350 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



FEBRUARY 22, 1900. 



badly swelled head is also no ordinary 

 man." (Laughter and applause.) - 



He called for three cheers for the 

 governor and they were given with a 

 will. 



Mr. W. N. Rudd looked vei-y hand- 

 some when elevated on a chair and 

 was received with various scriptural 

 quotations. Referring to the entertain- 

 ment feature of the conventions, he 

 said Chicago thought it had fi.xed the 

 scale so it alone could score a hundred, 

 but there were some foxy people in 

 Philadelphia and they had so maneu- 

 vered as to also score a full hundred. 

 Buffalo now comes in with an ideal and 

 fills out a century scoie. 



He sympathized with Baltimore, who 

 had such a fast pace set for her, but 

 knew she would win out just the same. 

 He emphasized the great value of the 

 exhibitions to all the carnation grow- 

 ers in the country and was extremely 

 sorry for those who were unable to 

 come. 



Readers will please refer to Buffalo 

 notes for a report of the remainder of 

 the addresses. 



AN IMPRESSIONIST AT THE CON- 

 VENTION, 



I went to the carnation show with 

 my old friend Sam De Graw, who had 

 never seen one before; and while Sam 

 might not be able to write a thesis 

 on parthenogenesis that would make 

 the subject any more obscure than it 

 now is, still he grows a few carnations 

 himself, is of good, upright habit, and 

 never bursts; and as he is a good ob- 

 server and makes up his own opin- 

 ions, I thought that some of his im- 

 pressions of the show might be in- 

 teresting to those of your readers who 

 did not see the flowere, and possibly 

 to some who did. 



Sam says he had read about and 

 been told about four-inch carnations 

 so long that he would have faced six- 

 inch blooms without flinching, and 

 came prepared to protect himself with 

 a pocket rule; but that the largest 

 flower in the hall — No. 666 — lacked a 

 quarter of an inch of being four 

 inches in diameter, and the next larg- 

 est — Olympia — was half an inch shy; 

 and a far greater number of the flow- 

 ers on exhibition were below three 

 inches than above. 



Sam says that the point where the 

 carnation of to-day is lacking most is 

 in stem. The colors are fairly satis- 

 factory, the flowers are large enough, 

 and the hybridizers should direct 

 their efforts to furnish stems for them 

 that will stand upright under their 

 heavy heads of bloom. Some of the 

 kinds shown were very good in this 

 respect, among which he includes 

 Genevieve Lord, Elinora, and Mrs. 

 Lippincott. 



The color in many cases, while 

 often odd and striking, is not always 

 one that will be likely to please for 

 a steady diet. The crimsons are too 

 nearly black, the pinks are apt 

 to have the fatal dash of purple, and 

 the mottled, marbled, or shaded ones 



are often unpleasantly irregular and 

 uncertain. One bloom will have an 

 undue amount of the darker color, or 

 will have it mostly on one side, while 

 at the other the flower will be too 

 light colored and washed. This is one 

 of the woi-st faults of Dailledouze's 

 latest wonder. We have good scarlets, 

 good whites, good pinks, and good 

 variegated kinds, but we still wait for 

 an ideal crimson and a clear, profit- 

 able yellow. 



While Sam did some measuring, he 

 did not count the flowers; but there 

 certainly were enough, and after due 

 deliberation he concludes that the 

 most valuable of the newer named 

 kinds, as they appeared in their party 

 dresses at the show, are The Marquis, 

 Mrs. Lawson, Genevieve Lord. Mrs. 

 Lippincott, Olympia, Enquirer and Go- 

 mez; and there are a few promising 

 whites and scarlets, some of the be.-t of 

 which have not yet been christened. 



Sam says that the least desirable 

 shape for a vase to show carnations in 

 is the rosebowl style, and the best is 

 the straight-sided cylinder, of just suf- 

 ficient diameter to admit the stems. 



All the exhibits in each class shoulil 

 be staged together and allowed to re- 

 main so during the show, giving vis- 

 itors an opportunity to compare them. 



Sam says that he has taken occa- 

 sion more than once to condemn the 

 scoring or scaling plan of judging, 

 and wishes to do so again. If En- 

 quirer was entitled to 100 points at 

 Chicago, there were some kinds shown 

 at Buffalo that should have 115, and 

 when you get to adding ledger lines 

 above the staff and guessing how 

 many points better than perfection 

 any kind is, you will perhaps begin to 

 realize the absurdity of the whole bus- 

 iness. The correct way is to judge 

 by comparison, and the men who as- 

 sume to apply a scale of points are 

 only doing this and calling it scoring. 



If six vases of fifty blooms are com- 

 peting for a prize, any man fit to judge 

 can readily tell which is the best — and 

 what more is needed? The society 

 might properly insist that its judges 

 must see that prize-winners possess 

 certain qualities, as, for instance, 

 strength of stem, but a capable judge 

 will not need such instruction. 



As he has said before, good judging 

 can only be done by good judges, and 

 any man who does not confine him- 

 self to the specimens he judges, liut 

 tries to give prizes to as many compe- 

 titors as possible, is not fit to judge. 



Sam looked into the convention 

 room, but so many were smoking dur- 

 ing the proceedings that he thought it 

 was a smoker, and. not wanting to 

 fumigate any more than necessary, he 

 came away; but he always was querr. 



Sam says that the meeting with old 

 acquaintances and the forming new 

 ones gave him as much pleasure as 

 the chance to study the flowers, but 

 that Dailledouze, and some others, 

 should get their names cut, or furnish 

 their friends with a ke.v to their pro- 

 nunciation. W. T. BELL. 



Franklin, Pa., Fell. IT, 1900. 



JUDGING CARNATIONS. 



The controversy over the methods 

 of judging carnations goes bravely on. 

 Some condemn the method of judg- 

 ing by a scale of points, others the 

 way of applying the scale. Some hold 

 thiit the awarding of 100 points im- 

 plies perfection, and others that it does 

 not necessarily mean this. 



What is a scale? It is merely a 

 measure, just^as a foot-rule or a yard- 

 stick is a measure; and the differ- 

 ences in results are largely due to the 

 fact that we have not yet all agreed 

 as to the length of an inch, or other 

 division of the measure. In other 

 words, we haven't any flxed point to 

 work from. The proposition to agree 

 upon an ideal and measure down from 

 it has several fatal drawbaclis. Who 

 can say what the future may hold? 

 Our ideals have changed radically dur- 

 ing the last decade, and it must be a 

 bold man who w-ill fix absolutely the 

 limit which we maj' be expected to 

 reach. 



Unquestionably the safer way will 

 be to select our ideal, or standard 

 from which to measure, from existing 

 forms. We can do as a painter does 

 when he portrays an ideal female fig- 

 ure. He takes a head from one model, 

 an arm from another, a hand from a 

 third, a foot from a fourth, a neck 

 from a fifth (and sometimes more 

 than twenty models are used), and 

 so on. No figure in nature is abso- 

 lutely perfect, but perfect details- are 

 comparatively common. By putting 

 these perfect details together, the art- 

 ist creates a perfect figure, according 

 to his conception of what perfection 

 is. Two artists will rarely agree with 

 exactitude, but if they are worthy the 

 name they will not be so very far 

 apart. 



In this way we can construct an 

 ideal that Is exact and definite and 

 therefore easy to use as a point to 

 measure from, and one, by the w-ay, 

 that will not be at all too easy to 

 reach. It will be adaptable to all con- 

 ditions and will keep step with the 

 march of progress. 



We now have a carnation that is full 

 four inches in diameter. It is not a 

 dream — it is a reality. Let any new 

 carnation of equal size receive the 

 full number of points for size. When 

 we get a five-inch bloom (if we do), 

 that will be the size required to win 

 the full number of points. This mat- 

 ter seems easily settled. 



.•^s to calyx, Mr. Dorner believes the 

 Albertini type to be nearest to per- 

 fection. As Albertini is now not 

 widely grown, it may be well to men- 

 tion that the calyx of Bradt is some- 

 what similar. 



As to stem, both Mr. Dorner and 

 Mr. Rudd agree that the stem of 

 cither Lawson or .Jubilee is the best. 



In regard to form, there is some 

 opportunity for argument, as tastes 

 may differ. The two gentlemen above 

 quoted thought that the form of the 

 new crimson sort. Gov. Roosevelt, 

 was very close to the ideal. Cerise 

 Queen has a somewhat similar form. 



