March 20, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



575 



New Begonia Buisson Rose (Lemoine). 



knowing whether the variety will do well 

 for you or not. 



There is no denying the fact that these 

 exhibitions are a great benefit to the 

 trade. The sight of something beautiful 

 invariably excites a desire to possess, and 

 I am sure that many a visitor to that 

 exhibition bought his or her first bunch 

 of flowers. After having enjoyed these 

 first ones they are very likely to want 

 more of them from time to time, and be- 

 fore very long you will have them among 

 your regular customers. It is our duty, 

 not only to ourselves from a business 

 standpoint, but to the people from a moral 

 standpoint, to foster and cultivate this 

 love for tiowers among the people. It 

 tends to make better men and better 

 women. Whenever you see a dooryard 

 full of flowers or a window filled with 

 plants in the winter, you may feel quite 

 certain that a happy family lives among 

 them. Flowers are not wanted in a home 

 where there is discord and strife. 



The carnation has always been the peo- 

 ple's flower. Away back as far as our 

 oldest members can think our mothers 

 and grandmothers loved the old-fashioned 

 pinks. But it was considered a common 

 flower then, and we are indebted to the 

 American Carnation Society for the high 

 standing the carnation now enjoys, and I 

 am sure these exhibitions have helped as 

 much as any one thing to make the carna- 

 tion popular. The exhibition last month 

 was a grand success, we all know, and we 

 may well be proud of the fact that the 

 greatest carnation show ever held in the 

 world was held here in our city and our 

 state. And another thing we may feel 



proud of is that out of about thirty 

 standard varieties shown there, at least 

 one-third of them were produced in this 

 state. Indiana may well be proud of her 

 part in bringing the carnation to the 

 front. 



There is, however, one thing in con- 

 nection with the exhibition which I 

 deeply deplore. During the entire bloom- 

 ing season wo are exceedingly careful to 

 preserve the natural fragrance of our 

 blooms. When a new variety is scored 

 the fragrance counts five points. And 

 yet when we come together with our 

 choicest blooms to show the people what 

 we have accomplished, we subject them to 

 that worst of all fragrance destroyers, 

 toiacco smoke. I am sure that at least 

 half of the men who were unpacking the 

 blooms and arranging them in the vases 

 were smoking cigars and filling the air 

 and the blooms with the fumes. Not 

 only in the unpacking room, but in the 

 exhibition hall as well, during both days 

 there was smoking going on continually. 

 I heard several people remark that the 

 large blooms seem to have less fragrance 

 than the smaller ones they usually buy 

 and wonder whether the high culture did 

 not tend to destroy the fragrance. There 

 ought to be a rule, and it should be 

 strictly enforced at all exhibitions, for- 

 bidding smoking in or about the exhibi- 

 tion hall. 



SPRING GLEANINGS. 



Oulj' a few more days and the Easter 

 trade of the year 1902" with all its trials 

 will be a matter of history, and the only 

 anxiety remaining will be that of col- 



lecting the bills, and this of itself will 

 be quite a sufficient anxiety for many 

 a grower and dealer. A good trade at 

 that important season is much to be de- 

 sired by the growers too, for this win- 

 ter has been quite a trying one in many 

 respects, and for the past six weeks or 

 so the coal piles have melted away like 

 snow in a spring thaw. 



Such a season is an expensive and 

 rather discouraging one to many grow- 

 ers, for there has, in the vicinity "of Phil- 

 adelphia at least, been very httle assist- 

 ance from the sun, a total of three per- 

 fectly clear days during the month of 

 February having been reported by the 

 weather office, and ten wet days, with the 

 remainder more or less cloudy. Such 

 conditions are difficult to counteract by 

 artificial means, and in consequence the 

 grower who has not got a thoroughly 

 efficient heating apparatus is very liable 

 to fall short in the race against time 

 with a lot of flowering stock, and even 

 with houses that are well heated the 

 plants are not likely to be as sturdy 

 and well finished as though they had 

 had the benefit of plenty of sunshine. 

 Immense stocks are in preparation, how- 

 ever, and in some lines there may prove 

 to be quite enough for the market. 



Some dwarf Japanese cherries, forced 

 into bloom, are among the novelties, 

 and when well flowered will probably 

 prove attractive to the public, the oddly 

 twisted branches of these contorted 

 plants giving them a decidedly Japanese 

 effect, and as this quickwitted nation has 

 given much attention to cherry blossoms 

 and variations of the same, it is quite 

 probable that some unusual varieties may 

 develop among these imported plants. 



Very handsome rhododendrons are be- 

 ing shown, most of the plants being of 

 good shape and well set with buds, but 

 w^ith these as with Azalea indica, the 

 wise grower makes a careful selection of 

 varieties, for all rhododendrons do not 

 force equally well, nor are all colors 

 equally popular, and the same rule ap- 

 plies to azaleas. The latter also seems to 

 average fairly good this season, and 

 there will doubtless be a sufficient sup- 

 ply for Easter, for it does not take very 

 hard forcing to bring these plants in 

 safely at that season. 



A little judicious tying of the stray 

 shoots of the azaleas before the buds 

 are advanced so much as to be in dan- 

 ger of bruising will often make a sale- 

 able plant out of an awkward shaped 

 one, but this tying should be neatly 

 done with green twine, the ties being 

 drawn down to the main stem of the 

 plant so that the use of stakes may 

 be avoided, the object of the tying being 

 to either draw in unruly shoots or to 

 open out the heads of the plant in order 

 that the flowers may not appear too 

 crowded. 



The acacias are among the most grace- 

 ful of yellow flowered plants for this 

 season, and probably not more than four 

 or five species are commonly seen, the 

 best of these being A. armata, A. deal- 

 bata, A. Brummondii and A. Eieeana. 

 The latter name, by the way, is not com- 

 memorative of a certain" well known 

 member of the florists' supply trade, 

 probably because he is not "a dead 

 one," as commemorative names are more 

 often taken from some of the dear de- 

 parted, in like manner to the custom of 

 our government in decorating its cur- 

 rency with the portraits of deceased . 

 notables. ' 



But to return to acacias, armata is the 



