Improvements relating to the Preservation of Shoots of Bulbous or Tuberous Plants for Forcing Purposes.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Nov., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Aug., 1894-Accepted, 27th Oct., 1894
PROVISIONAL DIECITIVATION.
Improvements relating to the Preservation of Shoots of Bulbous or
Tuberous Plants for Forcing Purposes.
.
We, JOCHIM RIECK and HEINRICH RIECK, both of 94 Niedernstrasse,
Hamburg, in the Empire of Germany, Dealers in Fruit, Game and Poultry, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to the preservation of shoots of bulbous or tuberous
plants, especially lilies of the valley, for any length of time for forcing purposes
without injury to their vitality, so that they may be caused to bloom at any season
of the year.
In the culture of lilies of the valley these flowers, as is well known, are taken
out and sorted in the course of the month of October; the shoots without flowers
are plant shoots which are put in the ground again, while the shoots with flowers
are those for forcing.
It can be ascertained whether the shoot bears in it a flower or not by feeling
the same. Up to the present time it has been customary to sell these shoots for
forcing to gardeners at once. The gardeners then force the shoots and utilize the
flowers in the course of the winter. In this ordinary method gardeners succeed,
by careful treatment and energetic forcing, in obtaining fresh lilies of the valley
by the end of the month of November at the earliest. Such flowers however are
poor specimens in consequence of the energetic forcing. This unfavourable result
is not the only defect of the mode of treatment heretofore practised, since the
shoots last at most only till the spring and, if they are to be prevented from
rotting, absolutely require to be forced whether there is any demand for lilies of
the valley or not.
The object of our aforesaid invention is to obviate this inconvenience and we
are enabled moreover to preserve the shoots for any length of time without their
vitality being injuriously affected. We can also produce at any season of the
year fresh, fully grown lilies of the valley which do not differ in the least from the
flowers grown in the open air in spring.
Our method consists in packing the shoots in boxes with moss and peat mould or
the like, and exposing the shoots thus packed in February or thereabouts, before
they have bloomed, to the action of comparatively great cold, say-7.5 degrees
centigrade, so that the shoots will become frigid but will not be actually frozen.
Then the boxes with the frigid shoots are placed in suitable cooling chambers and
continuously exposed therein to a uniform temperature of from about 3 to 5 degrees
centigrade. The shoots thus treated keep for years and when planted put forth
in about 3 or 4 weeks the most beautiful leaves and flowers at any desired season of
the year. As a further advantage of this method we may mention that the shoots
bloom even at the ordinary temperature of a room. Artificial forcing by high
temperature is therefore not needful.
Dated this 22nd day of November 1893.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.

page_text: Improvements relating to the Preservation of Shoots of Bulbous or
Tuberous Plants for Forcing Purposes.
We, JOCHIM RIECK and HEINRICH RIECK, both of 94 Niedernstrasse, Hamburg,
in the Empire of Germany, Dealers in Fruit, Game and Poultry, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
Our invention relates to the preservation of shoots of bulbous or tuberous
plants, especially lilies of the valley, for any length of time for forcing purposes
without injury to their vitality, so that they may be caused to bloom at any season
of the year.
In the culture of lilies of the valley these flowers, as is well known, are taken
out and sorted in the course of the month of October; the shoots without flowers
are plant shoots which are put in the ground again, while the shoots with flowers
are those for forcing.
It can be ascertained whether the shoot bears in it a flower or not by feeling the
same. Up to the present time it has been customary to sell these shoots for forcing
to gardeners at once. The gardeners then force the shoots and utilize the flowers.
in the course of the winter. In this ordinary method gardeners succeed by careful
treatment and energetic forcing, in obtaining fresh lilies of the valley by the end
of the month of November at the earliest. Such flowers however are poor
specimens in consequence of the energetic forcing. This unfavourable result is not
the only defect of the mode of treatment heretofore practised, since the shoots last
at most only till the spring and, if they are to be prevented from rotting, absolutely
require to be forced whether there is any demand for lilies of the valley or not.
The object of our aforesaid invention is to obviate this inconvenience and we
are enabled moreover to preserve the shoots for any length of time without their
vitality being injuriously affected. We can also produce at any season of the year,
fresh, fully grown lilies of the valley which do not differ in the least from the
flowers grown in the open air in spring.
Our method consists in packing the shoots in boxes with moss and peat mould or
the like, and exposing the shoots thus packed in February or thereabouts, before
they have bloomed to the action of comparatively great cold, say-7.5 degrees
centigrade, so that the shoots will become frigid but will not be actually frozen.
Then the boxes with the frigid shoots are placed in suitable cooling chambers and
continuously exposed therein to a uniform temperature of from about 3 to
5 degrees centigrade. The shoots thus treated keep for years and when planted
put forth in about 3 or 4 weeks the most beautiful leaves and flowers at any desired
season of the year. As a further advantage of this method we may mention that
the shoots bloom even at the ordinary temperature of a room.
Artificial forcing
by high temperature is therefore not needful.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
The process of preserving shoots of bulbous or tuberous plants for obtaining
blossoms at any desired season of the year, which consists in packing the shoots
prior to their natural blooming in moss, peat mould or the like and exposing the

page_text: shoots to the action of cold in which they will become frigid but not frozen,
whereupon the frigid shoots are continuously kept in a uniform temperature of less
cold until they are to be planted, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 22nd day of August 1894.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.