The age-herald., 1901-01-13
Culture of Flowers on a Large
 Scale IN GAY WORLD OF SOCIETY
Daughters of the American Revolution Meet and Elect 0fficers-Events of the Week and Month.
 Personal Mention.
BY ANNIE KENDRIcK WALKER.

We all know these women-these exotic creatures of whom it is said they resemble flowers grown in a hot house. 1 remember, that before l knew that things must not always be taken literally of an absolutely morbid curiosity that 1 felt in my desire to behold celebrated beauty whom I had heard described as resembling a rare hot house plant, and I wondered whether she would be like the pink geranium or the purple heliotropes that bloomed in my grand mothers hot house. To find that she was flesh and blood lady was one of my greatest disappontments, but when I hear nowadays of exotic women, Cora Urquant Potter for instance I know that compari sons are not odious and that are scores of American women whose beauty is as rare as the most cherished blossom that is nurtured
 But this story is not to be of exotic women, but of exoties that blooming in a cluster of hot houses just out from Birmingham, and which are to be fashion ed into shower bouquets for late winter and Easter brides, and made into gorgeous center pieces for the seasons dinner par ties, and to be sent by the lords of crea- tion to their Angelinas; the very mention of Angelina recalling the story of lord of creation who selected for her Christmas present the largest American beauties that could be found at the florist The order was for two dozen and this particular lord of creation, never dreaming that even an orchid could cost more than p cents a piece, gasped for breath when the florist informed him the two dozen American beauties amounted to SIS. The former dramatically countermanded the order and then he went and bought his Angelina huff, finding furs less costly than flowers.
 This group of green houses is at Wood- lawn, and as every woman who has had a dinner party and many who have not, knows that this garden spot, within three miles of the very heart of Birmingham town, is owned by Mir. Lindsay, who is proving that flower culture is not only a profitable undertaking in Birmingham, but that the flower industry is taking its place among the other industries and develop ments which seem to bloom forth in night in city whose wonderful progress is the talk of the great centers of the world. The remarkable industrial deVel- opment bringing it does the wealthy men of the country and many charming people to make brilliant the social life of Birmingham, creates a demand for other things besides the making of steel, and this winter alone has demonstrated that no city in the South has been more lavish in the money expended for flowers than has Birmingham. The 0OrlStS were OVer-Dur- dened with orders during the holidays, and since the social season opened the flower trade has been no small item to either the florists or the people who have been en- tertaining.
 There is no city in the South where more attention is given ito floral decoration than that bestowed by Birmingham women upon their social functions, and this season has seemed to have been characterized by un- usual beauty and eaborateness in the ar- rangement of the flowers at the many beau- tiful entertainments in Brmingham's so- cial world. But even entire interiors con verted into an exotic bower, a process sion of bridesmaids, their arms filled with shower bouquets and trooping to palm laden altar, cannot convey the luXuriant beauty and fragrance that are found in the long aisles in green houses abloom with carnations and roses To miles of American beauties in bloom on a sunny morning that the past week brought was a sight I little dreamed of beholding, and when in another green house hundreds of snowy carnations were lifting their heads to the warm sunlight that filtered through the glass, l was content to go no further. But beyond were great beds of white hya- cinths and narclssus and over against a white wall a Marchal Neil was blooming riotously. Aisle after aisle was bordered thickly with palms, and beyond the palm gardens was a dream-like place draped with smllaX, intermingled with stray beams of sunlight. It was forest of smi lax, long vista of pale green tendrils that clung to white cords, and beyond this was