The Scilly Isles are important as providing the main source of supply of narcissi to the English markets in the early months of the year. This trade arose almost by accident, for it was about the year 1865 that a box of narcissi sent to Covent Garden Market, London, realized £1; and the knowledge of this fact getting abroad, the farmers of the isles began collecting wild bulbs from the fields in order to cultivate them and increase their stocks. Some ten years, however, elapsed before the industry promised to become remunerative. In 1885 a Bulb and Flower Association was established to promote the industrial growth of flowers. The exports of flowers in that year reached 65 tons, and they steadily increased until 1893, when they amounted to 450 tons. A slight decline followed, but in 1896 the quantity exported was no less than 514 tons. This would represent upwards of 3½ million bunches of flowers, chiefly narcissi and anemones. Rather more than 500 acres are devoted to flower-growing in the isles, by far the greater part of this area being assigned to narcissi, whilst anemones, gladioli, marguerites, arum lilies, Spanish irises, pinks and wallflowers are cultivated on a much smaller scale. The great advantage enjoyed by the Scilly flower-growers is earliness of production, due to climatic causes; the soil, moreover, is well suited to flower culture and there is an abundance of sunshine. The long journey to London is somewhat of a drawback, in regard to both time and freight, but the earliness of the flowers more than compensates for this. Open-air narcissi are usually ready at the beginning of January, and the supply is maintained in different varieties up to the middle or end of May. The narcissus bulbs are usually planted in October, 4 in. by 3 in. apart for the smaller sorts and 6 in. by 4 to 6 in. for the larger. A compost of farmyard manure, seaweed, earth and road scrapings is the usual dressing, but nitrate of soda, guano and bones are also occasionally employed. A better plan, perhaps, is to manure heavily the previous crop, frequently potatoes, no direct manuring then being needed for the bulbs, these not being left in the ground more than two or three years. The expenses of cultivation are heavy, the cost of bulbs alone—of which it requires nearly a quarter of a million of the smaller varieties, or half as many of the largest, to plant an acre—being considerable. The polyanthus varieties of narcissus are likely to continue the most remunerative to the flower-growers of Scilly, as they flourish better in these isles than on the mainland.

In the district around the Wash, in the vicinity of such towns as Wisbech, Spalding and Boston, the industrial culture of bulbs and flowers underwent great expansion in the period between 1880 and 1909. At Wisbech one concern alone has a farm of some 900 acres, devoted chiefly to flowers and fruit, the soil being a deep fine alluvium. Roses are grown here, one field containing upwards of 100,000 trees. Nearly 20 acres are devoted to narcissi, which are grown for the bulbs and also, together with tulips, for cut flowers. Carnations are cultivated both in the field and in pots. Cut flowers are sent out in large quantities, neatly and effectively packed, the parcel post being mainly employed as a means of distribution. In the neighbourhood of Spalding crocuses and snowdrops are less extensively grown than used to be the case. On one farm, however, upwards of 20 acres are devoted to narcissi alone, whilst gladioli, lilies and irises are grown on a smaller scale. Around Boston narcissi are also extensively grown for the market, both bulbs and cut blooms being sold. The bulbs are planted 3 in. apart in rows, the latter being 9 in. apart, and are allowed to stand from two to four years.

The imports of fresh flowers into the United Kingdom were not separately shown prior to 1900. In that year, however, their value amounted to £200,585, in 1901 to £225,011, in 1906 to £233,884, in 1907 to £233,641, and in 1908 to £229,802, so that the trade showed a fairly steady condition. From the monthly totals quoted in Table VI. it would appear that the trade sinks to its minimum dimensions in the four months July to October inclusive, and that after September the business continually expands up to April, subsequent to which contraction again sets in. About one-half of the trade belongs practically to the three months of February, March and April.

Table VI.—Values of Fresh Flowers imported into the United Kingdom.

Month.1906.1907.1908.
January£31,035£18,545£29,180
February34,64725,54130,541
March50,23242,61135,185
April30,80950,41842,681
May22,98021,76723,129
June17,64118,35816,904
July3,3864,5093,467
August1,6461,5391,081
September852736953
October4,4813,1804,504
November17,50615,76315,097
December18,66930,67427,080
   Total£233,884£233,641£229,802

Hothouse Culture of Fruit and Flowers.—The cultivation of fruit and flowers under glass has increased enormously since about the year 1880, especially in the neighbourhood of London, where large sums of money have been sunk in the erection and equipment of hothouses. In the parish of Cheshunt, Herts, alone there are upwards of 130 acres covered with glass, and between that place on the north and London on the south extensive areas of land are similarly utilized. In Middlesex, in the north, in the districts of Edmonton, Enfield, Ponders End and Finchley, and in the west from Isleworth to Hampton, Feltham, Hillingdon, Sipson and Uxbridge, many crops are now cultivated under glass. At Erith, Swanley, and other places in Kent, as also at Worthing, in Sussex, glass-house culture has much extended. A careful estimate puts the area of industrial hothouses in England at about 1200 acres, but it is probably much more than this. Most of the greenhouses are fixtures, but in some parts of the kingdom structures that move on rails and wheels are used, to enable the ground to be prepared in the open for one crop while another is maturing under glass. The leading products are grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers, the last-named two being true fruits from the botanist’s point of view, though commercially included with vegetables. To these may be added on the same ground dwarf or French beans, and runner or climbing beans. Peaches, nectarines and strawberries are largely grown under glass, and, in private hothouses—from which the produce is used mainly for household consumption, and which are not taken into consideration here—pineapples, figs and other fruit. Conservative estimates indicate the average annual yield of hothouse grapes to be about 12 tons per acre and of tomatoes 20 tons. The greater part of the space in the hothouses is assigned to fruit, but whilst some houses are devoted exclusively to flowers, in others, where fruit is the main object, flowers are forced in considerable quantities in winter and early spring. The flowers grown under glass include tulips, hyacinths, primulas, cyclamens, spiraeas, mignonettes, fuchsias, calceolarias, roses, chrysanthemums, daffodils, arum lilies or callas, liliums, azaleas, eucharises, camellias, stephanotis, tuberoses, bouvardias, gardenias, heaths or ericas, poinsettias, lilies of the valley, zonal pelargoniums, tuberous and fibrous rooted begonias, and many others. There is an increasing demand for foliage hothouse plants, such as ferns, palms, crotons, aspidistras, araucarias, dracaenas, India-rubber plants, aralias, grevilleas, &c. Berried plants like solanums and aucubas also find a ready sale, while the ornamental kinds of asparagus such as sprengeri and plumosus nanus, are ever in demand for trailing decorations, as well as myrsiphyilum. Special mention must be made of the winter or perpetual flowering carnations which are now grown by hundreds of thousands in all parts of the kingdom for decorative work during the winter season. The converse of forcing plants into early blossom is adopted with such an important crop as lily of the valley. During the summer season the crowns are placed in refrigerators with about 2 degrees of frost, and quantities are taken out as required every week and transferred to the greenhouse to develop. Tomatoes are grown largely in houses exclusively occupied by them, in which case two and sometimes three crops can be gathered in the year. In the Channel Islands, where potatoes grown under glass are lifted in April and May, in order to secure the high prices of the early markets, tomato seedlings are planted out from boxes into the ground as quickly as the potatoes are removed, the tomato planter working only a few rows behind the potato digger. The trade in imported tomatoes is so considerable that home growers are well justified in their endeavours to meet the demand more fully with native produce, whether raised under glass or in the open. Tomatoes were not separately enumerated in the imports previous to 1900. It has already been stated that in 1900 the raw tomatoes imported amounted to 833,032 cwt., valued at £792,339, and in 1901 to 793,991 cwt., valued at £734,051. From the monthly quantities given in Table VII., it would appear that the imports are largest in June, July and August, about one-half of the year’s total arriving during those three months. It is too early in June and July for home-grown outdoor tomatoes to enter into competition with the imported product, but home-grown hothouse tomatoes should be qualified to challenge this trade.

Table VII.—Quantities of Tomatoes imported into the United Kingdom.

Month.1906.1907.1908.
January61,94056,02273,409
February58,18758,28969,350
March106,45898,02886,928
April103,273109,05774,917
May67,933114,04188,901
June62,906144,379127,793
July238,362150,907171,978
August180,046102,600124,757
September114,860101,198119,224
October52,67867,86075,722
November41,51366,52274,292
December36,31666,59173,012
  Total1,124,4721,135,4941,160,283
  Value£953,475£1,135,499£1,160,283

An important feature of modern flower growing is the production and cultivation of what are known as “hardy herbaceous perennials.” Some 2000 or 3000 different species and varieties of these are now raised in special nurseries; and during the spring, summer and autumn seasons magnificent displays are to be seen not only in the markets but at the exhibitions in London and at the great provincial shows held throughout the kingdom. The production of many of these perennials is so easy that amateurs in several instances have taken it up as a business hobby; and in some cases, chiefly through advertising in the horticultural press, very lucrative concerns have been established.

Ornamental flowering trees and shrubs constitute another feature of modern gardening. These are grown and imported by thousands chiefly for their sprays of blossom or foliage, and for planting in large or small gardens, public parks, &c., for landscape effect. Indeed there is scarcely an easily grown plant from the northern or southern temperate zones that does not now find a place in the nursery or garden, provided it is sufficiently attractive to sell for its flowers, foliage or appearance.