APRIL 6, 1899. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



47J 



Bougainvillea Sanderiana. 



inch pots. After first watering they 

 were kept as cool as possible and 

 rather dry. About New Year's they 

 were put into a night temperature of 

 60 degrees with the result as shown. 

 Luck of course or rather coincidence, 

 but a lesson in coincidence that we 

 shall endeavor to emulate in the 

 future. 



I would add that from the time 

 you see that flowers are going to be 

 the result of your labors it takes four 

 months to fully develop the bracts 

 and there is no such thing as being 

 too early with them because the 

 bracts hang on for months. 



WILLIAM SCOTT. 



AMONG NEW YORK GROWERS. 



Ernst Asmus. 

 Ernst Asmus, who has 80,000 feet of 

 glass at West Hoboken, N. J., is ad- 

 mitted to be one of the shrewdest 

 growers for the New York market. He 

 grows roses largely and keeps a rec- 

 ord which enables him to tell exactly 

 what returns each variety makes for 

 the space occupied. By referring to his 

 books he can tell the average number 

 of blooms produced by each plant of 

 each variety, and further, the cash re- 

 turns from same. He kindly permitted 

 us to make the following extracts from 

 his record of the average number o£ 

 blooms produced per plant by the 

 leading varieties for the past two 

 seasons (July 1 to June 30)— 1896-1897 

 and 1S97-1S98 (the season 1898-1899 

 being not yet completed): 



•96-'97. "JT-'SS. 



Bridesmaia 32 25 



Bride 26 27.6 



Beauty 16 14.8 



Meteor 47 34.2 



Testout 26 23 



Cusln 55 46.7 



Morgan | 66 46 



He has inaugurated a system to 

 guard against the loss of flowers be- 



tween the cutter and the packer. Each 

 cut from a house is entered on a rec- 

 ord sheet tacked on the wall at one 

 end of the house, and further the cut 

 is noted on a printed form on a strip 

 of tough paper and this is placed in 

 the jar with the flowers, and the count 

 is checked by the sorter, who notes on 

 the slip how many of the blooms were 

 firsts, how many were seconds, etc. 

 Every bloom has to be accounted for, 

 and the various records must check 

 one against the other. 



The sorting is done by young wo- 

 men and the sorting tables are cover- 

 ed with heavy wire cloth through 

 which the drip passes readily. 



The principal attraction at this place 

 now is the new rose Liberty which 

 will not be introduced till next year. 

 Mr. Asmus has a house 15x150 con- 

 taining 1035 plants from which he is 

 cutting fiowers. There are two cen- 

 ter beds, one 5 feet 9 inches wide and 

 containing 5 rows of plants, and one 

 4 feet 7 inches wide containing 4 

 rows. The growth and bloom are cer- 

 tainly remarkable and bear out Mr. 

 Asmus' assertion that it is an even 

 freer bloomer than Meteor. A pecu- 

 liarity of growth is that if cut back 

 when the wood is ripened there will 

 be only one break, always bringing a 

 bloom, while if a bud is pinched out 

 when the shoot is soft there will be 

 two or more breaks. The blooms seen 

 on the plants were nearly all equal in 

 quality to those shown at the exhibi- 

 tions and there was no variation 

 whatever in color. Vases of Liberty 

 and Meteor selected at random from 

 the cool room and placed side by side 

 made Meteor look very sick, indeed. 

 Liberty has the glowing color of the 

 old Jacq and the same bloom upon 

 the petals, but the bud is longer In 

 form and its crowning glory is that it 

 is delightfully fragrant, the fragrance 



suggesting both that of the Jacq, and 

 La France. Mr. Asmus' record shows 

 that he has cut an average of 22 

 blooms per plant for the four months 

 cmling Jan. 1 last. At Cliristmas the 

 Ix'sl blooms sold at $50 a hundred 

 and the seconds at $25. So he has 

 already made a good deal on Liberty 

 from the flowers alone. Stem and fo- 

 liage are much superior to those of 

 Meteor. In fact everything points to 

 a complete abandonment of Meteor 

 when i>iberty is introduced. 



Ho has been trying grafted roses and 

 in tlie case of Brides and Maids finds 

 lie gets more blooms and better stems 

 than from the own root plants. In 

 the case of Testout both plants and 

 flowers are so superior that there can 

 l)e no doubt of the value of grafting. 

 The difference between the grafted 

 and own root plants was remarkable. 

 The latter were very poor, wliilo the 

 grafted ones were in splendid condi- 

 tion, producing much better flowers, of 

 better color and with stronger and 

 longer stems. He finds Testout profit- 

 able and cuts about as many good 

 blooms per plant as from Bride or 

 Maid. 



He still grows Carnot, but merely 

 for summer as in the case of Kaiserin. 



He still grows Morgan, but finds 

 that Cusin sells better in the market, 

 the people seeming to prefer the light- 

 er color. 



A house of Hoste was noted. He at- 

 tempted to revive this rose this sea- 

 son, but it don't take well in the mar- 

 ket. 



He grows a few moss roses for a 

 few special customers, but the demand 

 for the flowers is limited. 



He carried over a house of Beauties, 

 but they produced poor flowers with 

 short stems and he doesn't want any 

 more second year Beauties. 



Hybrid roses were formerly forced 

 here in large quantities for the early 

 spring months, but now he has only a 

 few in boxes that were brought in to 

 fill out spaces where carnations had 

 failed. 



Most of his roses are in solid beds 

 made of a foot to 15 inches of broken 

 stone with five inches of soil on top. 



He has a number of seedling roses, 

 the development of which he is watch- 

 ing with interest, and quite a number 

 of ripening heps show where crosses 

 have recently been made. 



In carnations he has dropped Scott 

 which had deteriorated greatly in 

 constitution. He has also dropped 

 McGowan. Hill and White Cloud are 

 his whites. Hill has given trouble 

 through stem rot, but he finds it neces- 

 sary to retain it, as it starts bloom- 

 ing as early as October and is at its 

 best before White Cloud gets a fair 

 start. The two sorts work well to- 

 gether, as each is at its best when the 

 other is at its poorest. 



Daybreak is still a standby. He has 

 had considerable trouble with thrips 

 on Daybreak and Victor and has had 

 occasionally to sacrifice a crop of flow- 

 ers through heavy fumigation to kill 

 insects. He is looking for a pink to 

 take the place of Victor. 



