Florist

“ World-wide fame and a comfortable fortune await the florist who shall produce a variety of blue rose, tulip, hollyhock, or dahlia, or a yellow geranium or larkspur, which all persist in their fidelity to their particular color series. And yet nature gives us occasional exceptions which, however, only serve by their contrast to emphasize the universal law. ”

“ Nature has bestowed some of her choicest touches upon the lilies of the field, and an artistic eye discerns their possibilities. At the same time, art in floriculture has produced marvels, and those who can afford it may revel in mammoth roses and rare orchids, lilies of the valley in November, and red clovers in January, if it please them to pay the florist's bill for the same. ”

“ The florist mingles his compost, he proportions warmth and moisture, he is patient and watchful, observant of the atmosphere and of the seasons, else he knows that his richest bulbs would be cast away. ”

“ It may be a mean and cowardly thing to do to let the florist do the first year's work on it, and buy it when it is ready to flower that season, but I do it, and I shall continue to do it. I shall continue to do everything that I can think of that will save me trouble in my garden without injuring the garden. But the Iceland poppies are from seed that I myself sowed. I have sown blood-red wallflowers and Canterbury bells to flower next year. One can be lazy without being wholly bad. ”

“ It is one of those cases that may be illustrated by the florist who puts his greenhouse rose bushes in a cool, dark place for months, keeping them in a hibernating condition, as it were, and when brought into congenial warmth of sunshine he is rewarded with roses of remarkable strength and beauty. ”

“ CHAPTER XXIV FLOWERS There are a number of greenhouse crops which are easily within the reach of the amateur who has at his disposal a small glass structure. One is apt to feel that something much more elaborate than the simple means at his hands are required to produce the handsome flowers or beautiful ferns which may be seen in the florist's window. It is true that many things are beyond his achievement. ”

“ They certainly stimulate the production of magnificent fruit, of beautiful florist-flowers, and of handsome stove and greenhouse plants. But how do they affect the gardens in which these prize specimens are grown? It is mere matter of fact that, when [72] a gardener begins to think of exhibiting, he is very apt to pay undue attention to the plants which will secure him prizes and reputation. If his master is satisfied with the usual monotony of garden-beds, why should the gardener give special attention to what can be of no service to himself? ”

“ In one you find a grower of fine apples, pears, or plums, or of large gooseberries; in another, a florist, with his show of tulips, ranunculuses, hyacinths, carnations, or other choice flowers, that claim all his leisure moments, and are a source of a thousand cares and interests. And of these cares and interests, the neat awning of white canvass, raised on its light frame of wood ”

“ And then he told me how every day in the later months all hands are occupied in tending, cutting, and packing the roses which are daily expressed to a certain New York florist. The beautiful half-blown buds are carefully cut, with long, leafy stems, and laid in the great market-baskets standing on the table ready to receive them. Row after row and layer after layer are laid in, sprinkled until leaves and petals sparkle with a diamond dew. ”

“ The great blooms of the exhibitions are produced by growing only one flower to a plant and by feeding the plant heavily. It is hardly possible for the amateur to grow such specimen flowers as the professional florist or gardener does; neither is it necessary. A well-grown plant with fourteen to twenty flowers is far more satisfactory as a window plant than a long, stiff stem with only one immense flower at the apex. ”

“ Perhaps the entire display in the modern garden comes fresh from the florist in the spring, and is allowed to die out in the fall, to be replaced the next spring by plants not only new but even of different varieties from those of the year before. Not so at Brandon. Here, the garden is one of exclusive old families. Its flower people can trace their pedigrees back to the floral emigrants from England. The young plants that may replace some dead ones are scions of the old stock. ”

“ After all is said, it is probably advisable in most cases to purchase the plants when in bloom from a florist, and after blooming either throw them away or store them for planting out in the spring, when they will bloom throughout the summer. ”

“ But few women have as yet taken up floriculture as a business in the west, but in the east many are engaged in it, and not a few have secured fortunes from its profits. One of the most refined ladies we ever knew was a florist. She managed, with the assistance of a young German lad, three good sized green houses. The man did the coarse, heavy work, lifting heavy burdens, making fires, marketing the plants, etc., while she used the brain force to keep everything in fine running order, taking upon herself the personal supervision of each house. ”

“ Florists.—In midwinter the cut flower season is at its height and the florist endeavors to make all the money out of his greenhouses that he possibly can; every available inch of space exposed to the light is occupied by growing plants, and under the benches alongside of the pathways dahlias, cannas, caladiums, and other tubers and bulbs are stored, also ivies, palms, succulents and the like. ”

“ I have always received the most pleasure from planting distinct colors, like the yellows, the blues, the whites, and the purples, and the only way in which I can make sure of getting just the colors I want is to tell the florist about them, and instruct him to send me those colors when his seedlings come into bloom. ”

“ It is difficult to know what class of plants has in late years most profited by the artful nature, or unnatural art, of the skilful gardener; but certainly, some of the most striking successes [60] have been among roses, clematis, begonias, and rhododendrons.
But it is not the florist only who has been helping on the cause of botanical science at home. Within the last few years the botanists, or rather perhaps the naturalists, have been increasingly busy among both the English field and garden flowers. ”

“ Fill a tall jar with spires of larkspur of the purest blue known to garden flowers. Unless the sun shines fully on them they seem to swallow light; mingle with them some stalks of white foxgloves, Canterbury bells, or surround them with Madonna lilies, a fringe of spirea, or the slender Deutzia gracilis, more frequently seen in florists' windows than in the garden, [Pg 354] and a new meaning is given the blue flower; the black shadows disappear from its depth and sky reflections replace them. ”

“ To be more explicit, I could not possibly interest a florist by offering him jardinières, chiffon, floral art albums, supplies, Carnations, Lemon oil, seeds, bulbs, all practically in one breath, and expect to book a large order for all. Paradoxical though it may sound, the less things I mentioned the better were my results in the end. I must concentrate my lines; and the first things to go were supplies, ribbons, and jardinières, things that do not interest the average grower, whose product goes to the wholesale market. ”

“ A knowledge of botany is necessary to a florist. It requires considerable taste to make up a bouquet, and therefore is very appropriate to women. A knowledge of colors and their artistic arrangement is [Pg 140] essential; also a natural taste for flowers, and some patience. Making bouquets, wreaths, &c., is slow work. The stems of flowers for bouquets are cut very short, as most of the nutriment of the stem is lost to the succeeding ones by cutting long ones. Artificial stems are added to the natural ones, and are usually made of broom straw or ravelled matting. ”

“ The Care of House Plants
Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.
—Cowper.
"If you are one of those people who love flowers and can make them grow," said a Fifth Avenue florist to me recently, "you can do almost anything you please with them, and they will thrive." "So, then," I laughed, "you think love has a great deal to do with the matter?" And he replied, "I most certainly do!" Therefore, if you love to see "the green things growing," enough to give them the least bit of intelligent care, you can reasonably hope to raise all you have room for. ”

“ A guide to the successful propagation and cultivation of florists’ plants. The work is not one for florists and gardeners only, but the amateur’s wants are constantly kept in mind, and we have a very complete treatise on the cultivation of flowers under glass, or in the open air, suited to those who grow flowers for pleasure as well as those who make them a matter of trade. ”

“ True, if you get a healthy one, by layering and pegging down, you can sometimes get good plants, but you had better purchase seedlings by the dozen as they are offered in boxes and baskets, or order them of the florist by mail or express, and you will have plants that will grow compact, bloom early and profusely, with far better foliage than the puny straggling ones rooted from cuttings. ”

“ If you prefer to mix it yourself, or to add any of the ingredients to the soil you may have, most florists can supply you with light soil, sand, peat or leaf-mould and rotted manure; and sphagnum moss, pots, saucers and other things required for your outfit. If a large supply is wanted, it would probably be cheaper to go to some establishment on the outskirts of the city where things are actually grown, than to depend upon the retail florist nearer at hand. ”

“ The love of flowers is a passion among all classes of the people, and their cultivation as a business by experienced individuals gives profitable employment to many florists, whose grounds are pictures of accumulated beauty, fragrance, and variety of hues. There is as true harmony to the eye in such blendings as there is to the ear in perfect music. The reader may be sure that where the children of Flora so much abound, bright tinted humming-birds do much more abound, dainty little living feathered gems, rivaling rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. ”

“ Primarily, this advance of refinement in the popular taste is traceable to the skill and enthusiastic devotion of the florists who have supported in all their integrity the true canons of floral perfection, and whose labours will continue to be imperative for maintaining the standards of quality. By their severe rules of criticism the florists further the ends of floriculture subjectively, and by the actual results of their labours they render objective aid, their finest flowers serving not only as types, but as the actual stud for perpetuating each race. ”

“ One of the most potent factors in the growth and development of the florist industry in this country was the founding of the Society of American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists, and the hearty co-operation of all its members to make it a live and flourishing organization. ”

“ Some of the flowers introduced into our gardens, and now cultivated either on account of their beauty or the pleasantness of their smell, have been procured from plants which grew wild, and which have been changed, or, according to the opinion of florists, improved by the art of the gardener. ”

“ And do they use Bride roses for"—
The Florist: "Yes; and for weddtings, too; for everything." The lady leans back a little and surveys the flowers critically. A young man enters, and approaches the florist, but waits with respectful impatience for the lady to transact her affairs. The florist turns to him inquiringly, and upon this hint he speaks. ”

“ FLOWERS (Fleurs, Fr.; Blumen, Germ.) of benzoin, of sulphur, of zinc, &c., is the appellation given by the older chemists to such substances as were obtained in a pulverulent or rather minutely crystalline form by the process of sublimation.
FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL, MANUFACTURE OF. The art of representing by flowers, leaves, plants, &c., vegetable nature in her ornamental productions, constitutes the business of the artificial florist. The Italians appear to have been the first people in Europe who excelled in the art of making artificial flowers ”

“ Many florists make money by keeping constantly on hand ferns, palms, and other plants like rubber trees, which they rent out for social functions, weddings, and other occasions. Most florists in the larger cities have also quite a thriving business in tree planting, which is everywhere on the increase. ”

“ It has proved to be perfectly hardy, only the first year the young and tender plant needs some protection during the winter. Florists are growing them in great quantities to meet the increasing demand. ”

“ The love of gardening has so greatly grown and spread within the last few years, that the need of really good and beautiful garden flowers is already far in advance of the demand for the so-called "florists" [242] flowers, by which I mean those that find favour in the exclusive shows of Societies for the growing and exhibition of such flowers as Tulips, Carnations, Dahlias, and Chrysanthemums. ”

“ At the commercial florists, and in many of the large private gardens, rows upon rows of flowers are grown on the vegetable-garden plan, solely for gathering for the house, and while those with limited labour and room cannot do this extensively, they can gain the same end by an intelligent use of their seed beds.
Many men (and more especially many women) , many minds, but however much tastes may differ I think that a list of thirty species of herbaceous perennials should be enough to satisfy the ambition of an amateur, at least in the climate of the middle and eastern United States. ”