Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-02-24
PREPARE FOR EASTER.
Lilies Intended to Grace Affairs on
that Day We're Started
Months Ago.

Easter morning the affairs Of most OF
the churches bloom as if by magic with
scores of great white lilies-tall white
callas and the Easter lilies which Unlike
any other flower have but the one day
which they call their own. The few
days or even the week preceding Faster
the show windows of the florists begin
to bloom with them, and one or two are
placed among the other potted plants,
but Easter day hundreds of them are
ready for decorations and stand among
the palms of the affairs as fresh and per
feet as if they had bloomed only the
night before and had but the one day to
live which had given them it's name
They come as matter OF course and
their appearance seems almost automatic
and with no specific evidence Of the
months of care and the accurate timing
of the planting necessary to have them
in the perfection of bloom on the day
upon which they are expected. Even
now with Lent not yet begun no one is
thinking of Easter and certainly ITO one
remembered it before the holidays; but
it was in September that preparations
for Easter decorations began among the
florists; the shipping of most of the bulbs
is done then, and hundreds of thousands
imported or shipped from the East were
received during the months of September
and October.
The bulbs of the Easter lilies were
|
ing required for their metamorphosis into
plants. Now at the end of five months
they are from one to three feet in height,
with narrow, thickly placed leaves, in
significant, unattractive looking plants
with little or no outward promise of
what they are going to be by April. By
the end of Lent they will be three and
four feet high and bearing from three
to half dozen Of the clustered flowers.
Just at present the few which are al
lowed place in the greenhouses at all
are tucked away in warm, inconspicuous
| places or placed in among the palms to
| give place to the more common flowers
| that bloom all year round and are in
dispensable at Easter and all other
times. The rooms in the growers hot
houses, where they are arranged, is as
unattractive as possible with the pots
stalks ranged stiffly along and requiring
| about as much care as the daybreaks
and American beauties which are In such
lavish bloom in the other rooms. Hun
dreds of the weed-like little plants are
standing about in all the greenhouses
and in some of the larger ones where the
/ Easter decorations are made a speciality
! the number of plants runs on well up
into the thousands, and all these as eX
perience has taught will meet with
ready sale Easter week. In fact the
preparations for Easter are about as
extensive as those for the holidays, and
begins long before that of the holidays
| since the Christmas flowers are largely
cut. and the Easter demand is mostly
for ported plants, the lilies especially. to
| be used in decorations for the churches.
! The cost of the Easter lilies is S3 a
dozen for the cut flowers and 81 and SD
{, for the plants.
The callas. for which there is almost
as great demand at Easter time as for
the lilies themselves, have been planted
| since summer; some of them are In full
! bloom now. but the greater number are
being withheld for the Easter season and
show only great glossy leaves.
| Another flower for which there is
constant demand Easter week is the
| hyacinth; it is a universal favorlte be-
cause of it's fragrance and beauty and it
is not only cheap but obliging, and can
be supplied in any quantity desired at
any specified time. The supply of these
bulbs is about the largest received in
the fall. most of them coming from Hol-
land; from fifteen to twenty cases are
ordered by most of the florists, the cases
containing twenty or more packages Oh
$50 bulbs each. These are simply
stored away-part of them put in the
ground and the rest in boxes with some
in pots which can be made ready at short
notice to supply the frequent demand for
/ them. The greater number of them,
however, are kept for Easter, and if the
weather be moderately bright prices will
not alter-the potted hyacinths selling
now for from 10 to % cents apiece; the
bulbs cost at wholesale about Z cents
dozen.
All cut flowers at present are remarka-
bly, cheap, and will probably be even
lower before Easter, the Lenten season
being dull and the demand diminishing
from now on. The schedule for cut
flowers now runs about as follows:
Roses. 81 %: mignonette and hyacinths,
SO cents and 81; violets and liles-of-the-
valley, 35 and SO cents; narcissus and
tulips, rs cents; Gala lilies, So dozen.
Prices will be somewhat higher at
Easter of course, and should there be
a season of dark weather as happened
before the holidays the effect on prices
will be the same as it was then.-Mil-
waukee Evening Wisconsin.