AUGUST 23, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



333 



THE NEW YORK CO NVENTION 



ATTENDANCE A RECORD BREAKER. 



A Great Convention and a Great Exhibition 

 in Grand Central Palace* 



NEW YORK SETS A FAST PACE IN THE WAY OF 

 ENTERTAINMENT. 



Officers for J 901 are: President, Patrick O'Mara, New York; Vice- 

 President, W. F. Kasting:, Buffalo, N. Y. ; Secretary, Wm. J. Stewart, 

 Boston; Treasurer, H. B. Beatty, Oil City, Pa. 



BUFFALO NEXT YEAR. 



The New York convention certainly 

 broke all records both as to attend- 

 ance and the extent of the exhibition. 

 It was not only a large gathering but 

 a truly representative one, delegates 

 being present from nearly every state, 

 one or more having crossed the conti- 

 nent to be present. , 



The weather was delightfully cool 

 and comfortable on the opening day, 

 and promptly at 9:30 a. m., Tuesday, 

 the convention was called to order by 

 President O'Mara of the New York 

 Florists' Club, in the audience hall of 

 the Grand Central Palace, which had 

 been elaborately decorated for the oc- 

 casion. The ceiling was entirely hid- 

 den by oak boughs and the support- 

 ing columns covered with wild smilax, 

 in which spikes of gladioli had been 

 freely inserted. The walls were al- 

 most entirely obscured by masses of 

 decorative plants in great variety, and 

 the bases of the platform columns 

 were covered by masses of hardy hy- 

 drangea flowers. 



Mr. O'Mara in a few words intro- 

 duced Acting Mayor Guggenheimer, 

 who spoke as follows: 



Mr. President, ladles and gentlemen: — 

 This opportunity which has been given 

 to me, in my capacity as Acting Mayor, 

 of welcoming the members ot the Society 

 of American Florists and Ornamental 

 Horticulturists to the City of New York 

 affords me very great pleasure. Indeed 

 we have only one complaint to make 

 against an association whose growth and 

 prosperity have always been so closely 

 identified with the Empire State. It is 

 now eleven years since you held your 

 annual meeting and exhibited, in this 

 metropolis, the perfection of your horti- 

 culture and Nature's wonderland of 

 flowers. We trust, and in saying so I 

 represent every class in this great com- 

 munity, that your next interval of ab- 

 sence win be materially shortened. The 

 people ot New York are proud of the 

 city which you have this year selected 



for your meeting. In fact we are never 

 tired of reciting its praises. We are not 

 unaware of the marvellousness of Its 

 growth and enterprise. To-day it is the 

 gateway of the wealthiest, because the 

 most productive country of the world. In 

 a few years it will be the greatest city 

 upon the earth, in wealth, in area and 

 population. That is our manifest destiny. 

 We face the rising sun of promise and 

 prosperity and turn our backs upon 

 nothing American. 



But our great houses of trade, our pub- 

 lic buildings and splendid residences, in 

 fact every home in our enlarged city 

 would be sordid and unlovely but for the 

 touch of the landscape gardener in un- 

 expected places and the unpainted loveli- 

 ness of God's flowers, the sweetest things 

 that breathe on earth and yet have no 

 souls to recognize their own shy or im- 

 perial beauty. 



Such art as yours is universal. It is 

 Jike the boon air or the sunshine. It can- 

 not be confined to the gardens and con- 

 servatories of the rich. It glorifies our 

 public parks with such natural loveli- 

 ness that the little children from the 

 tenements, who play there in the sun- 

 shine, learn Imperishable lessons of form 

 and color from the exquisite growths of 

 nature that exult everywhere in their 

 spring and summer pride. It beautifies 

 the windows and rooms of all who love 

 tho odorous handiwork of nature, and 

 transforms many a poorly furnished 

 home into a palace of delight. 



Therefore, ladies and gentlemen. I wel- 

 come you to this city because the art 

 which you represent appeals to the heart 

 and imagination of every man, woman 

 and child in tills community. 



This was responded to on behalf of 

 the society by Mr. Edgar Sanders, of 

 Chicago, who expressed warm ap- 

 preciation of the cordial welcome, and 

 spoke of the New York exhibitions in 

 which he had participated during the 

 period extending from 1853 to 1857, 

 when he was a resident of Albany. He 

 made a touching reference to the re- 

 cent passing away of Louis Menand, 

 whom he had known well in the early 

 days. 



President 'Wood then read his ad- 

 dress as follows: 



President Wood's Address. 



Ladies and gentlemen, members of the 

 Society ol American Florists and Orna- 

 mental Horticulturists: 



I am profoundly sensible of the high 

 honor which has been conferred upon me 

 as the presiding officer of this great con- 

 vention of American florists, the great- 

 est in the society's existence. We meet 

 at this, our sixteenth annual convention, 

 under the most encouraging and hopeful 

 auspices. We meet in Greater New York, 

 the empire city of America, at the closing 

 and opening of a century. In a city re- 

 ceiving and distributing, as she does, 

 three-fourths of the entire imports of the 

 country, having within her harbor nine- 

 tenths of th« tonnage that on this side of 

 the sea seeks an entrance, receiving, 

 housing and caring for seven-eighths of 

 the immigration that reaches our shores, 

 her interests are more extended and uni- 

 versal than those of any other city in 

 the land. 



The increase in floriculture and horti- 

 culture in this city and indeed through- 

 out the United States is unparalleled. 

 Here are practically forty common- 

 wealths, trading with each other, with- 

 out let or hindrance, without custom du- 

 ties, in climates having products so va- 

 ried and endowed with such resources, 

 natural and acquired, as have no parallel 

 anywhere in the world ; unfettered by 

 trusts; with opportunities at every hand. 



As one of the greatest and grandest 

 thinkers of New England (Emerson) 

 said: "We live in a new and exceptional 

 age." America is another name for op- 

 portunity. Its whole history shows it to 

 be the last, best gift of God to man. Is 

 there anything more uplifting or glorious 

 than those words or more fascinating to 

 stimulate in floriculture and horticulture 

 the ambitions of youth? 



"Tlie cultivation of flowers," says a 

 writer, "is of all the amusements of man, 

 the one to be selected and approved as 

 the most innocent in itself and most per- 

 fectly devoid of injury to others; the 

 employment is not only conducive to 

 health and peace of mind, but probably 

 more good-will has arisen and friendship 

 has been founded by the intercourse and 

 communication connected with this pur- 

 suit than from any other whatsoever. 

 The pleasures, the ecstacies of the horti- 

 culturist are harmless and pure; a streak, 

 a tint, a shade, a perfume becomes his 

 triumph, which, though often obtained 

 by chance, or by the honey bee for him, 

 are secured alone by morning care, by 

 evening caution, and the vigilance of 

 days; an employment which in its vari- 

 ous grades excludes neither the opulent 

 nor the indigent, and teeming with 

 boundless variety, affords an increasing 

 excitement without contention or ill will." 



Flowers usher man into the portals of 

 a higher, nobler and sweeter life. The 

 growth of flowers, their distribution, 

 their uses are for all and not for the fa- 

 vored few. It is with pleasures that I 

 witness the advancement, not only in the 

 use of flowers, but in the art and in the 

 broadening influences which they inspire. 

 What credit for the love of them is due 

 to the common school, to the educational 

 influences of colleges and other institu- 

 tions of learning, I know not, but the 

 rapid increase in the wealth of the com- 

 munity has done its share. Last, and per- 

 haps not least, we are indebted to the 

 honey bee for a variety of benefits. Few 

 people know or realize that much of the 

 variety in plants, most of the colors in 

 our garden, many of the perfumes on our 

 toilet tables.- much of the beauty on 

 many of our canvases, a great deal of 

 the poetry in our language, and even a 

 considerable development of the beautv 

 sense in ourselves, results from that 

 rather mythical, historical incident dated 

 an aeon or two back, when the young of 

 the bee organized themselves into fami- 

 lies and became in every sense of the 

 word true vegetarians. 



In this great city and state, and in 

 many other states, the business of the 



