706 



HORTICULTURE 



June 2, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, FLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



T«lephon«, Oxfotd 292 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and Manager. 



Jt is doubtful it' the history of 



Prosperity in horticulture in America can fur- 



the nursery trade ^jgh a parallel for the tremendous 



expansion which the ornamental 

 nursery trade has experienced during the past few years. 

 Every dealer in hardy shrubbery and herbaceous ma- 

 terial has had more business than he could attend to 

 during the spring which has just closed and it has 

 been impossible to obtain the stock to fill the orders for 

 special sizes in some things at figures that would make 

 an orchid dealer envious. There is plenty of room for 

 more nurseries and the best of encouragement for their 

 establishment. In no section of the country is this 

 industry overdone and the limit for the immediate 

 future is not in sight. Enterprising young men make 

 a note of it. 



Decoration Day has again com" and 

 The great gone and according to beautiful cus- 

 floral holiday torn the field, garden and the green- 

 house have given lavishly of their 

 choicest product that the day might be appropriately 

 observed. Each year sees this occasion take on a deeper 

 significance and a more widespread devotion of the holi- 

 day to its rightful purpose. But great as the demand 

 for flowers lias become and astounding as its increase 

 has been from year to year, we believe it is yet but 

 moderate as compared with what the future will 

 develop. Already in many communities it has reached 

 the distinction id' being the most important day in the 

 year in the amount of business it brings' to the florist. 

 Eventually this will lie true of every community. Xow 

 is the time to plan for next year's special crops to meet 

 this call. 



The importance of the peony as a cut flower. 

 The j n a commercial way. grows apace. Thanks 

 peony to the discerning foresight of a few enterpris- 

 ing growers certain markets arc already, while 

 the demand is still young, handling peonies in a sys- 

 tematic wholesale manner while in others the move- 

 ment has scarcely been felt thus far. Growers will 

 make no mistake in planting liberally of this popular 

 subject which is bound to take the same indispensable 

 place in its season which the chrysanthemum holds in 



the autumn. We expect to see the flowering season 

 extended to cover many weeks, by the production of 

 extra early and extra late varieties and the adaption of 

 special cultural methods, as has been done so success- 

 fully in the case of the chrysanthemum. Cold storage 

 of the buds has also been carried out with fair success 

 by sundry large growers. As to varieties, those kinds 

 having the most desirable qualities of usefulness and 

 popularity will gradually come to the front from the 

 over-crowded lists now available. It will be a long 

 time, however, before the splendid variety Festiva Max- 

 una. shown on the frontispiece of this paper, has to 

 take a back place as a florists' flower. 



In the May issue of our esteemed 

 The Boston contemporary, The National Xursery- 

 gardeners are man, we find an editorial comment orj 

 admonished x \ ir project of the Gardeners' and 

 Florists* Club of Boston to establish 

 a course of study in tin' primary essentials of landscape 

 garden work: "'Gardeners." it tells us, "should remem- 

 ber that landscape work in its highest sense is a fine art. 

 and is very different from the mere laying out and 

 planting of restricted areas of ground. The essen- 

 tials and qualities of a good landscape are not in the 

 same category with the requisites of a backyard or a 

 small dooryarcl lawn. While instruction of this kind 

 is most desirable, gardeners should realize that a brief 

 course of that type will not make them landscape- gar- 

 deners. It is valuable from the standpoint of making 

 them more familiar with plant materials, but the study 

 of landscape gardening can only be conducted by a 

 study of the theory of design in its broadest sense." 

 Doubtless this ponderous chunk of pedantic profundity 

 will duly impress these presumptious Boston gardeners 

 who would aspire to reach out beyond their "backyard 

 or small dooryard lawn" and dare to trespass upon this 

 sacred domain of "fine art" which our Rochester con- 

 temporary a — nines to guard so jealously. It is possible, 

 however, that these venturesome gardeners may also 

 "remember" the teachings of one A. J. Downing who 

 held that beauty of landscape cannot be subjected to or 

 circumscribed by any fixed rules of art, and they may 

 also take courage from the words of that great ex- 

 pounder of the principles of taste and their application, 

 when he wrote, "There is really a native school of 

 horticulture about Boston, and even foreign gardeners 

 are obliged to yield to its influence." We do not think 

 there is any need for our respected contemporary to 

 worry about the outcome of this little. educational ven- 

 ture on the part of the Boston fraternity. They "realize 

 that a brief course of that type will not make them 

 landscape gardeners.'" but they also realize that the 

 exclusive possession of intellect, genius, and refined 

 taste has been bestowed upon no individual or coterie 

 and undoubtedly know very well what they are about. 

 We might also add that anyone who thinks to feather 

 his nest by adopting a supercilious attitude towards the 

 gardeners shows mighty poor judgment. 



