Excerpt from The Home Florist: A Treatise on the Cultivation, Management and Adaptability of Flowering and Ornamental Plants, Designed for the Use of Amateur Florist

The cultivation of plants for the sake of their beautiful flowers, and for other pleasing attractions, has from the earliest ages received attention wherever civilization has made considerable progress. Floriculture, however, is an art which is strikingly susceptible to influences of climate, soil, heat, cold and other conditions, and notwithstanding its antiquity, uniform and universal progression has been impeded by reason of this fact. Any experience and knowledge derived from the attainment of a certain degree of perfection in the art, during one age or in one country, when applied to another, is practically useful only to the extent in which it finds a state of adaptability in the other. In our own country the cultivation of plants and flowers has only of late years received much attention, while from the first it has been realized that a course of floriculture distinct from any practiced in foreign countries, would be a necessity, and after years of practical schooling, we may claim to have adopted a system which in the fullest sense is American. It has been within the last dozen years, that a general manifestation of interest in floriculture, by the masses of people has been apparent, and from a perceptible awakening early in this time, there has been a continual and rapid increase, until the present time, which finds nearly everybody devoting more or less attention to their culture.

What is felt to be the greatest need of the day is, the more general dissemination of practical, useful knowledge, for acquainting people with the kinds of plants and flowers most suitable for the American cultivator, and also their culture, all adapted to the wants of inexperienced amateurs. It is with a realization of this need, that the author and publishers of the present little work, take pleasure in presenting it to the public, as a book of instructions, relative to the proper means of managing plants for the adornment of American homes. It is designed to aid all classes of cultivators, but especially those who aspire to the rearing of a higher and choicer order of plants and flowers than are common in perhaps the majority of homes where floriculture has been receiving attention, aiming to carry those who adopt its teachings, over obstacles which tend to cause failure and discouragement, and to promote an interest in every plant, bulb, seed or tuber whose culture is attempted.

A good indication of progression in American amateur floriculture is evinced in the fact that people of floricultural taste are learning to act upon the knowledge that more than seeds alone, or bulbs, or plants, are required for beautifying gardens and homes with flowers, that in the best kept gardens, are used judicious selections of some of each, with most gratifying results.

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