The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1901-04-21
TRIDUITloIS Of
1 FAIR FLORIST
MANY TRIALS OF A WOMAN WHO
TOOK UP THE FLORISTS
BUSINESS.
Not an Easy oeeupation-Hard Work
and Perseverance, Required for
sueeess-littIe Tragedies = High
Prices but Not Large Profits.

A young woman who owns and man
ages large wholesale lower business
IN New Jersey and a retail flower shop
On Broadway recently talked to Sun
reporter ABOUT her experience.
When you hear any one say that
the flower business is an easy and
profitable occupation for women, don t
believe it," she said. THE magazines
are full of stories about the romantic
and beautiful side of the florists work.
They are enough to give any girl a
tempting vision of life all sunshine.
You would think to read them that all
a girl florist need to do is to wear a
white frock and gather roses and VIC
lets. / always smile when / read the
fairy stories. A fierist's business is
profitable enough, il one succeeds; but
as for its being easy, know better.
Il was fortunate enough to have
some money, so that l conld go into
the work under favorable conditions,
but as l look back at my experience
wonder that l held on through those
first months and years. was not
strong, but had always been eager to
do things. and injured my delicate
constitution by all sorts of expert
ments in work. My family protested,
but / vowed that couldn't live with
out an absorbing occupation. / need
ed country life, but wouldn't stay in
the country and stagnate.
Finally my family proposed that l
should build greenhouse on our
country place and go in for raising
flowers. They thought the work was
healthful and would keep me at home.
but ! suppose they had no idea that
| would take it very seriously. l did.
| went into the new experiment with
all my might. | was utterly discour-
aged any number Of times, but would
not give up. finally won out, but
life was succession Of tragedies for
the first two years.
In the first place, there was the
building of the greenhouses. l had
two houses, 100 by 20 feet in sizeA and
then smaller cold frame house. They
were built according to the most i'm
proved principles of greenhouse con-
struction. / selected slope with the
right exposure. When the men began
on the cellar they found it had to be
dug out of solid rock. The rock was
too hard to be worked with picks and
too soft to be worked with dynamite;
and. as the men said, we had the div
lis own time with it,; but l consoled
myself with thinking that the cellar
could never be damp. Still, to be
sure, we dug foot and a half below
the floor and filed in with broken
stone
The houses were finished in No
vember. ] put the flowers in at once;
and just as soon as had them in the
man came tearing to the house one
night to tell me that there was four
feet Of water in the greenhouse cellar
and the fires were all out That was
at 4 o'clock on December morning.
| knew it probably meant destruction
to all the plants. but climbed out of
bed and went out in the cold to see
what could be done. There wasn't
any use in crying
I'VE patched things up, almost kill
ing one workman, and then / put in |
an automatic cellar drain. Three
weeks later there was another flood,
worse than the first After that we
blasted big ditch under the cellar |
and down the hill, so we had no more |
floods, but there were other tragedies |
Everybody had told me that was |
perfectly crazy to undertake the thing.
that no woman could do it, that it
meant work night and day, frightful
exposure. amending care. expense and
responsibility. All that was trpe ex-
cept the statement that woman |
do the work. did every
thing except run the furnaces.
Il worked hour after hour in the
moist. hot air OF the greenhouse. and |
then went into the cool air outside.
got up at a m. to do the packing for |
shipping. stood in the cold storage |
room and dabbled in icy water until |
my hands were 30 numb that could |
not even tie the strings on the boxes. |
and had to get the furnace man to |
come in and do that.
Il got up at all hours of the night !
and went out to the greenhouses with |
a lantern to open or shut ventilators |
because the temperature had changed |
You know . fall of six or eight de-
grees in temperature may be very
serious matter in greenhouse. and | |
was SO worried for fear the weather /
would change in thehight that didn't |
half sleep. When / did sleep dream
ed awful things about red spiders. and |
mildev. and eel worms. and grubs- /
Oh. those diAbolical red spiders that /
sou can't see. Yet miliew Is worse
A draught or damp weather or too
high temperature and mildev may aI |