520 



HORTICULTURE 



April 21, 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. 



It is interesting, also surprising to 

 Popularity |,. anK as stated by our English cor- 

 of the respondeni in lasl week's issue that, 

 cactus dahlia while the newer forms nf cactus 

 dahlias arc greatly preferred by 

 growers in Europe and tin- colonies, the old doubles 

 retain undiminished popularity in the United State-. 

 it is just possible that the -rower through whom this 

 information was obtained may lack sufficient basis for 

 a comprehensive judgment as to tendencies in this 

 country. So far as the New England section of the 

 ed Si, Hi- is concerned, wo know that the cactus 

 dahlia is rapidly — and deservedly — growing in popu- 

 larity here. One needs 0.0I to loot beyond the fall exhi- 

 bitions, the dealers' catalogues, and the suburban gar- 

 dens for convincing eviderj I' this fact. Dahlia cul- 

 ture in this section has. however; suffered a lamentable 

 set-back within the pasl three years on account of a 

 thrips which stings and ruins the flower buds while 

 they are yet minute. A flowerless dahlia of either sort 

 is no great ornament to the garden and it takes hut a 

 season or two of this disappointment to drive the dahlia 

 ambition out of the average garden owner. 



The marvellous creations of the 



The "Wizard"' shrink into insignifi- 



backyard beautiful, c -ance when compared with the 



on paper achievements (on paper) of 



some of our modern "Ho 



Beautiful" and "Back Garden Beautiful" apostles. \ 



book that has recently come to our notice records how 



two energetic young ladies changed a typical city back 



yard, 20 \ L0, to an ideal back garden in double-quick 



time. By tin- bin n al L5 cents an hour and 



some seeds and fertilizer, "for less than ten dollars our 



little lawn i be path graded and our bi 



ad edged." Next, a few trifles of posts and laths 

 set up, .in-1 a accommodatingly trav- 



elled over a w ag the path and speedily over- 



spread the strui -..ft green canopy under 



which to sit. Tlii a shade tree to shut off the 



view from neif . - was next felt, so "on 



the following d; was set directly in front 



of the bower. It was a bn ml. stubby one. so placed as 

 to hide i; our neighbors when we 



in sit upon tlie low -eat within the sacred inelos- 

 ui'e." Keep at it. young ladies. Your're a wonder, 

 each and every oi f you. 



Mr. Manning very truth- 

 Intelligent fully says in the paper 

 help needed in w hi c h we publish in this 

 nursery and greenhouse i ssue that "we need more 



teachers who are competent 

 to teach, more disciples of out-door art who look beyond 

 the pretty flower-bed and the neat yard to the perma- 

 nent improvement of their towns on broader lines."' 

 The people who buy tries ami plants need intelligent 

 advice and, as' a rub', will be grateful for it. A more 

 widespread knowledge of the simple facts regarding 

 common plants, their wants, their care, and especially 

 their proper place, is needed among those who supply 

 the public with these goods. The average florist's 

 employe is notably deficient in this most necessary 

 qualification; in fact, a certain exploitation of the fact 

 of this ignorance is often apparent, as though a prac- 

 tical knowledge of cultural matters was something 

 beneath the exalted station of a florists' clerk. That 

 I ese conditions will long prevail, we cannot believe. 

 The young man who brings to his employer, together 

 with his ability to buy and sell, a thorough knowledge 

 of the material he handles and its uses and is able to 

 impart that knowledge in sound advice to the customers 

 of a house will not lie long in outclassing his stupid 

 fellow-. The flower buyers and the tree buyers in every 

 bamlel in the land are eager for just such a man in their 

 midst. 



Easter is over and the man who has 

 The day thought of little else for many weeks 

 of reckoning can n0 w commune with himself for a 

 moment before facing the new prob- 

 lems i hat await his attention. The over-timid grower 

 will perhaps recognize where he made a mistake in not 

 pursuing a more progressive policy and has the keen 

 mortification of seeing his hustling rival elated over 

 a record-breaking business which might as well have 

 been his. On the other hand, the reckless buyer rue- 

 fully sees his anticipated Easter profits practically 

 buried beyond reclaim, in the left over material. While 

 no one can assume omniscience and the shrewdest will 



onally make a disastrous miscalculation yet it 

 cannot Ik 1 denied that the losses of the extreme optimist 

 and the extreme pessimist might he materially reduced 

 by the adoption of a more careful system of itemized 

 records and especially by a close perusal of the experi- 

 of others as given in the better class of trade 

 reports. Unfortunately many so-called trade reports 

 are nol worth the paper they are printed upon and no 

 one can blame the seeker for information that may help 

 him to better success, if he turns, disgusted, from the 

 vapid the "did-25-pi r-eent.-more-than-last-year" 



style which -i) many trade paper correspondents seem to 



in their brother florists are a-hungering for. The 



re exact his own register and the more thorough his 



knowledge of what is going on elsewhere the better will 

 the grower know what to say to the import-order man 

 when lie makes his post-Easter call. 



