STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIKTV 



9' 



Among all the new plants recently offered, which are now so reason- 

 able that all might purchase, Beauvardia Humboldtii and Carnation 

 Peter Henderson are the most promising. The first has unusually large 

 blossoms (nearly one-and-a-half inches in diameter), pure white in color 

 and very fragrant. The latter is the carnation we have been long 

 expecting, prolific in blossoms, vigorous in growth, and has the good 

 quality of not bursting the calyx in expanding. 



The new coleuses, of which there are many, are beautiful in color 

 when grown in the house or in the shade, but for massing in beds there 

 is as yet none equal to Nigricans Verschafeltii and South Park. Speaking 

 of carnations reminds me of the question so frequently asked, "Why 

 don't people grow them more as house-plants?" They will succeed if 

 kept from flowering in the summer, then lifted the last of October, 

 potted in well-drained soil, exposed to sunshine and kept in a coolxoovi\. 

 (Temperature from 45° to 60° Fahrenheit.) The house-plants people 

 attempt to grow are in nearly all cases kept where the air is so warm that 

 it wrings out the moisture from the plants, then comes decreased vitality, 

 insects and death. 



Geraniums, carnations, Chinese primroses and roses should be 

 grown in a separate apartment from the parlor or sitting-room; a tem- 

 perature of say 45° to 60° will be a strong thing in their favor; insects 

 will be less likely to trouble them. The mealy-bug is the worst pest of 

 green-houses. Who has a better remedy than the old-fashioned way 

 of scrubbing-brush, soap and water? I have tried to kill them w^th 

 strong solutions of strychnine, and it was a failure. Whale-oil soap, 

 perhaps, you may suggest ; it is no better than common soap. In such a 

 generally reliable publication as the Gardeners' Monthly we occasionally 

 have seen statements of the efficacy of alcohol. I fairly soaked the 

 insects in solutions ranging from fifty to ninety-six per cent., but they 

 were only stupefied, and in a few hours were as lively as ever. The 

 Superintendent of the Chicago Floral Company told me that he kept 

 them in check by thorough and oft-repeated syringing. 



Finally, is our business increasing? The taste for things of beauty 

 is rapidly growing, and we may confidently look forward to a better 

 appreciation of plants. The last six years have been educators of the 

 public in matters of taste for artistic goods to a greater degree than most 

 of us yet realize; and thereby reacted favorably on our 'business. A 

 careful inquiry will show that our business has not been depressed like 

 other industries. Though for the last four years we have not spent one 

 cent in advertising our green-houses the sales have constantly increased. 



In the sea the big fish eat the little ones; on land it is somewhat 

 similar ; large floral houses, that employ from fifty to two hundred hands, 

 are apt to injure the sales of the smaller, to a great extent. But it is a 

 matter of gratification to me, that all or nearly all of those large firms 

 that flooded the markets with cheap and poor plants have come to grief. 

 If the stock sent out is only first-class, then the cheaper it ran be grown 

 the better for all ; but cheap rubbish is dear at any price and demoralizing 



vy 



