584 



HORTICULTURE 



May 5, 190G 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



T. Ispl.cn., Oxford 292 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and Manager. 



This beautiful novelty, a colored plate 



Cactus dahlia f w hieh was sent out by us as a 



The Pilot supplement with our issue of April 



21, is not for sale in tins country yel 



so far as we can learn. We have had so many inquiries 



IV -eaders who wish to secure the variety that we 



make this announcement for general information. No 

 doubt American dealers will be able to supply plant.- or 

 tubers for next season. 



We are not a little surprised at 

 A reflection t | u , statement attributed to Rob- 



on the seed trade ,. rt Veitch in Ins address before 



the New London County Horti- 

 cultural Society to the effect that all vegetable seeds 

 sold under a variety of names "come out of the same 

 bin." We have known Mr. Veitch as florist and seeds- 

 man for a great many years and cannot believe it possi- 

 ble that he would make a statement reflecting so 

 monstrously on the integrity of the seed dealers. One 

 New Louden daily in its account of the meeting refers 

 to Mr. Yeiteh's alleged assertion as "giving away 

 trade secrets." Such an unwarranted imputation com- 

 ing from a gentleman so well known, and widely dis- 

 seminated through the medium of the public press 

 cannot fail to do serious injury to a reputable business. 



In the multitude id' argu- 



San Francisco's parks rnents that have been advanced 



her best asset f nim time to time in favor of 



the establishment el' public 

 recreation areas in cities, none have been better founded 

 than the one which has been so forcibly impressed upon 

 us in the recent calamity in San Francisco. The open 

 reservations in the devastated city, whitened with the 

 temporary shelters of thousands of homeless people, id' 

 whom many would undoubtedly have lost their lives had 

 the parks nut existed, will stand for all time as an im- 

 pressive reminder to those entrusted with the duty of 

 providing for the protection and welfare of civic com- 

 munities, of the great responsibilities they are under, 

 for which they mav be .ailed to account without a 



moment's warning. What matters the expenditure for 

 San Francisco's parks when compared with what they 

 meant to her suffering people in one awful night? 

 Wo can all realize now how very much more than mere 

 pleasure grounds these public domains may prove 

 themselves to be and after such an experience neglect to 

 make liberal provision for them, not alone on the out- 

 skirts hut right in the most densely populated centres 

 would seem almost criminal. 



Anyone who has followed the course 

 Extending the f the wholesale flower markets for 

 commercial a year or two past must have noticed 

 cut flower list the great increase in the sale of 

 flowers once classified as "odds and 

 ends" but whieh have now reached the dignity of steady 

 values per hundred bunches and are regularly called 

 for in the better-grown grades by the leading retail 

 stores, where they are considered an essential part of 

 the everyday supply. We allude to myosotis, stocks, 

 pansies, snap dragons, coreopsis, daisies white and yel- 

 low, etc.. and might include even sweet peas which 

 although now carried in hundred and thousand lots in 

 the average florists' stock were until very recently rep- 

 resented only by a tiny vase or two occasionally seen. 

 A notably sudden popularity is apparent, in the case of 

 the new daisy Queen Alexandra whieh was extensively 

 advertised in these columns last year as a novelty. This 

 tendency to widen the variety in commercial cut flower 

 stock will meet with much approval and should be 

 encouraged by those who realize that the cut flower 

 trade must extend its sphere beyond the rose, carna- 

 tion, chrysanthemum, violet, and bulb flower group if it 

 is to keep pace with the popular sentiment. Greater 

 variety is the demand of the public and there is a wide 



range of g I material available from which the 



responsive grower may select. 



The announcement of a big advance 



An ominous i n express rates on cut flowers by one 



advance in f the companies carrying quantities of 



express rates flowers to the wholesale markets in 



Xew York has an ominous look and 

 if submitted to without emphatic protest is likely to be 

 the forerunner of an equal advance by all the other 

 companies throughout the country. When similar 

 action was taken by the express companies some two 

 or three years ago, prompt work on the part of S. A. F. 

 officials brought about a restoration of the old rates, 

 thus saving many thousands id' dollars to the flower 

 growers ami shippers. It is notorious that scant grat- 

 itude was shown by those wdio were the beneficiaries 

 through this interposition in their behalf by the national 

 society. There are, in the society's archives, scores of 

 letters, written at that time, containing frantic appeals 

 for relief, the writers of which have never contributed 

 a cent to the society's support although individually 

 invited to become members of the organization which 

 bad so signally befriended them. The name of every 

 florist is needed to give due strength and influence to the 

 society and every one should he willing to pay his little 

 share of the cost of the benefits derived. Had all those 

 who were helped on the occasion referred to shown 

 proper appreciation by taking membership in the S. 

 A. F. what a splendid power it would he today! 



