March S^ 1904. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



695 



THE DETROIT CONVENTION. 



The American Carnation Society Holds a Successful Meeting and 



Splendid Exhibition. 



President, James Hartshorne, Joliet, III.; 



Vice-President, Wm. Gammaje, London, Ont ; 



Secretary, A. M. Herr, Lancaster, Pa.; 



Treasurer, Fred. Dorner, Jr., Lafayette, Ind. 



NEXT MEETING AT CHICAGO. 



Detroit did herself proud this iveek. 

 There is an old superstition that thir- 

 teen is not a number of happy augury, 

 but the fallacy of the belief was never 

 more fully disproved than by the suc- 

 cessful culmination of the thirteenth an- 

 nual meeting of the American Carnation 

 Society, a success which was in part due 

 to the large attendance and wonderful 

 exhibition of masterpieces of the grow- 

 ers ' art, but in no less measure to the 

 hard preparatory work by the officers 

 and members of the Detroit Florists' 

 Club. To J. F. Sullivan, for his man- 

 agement of the exhibition, a large meas- 

 ure of praise is due. 



The attendance was large and repre- 

 sentative, although certain of the princi- 

 pal cities were not on hand as 

 usual and some of the familiar 

 faces were missing. There was a 

 large representation of the smaller 

 growers and most of the better known 

 workers in the field were present, but 

 Peter Fisher was missed, and the man 

 who made his Mark-you-see was not in 

 evidence. Doubtless he was too busy 

 taking cuttings of Flamingo. But there 

 were enough of the wheel horses and the 

 younger, progressive element present, 

 with their blooms, to give the cause of 

 the carnation such an uplift as it has 

 never known before. 



An idea of the extent of the exhibi- 

 tion may be gained from the statement 

 that in several of the classes as many 

 as 800 blooms were staged. Several ex- 

 hibitors brought from 1,.500 to 4,000 

 blooms, one of them having twenty-seven 

 boxes and another nearly as many. It 

 was a great task to stage so large a 

 quantity of stock, but the work was ac- 

 complished without disorder, due to the 

 careful preparations of the secretary, the 

 manager and the Detroit club. It looked 

 as though the fate of having a large 

 number of exhibits barred bv the time 

 limit was to overtake the society again, 

 as the eastern people were delayed five 

 hours by storms and only reached the 

 hall at the very last moment. Many 

 willing hands made short work of get- 

 ting their stock into place. 



Harmonia hall is a big affair, but it 

 was not large enough. It accommodated 

 the exhibits and the society very nicely, 

 but the public was admitted by card dur- 

 ing certain hours and then the place was 

 crowded to the last inch and utter de- 

 moralization of many a fine exhibit. And 

 it was a show worthy of the praises 

 heard at every hand. Not alone in quan- 

 tity was it ahead of all records, but qual- 

 ity was there. Better stock was never 

 shown; it seems, almost, that the pinna- 



cle has been reached. "What more could 

 we ask? Certainly it looks as though 

 much of the improvement to come in our 

 carnations must be along the lines of 

 productiveness, fragrance, keeping qual- 

 ity, etc. 



One notable feature of the show was 

 the uniform high standard of the exhib- 

 its; true there were some poor vases, but 



Smyth, Hauswirth and Lange putting in 

 a busy morning, and the stock they 

 handled showed the benefit. Occasion- 

 ally there is a grower who can stage his 

 own stock to best advantage, but he is 

 a rare bird. While it was a carnation 

 show, and a trade exhibition at that, 

 yet there were enough exhibits in other 

 lines to give a touch of variety. Three 

 new roses were shown, and one not so 

 new, also some old favorites so well done 

 as to excite much comment. There were 

 violets, sweet peas and pot plants, even 

 heating requisites. But the pictures we 

 will publish next week vrill tell the rest 

 about the exhibits. 



The Opening Session. 



Judges having been appointed in the 

 morning, the society was called to order 

 for the business session at seven o 'clock 

 Tuesday evening, President Eackham in- 

 troducing Robert Flowerday, president 

 of the Detroit Florists' Club, who made 

 a neat little speech of welcome on behalf 

 of this most active organization. He 

 then introduced Mayor Maybury, whom 

 many present had met before. He is one 

 of the few municipal chief executives 

 whom the trade societies have encoun- 

 tered who never makes a slip. An ora- 



James Hartshorne, Joliet, lU., President-Elect American Carnation Society. 



a perusal of the awards will show that 

 no one grower monopolized the show ; 

 in fact competition was so keen that in 

 one case one set of judges reversed the 

 action of another when called upon to 

 pass upon the same class. One item 

 worthy of note is that the growers who 

 had the forethought to arrange for capa- 

 ble assistance profited largely thereby. 

 Get the retail men to put up' the stock. 

 Several of the Chicago retailers arranged 

 vases for their fiiends, Samuelson, 



tor of attainments, he extends the glad 

 hand of a cordial welcome in words well 

 chosen and with phrases which show that 

 he knows whereof he speaks. He was at 

 liis best this night and was listened to 

 with evident appreciation. William 

 Scott, of Buffalo, was called on to res- 

 pond and received a round of applause 

 which put him on his mettle. 



President Eackham then delivered his 

 annual address, which was as follows: 



