582 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



NOVEMBER 3, 1898. 



away if you do not care to join, for 

 we are a liberal minded body and 

 throw our doors open to any one con- 

 nected with the trade; as a grower, 

 wholesaler or a retailer, all are invited 

 and all are welcome. 



The papers tor the coming meeting 

 are not voluminous, but will cover 

 some interesting ground; there will be 

 one by Prof. Britton on commercial 

 fertilizers and their relation to the 

 growing of carnations, one and possi- 

 bly three by growers of indoor carna- 

 tions on their methods and success. 

 and one by our own Mr. Kitt on car- 

 nations from the retail point of view. 

 In addition to this there is a question 

 box open to members, and any knotty 

 problems we may want solved can be 

 forwarded to the secretary, or brought 

 to the meeting with the assurance 

 that they will receive careful consid- 

 eration. So much for the meeting. 



The Exhibition. 



The exhibition is held the same 

 date, February 16th and 17th, 1S99. All 

 entries should be forwarded to the 

 secretary at least ten days before the 

 exhibition, and all exhibits must be 

 staged by 11 a. m., February 16th or 

 they will be disqualified. These are 

 very important items to get fixed in 

 our memory, as they are not paper 

 rules, but rules that have to be lived 

 up to and obeyed to the letter in order 

 to avoid confusion and the interfer- 

 ence of the exhibition with the busi- 

 ness sessions of the meeting. The 

 premium list will be ready for distri- 

 bution by the first of December, and 

 will be mailed to any one who ai)plies 

 for the same, no matter whether they 

 are members or not; all intending ex- 

 hibitors should bear in mind and send 

 their names to the secretary at once. 



Our exhibitions have been second in 

 size only to the chrysanthemum shows 

 of the fall, and are fully as well ap- 

 preciated by the general public. By 

 carnation enthusiasts they are looked 

 upon as each one better than the pre- 

 ceding one, and perfect marvels in the 

 way of progress. There is no reason 

 why this exhibition should not be far 

 ahead of any of the preceding ones, 

 and there is every reason why it 

 should be ahead of them. In the first 

 place, the premiums offered by the 

 society are no mean ones, but repre- 

 sent quite a nice outlay in good cold 

 cash, besides a few in the way of tro- 

 phies, and the outside premiums this 

 season cover all the ground that can 

 be taken up. 



Perhaps the first one of these to be 

 considered is the cup Offered by E. H. 

 Michel, of St. Louis. Mo., for the club 

 winning the highest number of prem- 

 iums in the whole exhibition. This 

 will be awarded by points, so many 

 for first prize, so many for second, and 

 in the same way points will be al- 

 lowed for certificates and special prem- 

 iums. This will be a feather in the 

 cap of some club, and well worth win- 

 ning. Another award that ought to 

 bring out a good exhibit is the medal 

 offered by the S. A. F. for the best 



six vases, twenty-five blooms each, 

 of six varieties, introduction of 1897 

 and 1898. The grower who wins this 

 will have double honors and such as 

 have never been offered before. 



From a money point of view the 

 most valuable prize of the lot will be 

 the vase offered by the Rookwood Pot- 

 tery. This will be a gem, and is to 

 go to the grower who is fortunate 

 enough to have the best three vases, 

 fifty blooms to a vase, of scarlet, pink 

 and white, three varieties. Frederick 

 A. Blake, of Rochdale, Mass.. has $10 

 to be divided into three premiums for 

 his new carnation, Bon Ton; Richard 

 Witterstaetter, of Sedamsville, Ohio, 

 has a like amount to be divided into 

 two for his Evelina; John May, of 

 Summit, N. J., offers $5 for the best 

 twenty-five scarlet, and the Florist's 

 Exchange offers a like amount for the 

 best "Red Seedling" to be named 

 "Charlotte"; the American Florist of- 

 fers $10 toward the general fund, and 

 there are others to be heard from. 



The society is making an innovation 

 in the way of an award by offering a 

 vase for the most artistic arrange- 

 ment of carnations with foliage or 

 otherwise, said arrangement to con- 

 tain not over 100 carnatit* blooms, 

 and all other flowers excluded. It is 

 to be hoped this award will bring 

 out a good display and some new ideas 

 in the use of carnations; if it does, 

 this end of the exhibition will no 

 doubt be well taken care of in the fu- 

 ture. 



The Cottage Gardens cup this sea- 

 son goes to the best scarlet, and this 

 in addition to the other premiums of- 

 fered for scarlet, ought to make the 

 show a red letter one ( no joke intend- 

 ed). As a club we should take a 

 pride in winning as many of these 

 trophies as possible, and it is time to 

 begin right now. We will have some 

 good strong competition to meet from 

 other sections, for I hear almost daily 

 of some one who is coming, and in- 

 tends to exhibit from a distance. So 

 much for the exhibition. 



We, as a club, will want to appoint 



a committee to meet the members of 



! the society as ihey come in. conduct 



, them to their hotels, and see that they 



i can reach the hall readily and without 



1 trouble. As the headquarters will be 



at the hall, it will hardly be necessary 



to have one hotel designated, but it 



would be well to see if we can secure 



any special rates, and offer them to 



those who care to take advantage of 



them. 



We will also want a superintendent 

 of the exhibition who will have the 

 arrangement of the tables, and to 

 whom all boxes and packages can be 

 directed with instructions how to dis- 

 play the same. 

 ^ We will have to give up our club 

 room to the society for two days and 

 one evening, or provide some other 

 place of meeting, as it has always been 

 customary for the local club to pro- 

 vide free of expense to the society a 

 meeting room and exhibition hall. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 



"In chrysanthemum growing the 

 most money is made in producing big 

 blooms of the mid-season sorts," said 

 W. N. Rudd, Chicago. He holds that 

 none of the very early varieties pay 

 because too small a percentage comes 

 in when prices are high for their size 

 and quality. The last half of the crop 

 laps over on to the second earlies 

 which are superior and when these 

 are in the blooms of the first earlies 

 are out of it as regards price. 



In early whites he likes Midge, but 

 would like it better if the foliage 

 wasn't so heavy and if the flower 

 would stand better after being cut. 

 Mrs. Geo. S. Kalb is his favorite sec- 

 ond early white and then comes Ivory. 

 He has discarded Robinson. While 

 some of the Robinsons would be supe- 

 rior to the best of his Ivory the Ivory 

 would give a much higher percentage 

 of really good blooms. With Ivory he 

 can depend upon an excellent flower 

 from practically every plant while 

 with, say 600 Robinson, 200 blooms 



would be fine, 200 would be good fair 

 blooms, 100 would be common and 100 

 "strictly bum." Again the blooms of 

 Ivory have a substance that those of 

 no others seem to have, and ihey do 

 not suffer damage easily. They last 

 well on the plant and keep well when 

 cut. And the plants will stand strong 

 feeding with no ill effect, while manv 

 white varieties are quick to suffer 

 from this, showing it through rotting 

 of ihc petals. 



'though Ivory stands so high in his 

 estimation, Mrs. Jerome Jones is his 

 most profitable white. He can depend 

 upon practically all good flowers, and 

 the variety produces more dollars to 

 the square foot of bench than an.v 

 otJier chrysanthemum he has ever 

 grown. When the blooms come pink 

 he finds them just as salable as when 

 white. 



Selected blooms of Mayflower bring 

 more money than those of any othei\ 

 but it is hard to do well. Damp weath- 

 er affects it injuriously and the long 

 florets are easily injured. Still it 



