Copyright, 1899, by 

 TLORISTS' PUBUIStllMG CO., 520-535 Caxton Building, CtllGAGO. 



Vol. m. 



CHICAGO AND NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 16, J899. 



No. 64. 



AMONG CHICAGO GROWERS. 



Wietor Bros. 



When wandering through the im- 

 mense range of greenhouses of Wietor 

 Bros., in Rogers Park, it is difficult to 

 believe that they entered the ranks of 

 the growers only four years ago. The 

 firm is composed of Nicholas and Hen- 

 ry Wietor, both young men, Henry be- 

 ing 32 and Nicholas 25 years of age. 

 The glass consists of 57 houses, each 

 125 feet long and varying from 22 to 

 27 feet wide, all devoted to roses and 

 carnations. 



Roses comprise the bulk of the 

 stock and American Beauties lead in 

 number. Meteors, Brides and Maids 

 make up the remainder, with the ex- 

 ception of one house of Perles. They 

 tried Morgan, Siebrecht and Carnot, 

 but dropped them all as unprofitable. 

 With Beauty they are very successful 

 and the accompanying engi-aving of 

 one of their Beauty houses from a 

 photograph taken last week shows the 

 splendid growth and long stems they 



get. The newest Beauty houses are 14 

 feet to ridge and 7 feet clear under the 

 gutters. 



A large range of houses built last 

 summer is devoted to carnations and 

 their cut of these has largely increased 

 this season. Triumph is their favorite 

 pink variety. With them it produces 

 more flowers than Scott from the 

 same space and the flowers sell at a 

 better price. They have dropped Scott 

 entirely in its favor. They like Ar- 

 gyle on account of the fine color, but 

 with them it does not produce as free- 

 ly as Triumph, and the flowers rarely 

 bring a better price than that variety. 

 They will, however, continue to grow 

 it for the sake of the color. They have 

 dropped Nancy Hanks, as with them 

 the flower was small and the variety 

 a cropper. Rose Queen "split so badly 

 that it split the stem." Tidal Wave 

 had too short a stem. 



In whites McGowan is still the main 

 reliance. It is not only a great pro- 

 ducer but the flowers can be held a 

 long time, either on the plants or off. 

 Evelina has produced even more freely 



than McGowan, and the flowers are 



better shaped, but they are smaller 

 and shorter stemmed. With them 

 Flora Hill produces about as freely as 

 McGowan and the flowers are better, 

 but they are not such good keepers. 

 Alaska had very short stems last sea- 

 son, though one year they had good 

 stems from plants that were benched 

 as early as July. The plants seem 

 slow to take hold of the soil when 

 moved. 



In reds they consider Jubilee about 

 the only one of value. With them it 

 produces about as freely as Argyle. 

 They tried a hundred plants of Bon 

 Ton, which produced freely early in 

 the .reason, but later took a long vaca- 

 tion, and are only now tending to 

 business again. 



In variegated sorts Armazindy is a 

 wonderful producer with them, giving 

 more good flowers to the square foot 

 than any other carnation on the place, 

 not excepting Triumph. They have 

 had 27 flowers fit to cut at one time 

 on one plant of Armazindy, and the 

 variety will average 75 good flowers to 



Greenhouses of Wietor Bros., Rogers Park, Chicago. 



