< >CT< >1SKK 19. 1SU!> 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



513 



blooming qualities, and by crossing B. 

 Socotrana with some of the Rex vari- 

 eties he has secured varieties that are 

 a marked advance in the desired direc- 

 tion. The influence of B. Socotraua 

 has been considerable, tending to im- 

 prove the habit of the plants, some- 

 what diminish the size of the leaves, 

 whilst the flowers coming during the 

 winter mouths particularly commend 

 this race of begonias to favor. Some 

 of the best of this race are Winter 

 Queen, Winter Perfection, Winter 

 Beauty, Winter Jewel, Winter Cheer, 

 and Winter Favorite. In common with 

 begonias generally they are not plants 

 that will withstand rough handling, 

 but it would appear as if they should 

 take here when well grown and shown 

 for none could fail to admire them. 



Another distinct set of begonias Mr. 

 Sander calls pillar varieties because 

 of their tall growth and adaptability 

 for training up pillars. They combine 

 beautiful foliage with showy bloom, 

 and one can see possibilities in them 

 for winter pot plants. They form a 

 royal set, being named after the Queen 

 and members of the Royal Family, but 

 aside from their names they are of 

 truly regal beauty. 



It is possibly useless to commend 

 sonerillas to growers here but one can- 

 not fail to note what vast improve- 

 ments have been made, and the St. 

 Albans set are jewel plants in the 

 fullest sense, marvels of exquisite leaf 

 coloring. 



Caladium Albanense, quite a new 

 plant, I saw in quantity, and this pos- 

 sibly will prove the progenitor of an 

 entirely new series of varieties. Its 

 leaves differ much in shape from those 

 of the varieties we are familiar with, 

 being somewhat sagittate or spear 

 shaped, of a thick texture and strongly 

 borne on stout stalks. In color the 

 main body of the leaf is deep red which 

 fades gradually to a greenish yellow 

 at outer edge. Mr. Sander says it is 

 as durable as a palm, and the leaves 

 last well when used in a cut state, so 

 that he predicts for it much usefulness 

 on that account. 



We leave the St. Albans establish- 

 ment to see what Mr. Sander has been 

 doing in Bruges, and en route traverse 

 Kent, "the garden of England," noting 

 by the way that hops were a magnifi- 

 cent crop this year. After four hours 

 of the "choppy channel" we reach 

 Ostend, thence to quaint old Bruges 

 for the nig*ht so as to have a full day 

 on the morrow, for we hear incidental- 

 ly that the Bruges establishment has 

 grown somewhat the past four years. 

 It has in truth grown prodigious, a 

 veritable plant manufactory, turning 

 out its products in bewildering num- 

 bers. 



To our right upon entering we see 

 the azalea field, six acres of ground 

 standing thick with plants, a solid 

 sheet of verdure broken only by the 

 essential paths for attending to the 

 plants, and such perfect culture that 

 not a mean or unhealthy plant is vis- 

 ible anywhere. Azaleas are one of the 

 specialties of the Bruges nursery, and 



the annual output at present is 100,000 

 plants. They are grown in the full 

 sun in pure leaf-mould, planted in beds 

 of about five feet in width, with nar- 

 row alleys between. The plants are 

 planted out at the end of April, and 

 remain till October, when those sold 

 are lifted and packed for shipment 

 whilst the young stock for growing on 

 is noused in a long range of low 

 houses parallel to the planting ground. 



Bays are another specialty, and when 

 you get to the Bay quarter you can see 

 nothing else. They have nearly 30.000 

 of them in all sizes from infants in the 

 early stages of training up to giants of 

 noble proportions, marvelous examples 

 of skillful culture. The acme of per- 

 fection is seen in some grand standards 

 that have perfect heads eight feet hori- 

 zontal and seven feet perpendicular in 

 diameter. 



After the Bays we start on a round 

 of inspection of the hundred or more 

 houses devoted to palms, orchids and 

 a variety of decorative plants, all the 

 indoor stock manifesting the same fine 

 culture. 



It required a day to get acquainted 

 with the place, and it was the best 

 spent day of the whole trip, whilst the 

 next best was the following when with 

 Mr. Sander as guide visits were paid to 

 the fine orchid collections of Jules 

 Hye at Ghent, and the Peeters and De- 

 Landre places at Brussels, where we 

 saw the new system of growing or- 

 chids in leaf-mould, and as exempli- 

 fied by the quality of the stock, these 

 growers certainly now have no more 

 use for peat. 



The 50,000 odontoglossums seen in 

 the Peeters establishment have left an 

 impression that will ever remain, and 

 this of the growing plants alone. It 

 was hard to realize that such markedly 

 superior results had come about 

 through a radical departure from past 

 practices, and what had hitherto been 

 considered the correct culture, but a 

 progressive state is a healthy state 

 that trends to the advancement of 

 knowledge. A. HERRINGTON. 



Madison, N. J. 



BUFFALO. 



Since the cold, wet spell end of Sep- 

 tember we have been enjoying most 

 delightful weather. October has kept 

 up her reputation for being the most 

 charming month of the whole year. 

 May has the ecstasy of youth but Oc- 

 tober has the ripe, rich maturity of 

 age without the destroying frosts of 

 December. 



For two weeks, or until the advent 

 of the "mums," flowers, except roses, 

 were very scarce and it was hard to 

 find material for the cheap cemetery 

 bouquets, much more difficult than it 

 was to serve the customer who asks 

 for Beauties, or any other first class 

 rose. 



It is too early to say how chrys- 

 anthemums are going to sell. They 

 are awfully useful anyway, even if we 

 don't get a fancy price for them, and 

 to those who can fill up their benches 



directly with other stock they must 

 be profitable. 



Carnations are increasing in quan- 

 tity and quality every day and have 

 brought a better price this autumn 

 than for a long time. 



It looks as if we would be well off 

 for violets this year. They are not 

 yet quite up to winter standard but 

 Mr. Stroh, of Attica, is sending very 

 fine flowers. 



We were down at Lockport one fine 

 day lately to witness a son play semi- 

 professional ball. It was on that day 

 which is a day of rest to nearly all 

 but the florists, which people keep as 

 a newly transported Parisian would 

 call dreadfully slow, and an Edinboro 

 Presbyterian "An awfu sinfu day." 



We climbed the hill to Mr. Thomas 

 Mansfield's home, where we found that 

 he had plenty of work for the morrow. 

 Mr. Mansfield made several improve- 

 ments in his place and only needed a 

 week or two of fine weather to be in 

 good order. He had a particularly fine 

 lot of carnations and his chrysanthe- 

 mums, both in pots and on the bench- 

 es, were very fine. And a large house 

 of roses were growing in good style 

 with the glass off, but that's a month 

 ago. 



A few hundred feet north of Mr. 

 Mansfield's house you stand on the 

 edge of the cliff and from there it sud- 

 denly drops almost to the level of 

 Lake Ontario, and looking northward 

 to Ontario you look over one of the 

 greatest apple and peach orchards of 

 the country. Lake 'Ontario must be 

 350 feet lower than Lake Erie, and all 

 of it in a few short miles, and 160 feet 

 of it in one leap at Niagara. 



Business is most decidedly better 

 than it was a year ago, and there is 

 more confidence all around. The man 

 who keeps the vital statistics always 

 says that an increase of marriages is 

 an indication of prosperity. The other 

 two chief events of our lives are"more 

 involuntary, so prosperity must have 

 struck us, for following the example 

 of Mr. Adams, Mr. S. A. Anderson "has 

 been and gone and done it." In more 

 polished English he has entered the 

 holy realms of wedlock. The other 

 party to the contract is, or was, a 

 beautiful daughter of one of our mer- 

 chants, Miss Tracy. As Mr. Ander- 

 son has always been a model son and 

 brother he will doubtless make a mod- 

 el husband and stop home evenings at 

 least for the first year. 



W. S. is building three propagating 

 houses for the Pan-American, some- 

 thing that for heat and light will be 

 equal to any houses, but as cheaply 

 as they can be constructed, and they 

 are going up with such rapidity and 

 satisfaction to all concerned that it is 

 likely he will put out his shingle soon, 

 which will read something like this: 

 "Commercial houses built while you 

 wait; butted glass preferred." 



Florists don't often go into politics 

 for they are generally too conscien- 

 tious and industrious, but it is their 

 duty to. and our Wm. F. Kasting is 

 nominated on the Democratic ticket 



