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horticulture: 



February 10, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephone, Oxford 292 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



We present our readers with another 

 ° ur colored plate, with this issue. Tuberous 



supplement begonias are the subject and we hope that 

 the beautiful picture may serve its pur- 

 pose in directing attention to the rapid advances 

 being made in the improvement of this unrivalled sum- 

 mer bedding plant. Advertisements of tuberous 

 begonias in this number should not be overlooked. 



For the gardener or florist, be he 



Let us hear learner or expert, nothing is more 



from you essential today than good reading, if he 



would hold a dominating position in his 

 profession. Eealizing this and responsive to the oft- 

 expressed wish of the craft, Horticulture's intention 

 is to provide its patrons with the best reading matter 

 obtainable. If you have in mind any topic on which 

 you desire more light, write and let us know and we 

 shall endeavor to meet the want. 



The club or society banquet is a 



The festive great harmonizer. Under the genial 



board and the influence of the fraternal spirit 



fraternal spirit engendered, the wicked competitor 



seated across the table looks almost 



human and all discordant impulses are dissipated in 



the smoke of the club cigar. Once a year is too seldom 



for these reunions with their opportunities for making 



new friendships and freshly cementing old ones. It is 



not the cost of the symposium that gives it its quality 



but the spirit of family accord and cheery festivity 



which abounds when ;ill rivalries of business put away 



for the time being, we meet as brothers all. 



Those of our readers who can 

 The coming bly do so should plan to 



exhibition of roses v j si( Boston on the occasion of 

 ilii' annual meeting and exhi- 

 bition of the American Rose Society, March 23 and 24. 



The combined exhibition of this organization and the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society will afford a rare 

 opportunity for the progressive gardener or florist to 

 gain new ideas and fresh stimulus for work on advanced 

 lines. The gathering of experts promises to be a not- 

 able one and the benefits of personal contact with these 

 men amid such surroundings cannot be adequately esti- 

 mated. The expense and time involved are as nothing 

 when compared with the substantial profits to be gained. 



It was estimated that fully 

 The commercial t en thousand people visited 



value of the exhibition the recent carnation exhibi- 

 tion in Boston on one day. 

 To anyone not an incurable pessimist the enormous 

 pecuniary value to the trade of this public inspection of 

 the choicest product of the florist's art must be readily 

 apparent. And the direct business results are insignifi- 

 cant as compared with the elevating of popular ideals 

 whereby the people become better informed as to 

 standards of quality and are educated away from cheap 

 grades and curbstone values. The local retail florist, as 

 a direct beneficiary, docs not always realize the im- 

 portance to him nt' promoting these enterprises. Good 

 judgment, even from the most selfish standpoint, should 

 impel him to line up as an active supporter of all such 

 affairs, for, the more his customers see and hear on 

 these lines Hie more interested they will become in him 

 and hi- go 



Why the majority of the retail 

 The florists' club flower dealers in the metropolitan 

 and the retail centers absent themselves from the 

 dealer meetings and festivities of the 



local trade clubs and societies is a 

 problem as old as the history of the florists' clubs and a 

 satisfactory solution seems as far off as ever. It is true 

 that in this department of the trade leisure evenings 

 are a rare luxury but in the case of the growers this 

 impediment is pretty well balanced by the greater dis- 

 tance of the latter from the meeting places. The plea 

 sometimes set up, that no encouragement or welcome is 

 extended to the retail store element by those in official 

 position seems very weak. As a spring cannot rise any 

 higher than its source so an organization cannot be 

 expected to extend its scope beyond the topics that 

 interest its active workers. The doors being wide open 

 to all, it remains only for any element or interest to 

 assert itself. He who stays away and then complains 

 that his interests are neglected may expect to have his 

 sincerity questioned. What do they say "down east" 

 about the man who will neither fish nor cut bait? 



4fe *t* *t* 





ATA 





