Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-03-05
FLOWERS BRING MONEY.
HERE is AN INDUSTRY WORTH WHILE
FOR WOMEN TO PURSUE.

and Bring Large Returns
Flower culture in small way can be
made to pay even by an amateur who
chooses to pursue it IN painstaking and
intelligent way" said . young woman.
Five years ago l bought little farm
near Anacostia, called it Rose Acres
and started in merely for amusement's
sake with a few rose bushes and some
other plants. l love flowers dearly, and
the labor expended upon them was well
repaid by the pleasure of it, but after a
while l found that it would produce
money also. So l planted more and
more, until at present i have between
three and four thousand rose bushes of
the choicest varieties. A skilled gar
dener told me the other day that my col
lection of hybrid perpetuals is probably
the finest in this country. On the day
before Decoration Day picked and sofa
5000 roses from my own place.
II am extravsgantly fond of f-roses,
but violets are more profitable. On the
day before Christmas picked,andl sold
200 violets at two cents apsa1e; that is
$64 worth. They were worth the bigh-
est price then, but theycnever bring less
than one cent apiece. To raise them is
quite easy. haveS20 glass sashes un-
der which the viSlets bloom all winter
long. In May /, have lot of fresh
ground plowed azd prepared, and in it
plant all my yloeets, taken from beneath
the sashes forrthe purpose. Then sim
ply take up the sashes and cover the
newly planted violets with them anil
the work is done In October theyfbe-
GIN to bloom, and continue al through
the winter SO that can pick them every
day and:send the fiowersjto market.
ALWAYS A MARKET.
An'of my violet paa1Ats come fran one
little pot that 1 borfght at the Center
market five years ago They are made
to multiply by dLviding the roots, so
that single plakt taken up inthe spring
viii supply s1ore or more. sell my
flowers by sealing them to the florists
in Washington or very often in New
York. P Pfces are higher in New York,
so that, it usually pays to express
them on.
'fherei is always aImarket for flowers
End there is never any difficulty IN dis
posing of them. Anytfiorist is glad to
buy them if they'are good ones and in
prime condition. Those which l send
to New York are delivered early the
next morning. 1 expressed some thith-
er originally on speculation and got
immediate replies praising their quality
and asling.for more The violets must
be picked always in the afternoon, be-
cause otherwise they lose their perfume.
Then they'must be brought into town
in the evening for shipment.
'My greatest success is with sweet
pease, which most people do not get
along very well with in this latitude.
get thefvery finest possible seed to begin
with. From June to August l pick
very nearly 1000 sweet pea blossoms
daily, and they sell for fifty cents hun
profitable of my flowers. They require
but little care plant the seeds in the
spring in open ground, about four inches
deep, and as the plants grow the earthiis
kept hilled up around them. Thenposts
are stuck in along the rows with strings
arranged so that the vines are trained
upon them. had one-sixteenth. of an
acre set out with sweet pease,. and it
brought in clear 5000 from thessale of
the blooms.
GROWING DAHLIAS.
stAnother flower am very successful
with is the single dahlia, which is very
much handsomer than the double
dahlia, you know. l Plant the bulbs,
which l propagate myself, the last of
May, and the plants begin to flower
about the last of August, keeping on
until frost manage to keep them go
ing for some time later than would
otherwise be possible by lighting fires
on cold nights at the ends of the rows.
In this way | get them over the first
frosty spell, after which there is usually
season of quite warm weather, so that
frequently my dahlias are blooming
beautifully up to the end of November.
try TO make the flowers L grow alter
nate, so that when one sort stops bloom
ing another begins. Ny violets are
Towering from the last of September to
the end of April: then come the roses
through thesummer, andTthe sweetpease,
with dahlias in the fall and violets again
until spring. You can perceive that my
way of growing flowers does not make
necessary any large Investment in green
houses or otherwise OF course there are
some expenses. 1 have two men to
help me, though one of them l should
have to keep anyway for other purposes
There is great deal in the proper pack
ing of flowers for market.
For example, violets must be placed
in punches in pasteboard boxes, with
waxed paper folded loosely around them
They must not be touched with water,
because to do so will take away their
sweetness. 1 consider my own flower
growing enterprise as only begun thus
| far; some day hope to become mill
| ionaire by selling violets and sweet peaR.
At all events there is money in theibusi-
ness, properly pursued, and more women
ought to go into Washington Star