526 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



M.uiLii 21, 1901. 



BOSTON. 't 



Trade Conditions. 



The old caation to "Beware the Ides 

 of March" seems to iieoil as iiiueh atten- 

 tion on tlie part of Keantown ilorists 

 as in the days nf the laurel crowned 

 Ca'sar. AiiDtlicr IjniUcn wick. Probably 

 fairly satisfactory to the pink and white 

 rose men who sold copiously of their 

 wares even if at a low figure; fairly 

 so to the pink carnation men as good 

 flowers were a little scarce in their 

 boxes and consequently brought fair 

 prices. The double violet men wore a 

 puzzled expression; the single violet men 

 almost a phased one lieoause tliev did a 

 little better than for a month or so. The 

 bulb gouils men also softened their hag- 

 gard expression to a slight extent but 

 the red rose men wore faces as long 

 as the stems of their roses. Bushels of 

 fine red roses poured into the city but 

 for some unknown reason the retail call 

 for them almost disappeared. The ar- 

 rival of larger lots of Brunners also com- 

 plicates the situation. Is it not remark- 

 able that in the long run the Exeter 

 Rose Conservatories of New Hampshire, 

 can quite successfully compete with 

 warmer states on red. roses? While per- 

 haps a bit behind them during a couple of 

 the eoMest months, yet during the re- 

 mainder of the year it is nip and tuck, 

 and their jiresent output handled here 

 by my.-.elf, is not sur]]assed in anv re- 

 spect. But they are the only Xew"Eng- 

 land growers who thus far have made 

 anything like a permanent success of red 

 roses of any kind except Jacks, their suc- 

 cess with American Beauties be'ng dis- 

 tinct. 



"A Waverley NoveL" 



Unless you think you can adequately 

 describe Jordan & Marsh's business in 

 a one-story ink building do not criticise 

 me for a sham structure about the estab- 

 lishment of E. N. Pierce & Sons of 

 Waverley. But I went out there and 

 since the electric free transfer system 

 carried me about twenty miles very cute- 

 ly for a nickel I think I may claim I 

 w^as cIectro-"cuted" for that distance. 

 They have 12.5,000 feet of glass, largely 

 used just now for the development of 

 00,000 Easter lily potted plants es- 

 timated to carry 300,000 buds and blos- 

 soms. They claim it as the largest col- 

 lection of the kind. Who dares dis- 

 pute it? 



Mr. Pierce and his two sons seem 

 especially adapted for the work, each to 

 his own department. Mr. Pierce is chief 

 of the horticultural branch with fifteen 

 assistants. One look at the products 

 in the city and another at the magni- 

 ficent crop now coming, proves his effi- 

 ciency, but I find an hour's walk with 

 him from house to house even more 

 demonstrative as well as instructive. 

 But his success with lilies lies as much 

 in the completeness of his plant as any- 

 thing. Twelve huge houses of them, each 

 being run at a different temperature, 

 and those fifteen men, and a team or two, 

 busy continually changing the plants 

 back and forth into different houses in 

 order to hasten or retard the growth of 

 each. Very simple; you sec, when you 

 have the twelve houses, the fifteen men 

 and the teams, especially with the addi- 

 tion of the tracks laid in the houses and 

 the narrow truck that runs along them 

 and carries fifty pots with a push of one 



>li'and. Since this crop will be out and 

 away soon there is a stray uiuler< urreiit 

 of preparation for the m \i iiIIihl' Mt tlie 

 houses which will .cn-i-i lnjilx m1 



spiraea and stocks |mi Mm ,il .\.i\. 



after which comes the hu^e ilu;\=au 

 thennim crop. A feature of the lilies is 

 their splendid foliage, the whole length 

 of the stem obtained by giving them 

 plenty of room, for which purpose the 

 pots are put further and further apart 

 as they are being handled day by day, 

 good pink plants and mignonette being 

 ruthlessly thrown out to gain the extra 

 space needed. 



The son, Allen, is too well known in 

 his capacity of city salesman to need 

 more than passing notice. His custom- 

 ers have found that besides being a very 

 pleasant man to deal with, his goods are 

 always as represented and the price is 

 right. And why not? It costs less to 

 grow a good plant than a poor one. 



But the work of the other son, Bert, 

 is not so generally known. His mechan- 

 ical and electrical achievements are al- 

 most marvelous, two or three of his ideas 

 being patented. He knows every inch of 

 the seven miles of piping on the place, 

 because he put it in, bending the two and 

 four-inch pipes in lots of places where 

 others use elbows. The four big boilers 

 are only toys to him. They formerly 

 used all four, but the new eighty-five 

 foot chimney makes one big fellow do it 

 all, even in the coldest weather. His 

 very latest, is the installment of an au- 

 tomatic pump that assists the return of 

 water to the boiler immensely. By his 

 own device if the night fireman neglects 

 the temperature, a bell rings in his bed- 

 room and by the same device he can call 

 that functionary. By another device a 

 call on their long distance telephone 

 sounds a gong that can be heard half a 

 mile. His stock of pipe fitters' tools is 

 complete, his blacksmith shop and ma- 

 chine shop perfect, lathe and all, with 

 a twenty-five horse power engine to run 

 it, with other machines, including one 

 for cleaning small pots as fast as two 

 men can throw them at it. 



There has been a little fear that the 

 general lily crop for Boston would be a 

 little too late for Easter but with the 

 sure arrival of the crop of this estab- 

 lishment I think there will be no trou- 

 Ij'p- J. S. Manteb. 



PITTSBURG. 



The Pittsburg and Allegheny Florists' 

 and Gardeners' Club is a pretty lively 

 in-litulion. ami it has 1„ ii,dit, pithy, 

 »rll atl..n,l,.,| .ihWiul-. II does not 

 lia^r ~,t papr,. ,„ ,,-,,v_ l„..;,,ise it rea- 



to prepare written papers; further, 

 many of its best growers and cultivators 

 are so unaccustomed to essay writing 

 that the preparation of a paper would be 

 such a burden as to scare them away 

 from the meetings rather than induce 

 them to attend them. But all come 

 primed to tell what they know if they 

 are asked to, see what is on hand, anil 

 find out all about what their neighbors 

 have seen, heard and are doing. And 

 there is an exhibition of cut flowers or 

 plants at every meeting, and these sub- 

 jects on the table are the foundation 

 of the evening discussion, for every 

 plant or bunch of flowers is taken up and 

 commented on. 



At the -last meeting, Thursday even- 

 ing, 14th inst., were a large bunch of 



.splendid" specimens of the White Golden 



I (iate rose scut by the American Rose Co., 



\\a-liiiivl,.ii. n. I . aiii a bunch of the 



-line \aii.i\ ilii hil l>i-en cut for a 



nih I. ■!..,, |„ nij -'■ii|.|H.,l. Its fine fra- 



;;raliii- w a - lil.d 1 1_\ all and its thick, 

 >ub>tantial petals evidenced its excellent 

 keeping qualities. It is an ivory-wliite 

 form of the Golden Gate rose. " David 

 Eraser, gardener to Mr. H. C. Frick, 

 finds that Golden Gate is the best grow- 

 ing rose he has, and his people like it bet- 

 ter than any other variety. Now he will 

 also grow the white one. " Some very fine 

 Brides and Bridesmaids were contrib- 

 uted by Mr. Fischer, a local grower. 

 They were from three years' planted 

 stock on benches. The top soil is re- 

 moved each year and replaced with fresh 

 earth. While this plan w-orks admir- 

 ably with Mr. Fischer, others preferred 

 annual planting. 



John N. May, Summit, N. J., sent a 

 superb lot of Olympia carnations and of 

 a beautiful bright pink seedling, No. 22, 

 which has a pronounced clove fragrance. 

 The Olympias were much admired and 

 the president told that he had seen them 

 growing at Summit ten days before that, 

 in a triple span house, and what a grand 

 sight they were for vigor, thrift, even- 

 ness and productiveness. But Mr. Ran- 

 dolph and others of the large decorators 

 said that only a limited number of 

 striped carnations could be used in Pitts- 

 burg, the people preferred self colors. 

 Mr. Fischer showed a fine lot of the 

 Lawson and praised its behavior warmly. 

 It was thrifty, prolific and a good keeper 

 and capital seller. But Mr. Clark re- 

 marked that in decorations its color re- 

 quired a full decoration of the same tint; 

 in this respect it was unlike the Mar- 

 quis, which could be used with most any- 

 thing. In Pittsburg, however, so far, it 

 has been impossible to get enough of 

 either of these varieties from the local 

 growers to supply the demand. Some 

 other growers showed bunches of fine 

 flowers. Several of the florists paid Fred 

 Burki the compliment that his house of 

 White Cloud was unsurpassed anywhere, 

 east or west. Both Mr. Burki and Mr. 

 Blind gave their impressions of the car- 

 nation meeting at Baltimore and the 

 good things they saw there and about 

 New York. 



Talking of Harrisii lilies, James Mur- 

 doch said that he didn't have 10 per cent 

 of diseased bulbs this year (Mr. M. has 

 been in the Bermudas and had an eye to 

 selecting for himself), but John Bader 

 declared that he (John) didn't have 10 

 per cent of good ones. More than that, 

 John urged, he had disease in the Ber- 

 muda Inti'jiilcinnii-, ami the ,Tapan longi- 

 flornin^ ^linvvrd ~ii,li a mixture of types 

 as t" iniiatc tliat iIh'\ had been grown 

 from -...I, \U- Murdoih said that under 

 fa\..i ililr rMii.liiions Bermuda Harrisiis 

 will M...IIM ilir 111,1 year from seed. Mr. 

 Rein. mail .Irrlarrd there was a big for- 

 tune in it for the man who would go 

 beyond the frost line and grow Harrisii 

 lilies from seed or any way else he 

 pleased if he could get them absolutely 

 free from disease. "Yes, you bet there 

 is," exclaimed John Bader. "and I'd pay 

 him big money for his bulbs and glad to 

 get them." Neil McCallum, of Wilmer- 

 ding, but formerly of Australia, said 

 that where he was at the antipodes they 

 didn't have the lily disease, and asked if 

 the bulbs couldn't be grown there for the 

 American market, because of the reverse 

 of seasons, or may be a thoroughly clean 

 stock might be obtained from there for 



