower, 
whose acres of Wall¬ 
flowers, Daffodils,Violets, 
Pinks, Stocks, Roses, 
Dahlias, and Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, are marketed at 
times in such abundance, 
often in the open general 
market. I have seen 
waggon-loads of these ’ 
goods, sometimes packed 
in bundles, loose, often in 
large rounds or hampers 
scenting the very air with 
their fragrance for yards 
around. These are not 
unworthy casts off,but ad- ' 
mirably grown blooms. I 
have known cart-loads of 
Stocks, e.g., fine double- 
bloomed heads often fit for 
exhibition in a flower 
show. Double whiteDaffo- 
dils, this spring, I have 
known as many as 800 
bushels, each containing 
4 doz. bunches, sold by 
one man in a single morn¬ 
ing before nine o’clock 
without fuss or bother. 
Violets in bunches, six 
small bunches in a mar¬ 
ket bunch. I have a few 
years ago, known as much 
as /50 or £60 worth sold 
by one man on a single 
morning. These were 
grown under Apple trees. Roses are not so largely 
grown but their cultivation is increasing. Moss Roses, 
Monthly Roses, General Jacquieminot, and Gloire 
de Dijon are the chief varieties. Bunches of mixed 
flowers, ready tied up, are greatly sold in the autumn 
and amongst these the Dahlia is conspicuous. 
Introducing New Varieties. 
Perhaps nothing is more speculative and certainly 
nothing more profitable, than the introduction of a 
new and popular variety of flower, say Carnation, 
Chrysanthemum, or Rose. But the public are very 
exacting in these respects, and demand an attractive 
size, colour, or scent, while the grower requires it to 
possess a constitution, habit, and vitality sufficient 
to stand the test of continued forcing without de¬ 
terioration of quality. Perhaps one of the latest 
examples of success in this line is the Carnation 
Philadelphus grandiflorus at Auchinraith. 
