Gardens—Always 
At the March meeting of the New York 
Florist Club, the members had the pleasure 
of listening to that eminent author and public 
speaker, Mr. Richardson Wright, the editor 
of House and Garden magazine. 
In his interesting talk, he described how 
flower gardens have persisted through the 
ages. 
In 1633, when the Huguenots were per- 
secuted and driven from France, they came 
to England to establish themselves in new 
ways of life. Though surrounded by hard- 
ships in such circumstances, they did not over- 
look establishing their small flower gardens. 
In our own United States during the dif- 
ficult years of Andrew Jackson’s administra- 
tion in the year 1829, one of our first large 
flower shows was being inaugurated. 
More recently, in these times of stress, 
we have witnessed the gathering of some of 
our most prominent people connected with 
Horticulture and Floriculture in Washington 
at the call of our Secretary of Agriculture, 
the Honorable Claude R. Wickard. Plans 
were formulated for the establishing of 
‘Defense Gardens.” These Defense Gardens 
are to be flower gardens as well as vegetable 
gardens, which shows that there always will 
be gardens and the members of our industry 
must feel that they play an important part 
in the present struggle. 
Easter Calendar 
It is interesting to look up and down the 
chart to see how the dates of Easter Sunday 
vary over a period of 50 years. 
Several years ago we printed attractively 
a list of the dates of Easter Sunday for 50 
years. It is convenient for tacking up in 
your greenhouse shed or office. If you would 
like to have one of these calendars, drop us 
a line. 
Funny Names 
Baby Toes Emerald Idol 
Bunny Ears Boxing Glove 
Irish Mittens Lion’s Tongue 
Odd names, perhaps, but in our florist busi- 
ness we know them as the popular names for 
succulents. As you know the above are va- 
rieties of Opuntia and Sedum. We sell lots 
of them! Many of our customers find it 
profitable to get these succulents and have 
one of the men in their spare time make up 
some dishes or terrariums, thus giving them 
an outlet for some of their artistic skill. 
If this interests you, we have a_ special 
list covering the most suitable items for this 
purpose. 
The Story of Water 
You know, of course that the plant is full 
of water. If inadequate, it shrivels, becomes 
stunted, and develops stems and leaves like 
acactus. Knowing this, you supply that water 
to the roots and spray the tops of plants to 
reduce the amount given off from the leaves. 
But the roots won’t take that water unless 
air is present. That air is needed to make 
root hairs which absorb the water. So that’s 
tied up with good soil structure and proper 
drainage. Be sure of that. Don’t use soil 
that holds too much moisture and be certain 
that all surplus water runs off. Pot drainage, 
bench drainage, are essentials. Watch out 
for them. 
The water in the air—humidity, is like- 
wise important. The cells in the plant will 
not get larger unless humidity is high. This 
reduces the amount of water lost and permits 
the cells to stretch. That is why you get 
longer stretches on roses grown at proper 
humidity; that is why gardenia flowers are 
larger when grown in a moist atmosphere; 
that is why cineraria leaves are of greater 
size; why the atmosphere is not too dry. Do 
you attempt to supply such humidity? Do 
you have any system besides overhead sprin- 
kling, which is time consuming and not con- 
stant enough? Skinner nozzles, Paradise noz- 
zles, and lately the Binks system as devel- 
oped by Ohio State University, are all helpful 
and should at least be looked into. 
There are plants on the other hand which 
will stretch their stems without too much 
constant moisture at the roots or in the air. 
Look at carnations, for example. If the soil 
is kept too wet and not allowed to dry before 
watering, loss of roots will result and poor 
stems. The same is true of snapdragons. 
Hence the story of water is one of under- 
standing of what it does and the knowledge 
of habits of plants which you grow. If you 
are interested further, drop us a line and 
we ll go into greater details at a future date. 
Incidentally, why nol let us know if these dis- 
cussions interest you ? 
