762 



HORTICULTURE 



June lfi 1906 



horticulture: 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 

 DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



TVjprwnt, Oxford 292 a 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



The refusal of the United States 

 The United states Express Company to give any ex- 

 Express trouble planation of their peremptory 



raising of the rates on cut flower 

 shipments from New Jersey points, places them in a 

 very unfavorable light, and. in a measure, gives justifi- 

 cation for the charge that the move is simply vindictive 

 and tyrannical. The rival "wagon express," which has 

 been running successfully ever since the trouble a few 

 years back, and which perhaps is the irritant back of this 

 rough-shod action of the big company, affords an easy 

 relief for shippers within a restricted area but, to those 

 outside of those limits, is worse than useless. In the 

 absence of evidence to the contrary it is reasonable to 

 assume that the rates formerly charged by the U. S. 

 Express Company and still in force with every other 

 company are sufficiently remunerative. It is recorded 

 that one of the express companies — the Wells-Fargo — 

 has earned 40 per cent, annually for the past four 

 years. These companies oppose all parcels post legisla- 

 tion. Mr. Grower, where do you stand on this question? 

 On several occasions the request has been made through 

 the columns of this and other journals that readers 

 urge their respective congressmen to take favorable 

 action on the bill establishing a parcels post service. 

 How many have done so? 



Society meetings and con- 

 Where the Society ventions are crowding close- 

 of American Florists and ] v one on the other and the 

 Ornamental greatest convention of the 

 Horticulturists leads vear s0 far ■ as attendance, 

 enthusiasm, and recreation 

 count — that of the S, A. F. at Dayton — is 

 now but two months away. This organization. 

 with its sweeping charter and comprehensive scope, 

 belongs to no special interest or division of horticul- 

 ture but is equally concerned with the welfare of 

 every department — florist, plantsman, seedsman and 

 nurseryman. That the influence of the Society of 

 American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists is 



not felt in some directions as effectively as in other.- is 

 due, in part, to the activity and direct usefulness of 

 some of the special organizations, and, in part, to a more 

 or less general misapprehension as to the legitimate 

 sphere of this society. A closer affiliation between the 

 growers of outdoor ornamental material and the pro- 

 ducers of indoor decorative stock is much to be desired. 

 These interests are both growing, have much in com- 

 mon, they cater to the same sentiment and serve the 

 same people; many concerns embrace both departments 

 and many more will do likewise in the near future. 

 That the Society is fully alive to the situation and its 

 duty in the premises, is well evidenced by its generous 

 provision for an outdoor exhibition at Dayton this 

 season. Whether the trade for whose benefit this step 

 was taken is far-seeing and discerning enough to take 

 advantage of the opportunity thus provided, time will 

 disclose. But it is the Society's province to lead and 

 there is always room in the front rank for the man of 

 progress. Keep your eye on Dayton. 



The art of arrangement and group- 



The high art j n g ) whether applied to the dispo- 



of arrangement s Jtion of material in cut flower 



work, the arraying of plants in the 

 exhibition hall, the planting of garden beds, or the 

 massing of trees, shrubs and flowers for landscape ef- 

 fect, calls for qualities which comparatively few pos- 

 sess, judging from much of the work we see from day 

 to day and for which either the artist or his employe 

 must be held responsible. In nature there is a proper 

 place for everything and the workman who is able to 

 rightly interpret nature's purposes and methods will 

 not go far wrong if he proceeds accordingly and does 

 not permit his judgment to swerve under the dictates 

 of fad, expediency, sensationalism or the mandates of 

 an imperious patron, as in the case of a certain wed- 

 ding where the mother of the bride insisted on the dec- 

 oration of the mansion with the brightest red flowers 

 obtainable, in defiance of all accepted sentiment and 

 fitness, with the object of intensifying by contrast her 

 daughter's white apparel and making all else subjective 

 to the central figure in the performance. In the out- 

 door planting of ornamental material we often find, on 

 the one hand the made-to-order landscape architect 

 with his stereotyped treatment, on the other the en- 

 thusiastic plant lover who insists on filling his garden 

 with a jumble of everything that looks pretty in itself, 

 without regard to its relation to its surroundings. To 

 such a one it is next to useless to expound the merits 

 of ''mass"'" grouping or to try to convince him that he 

 should cast out four-fifths of his treasures for the sake 

 of breadth and bold effect. Going back to the other ex- 

 treme — we have in mind a half acre suburban lot 

 which the owner turned over to a professional land- 

 scape architect who proceeded to lay it out with the 

 regulation blocks of contuses, kerrias. peonies, yuccas, 

 retinospores, etc. ; the owner wanted to be in the fashion 

 and he got there. The adornments of a certain public 

 ground at present include a number of beds of azalea 

 mollis with the tall spires of foxgloves intermingled. 

 A discordant and unnatural mixture surely; how su- 

 perbly effective those foxgloves would be if placed in 

 an unstudied "colony" against a tall dark background 

 of foliage. Instances innumerable might be cited to 

 slmw that we all — gardeners, landscape architects, flor- 

 ists and amateurs have yet much to learn of the rudi- 

 ments of <>iir "high an." 



