Evening star., 1896-12-12


ment and delicacy is to repeat one of the
most trite of truisms. There are very few
Washington homes the dwellers in which
do not make some sort of effort at flower
decoration, from the 10-cent bunch of
chrysanthemums on the dining room table
to the expensive orchids or roses in the
parlor or sitting room.
"At this season, when cut flowers are
more expensive than at any other period Of
the year. owing to the immense demand
created by the holidays, the daily consump-
tion of flowers in Washington is sufficiently
remarkable to astonish the florists of other
cities of approximately equal size. Vioets,
for instance. are pretty costly just now
owing to the difficulty of getting enough
of them during the cold weather to supply
the demand. Yet the florists of Washing
ton are selling every day more than 10000
violets. During the spring and summer
months, when violets are much cheaper
than they are now Washington people use
all the way from 10000 to 100000 of them
day. say: s,s ,oon ou,.. 49,. .,,.. -
during the past two months. owing to the
fine weather which has caused the demand
for them for personal adornment to keep
well up with the supply. and roses have been
rather more costly this season than during
the same period last year. Yet 10000 a day
is fair average Of the number of roses of
all kinds which the florists of Washington
have sold from the middle of October TO
the present time. More than 10000 roses
day were sold to Washingtonians during
the months Of the past summer.
"Cut flowers of all sorts are about thirty
per cent cheaper here than in any other
possible exception of San, Francisco, the
markets Of which are Hooded by the waxy
splendid-looking, but unfra grant, flowers
grown in southern Calfornia-for the fow-
ers OF the slope are something like its
fruit handsome in appearance, but pithy
and tasteless. "7'9
Raised in This Vicinity.
'The comparative cheapness of flowers
and plants in Washington is due to the
fact that the great bulk Of them are raised
in the nearby environs of, the city, and. in
selling them. the cost Of transportation has
not to be added to the cost Of production
In order to make the business profitable.
In the Immediate neighborhood Of
Washington there are nearly 100000 square
feet of ground devoted tonthe cultivation
of flowers and plants under glass by flor
lists who possess their, own nurseries. /
don t-think 1t Is generally known by Wash
iT gtop people that Anacostia is one of the
most notable flower producing towns in
the middle Atlantic states. In Anacostia
there are more than 125,UOO square feet Of
noWers chiefly roses. cultivated under
glass. Alexandria has a flower area of
about $4,000 feet under glass BIadensburg
and vicinity Is a very important place In
the fower-raisins business, and has nearly
10000 square feet Of flowers and plants un-
der glass Flower nurseries take up more
than 23,OOO square feet of space glassed
over on the Chevy Chase road, and on the
Falls Church road near Fort Myer ii re-
quires D.0U more square feet of glass to
protect the flowers and plants grown there
for the public market. Finally. great
number of the flowers sold in Washington
are raised in the Brightwood nurseries, to
100000 square feet of glass. 1t is safe
to say that of all the flowers and plants
sold in the national capital nine-tenths
of them are produced within a radius of
ten miles from the Capitol building.
Roses and VioIets.
'.In the production Of roses the nurseries
of Anacostia lead those of all the other
places that have named. Anacostia roses
are rapidly becoming famous in cities like
New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Balti-
more. to which places they are shipped in
large numbers. There is no especial rea-
son why better and more hardy roses
should be grown under glass in Anacostia
than in Brightwood, for instance. for the
soil and climate are essentially the same
as are the methods of cultivation, Yet
Anacostia roses are far in the lead of all
of the other. roses grown hereabouts. The
Anacostia flower nurserymen make a spe-
cialty of the exquisite but misnamed Amer
lean beauty roses (misnamed because the
historian Bancroft brought the first Ameri-
can beauty rosebuSh from France to this
country along in the thirties, when the
variety was thoroughly well known 10
French horticulturists), and large prices are
paid for them when their scarcity Is unl1s,l-
al owing to protracted spells of cold wealth
er. Retail flower dealers get all the way
from s. to $1S a dozen for them ACCORDING
to the season, and the flowers size and
condition.
The best violets grown in this vicinity
are raised In the Alexandria nurseries and
the Alexandria nurserymen make sne
cialty of violets for the Washington trade
There is not so much money in the raising
of violets as there is in the growing Of
roses, for the same reason that VINEYARDS
find the production Of still wines more
profitable than the production of cham
pagnes. namely, the failure Of large pro-
portion Of the product. AS about one-half
of the sparkling wine bottled for fermenta-
tion is lost owing to the premature popping
of corks and the bursting Of bottles SO
about one-half of the violets planted under
the glass frames fail to mature and bios
som. 1t is owing to this fact that the price
Of violets is so high There is scarcely any
money In retailing them in small auanti-
ties. Florists get from 81 to 81 hundred
and freshness. -a'f
"Brfghtwood leads all of the iower-grow-