and spoils the blooms in a very short time. 
Just an inch of water in the bottom of a vase 
is all you should use if the blooms are to be 
protected and that is very seldom enough 
water to assure each of the stems in a vaseful a 
drink. Asa result, Peas and Buttons are often 
sacrificed in order to be sold on the day of their 
arrival when one extra night in water would 
not hurt their overall length of life. Marguer- 
ites are not so bothered by water running up 
the outside of their stems but they do suffer 
if their stems are not cut. Uneven stems with 
string to the tip of the longest stem usually 
results in their being vased without cutting 
the stems and poor prices result the second 
day if they are sold then, or whole bunches 
get thrown away because a half dozen blooms 
fold up in a bunch from lack of water. 
Mums, STANDARD. Bunched flat or in spray 
form this item is much easier and safer to han- 
dle. Larger varieties done in three rows of 
four. The smaller varieties in rows of five, four 
and three. In packing for shipping be sure to 
use a good pillow under your bottom dozen 
in your boxes and pillows between layers. 
Also be sure and make each and every dozen 
fast in your box. Many growers pack flowers 
loose for shipping, not tied in dozens. While 
it involves considerably more time to do the 
latter, it is probably the best practice to follow 
on large blooms. 
Mums, Pompons. ‘These are the biggest 
“headache” of all cut flowers, mainly because 
no standard has ever been set for the bunching 
of them. How this standard is ever going to 
be set is quite a question. Through the season 
just finished we received bunches weighing 
from 8 ozs. to 17 ozs., stems from 15 in. to 
48 in. Bunches containing as few as four stems, 
some up to 24 stems. We tried to check this 
year and the results of it point to a 12-oz. 
bunch with stems from 30 in. to 36 in. long, 
with a loose tieup near the blooms and a loose 
paper wrapper to protect the blooms in han- 
dling. Once a standard weight can be agreed 
on, to avoid the added time it takes to weigh 
each bunch, the method practicec by Harry 
Allyn of Elmira, N. Y., appealed to me. Every 
cutting day he weighed and bunched one 
bunch of every variety they were cutting him- 
self, and gave it as a sample to each buncher. 
1 know the results were satisfactory from the 
selling end. You can’t help but get quite a 
variance in the number of stems per bunch be- 
cause of the great difference in the habit of 
growth of different varieties, but how a buyer 
hates to pay $2.00 for four stems. Can you 
blame him? Four rules for you exclusive of 
setting your bunch weight: (1) If you are 
shipping any distance, put a tissue wrapper 
around the heads of each bunch, but don’t 
make it too tight; (2) Don’t put too many 
_ fared very well indeed even in 
bunches in a box; (3) If there is one kind of 
cut flower that should have the stems kept 
even in every bunch, it is the Pompon; (4) 
Watch your varieties and don’t waste bench 
room on weak-stemmed types even though 
they do produce, be they Button or Daisy 
types. There is nothing harder to sell than 
poor Pompons. 
GARDENIAS AND CAMELLIAS. With either 
of these two flowers it has been our experience 
that there are two things for the grower to be 
careful about: (1) use a box that is plenty big 
or if you use only one size box, cut down the 
number of blooms you put into it rather than 
get them too near the sides or ends; (2) be sure 
that each individual bloom is locked in place in 
its box and that it is fastened in a manner that 
will not allow it to “‘wabble”’ around. Camel- 
lias particularly on the second point. They 
have to be wired together anyway and if they 
aren't set down into shredded wax or some- 
thing to keep them from rocking enroute, the 
continued movement of this nature results in 
shattered blooms on arrival at destination or 
blooms that fall apart when you go to take 
them out of their box. 
GERBERA. ‘Twelve in a bunch and when 
possible of the same color. The big worry with 
Gerbera seems to be getting it to market in 
good condition. Mr. Van Bourgondien of 
Babylon, N. Y., has arrived at an apparent 
solution in having cartons made that allow for 
placing the stems in paper containers upright. 
The stems of this flower are so soft they are 
very easily damaged. When bruised they 
double over and have to be cut off between the 
bruise and the bloom to salvage them. 
GuLapioLus. There is only one way for Glads 
to be cut for shipment from Florida to northern 
markets, as we all know—tight. A great deal 
more attention has been paid by Florida grow- 
ers to their grading in recent years with result 
benefitting all. The grower who produces 
Glads up in our part of the country and is able 
to transport them himself is in a position to 
make all shipped in Glads take a back seat 
while he is cutting. We have two of the latter 
who through concentrating on careful grading, 
bunching and handling enroute to market, 
“not so good” 
times. In those times we were able to consist- 
ently sell their Glads for from 75c. to $1.25 per 
dozen while shipped in and other local stock 
of comparable quality but carelessly prepared 
for market ran from 1ldc. to 35e. and 40c. 
WHAT CAUSES PLANT DISEASES.* 
When considered in a broad sense, disease in 
plants may be due to a number of causes in- 
*Talk given by Dr. Paul Tilford—Ohio Agr. Expt. 
Sta. at Ohio Florists Short Course. 
