MAY 31, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



m 



umns three liberal premiums for the 

 best kept lawns during the coming 

 summer. Several of our public spir- 

 ited citizens soon followed suit with 

 similar offers, which has greatly 

 helped to stimulate trade for the p'.ant 

 men. 



A visit to the greenhouses finds the 

 owners of these establishments too 

 busy to be sociable; each one is work- 

 ing an extra force of men at grading 

 and sodding, which in this line has 

 been unusually large this spring. 



Twenty minutes' ride by electric 

 railway from the business center of 

 Kansas City and you land at West- 

 port, otherwise known as the Hyde 

 Park district. Fifty years ago West- 

 port was a trading point with the In- 

 dians, and 'twas here during the Civil 

 War that General Price fought some 

 of his greatest battles. 



During the past twenty years this 

 now fashionable suburb has under- 

 gone an evolution, such leading busi- 

 ness people as the Armours and many 

 other wealthy citizens have built 

 large residences of modern architec- 

 ture, and the spacious lawns sur- 

 rounding these mansions, sloping to 

 the sidewalks, are worth going many 

 miles to see. Bridal wreath, Vibur- 

 num Opulus and other fancy shrubbery 

 are planted in groups and now are a 

 mass of bloom. The streets are wide 

 and well shaded on both sides by old 

 elm trees. 



Mr. George Kessler, our park super- 

 intendent, has taken unto himself a 

 wife. H. J. M. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



Various Notes. 



Since the new charter went into ef- 

 fect in this city the public squares are 

 beginning to look like places of pleas- 

 ure — what they were intended for. 

 Heretofore the gardeners who did the 

 work on our squares happened to be 

 men with a "pull," and political influ- 

 ence can transform a shoemaker into 

 a gardener almost any day. 



A change has been made, and from 

 this time forth Superintendent Mac- 

 Laren of the Golden Gate Park will 

 have charge of all work on the pub- 

 lic squares, and under his direction 

 the work so far looks as if it had been 

 done by a gardener. A fine lot of 

 trees and plants of various kinds have 

 been planted in Union Square, and 

 makes the place look as if every- 

 thing was being done on the "square. " 



Bennett Bros, have purchased a 

 piece of land on Locksley avenue, 

 Claremont, Oakland. One house, 80x 

 35 feet, has been erected; other houses 

 will follow. Carnations will be grown, 

 also pot plants suitable for market 

 sales. 



Mr. Robert Armstrong of Fernwood 

 has just returned from San Diego. 

 Cal., where he has been on his wed- 

 ding tour. Mr. Armstrong reports 

 that part of the state in very bad con- 

 dition, owing to the absence of rains 

 during the past three years and the 



total failure of the large carnation 

 fields on account of the drought, 



Sheppard & MacGowan of Piedmont, 

 Cal., are resting their immense plan- 

 tation of roses under glass and are 

 very busy at present pruning and 

 cleaning up and working the soil, get- 

 ting everything in readiness to start 

 the plants into growth for fall bloom. 



At the Golden Gate Park conserva- 

 tories a fine lot of potted calceolarias 

 are to be seen this week and are 

 much admired by visitors. Rhododen- 

 drons in full bloom are to be seen 

 and are a mass of color where they 

 are planted in groups. Anemones 

 and tulips are in full bloom and sev- 

 eral large beds of Tulip Gesneriana 

 are simply grand. A few plants of 

 Genista Andreana in bloom are to be 

 seen in the borders and look much 

 like a calceolaria when seen in the dis- 

 tance. It will make a good plant for 

 the park and more of it ought to be 

 planted . j. n 



THE CULTIVATION OF FLOWERS. 



[.Address delivered bv Dr. W. S. Whitmore at 

 Oceanic, N. J., May IS.] 



Gentlemen of the Monmouth Co. 

 Horticultural Society: 



In presenting my humble effort for 

 your consideration, I do not claim to 

 have exhausted the subject. Could I 

 write a volume there would, still be 

 things beyond me, and left unsaid. 

 It is not within the province of man 

 to embrace all the significance of my 

 subject, and I merely touch upon the 

 possibilities when I briefly present my 

 sketch. It is a theme, that has made 

 man famous in poetry and song; has 

 placed artists upon the highest 

 pedestals of fame; has brought joy 

 and sunshine into myriads of lives 

 and households, and will go on like 

 the brook forever. The cultivation of 

 flowers was among the first arts. 

 When God created the garden of Eden, 

 he became perforce the first gardener. 

 He filled it with beautiful flowers, that 

 it might be both a delight and joy to 

 our first parents. 



Of their kind and character. Biblical 

 history gives us no knowledge, so we 

 are obliged to turn to mythology for 

 our information and description. It Is 

 said that the trailing arbutus was the 

 richest in beauty, foliage and fra- 

 grance, of all the floral kingdom. It 

 was styled the flower of Eden, by 

 reason of its attributes, and was Eve's 

 favorite. When desolation was visited 

 upon the garden, and Eve was 

 banished therefrom, the little arbutus 

 elected to go with her. The Lord in 

 punishment robbed it of its beautiful 

 foliage, but by reason of its attachment 

 and loyalty to Eve, allowed it to retain 

 its fragrance. Its companion was 

 what we now know as the night 

 blooming Cereus, which was relegated 

 to Adam, and was his favorite. The 

 same condemnation was visited upon 

 it, and in addition to the loss of its 

 beautiful foliage, the Lord decreed that 

 it should never raise its head or bloom 

 in the sunlight again, and so on 



through all the vocabulary, each 

 flower of Eden has its mythological 

 history, and though but fiction, is 

 suggestive of beautiful thoughts and 

 associations. 



In the cultivation of flowers, the 

 elements which are stored away in the 

 recesses of the seed are brought into 

 activity l)y man's agency, enabling the 

 light to act upon them and delight the 

 eye. They have the colors given them 

 by nature. They are beauties of her 

 majestic bounty. Man's genius, acting 

 through a perfect understanding of 

 nature's laws, has afforded us the 

 wonderful creations of the floral king- 

 dom; the marvelous colors and com- 

 bination that delight the eye and make 

 the gardens and the homes veritable 

 heavens upon earth. Nature's best 

 efforts in the growing of flowers, are 

 so cleverly improved upon by the 

 artist gardener, that art can be what 

 it is, because the gardener is what he 

 is. 



Who can express the joy of coloring 

 as produced by the gardener? The 

 gleams in the brooklet; the shimmer 

 in the sunbeams; the mellow softness 

 in the morning mist; the flash of color 

 in the song-bird's throat; the depth 

 of tone in the ivy leaf; the sheen of 

 silver phosphorescence of the tropic 

 seas, and the cold gray of the October 

 morning, these and every shade of col- 

 or are known to the expert florist. 

 Thej' make harmony of color a life 

 study, and are truly learned in the 

 crossing and hybridizing of plants and 

 flowers. 



All lovers of nature are born for the 

 loving of flowers, and only require the 

 encouragement of the gardener's mas- 

 terwork to develop their latent gift, 

 and direct their work toward beauti- 

 fying the home, improving their 

 knowledge and love of fiowers, and 

 stimulating the effort of the gardener 

 to nobler and greater productions. 

 This innate talent intelligently direct- 

 ed and assisted by the true gardener, 

 is what will make them better fitted 

 to disseminate this love of the beau- 

 tiful, and cultivate it in the coming 

 generations. The gardener is natu- 

 rally endowed to create and improve 

 on nature, and is, therefore, in a posi- 

 tion to cultivate and instruct, and by 

 this means is medium through which 

 the improvement of man's love and 

 ideas are enlarged, and the increased 

 cultivation of flowers is encouraged, 

 and new loves created. Thus the flo- 

 rist gardener is, not only the instruc- 

 tor, but, the creator of new loves and 

 new ideas, and, also, new lovers of na- 

 ture's sweetest creation — flowers. Thus 

 I hold, the profession of gardeners is 

 one of the noblest that tames the in- 

 tellect of man. 



Rome had its Caesar, to whom all 

 nations bowed and paid tribute to his 

 power, yet in all his might and majes- 

 ty he could not raise a single flower. 

 England had her William the Con- 

 queror, and France her Napoleon, but 

 with all their knowledge and power 

 they could not propagate a single bud. 



