126 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



hope for it. Flora Hill lacks in stem 

 till toward March, when its stem is as 

 good as any. But he knows of no 

 large white with a better stem than 

 that of Hill. He was favorably im- 

 pressed with Evelina and would have 

 tried it had he had room. It was the 

 same with Gold Nugget. Pingree had 

 done well with him and he didn't 

 have room for both. 



Rose Queen lasted only one year With 

 him. It was a great winner the first 

 year and then dropped absolutely out 

 of the race. McGowan seemed to want 

 a lighter soil than his. Eldorado and 

 Kitty Clover have been dropped from 

 his list. Mrs. McBurney leaves no room 

 for Daybreak with him, and he was 

 never able to get high quality in Scott, 

 though for a fair average quality he 

 considers it still the biggest money- 

 getter. Tidal Wave is still good when 

 well grown, but he will let some one 

 else do the growing. 



He uses considerable lime and wood 

 ashes in his soil. It is thought that 

 the lime and potash give strength to 

 the stem. 



There is an interesting collection of 

 hardy plants at this place and some of 

 the new penstemons are very attrac- 

 tive. Mr. Rudd is trying to find a va- 

 riety that he thinks would take with 

 buyers if the flowers were put on the 

 market at a suitable season by forcing 

 them into bloom. He has quite a num- 

 ber of lychnis, including the Haage- 

 ana varieties as well as a liljeral quan- 

 tity of chalcedonica. There is also an 

 excellent collection of delphiniums 

 and a lot of miscellaneous hardy stuff. 

 A patch of Hydrangea paniculata 

 grandiflora was remarkably bushy and 

 sturdy. Mr. Rudd says this has been 

 one of the most profitable things on 

 the place. He cuts them hard back ev- 

 ery year in early spring, leaving only 

 one or two eyes of last year's growth 

 to each cane. This hard pruning as- 

 sisted by a heavy mulch of manure 

 and lots of water brings huge heads 

 of bloom on long stems that find ready 

 sale at good prices. He questions 

 whether they could be overfed or over- 

 watered, as he has given enormous 

 quantities and it always seemed as 

 though they could have used a little 

 more. 



Mr. Rudd grows no roses under 

 glass, but has had splendid success 

 with Testout as a bedding rose. He 

 believes that more attention should be 

 given this rose as a bedder. 



He is also very favorably impressed 

 with the new hardy semi-double rose, 

 Agnes Emily Carman, a hybrid be- 

 tween rugosa and Gen. Jacqueminot. 

 The Penzance hybrid sweet briars are 

 also doing finely with him and the 

 Crimson Rambler is distinctly in it, 

 too. 



Speaking of the use of hardy flowers 

 he said that a funeral arrangement 

 he made recently of Harrisii lilies and 

 delphiniums was unusually effective 

 and was most favorably commented 

 upon. 

 He has just been trying the Fair- 



mount weed killer on weeds in a grav- 

 elly drive and found it did the business 

 in great shape. Action was almost in- 

 stantaneous and the effect seems per- 

 manent. 



All who visited the last Chrysanthe- 

 mum Show will remember the magnifi- 

 cent geraniums grown by C. W. John- 

 son, the foreman at this place. Mr. 

 Johnson has another lot under way 

 for the next exhibition and is growing 

 a number of the plants in standard 

 form. He also has some plants of 

 Mrs. Pollock and other foliage sorts 

 that he is growing into specimens. The 

 plants are now in large pots set wide 

 apart on the bare boards of a bench 

 in one of the houses. 



H. & R. Hilmers. 



The establishment of H. & R. Hil- 

 mers, at Blue Island, is devoted wuol- 

 ly to the production of flowers and 

 plants to sell at their city store, and 

 a great variety of stock is grown. In 

 roses they grow only Brides, Maids 

 and Meteors. Their soil is the light 

 prairie muck and Beauty and Perle do 

 not do well in it. Their carnations are 

 mainly Daybreak and Wave, but they 

 have Triumph and Jubilee and are 

 trying Argyle and Evelina. 



The chrysanthemums are largely 

 Bonnaffon and Jones, and they also 

 have Murdock, Mayflower, Ivory, Mo- 

 rel, Bergman, Robinson and Frank 

 Hardy. They follow their chrysarKhe- 

 mums largely with gladioli, the bulbs 

 being planted about 4 inches apart in 

 the same soil after the chrysanthe- 

 mums are cleared out. Some beds are 

 planted with Princess Alice stocks. 

 The seed is sown in flats in December, 

 the little plants potted off into 2- 

 inch pots and later planted out about 

 ten inches apart on the old chrysan- 

 themum beds, the soil having been 

 dried out in the meantime. They have 

 found this stock very profitable as a 

 cut flower. They also grow some 

 Snow Crest daisies and pansies in the 

 same way. 



Mr. Geo. Schmitt, the foreman here, 

 says that the sale of cannas has been 

 short of expectations and that he has 

 received instructions to grow cannas 

 in hundreds where he grew thousands 

 before, and to increase the number 

 of geraniums. It is thought, however, 

 that the falling off In their sale of 

 cannas may be due to the extremely 

 low prices at which cannas were offer- 

 ed this season by a local seedsman and 

 florist. With this party offering start- 

 ed plants at 3 and 4 cents each there 

 was not much chance for others. In 

 geraniums they grow S. A. Nutt, La 

 Favorite, Beaute de Poitevine, 

 Emile de Girardin and Het- 

 eranthe. They have had so much 

 trouble with disease in their Double 

 Gen. Grant that they are now dump- 

 ing their stock on the refuse pile. 



They have a lot of hardy stuff plant- 

 ed out and several rows of delphini- 

 ums were very gay. They retail the 

 spikes at 50 cents a dozen and con- 

 sider them quite profitable. Paeonies 



were small this year, but are usually 

 a profitable crop. They have several 

 rows of the bachelor button, one of 

 the common field daisy and of Core- 

 opsis lanceolata, etc. A lot of lilacs 

 that were forced last winter are now 

 p-lanted out in the field to recuperate 

 and be ready for another forcing. 



A lot of evergreens that came from 

 the World's Fair are in splendid shape. 

 Evidently the soil and conditions suit 

 them perfectly. 



E. Buettner's. 



Last year Mr. E. Buettner, Park 

 Ridge, forced S.txiO Harrisii and a.OiW 

 Japanese longiflorum. This year he will 

 force 8,000 Japanese longiflorum and 

 only 2,000 Harrisii. Last year he made 

 on his Harrisii only one-quarter of 

 what he did on his longiflorum. This 

 is explained by the fact that he lost 

 about CO per cent of his Harrisii by 

 disease and he doesn't care to repeat 

 the experience. He finds that in the 

 Japan longiflorums there are several 

 varieties, and one, the longiflorum ex- 

 imium, is very similar to Harrisii. He 

 believes this and the Harrisii are 

 practically one and the same, the slight 

 difference being due to cultivation In 

 a different climate. Among his Japa- 

 nese bulbs he had a variety with 

 brownish stem and with a little brown 

 on the back of the petals of the flower, 

 which he learns is known as longiflor- 

 um takesima. He has had no difficulty 

 in getting the longiflorum into bloom 

 as early as the Harrisii, and in fact 

 part of his flowers came earlier than 

 he wanted them. 



He still grows valley, but only 

 enough for a special customer and says 

 there is no money in forcing valley at 

 the prices ruling the last few years. 



In other bulb stuff he forces 60,000 

 tulips, 10,000 miniature Dutch hya- 

 cinths and a few Von Sions and Pa- 

 per Whites. He grows this stock for a 

 special customer and would not grow 

 it if it had to be sold in open market. 

 For last Easter i.e had a fine lot of 

 Horsfieldii narcissus, but had trouble 

 to get his money back for the bulbs. 

 Although the flowers were superb they 

 wouldn't bring more in the market 

 than the other sorts, and as the bulbs 

 cost a great deal more he was out of 

 pocket by the transaction. 



La Reine is his leading tulip. He 

 grows it pink for the earlier part of 

 the season and white for Easter. He 

 begins to cut flowers the first week 

 in January and the flowers come pink 

 then without any special treatment. 

 Later on, in February, he leaves them 

 in the regular tulip house till they get 

 a good long stem and then places them 

 in a house with a temperature of 3-5 

 degrees, where they remain about two 

 weeks to color up. Any sort of a sharp 

 check when the buds are in bloom will 

 bring out the pink color. Some grow- 

 ers get the color by growing the bulbs 

 very cool all through, but flowers so 

 grown will be deficient in stem. Oth- 

 ers accomplish it by growing them un- 

 der the benches, but this has also its 

 drawbacks. 



