The suburban citizen., 1901-04-27
FLOWERS HARDTO GROW
TRIALS or A WOMAN WHO TOOK
UP THE FLORISTS BUSINESS.

IL Is Not an Easy Occupatlon-IIard Work
and Perseverance Required For Sue
cess-Little Tragedies That Must Be
Endured-Profts Not Large,
A young woman who owns and
manages a large wholesale flower busi-
ness in New Jersey and a retail flower
shop on Broadway recently talked to
New York Sun reporter about her ex-
perience.
"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 n girl florist need do is to wear
white frOck and gather roses and VIC
let's. l always smile when l read the
fairy stories. A florists business is
profitable enough, ii one succeeds; but
as for its being easy, know better.
81 was fortunate enough to have
some money so that l could go into
the work under favorable conditions,
but az look back at my experiences l
wonder that l held on those first
months and years. l was not strong,
but had always been eager to do
things and injured my delicate consti-
tuition by all sorts Of experiments in
work. My family protested, but 1
vowed that l couldn't live without an
absorbing occupation. l needed cOun-
try life, but l wouldn't stay in the
country and stagnate.
"Finally my family proposed that
should build a green house on our
country place and go in for raising
flowers. They thought the work would
be healthful and would keep me at
home and 1 suppose they had no idea
1 would tako it very seriously. l did.
l went into the new experiment with
all my might 1 was utterly discour-
aged any number of times, but I
wouldn't give up. l finally won out,
but life was a succession Of tragedies
for the first two years.
III lue hLSL uluCG lueIe WIS TIE
building Of the greenhouses. / had
two houses, 100 by twenty feet in size,
and then a smaller cold frame house.
They were built according to the most
improved principles Of greenhouse con-
struction. l selected a slope with the
right exposure When the men begun
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 b worked with dynamite,
and, as the men said, we had the devils
own time with it; but 1 consoled my
self by thinking the cellar could never
be damp. Still to make sure we dug
4 foot and a half below the floor and
filled in with broken stone.
"The houses were finished in No
vember l put the flowers in at once,
and just as soon as l 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 fire were out. That
was at four O'Clock on a December
morning. l knew it probably meant
destruction to all the plants, but l
climbed out Of bed aud went out in
the cold to see what could be done.
There wasn't any use in crying.
I'VE patched things up, after almost
killing one workman, and then l put
in an automatic cellar drain. Three
weeks later there was another food,
/ .,
blasted a big ditch under the cellar
and down the hill, so we had no more
foods, but there were other tragedies.
Everybody had told me that I was
perfectly crazy TO undertake the
thing that no woman could do it, that
1t meant work night and day, fright
full exposure, unending care, expense
and responsibility-all that was true
except the statement that a woman
couldn't do the work. 1 did every
thing except run the furnace.
every leaf had TO be drenched, the
paths had to be wet down, [ dragged
lose until l thought my back was
broken, and drenched myself so thor
| oughly as the flowers. Then, Of
course, 1 took horrible colds. BY and
| by 1 got rubber boots and q water
proof short skirt and blouse. After
that things went better, but there was
stlll plenty Of excuse for colds.
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 we're so numb that l could
not even re the strings on the boxes
and had TO get the furnace man to
come in and do that.
81 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 a fall of six or eight de-
grees in temperature may be very
serious matter in n greenhouse, and l
was so worried for fear the weather
would change in the night that l didn't
half sleep. When did sleep / dreamed
awful things about red spiders and
/ mildeW and eel worms and grubs Oh,