696 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



March 3, 1904. 



President Rackham's Address. 



AVere I a believer in signs or omens, 

 I should be fearful of the success of 

 this meeting, for it is the thirteenth con- 

 vention of our beloved society ; but X 

 cannot doubt when I look at this large 

 body of enthusiastic carnation growers 

 present, but that this will be the blue 

 ribbon meeting of the society, and I ask 

 you as a personal favor to myself aii<l 

 the local club, to help make it so by 

 attending the business meetings and talc- 

 . ing part in any matters of interest to 

 the society, for all meetings of any or- 

 ganization are dependent upon the help 

 or the lack of interest of its members 

 for their success or failure, and it is 

 for you to make this meeting one of 

 profit and benefit to each and every mem- 

 ber of this society, if you will. 



"We are gathered together for the pur- 

 pose of considering matters of interest 



be located in different sections of the 

 country. Now, I believe if that was a 

 good ob.iect then, it is one at present, 

 and I think no variety should be eligible 

 for either a certificate or registration 

 which has not been shown at least three 

 times during the season, say October, 

 .lauuary and April, for two years be- 

 fore such a committee, but as we are to 

 have a paper on this subject I will leave 

 the matter in your hands, with another 

 quotation from the same source, but by 

 the committee on awards, composed of 

 John Westcott, Robert Kift and H. H. 

 Battles. ' ' We are confident that the 

 time is not far distant when the Ameri- 

 can Carnation Society will endorse cer- 

 tain new varieties. This once done the 

 buyer need have no doubts about the 

 merits of that variety," and I venture to 

 say were that done in some honest and 

 satisfactory way that our membership 



Carnation Phyllis. — Rudd. 



to the members of this body, financial, 

 educational and social. 



In a financial sense, the introducers 

 of new varieties have come to exhibit 

 the results of their patience and skill 

 for your approval, and to sell as many 

 rooted cuttings as possible. The grow- 

 ers have come to inspect, find fault with. 

 compare, criticize, and buy as many .is 

 they feel they can afford to risk trying. 

 And right here I wish to quote from the 

 minutes of the first meeting of the so- 

 ciety in Philadelphia, 1891 and 1892, 

 one of the paragraphs in the report of 

 the committee composed of Edwin Lon.s- 

 dale, Wm. Swayne, C. W. Ward, C. .T. 

 Pennock and Wm. Scott, upon the sub- 

 jects of the society, namely: To submit 

 all new varieties to a test committee of 

 practical and successful growers to 



would be increased 100 per cent within 

 Iwo vears, for it is not the distributor 

 who buys, 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 lors 

 of new carnations who suffers by the 

 failure of success of the variety, but the 

 one %vho buys 100, 250 or 1,000 of them 

 from the distributor. 



To me the matter seems a serious one 

 and very difficult of solution, but I will 

 again quote from the proceedings of the 

 society. Ex-president Nicholson, in his 

 address at Philadelphia, says : ' ' There 

 is one thing that I think we ought to 

 encourage as much as we can. People 

 who have seedlings of merit and arc 

 thinking of disseminating them should 

 send a few plants to prominent growers 

 in the different parts of the country for 

 trial, then people could see them grow- 

 ing without so great an expense," This 



I am glad to say is being done to some 

 extent, but not as largely as it should 

 be. 



In the matter of registration and cer- 

 tificating of new varieties, I find that of 

 twenty varieties registered in 1S97 and 

 1898, there is not one now under culti- 

 vation, and of twelve that received pre- 

 liminary certificates and certificates of 

 merit, there are but two, namely. Law- 

 son and G. H. Crane now grown, and 

 in 1900 the list comprising those that 

 received the three-year certificates twelve, 

 of which only two are grown, namely, 

 Estelle and Prosperity, and in another 

 year they will be classed among the has- 

 beens, while the registered ones num- 

 lier twenty-nine, and but one, Queen 

 Louise, is grown, and in' 1901 we find 

 thirty-six varieties registered with but 

 eight that are considered worth growing. 

 In 1902 and 1903 we have thirty-two 

 registered, with but nine that are 

 fliought good enough for sale. The list 

 iif names of varieties, February 1, 1899, 

 imly four years ago, gives the grand to- 

 tal at that time of 726, and it would 

 seem to me that if worthless varieties 

 are all registered and given certificates 

 of merit, that in the near future it will 

 tax the brain of originators of really 

 meritorious varieties to find suitable 

 names for the products of their skill. 



From an educational point of view one 

 who has not had the opportunity and 

 ]deasure of reading the proceedings of 

 the twelve meetings which this society 

 has held can have no conception of the 

 work of the society in the past. Papers 

 have been read and discussions had upon 

 I \ ery subject in connection with the car- 

 nation, and such results have been ob- 

 tained through the study and experience 

 of the workers of this body that we can 

 truthfully say it pays to be members of 

 the American Carnation Society, for in 

 the minutes of the first meeting, 1892, I 

 find this paragraph: "First-class 

 lilooms will readily sell for 75 cents to 

 $1 per hundred for blooms at any time, 

 and during seasons of particular demand 

 $2.50 to $3 is frequently obtained. ' ' 

 -Vote the difference. At the present time 

 first-class flowers readily sell for $2.50 

 tci $3 per 100 and during seasons of 

 jiarticular demand from $6 to $12 is 

 frequently obtained. This change has 

 been brought about through the intro- 

 duction of better varieties, through bet- 

 ter methods of growing gained by study 

 and interchange of experience, through 

 the making of the carnation more popu- 

 lar by exhibitions throughout the coun- 

 try and especially those of the Ameri- 

 can Carnation Society. 



But we still have a great work to do, 

 and one of the most important I believe 

 is to produce and popularize the carna- 

 tion as a pot plant, for what could be 

 more beautiful than a short, stocky ear- 

 nation plant with from twenty-five to fifty 

 open flowers of the shade of Flamingo 

 or Enchantress for Christmas, that in 

 an S-inch pot would retail from $2 tu 

 $5? Our growers of new varieties will 

 do well to give a portion of their time 

 and skill to the finding of a variety that 

 will produce such a plant. 



Mr. Edwin Lonsdale, in his address to 

 the society at New York on November 

 4, 1891, says: "The cultivation of the 

 larnation as a pot plant is sadly neg- 

 lected. To inaugurate a successful car- 

 nation exhibition, we must have well- 

 grown specimen plants. ' ' Again Mr. 

 Thomas Cartlege, of Philadelphia, at 

 Pittsburg, February, 1893, in a paper 



