Evening star., 1935-04-21
Bv Thomas X. Henry.
THROUGHOUT Christendom
Easter is a floral festival.
The blossom on the stalk
i so lately brown and dead is
an accepted and natural Sym-


Il so lately brown and dead is
an accepted and natural SYM
bol of resurrection, as the whiteness
Of the lilies is a natural symbol Of
hope and purity. So the church
affairs are decorated with flowers.
Florists do their heaviest business Of
the year and gifts of flowers are
In accordance with popular custom.
This has been so all over the
Christian world for centuries. Easter
has been feast of flowers since the
prosecuted Christians were able first
to emerge from the dark catacombs
and conduct their worship in public.
But for most of this time they have
been dependent on Nature to provide
the flowers for them according to her
own whims. They have used the
blooms of the season, as they could
be gathered from wood and field. ~
Unfortunately for this practice.
Easter does not follow the season.
It is not phenologically dated, hut
is a moving festival whose date in
any particular year depends upon
certain astronomical happenings. 1t
is, in other words, the first Sunday
after the first full moon after the
vernal equinox. This date may vary
by several weeks from year to year.
It may find Spring we'll advanced
or just beginning. In high ATTITUDES
1t is just on the edge of Winter,
when very few blossoms have made
their appearance. AS far north as
New England, for example, about the
only Towering plant in bloom is the
hidden trailing arbutus.
WITHIN the last half century the
w horticulturist and the florist
have stepped into the situation-the
one with scientific procedures based
on intensive and objective studies of
the habits of plants and the other
with labor and investments to carry
out the necessary procedures. Various
techniques have been developed for
making flowers bloom, within mar
row limits, at just about the time
they are wanted for the market. The
Of these techniques, or go out of
business. A few days might well
mean the difference between a pros
porous season and bankruptcy.
In nature plant comes into bloom
under certain prolonged conditions of
light. humidity and temperature. The
necessary complex of these conditions
varies for different species and va
rieties. In order to force or delay
the season it is necessary to make
a careful study of the blossoming
behavior of the plant in nature and
then to reproduce the conditions,
usually with considerable exactness,
in the greenhouse. The florists can
delay or speed their plants as they
wish. They can make any sort of
season they wish under glass. 1t
might even be possible, though hardly
practical, to bring chrysanthemums
into bloom in April or lilies in No.
vember -
No longer does a cold Spring mean
q fiowerless Easter. AS a matter of
fact, 1t makes little difference. The
blossoms most popular on Christen-
dom's flower festival always can be
produced in abundance, in accordance
with the expected market.
In America all this has been a devel-
opment of the past rs years, and a
Washington scientist, one of the
earliest scientific horticulturists and
landscape gardeners of the United
States, may be considered as the
father of it all. He was the Scotch
gardener William Saunders, who came
to- America in 1848, made his home
here for the greater part of his life
and died here in 1900. 1t was while
In the nursery business here that he
developed, for the first time in the
United States, the idea of fixed roofs
for greenhouses. This is the founda-
ton upon which the whole American
greenhouse industry has been built
UP. It is not at all unlikely that the
Easter floral display would be far less
elaborate than is the case today If 1t
had not been for the fertile brain Of
Saunders. He also was the first man
to call attention to the value of bottom
heat in the roofing of cuttings, now a
regular practice for most plants in all
propagating establishments.
REFORE Saunders the greenhouses
jof America had been Of the crude
type largely confined to private es-
tates and of little significance in the
commercial life of the country. A good
example is the greenhouse at Mount
Vernon. The business of the florist,
inasmuch as he had any business at
all, was confined largely to the sea-
sonal plants. But, for that matter.
Americans had not reached the flower