550 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Feerdaey 11, 1904. 



make a strong, soft growth and would 

 suffer severely if transplanted in the 

 heat of summer. When grown in pots 

 they grow harder, and for this reason 

 and the fact that the roots need not be 

 torn in transplanting they take hold 

 more readily and suffer less when plant- 

 ed from pots. 



The best wav of all, if you can get the 



room, is to plant in April or early May 

 right where the plants are to remain the 

 next winter. This does away with that 

 midsummer transplanting which is al- 

 w-ays a trying ordeal for the plants, but 

 it cannot always be done except in new- 

 ly built houses, as very few growers are 

 willing to throw out their blooming 

 plants by May 1. A. F. J. Baur. 



WE AND OUR field; 



By William J. Stewart, of Boston, Mass. 

 Secretary Society of American Florists. 



Our Right by Usage. 



A transposition in the title of this 

 dissertation might betoken a commenda- 

 ble modesty. The typical gardener or 

 florist has, however, always been a some- 

 what aggressive and self-complacent in- 

 dividual. Like the Ayrshire farmer and 

 his wife, one is "Aye richt" and the 

 other "Never wrang." Even before that 

 memorable uprising which resulted in the 

 establishment of our powerful national 

 society — when our interests in all hor- 

 ticultural activities were usually subor- 

 dinated to those of the farmer and the 

 fruit nurseryman — even then the shib- 

 boleth of the craft was "Wha's like us?" 

 "Naebody!" And the less a man knew 

 the more emphatic, oftentimes, his dec- 

 laration. I once read of an encounter 

 on the Delaware between a magnificent 

 steamer and a grimy coal lighter. 



Officer — "Clear out of the way with 

 that barge." 



Lighterman — "Are ye the captain av 

 that vessel?" 



Officer— "No." 



Lighterman — "Then spake to yer 

 equals; I'm the captain of this." 



The gorgeous self-sufficiency of some 

 of our oldtime champions overshadows 

 that lighterman's inflation as complete- 

 ly as Philadelphia's bowling record 

 eclipses that of some of her chesty rivals, 

 and since the race is yet far from ex- 

 tinct we shall, in conformity to usage, 

 talk first of ourselves, and then of our 

 field and how we may cultivate it. 



Basis for Our Pretensions. 



That we have some basis for our pre- 

 tensions, the vastly enhanced prominence 

 which our art and its literature (not to 

 mention our sporting prowess) have at- 

 tained during the last two decades, stands 

 in evidence. Tlie deduction that we are 

 destined to become of yet greater conse- 

 quence will doubtless pass undisputed, 

 but mere theoretical conclusions have 

 little value and these boasts of future 

 ascendency which we have a habit of 

 making are often little more than hollow 

 generalities in support of which, if 

 pressed for a specific forecast, we might 

 find it difficult to put up a convincing 

 argument. 



Recognizing in ourselves the connect- 

 ing link betw^een tlie past which we know 

 and the future which we know not, it is 

 healthy to ask ourselves often how well 

 we are filling the places of the sturdy pi- 

 oneers whose heritage we enjoy, and to 

 make it our constant aim to so shape our 

 course that posterity shall see in us a 

 pattern to imitate and not an example 



•Abstract of a paper read before the Florists' 

 Club of Pbiladelphia, February 2. 1904. 



to deter. If we are to prove worthy 

 successors of a distinguished ancestry, 

 the masterly proficiency of Harris, the 

 sagacity of Henderson, the noble sim- 

 plicity of Cartledge, the intensity of Mc- 

 nand, the tenacity of Wood, and the sun- 

 ny kindliness of Halliday must find their 

 counterpart in the leaders of today, and 

 we should strive that nothing be lost, 

 either in amplitude or potentiality, of 

 the eminent qualities so well exemplified 

 in the character and lives of these hon- 

 ored men. 



A Pause to Reverence. 



Our reverence for old age should, how- 

 ever, cease at the door of the rose cellar 

 and, while we should emulate the ex- 

 ample and recognize the genius of the 

 old masters, there are problems arising 

 daily, as new elements intrude them- 

 selves within our sphere, which bring 

 us to a realization that while the prin- 

 ciples actuating them were of the sterling 

 kind, success today may demand a some- 

 what different application of them. We 

 have with us now the Greek who cares 

 not whether plants are fed on water or 

 on carbolic acid, but who, after si.x 

 months in our country, knows the cut 

 flower market better than do many of 

 our craftsmen who have spent a life- 

 time in the business, and, on the other 

 hand, we find the man who can grow 

 violets or carnations of a quality hither- 

 to undreamt of, but who, somehow, can- 

 not understand why blooms with whisk- 

 ers on them can't be sold at Christmas 

 for three times what they were worth 

 three weeks earlier, before their whiskers 

 started out. 



Where shall we strike the balance be- 

 tween the dear soul who loves his pro- 

 fession more than its emoluments, who 

 can say in all truth — 



Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe. 

 Thou foundst me poor at first and keepst me so, 



and the latter-day flower-factory man in 

 whose transactions sentiment has no 

 place, to whom a blossom is handsome 

 only when going out of the door on the 

 order of a cash customer and who would 

 not hesitate tn accelerate with a brisk 

 movement of his boot the exit of any 

 flower, however beautiful in itself, the 

 moment it should transpire that there 

 was no pecuniary profit in it? 



"Birds of a Feather." 



I am persuaded that a goodly portion 

 of the comfort and joy of a horticul- 

 turist's existence comes from his gregari- 

 ous instincts. One of the most forlorn 

 creatures in the world is the gardener 

 so isolated that he is prevented from as- 

 sociating with his fellow gardeners, and 



almost pathetic is the keen delight 

 evinced by one long shut out, when cir- 

 cumstances bring him in contact with 

 old friends in the profession, "drinking 

 it all in and life never seemed so full 

 before." Study this marked character- 

 istic of the craft and you will discover 

 that the most contented as well as most 

 progressive florists are usually found in 

 those communities where ample facilities 

 are afforded for flocking together. Thus 

 the cohesive influence of our fraternal in- 

 stitutions is a boon which we should, in 

 this era of specialization, prize most 

 highly. Its value as an offset to the dis- 

 integrating forces now at work can hard- 

 ly be overestimated. It begins to dawn 

 upon us that the S. A. F., with its stim- 

 ulus to the fraternal sentiments, came 

 upon the scene at a most opportune time, 

 and we applaud the rare discernment 

 shown by her Philadelphia offspring in 

 respect to providing abundant induce- 

 ment for comradeship which has its time- 

 ly reward in the unparalleled prosperity 

 which this club enjoys, and is sure to 

 continue to enjoy, at least so long as 

 John Westcott's buffet keeps on doing 

 business. 



Our Field. 



It is a big field and a fertile one, as 

 wide as vegetation extends, as broad as 

 human sympathy, as deep as roots can 

 penetrate the earth or love the heart, as 

 lofty as the tallest trees can grow or no- 

 ble sentiment aspire, a field in which to 

 cultivate the intellectual faculties as 

 well as material vegetation. Ours a call- 

 ing more ancient and honorable than 

 any other pursued by mankind, whose 

 mission it is to soften the asperities of 

 life, to develop the best in humanity and 

 clothe the world in beauty, whose ad- 

 herents are fellow-workers with nature 

 herself. "God the first garden made; 

 the first city, Cain." 



Are we occupying this fair field to 

 fullest advantage? 'To do so we must be 

 wideawake to its broader possibilities 

 and take care that narrow vision and 

 trivial controversies are not permitted 

 to limit and monopolize our attention. 

 The great expansion of our business and 

 the influx of capital in certain branches 

 have brought about changed conditions 

 and evolved new problems. How shall 

 we meet them? How successfully elude 

 perils that seem to threaten and which 

 especially concern those working hither- 

 to on a small scale and subject to that 

 most uncomfortable disease, lack of 

 money? Our development has been so 

 many-sided and on such varied lines that 

 our aggregate interests, at flr.st simple 

 and closely akin, now rapidly grow com- 

 plex and diverse. Thus disintegrating 

 forces lead us into divergent paths, the 

 circles widening as our diversified 

 branches multiply. We see the situa- 

 tion through dissimilar eyes, until 



'Tis with our judgments as our watches — none- 

 Go Just alike, yet each belieyes bis own. 



Admitting that no two of us are likely 

 to quite agree in what direction the 

 greatest measure of welMieing presents 

 itself, it seems to nie that those who 

 have cultivated broad habits of visiom 

 who have perceived their business not so 

 much in its essence as through its ef- 

 fects, will agree that the time has gone 

 forever when things can be successfully 

 run as the foolhardy skipper sailed his 

 schooner. "By luck, by God and the 

 moonlight." and that insight, economy 

 and foresight are three cardinal virtues 

 to be henceforth zealouslv cultivated by 



