The American florist; or A guide to the management & cultivation of plants in conservatories, greenhouses, rooms, and gardens; to which are added, directions for the culture of annual, biennial, and perennial flowers, trees, shrubs, bulbs, etc., etc

Front matter

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Horticulture Branch Library September 1984 by the

James Smithson Society

Preface

plaint has often been made to the author of the present work, of the want of a manual, in which the necessary information should be con¬ veyed in a plain, familiar manner ; and it has been his endeavor to supply the desideratum in the following pages. How far he has suc¬ ceeded, it is the province of others to decide. It is his first appearance before the public in print, and he therefore deprecates any very severe criticism. It is to his matter that he invites attention, and that, he does not hesitate to say, he fearlessly submits to the perusal of every candid reader, as he has stated nothing that is not based on experience. The censure of the uninformed, or superficial, will not dis¬ turb his peace, because he feels persuaded that at the hands of the judicious, he shall receive whatever credit he may be entitled to, and this is all he desires.

Acacia

Achimines

Agapanthus

Air

Aloe

Amaryllis - Alstrcemeria - Annual Flowers - Anemone Ardisia - Auricula Azalia

Biennial Flowers

Budding

Cactus

Calceolaria

Calla ^Ethiopia

Camellia Japonica

Campanula

Cineraria

Conservatories

Commelina

Cuttings

Chrysanthemum

Cleanliness of Plants

Erica

Erythrina

Euphorbia

Fuchsia

Gardenia

Geranium

- 52 13

- 53 53

- 55 147

- 156 106

- 59 61

- 63 64

- 69 71

- 75 - 28

- 75 37 76 19

- 78 86

- 81 120

¥1

Index

Grafting

-

-

-

-

-

-

Greenhouse Plants

-

_

_

.

Heat or Temperature

-

-

-

Hot Bed -

-

_

_

_

- for Annuals

-

_

Hydrangea

-

-

-

-

-

-

Heliotropium

-

-

-

-

Ixia -

-

.

- .

Keeping Plants in Frames or Pits

-

-

Lachenalia

-

-

-

Light

-

-

-

-

Lobelia

-

-

Mathiola -

-

-

-

-

Mignionette

.

-

-

Nerium

-

-

-

L

-

_

-

Oxalis

-

_

-

-

-

-

-

- Ill

_

-

-

-

Planting Trees and Shrubs

165-173

■ - Bulbs

_

-

_

Poinsettia

-

-

-

Polling Plants

-

-

-

..

Primula Prsenitens

-

-

-

- - Polyanthus

-

-

-

-

Pruning Plants

-

-

-

* - - Shrubs

-

-

-

-

Ranunculus

-

-

Rose

-

.

-

-

Salvia -

-

-

-

Schizanthus

-

-

-

-

Stove Plants -

-

-

-

Staking Plants

-

-

-

-

Soil -

-

-

-

Thunbergia

-

-

-

-

Tigridia pavonia

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Training Plants

-

-

-

Viola tricolor

_

-

-

-

Verbena

-

-

Watering -

-

-

-

Among the improvements of this aspiring age, none have been greater than those which have taken place in gardening, but it ever has been an occupation highly esteemed by people of cultivated taste.

It is a pleasure not confined to the wealthy, but is an employment and profession for which no man is too high, or too low* The interest which flowers have excited in the breast of man, from the earliest ages to the present day, has never been confined to any partic¬ ular class of society, or quarter of the globe. Nature seems to have distributed them over the whole world, to serve as a medicine to the mind, to give cheerful¬ ness to the earth, and to furnish agreeable sensations to its inhabitants. The savage of the forest, in the joy of his heart, binds his brow with the native flowers of the woods, whilst a taste for their cultivation increases in every country in proportion as the blessings of civ¬ ilization extend. Love for a garden has a powerful influence in attracting men to their homes; and on this account, every encouragement given to in¬ crease a taste for ornamental gardening is additional security for domestic comfort and happiness. It is viii