1154 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



April 21, 1904. 



your prosperity possible. May the trin- 

 ity of interests grow more and more into 

 helpful fellowship. 



To enumerate the varieties of plants 

 and flowers used in New York this Easter 

 or to tell you of the values realized would 

 hardly interest you after the full and 

 generous criticisms and particulars so 

 thoroughly covered by the trade papers 

 and to which I respectfully refer you. 

 What concerns us most are the lessons 

 taught us all by the Easter in New York 

 in 1904. These are far reaching in their 

 value. It is the Easter of 1905, the late 

 Easter, that must be planned for now. 

 To the cut flower growers no advice is 

 necessary. You know especially it will 

 be late for violets ; otherwise yours is 

 the beaten track, with the consciousness 

 that the public is a lover of meritorious 

 novelties, and remember that several new 

 roses and carnations are knocking at your 

 doors, and many of them with no uncer- 

 tain sound. 



The plantsmen have perhaps gathered 

 some useful hints, though where every- 

 thing goes it is hard to be too practical. 

 However, thev have learned that the 

 largest azaleas are not as salable as 

 formerly; that the medium sizes and the 

 brightest colors are wanted and the beau- 

 tiful little Holland and Japanese va- 

 rieties were in extraordinary demand. 

 They realize, too, that the Easter lily's 

 popularity is eternal and that in pot. 

 and basket, and tub, well-grown, there 

 can never be an oversupply. They have 

 found a splendid novelty in Hydrangea 

 hortensis rosea and in the new rose. 

 Madame Norbert Levavas^eur, which thev 

 have judiciously christened the dwarf 

 Crimson Eambler. Wo find, too, that 

 the azalea pyramidally grown finds favor, 

 and that our old friend, the camellia, 

 is demonstrating the faith in reincarna- 

 tion or resurrection which some of us 

 have not abandoned. 



The wholesaler had not much to learn ; 

 simply that his protests against pickled 

 goods had borne fruit and that his ad- 

 monitions as to the wisdom of expecting 

 fair and not abnormal prices at Easter 

 had opened the eyes of the growers to 

 the fact that the age of unreasonableness 

 and the patience of the great public, 

 without whose patronage this whole build- 

 ing would dissolve ' ' like the baseless 

 fabric of a vision, ' ' have reached their 

 limit and that never again will exorbi- 

 tant values prevail. 



The retailer has gathered wisdom, too, 

 from the phenomenal Easter, as well as 

 an abundance of the one thing needful, 

 and after such a winter none of ns can 

 fail to extend honest cnngratulatinii. He 

 has learned the value of originality in 

 window decoration, the danger of neg- 

 lect or lack of artistic effort, the reward 

 of abundant service and perfect system 

 and, above all else, the benefit of rea- 

 sonable prices and fair profits. He has 

 realized as never before his interests arc 

 interwoven with those of the wholesaler 

 and grower, how dependent he is upon 

 both for the supplies that make possi- 

 ble his own success and how advantage- 

 ous it is to maintain with both a repu- 

 tation for prompt and full settlement of 

 honest obligations. 



Time forbids, though other interests de- 

 serve consideration in this glance at 

 Easter in New Yrrk. The supnly men 

 are no unimportant part of it; the green 

 goods section spreads its influence in 

 every mart. The novelties and necessi- 

 ties handled by these great lieutenants 



of prosperity would fill a volume. Let 

 us hope this is the beginning of the 

 golden age for all of us that makes har- 

 mony universal and brotherly confidence 

 and hand grasp inspirational and ever 

 green and sweet the memory of this 

 Easter in New York! 



A TREE PLANTERS' MANUAL. 



There are in all sections of the country 

 hundreds of thriving towns where the 

 florists are doing a prosperous business 

 in bedding stock, but. in which the peo- 

 ple are dependent on the tree peddler and 

 their own ability as planters for their 

 shade trees, shrubs, fruit trees, etc. And 

 even in the places where there are large 

 and well stocked nurseries it is quite the 

 usual thing to consult the florist who 

 plants the geraniums and cannas on the 

 lawn, about the shrubs to go in the bor- 

 der by the fence, the vines to screen 

 the barn or the trees to plant around the 



William A. Peterson. 



church that 's building on the corner. 

 Thus it has come about that an increas- 

 ing number of florists are each year do- 

 ing something with nursery stock and 

 finding that it can be made a highly 

 profitable department of the business. 



One advantage of the nursery depart- 

 ment is that the planting can be done 

 early in the spring, before it is safe 

 to plant out tender stock and when there 

 is no pressure of other work. And again 

 in the fall there is a period during which 

 nearly all of the most salable things in 

 the line of trees and shrubs may be 

 plantecl, as well as many herbaceous 

 plants, notably peonies. In fact, the fall 

 season is often the best of the two for 

 the florist who does this class of work, 

 for he can book his orders during spring, 

 summer anel early autumn, while the spe- 

 cimens on his own grounds and about 

 town are at their best; then in the fall 

 he gets his oreler filled by some reliable 

 nurseryman and, on its arrival, heels the 

 stock in for the few days which may 

 elapse before it is convenient to plant. 

 1 f the careful planter bilys ' his stock 

 from some reliable nursery, where it has 



been regularly transplanted, so as to be- 

 come furnished with good balls of fib- 

 rous roots, all but a few unusually elif- 

 ficult things may be guaranteed to live, 

 particularJy if the seller is so located 

 that he can keep a watchful eye open 

 to see that the stock gets proper care as 

 to watering, etc. Guaranteeing the stock 

 to live inspires confidence, leads to bet- 

 ter prices and makes it easy to get or- 

 ders. 



There are a great many nursery cata- 

 logues that wilt be of assistance to the 

 florist who deals in trees and shrubs, 

 but there are few which he can use to 

 better advantage than the Manual of 

 Beautiful Grounds just issued by the 

 Peterson Nursery, 170 La Salle street, 

 Chicago. This book, while designed for 

 free distribution and to bring business 

 to the nursery, contains no prices, these 

 being printed in a separate pamphlet, 

 so that the Manual can be shown to a 

 florist's customers without elivulgiug the 

 cost of the specimen at the nursery, 

 which naturally is a good deal less than 

 one is justified in charging for it plant- 

 ed and guaranteed to live for a year. 



The Manual of Beautiful Grounds is 

 commendable as a piece of beautiful 

 printing, beautifuUy bound. It was ob- 

 viously prepared for elistribution among 

 a class of eliseriminating buyers. It is 

 as little like an advertisement as any 

 catalogue can be. As a matter of fact 

 the name of Peterson appears on only 

 three or four of its eighty pages. The 

 concern does not cater to the mailing 

 trade; as is stated in the Manual, they 

 do not deal in "microscopic specimens; " 

 their specialty is stock in extra heavy 

 sizes, which can be moved without any 

 material setback, and give immediate 

 efl'ect. 



The first few pages of the Manual are 

 given over to general information, cul- 

 tural suggestions and suggestions on 

 landscape work and tree planting drawn 

 from Wm. A. Peterson's own extensive 

 experience. The balance of the work is 

 a descriptive list of recommended va- 

 rieties, including trees, shrubs, vines, 

 hardy herbaceous stock, etc., illustrated 

 with more -uan eighty halftones, most of 

 them reproduced from photographs taken 

 at the nursery. The descriptions are 

 brief but complete, popular rather than 

 botanical and contain none of that lauda- 

 tion of his wares which the catalogue 

 maker often feels to be essential. 



But probably in no other feature of 

 his very handsome books does the pub- 

 lisher take so much pride as in his 

 nomenclature. The popular name is 

 given in black-faced type, followed by 

 the botanical name in italics, the latter 

 aecoreling to the Index Kewensis. Mr. 

 Peterson is a student as well as a busi- 

 ness man anei finds it both a pleasure 

 and a source of profit to have his stock 

 tiiie to name, and that the right name. 

 In the absence of any universally recog- 

 nized American authority he has adopted 

 the Index Kewensis, acknowledged as an 

 authoritative botanical list by all the 

 botanical world. 



Peonies are one of t..e , leading spe- 

 cialties at the Peterson Nursery, the col- 

 lection rrumbering probably more varie- 

 ties than any other in the United States, 

 f(u- everything is tested and proved. It is 

 in ; this line that the nursery does its 

 )>riucipal business with florists. A peony 

 list is published in June but the Manual 

 contains a list of recommended sorts as 

 follows: . 



Fcstiva maxima, white .splashed car- 



