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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



April 14, 1904. 



plants are starved at the roots. If 

 planted on a bench in five or six inches of 

 soil, which is deep enough, a mulchiug 

 with an inch of rotten manure in March 

 is all that is needed. It is heat and light 

 that makes callas bloom, not manure. 



W. S. 



A TESTIMONIAL. 



Trade journals as "well as newspapers 

 very laudably axe glad to receive words 

 of encouragement from their subscribers 

 and are properly pleased to print 

 them. A few words of praise costs lit- 

 tle, but here is one that means business 

 and is out of the common run: 



**I keep all the back numbers of the 



Review and in the winter while looking 

 after the fires at nisht I take out all 

 pages with nothing but advertisements 

 ou them and then bind the reading matter 

 together and put covers of good heavy 

 wrapping paper on them. I would not 

 take $5 for any one of them.'' 



Either the man who wrote those words 

 is a most invaluable employee or an 

 earnest, studious employer. We find our 

 night fireman putting in his spare min- 

 utes at a game of pedro or seven-up with 

 some neighbors. If we found him read- 

 ing the pages of the Review or binding 

 the read copies in his homely but sub- 

 stantial way for future reference, we 

 shoiUd assuredly think seriously that he 

 was deserving of promotion. W. S. 



CONVENTION IMPRESSIONS 



The foUowiiifr is a pai>ei- by A. F. J. Baiir read 

 before the State Society of IiHiiuiui Florists at 

 its meetiuK at Indianapolis April 5: 



Yon have had snch full acconuts of the car- 

 nation convention through the trade papers that 

 I dare say most of you know almost as well as 

 I who were there and what varieties made the 

 best show at the exhibition, etc. So I will try 

 as far as possible to steer cleiir of what you have 

 already read in the papers and give yon a few 

 impressioDs that have come to me outside of the 

 exhibition hall. 



First of all. I want to say that the Detroit 

 boys handled the convention in groat shape. 

 They did the right thing in every respect and 

 nowhere did the t-arnation society feel more at 

 home than it did at Detroit. The iimingements 

 were romnlet*' and the way every detail was 

 carried out showed a thorough organization of 

 the force that had the wTk to do. They seem 

 to be old hands at handling conventions. They 

 have a beautiful hall, which was just right to 



age. One of the good features was the opening 

 of the banquet at 7:30 instead of 9. as we did 

 ere. It gave ample time for every speaker 

 ti.> have liis say without being limited as to 

 time, and having to cut out some of the best 

 parts. The speeches made at this banquet "were 

 very fine indeed, so interesting, in fact, that in 

 spite of the fact that it lasted at least sis 

 hours, nobody seemed tired of listening. Most of 

 the speakers seemed at their best and. besides 

 the msual amount of jokes and yarns, there was 

 some very sensible and interesting speaking. 



A Dr. Smith, who is an honorary member of 

 the Detroit Florists' Club, made a speech that 

 appealed to every member present. He spoke of 

 how in many he has found that a pretty plant 

 or a bunch of flowers would do more good than, 

 his medicine. He said that often in his most 

 ditficult cases, he uses Howers as medicine, to 

 cheer up the patient and make them want to 

 pet well. Then he told of how the great forests 

 of the land are being cut away and how the 

 scarcity of oxygen will afifert the human race 

 if the tlorist and nurseryman do not plant shrubs 

 and trees and flowers to supply this life pre- 

 serving oxygen to take up the carbonic gases, 

 which are so deadly to all animal life. He said 



Easter Window of A. Warcndorff, New York, 



hold the exhibition. It reminded one of the one 

 in the German House, which we had two years 

 ago. The exhibition, the meetings and the 

 banquet were all held in the same building and 

 in fact we could get oiir meals there, too. so we 

 had to leave the building only when it was time 

 to sleep. It was as convenient a place as the 

 society has ever found for a meeting place. 

 Harmonie Hall Is about as convenient to the 

 center of Detroit as the German House is here. 

 We could walk to and from the hall in a few 

 minutes. 



Of Detroit, of course, Tve could not see much, 

 as its attractions are attractive only in the 

 summer when the water is open and the vege- 

 tation is dressed in its garb of bloom and foli- 



that an active florist is a groat benefactor to a 

 community in that way. 



I wish that we could have a few such men 

 in our society. Men who can talk eloquently 

 and could help us to see more than the bare 

 commercial side of our profession. I under- 

 stand that the late Mr. Parker was such a 

 man, and it would be well for us to hear a 

 si>eech like Dr. Smith's at least three or four 

 times a year. 



For wit and humor, you want Mr. Pierce 

 from up in Massachusetts. He has his own 

 original style of telling things and sayings that 

 never fail to tickle an audience. For instance, 

 when he arose in one of the business meetings 

 to oppose a suggestion made by another mem- 



ber, he began by saying; "Mr. President. I 

 don't know just what I am going to say, but 

 I want to apologize before I begin." Then he 

 would talk in a way that left no doubt as to 

 what he meant to say. 



Lewis Ullrich's paper entitled "Has It Ever 

 Occurred to You?" was one of the best I have 

 ever listened to. Our own Gurney Hill was 

 in fine form and made the banner speech of 

 the evening. You know some men can talk 

 good hard sense for hours, but never a joke 

 passes their lips, while others can joke and 

 spin yams for hours, but very little sense 

 emanates from their mouths. Our friend Gur- 

 ney is a past master at both, however, and 

 when he did not have his audience in an up- 

 roar, he was talking to us in a sensible and 

 elevating manner. 



Mr. Sullivan displayed a sheet of paper about 

 the size of a page in the News which was en- 

 tirely covered with clippings from the local 

 press about the carnation society and the cou- 

 vention. They realize that to make a success 

 of such a thing you must have the good will 

 and help of the press. They can stir up in- 

 terest among the people that can't be aroused 

 any other way. They reach the people. 



Mrs. Vesey made a pretty little speech with- 

 out any preparation, and I hope that some time 

 when we have something doing in our town we 

 may have her here to respond to a toast. There 

 were twelve ladies present and they enjoyed 

 the treat as much as the men. 



The trip to Breitmeyer's place at Mt. Cle- 

 mens was a very enjoyable affair and will 

 be remembered by all who took it in for a long 

 time. This is certainly a progressive firm, 

 as is shown by the way they have been push- 

 ing their new rose. La Detroit. It was to view 

 it that we were invited out there, and I must 

 say it looks good. A few of us ran across the 

 way to a carnation establishment owned by a 

 Mr. Klagge. Their carnations were grand, but 

 the violets could not compare with those at 

 Smith & Young's. After we had been at 

 Breitmeyer's a little while. I could not help 

 but feel sorry for John Hartje because he did 

 not stay to take In this trip, and for Alex. 

 Nelson because he did not come along. A part 

 of the lunch consisted of a twenty-nine-pound 

 fish of some kind. I don't know the name. 

 I know they would have enjoyed a slice of 

 that meat. I'll bet they would not work much 

 if they lived up there. The water is too close 

 at hand, so, perhaps, it was a good thing they 

 were not there. 



Of the show itself, you have read a good 

 deal and know, perhaps, as much by this time 

 as I do. On the first day the stock looked fine. 

 The quality was very high except In substance 

 in some cases. There was a good lesson there 

 for those who are everlastingly craving fni- 

 size. Enormous size can be reached only 

 through high feeding, and unfortnnately high 

 feeding seems to destroy substance. Blooms 

 that have been fed up to an enormous size will 

 not keep nearly as long as blooms of good aver- 

 age size and grovm normally on healthy plants. 

 I have In mind a grower who is noted for his 

 high feeding, and you oould pick ont his vases 

 all over the hall. Many of his blooms went to 

 sleep before he was through staging his ex- 

 hibits and he had to rearrange many of his 

 vases, picking the best blooms ont of two or 

 three vases to make up one good vase. And 

 even then he was beaten all around. 



I was glad to see the Lawson gold medal go to 

 an Indiana variety. Dorner's Fiancee won it 

 with 100 grand blooms. Dailledouze Bros, 

 showed the largest blooms in the hall. Their 

 new white seedling from Prosperity is a bloom 

 fully five inches across. This bunch of blooms 

 suggested to me the question: "What size 

 should we strive for In a commercial carnation? 

 Do we want blooma over four Inches ?" It 

 seems to me a carnation will cease to be a 

 carnation when It begins to look too much like 

 a cabbage. From three to four Inches ought 

 to be as large as any one could want for even 

 a fancy grade of carnations, and two and a 

 half Inches makes a very pretty bloom for an 

 ordinary grade. More attention should be given 

 to form, freedom and keeping qualities. 



There should be some reward given to the 

 vase that shows up best at noon of the second 

 day. One of the carnation's strongest points In 

 gaining the popular favor it now enjoys has 

 been Its keeping quality. It certainly looks 

 bad to see half the blooms asleep before they 

 have been up two full days, when we never 

 hesitate to tell our customers that they can 

 keep carnation blooms in good condition a week 

 or ten days, which Is true. too. There they 

 see the largest and finest looking blooms going 

 to sleep long before the more medium-sized 

 ones begin to lof>k drowsy. Before you know 

 It. they will begin to flght shy of your large 

 blooms. We consider it a great favor conferred 

 on the public to allow them to view our fine 

 exhibitions, but we should be very careful that 

 we do not create any wrong impressions through 

 our desire to win premiums, etc. Some of the 

 vases held up fine, while others of the same 

 varieties went to sleep early. Adonis held up 

 fine and so did Mrs. Lawson, Moonlight and In- 

 dianapolis, while Enchantress retired early, all 

 except Mr. Partridge's vase, which won two 

 first premiums. This showed clearly that the 

 srovring has much to do with the keeping of a 

 bloom. 



Chicago seemed to be the popular choice for 

 the meeting place for next year and every one 

 agrees that It will be the best meeting we have 

 evor held. I hope that this vicinity will send 

 up a good delegation. By the way. I wonder 



