Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1884 — The Coming Flower. [ARTICLE]

The Coming Flower.

There can be little doubt that the new race of tuberose begonias is destined to play an important part in the decorative gardening of the future. The begonia is, so to speak, the coming flower. There are two particular lines along which we may expect to see the tuberose begonias extending themselves—namely, as greenhouse summer decorative plants, and as bedding out of rock plants. In each of these they have already distinguished themselves. As indoor decorative plants they come at a season when they are especially useful—at a time when greenhouse flowering plants are becoming scanty, and when, for the most part, recourse must be had to the tender annuals. For decorative use their free branching habit, and the abundance of flowers they produce, while still of moderate size, eminently adapt them. Their usually rich and now varied colors particularly recommend them for this use.— Gardeners’ Chronicle.

The profits of flower-farming in some portions of the old world are shown in the following figures: An acre of jessamine plants, 80,000 in number, will produce 5,000 pounds of flowers, valued at §1,250; an acre of rose trees, 10,000 in number, will yield 2,000 pounds of flowers, worth $375; 300 orange trees, growing on one acre, will yield at ten years of age 2,000 pounds of flowers, valued at $220; an acre of violets, producing 1,600 pounds of flowers, is Worth $800; an acre of acacia trees, of 360, will, at three years of age, yield 900 pounds of flowers, worth s4so*, an acre of geranium plants will yield something over 2,000 ounces of distilled attar, worth $4,000; an acre of lavender, giving over 3,500 pounds of flowers for distiHation, will yield a value of $1,500. “What is it that makes your hose burst?” asked a young lady, curiously, of a fireman at a fireman’s ball. “Why —why, I don’t know, ” blushingly stammered the young man, casting a shy backward glance at his heel, “unless it’s because I haven’t got anybody to darn ’em for me.”