892 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



NOVEMBEIt 20, 1902. 



palms, ferns and mums; a well-made 

 basket of roses, and a shaft or column 



of mums. . ,. ' 1^ 



Mendenhall displayed Adiantum i'ar- 

 leyense; mums, roses, carnations and a 

 cross of roses and a Gates Ajar design. 

 The best • mums seen were Timothy 

 Eaton, Yellow Eaton, Appleton, Golden 

 Wedding, Autumn Glory a«d Mme. 



The best roses were Beauty, Bride, 

 Bridesmaid, Liberty and La France. The 

 best carnations. Enchantress, Prosperity, 

 Bradt, Lawson, Gov. Wolcott, Estelle. 



X. Y. Z, 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Some Varieties. 

 I see with pleasure that Convention 

 Hall, the new white variety of Messrs. 

 N. Smith & Son, was awarded 97 points 

 when exhibited before the committee in 

 New York last week. I thought it a per- 

 fect model when I saw it for the tirst 

 time two weeks ago. It is of the purest 

 white, so white that IMis. Weeks is dirty 

 compared with it. My object in speak- 

 ing of it now is to express surprise that 

 this variety does not appear to figure 

 much in the flower show reports through- 

 out the West so far. Possibly it may be 

 later out there, and not ready in time 

 for exhibiting. Certain it is that Eaton 

 or any other white with which I am ac- 

 quainted would not be able to compare 

 with it if set up as I saw it recently. 



Another white that has surprised me 

 this year in the way it finished is Flor- 

 ence 'Molyneux. This variety was very 

 weak in giowth all the season, and I 

 marked it down as a good thing to get 

 rid of. I was consequently greatly sur- 

 prised when Florence showed, to use a 

 colloquial expression, that she "had a 

 great head on her." The only fault was 

 that the head was a little too heavy for 

 the neck; but from my own and others' 

 experience with it I feel justified in 

 recommending this variety for a good 

 trial next season as a midseason to late 

 exhibition sort. 



Yellow Eaton is not having the luck 

 that its progenitor had when struggling 

 on the boards for recognition, for I see 

 that Appleton beat it in the cup contest 

 at Chicago, and the White Eaton beat it 

 when set up in the competition for 50 

 flowers of one variety at the Institute in 

 New York. I did not see the Chicago 

 competition, but I know that Appleton 

 is a hard variety to run up against in a 

 competition, and is a better color than 

 any Yellow Eaton I have yet seen. 



I have never yet seen a white variety 

 produce a yellow sport that is a really 

 deep yellow. Look at Basset, the yellow 

 sport of Eobinson, Yellow Robinson, 

 Yellow Jerome Jones, Yellow Mutual 

 Friend and a host of others. The color 

 in all these varieties is too light for 

 them to show well at an exhibition when 

 the class calls for a vase of yellow, 6 or 

 12 flowers, or whatever the case may be. 

 The yellow inside the petal is yellow 

 enough in Yellow Eaton, but the reverse 

 of the petal is much lighter, and as 

 much of the reverse is seen it makes the 

 flower appear lighter than it really is. 

 Where Yellow Eaton will find recogni- 

 tion is with those large commercial 

 growers who put out a thousand plants 

 Sn the bench and figure on cutting a 

 thousand flowers. Tliis is the greatest 

 merit of the white Eaton, and the yellow 

 one deserves to be grown extensively 

 for the same reason. When 'a variety 

 produces many culls, as lots of the finest 



exhibition kinds do, their value falls 

 greatly in the commercial grower's eyes. 



The competition in New York when 

 Yellow Eaton was beaten by the original 

 Eaton I did see, and in this case it was 

 beaten solely because the flowers of the 

 white variety were so much larger. Tliis 

 is, of course, no disgrace for Yellow 

 Eaton, because since it is a sport from 

 the white it naturally follows that it 

 could be grown equally as large, the dif- 

 ference being one of cultural skill 

 merely. 



What kind of luck could a variety 

 have anyway that is burdened with such 

 a name 'as Oronhyatecka. I believe the 

 gentleman it is called after is a promi- 

 nent Forester, and if I were a mum and 

 received such a name I would certainly 

 feel like "taking to the woods." Per- 

 siflage aside Yellow Eaton will be grown 

 extensively next year by those who gi-ow 

 Eaton well, and their name is legion. 



Exhibitions. 



The exhibitions are now practically 

 over and seem, generally speaking, to 

 have been successful. New York is ap- 

 parently an exception so far as the finan- 

 cial end of it goes, but blase New York 

 wants to attend nothing more elevating 

 than a Tammany overflow meeting or 

 Hubers' Musee. Unless a prizefight or 

 a murder trial is thrown in as a side 

 attraction, it does not seem that there 

 will ever be a satisfactory attendance 

 at a flower show in the principal city of 

 the "efi'ete East." The smaller horticul- 

 tural societies in many neighboring 

 towns around New York put up good 

 shows, and are not doing any kicking, 

 but they work on a very diflferent basis. 

 They are helped financially by the 

 wealthy residents, who take a per- 

 sonal interest in the show and 

 expect their gardeners to ex- 



hibit and bring home some prizes. 

 This results in a good show, with lots of 

 competition and lots of local interest, 

 and also is very beneficial to the afore- 

 mentioned wealthy residents as it com- 

 pels their gardeners to grow good stock 

 in order to keep up with the procession. 

 In the east the private gardener has 

 practically driven the commercial grower 

 away from the exhibition table by the 

 excellence of his product, while in the 

 west the commercial man still seems to 

 hold down everything in sight. Time 

 will undoubtedly bring the western com- 

 mercial grower to his knees, when the 

 spirit of horticultural emulation gets 

 to working among the western million- 

 aires and they go in for raising larger 

 flowers than their neighbors. 



Merza has made a tremendous show- 

 ing at several exhibitions. Flowers 30 

 inches in circumference are spoken of at 

 the Boston show while Tarrytown and 

 Cedarhurst also record phenomenal flow- 

 ers of this variety. The habit it has of 

 wilting quickly is often the only draw- 

 back that prevents Merza from being 

 wrown much more extensively. 



Brian Bortj. 



should be placed in such a position as 

 to be easily shaded. One of the best 

 houses for this purpose I have seen was 

 built against the north wall of a rose 

 house. This wall was seven feet high, 

 the house had a span rcof, with the Imig 

 slope to the north, was ten feet wide, 

 thus allowing space for two benches, one 

 against the north and another against 

 the south wall, with a path in the cen- 

 ter. 



The south bench required practically 

 no shading, while the north bench was 

 shaded by having a thin muslin curtain 

 hung in front of it in such a way as to 

 be easily removed when not required. 



A great drawback to most propagat- 

 ing houses is in having the benches too 

 near the ventilators, thus allowing the 

 cold air to come in direct contact with 

 the cuttings before being qualified by 

 the temperature of the house. 



A very serviceable and economic 

 bench can be constructed much on the 

 same lines as the tile-bottomed benches 

 used in growing houses, only substitut- 

 ing bricks for tiles, placing the bricks 

 close enough together to prevent the 

 sand from running through. As the 

 bricks absorb the heat and retain it for 

 a long time it will be easily seen that 

 a much steadier bottom heat can be 

 maintained than could be obtained by 

 using either slates or wood for bottom- 

 ing. The initial cost, of course, will be 

 greater, but if the benches are properly 

 constructed they are practically inde- 

 structible and will in a year or two re- 

 pay the outlay. 



In order to have full control of the 

 temperature under the benches they 

 should be enclosed with walls of either 

 cement or brick and should be inde- 

 pendent of the walls of the house, and 

 ample provision made for regulating the 

 heat by having a number of sliding 

 panels placed at intervals of six feet 

 apart along the walls. 



Previous to filling the benches with 

 the material to be used as a propagat- 

 ing medium, the bricks should receive 

 a coating of hot lime wash. This serves 

 the double purpose of destroying in- 

 sects and their eggs, and is also a safe 

 guard against fangoid growths, and 

 should be repeated with each fresh 

 batch of cuttings. 



Some growers recommend a mixture 

 of sulphur with the lime wash as a 

 preventive of fungoid growths. I can- 

 not say if there is any merit in this, 

 but the experiment is inexpensive and 

 will not endanger the young stock. 



ElBES. 



ROSES. 



Seasonable Hints. 



In seasonable hints of last week a 

 slight digression was made from the 

 subject I intended to write about — viz: 

 the propagating house, its care, etc. 



In the first place, the propagating 

 house to be a success should be built 

 and fitted up for this express purpose, 

 and as cuttings in their earlier stages 

 are very impatient of direct sunshine it 



CARNATION NOTES-EAST. 



Cuttings. 



As advised last week, secure at least 

 a portion of your supply of those vari- 

 eties you intend to add to your list, 

 having them come unrooted. It is early 

 yet to commence general propagation, 

 but this matter can be in your minds for 

 consideration as to th'e advisability of 

 making a test. 



As to the advantage of this method, 

 I claim carnation cuttings taken from 

 plants and directly packed in damp 

 moss, are in better condition to stand 

 a journey and will arrive in better con- 

 dition, than those taken from the cut- 

 ting bench where they have made deli- 

 cate roots. More or less harm is done 

 in handling and packing rooted cut- 

 tings; also the change of temperature 

 from sand to shipping box on its jour- 



