492 



HORTICULTURE; 



April 14, 1906 



ROSES 



A Paper Read Before the New York Florists' Club by Benjamin Dorrance. 



When I received the invitation from 

 Mr. O'Mara to write a paper on the 

 Rose I was in Egypt and it was only 

 after a good deal of hesitation that I 

 thought hest to accept. I regret that 

 my want of knowledge must be so much 

 in evidence; to talk to practical men. 

 thoroughly up on the subject as you 

 are, I confess, is most embarrassing; 

 to only relate a part of my experience 

 and trust that you will forgive the 

 presumption when I tell you of my 

 reasons for accepting. Primarily I 

 am under obligations to many mem- 

 bers of the New York Florists' Club 

 both on the grounds of friendship and 

 of customers, whom I value highly. 

 Then, when a member of the firm of 

 Peter Henderson & Co. asks me to do 

 anything I feel that I owe it to the 

 memory of the respected founder of 

 that establishment to do whatever I 

 can. no matter how poorly, to advance 

 the Rose, since he, now so long gone 

 but not forgotten, was the chief in- 

 strument in turning a poor blind 

 lawyer from the path he had trod to 

 the sweeter, pleasanter, brighter, path 

 of a rose grower. Well do I remember 

 the day when it was announced to me 

 by an occulist that if I wished to be 

 able to see the sweet light of day and 

 nature's beauties I must absolutely 

 give up my profession. Not feeling at 

 the best, as you can understand, I 

 strolled down Cortlandt Street and 

 stopping in to see Mr. Henderson, re- 

 ceived a kind invitation to visit the 

 Jersey City establishment. It is but 

 as yesterday that we walked through 

 the houses and he so kindly showed me 

 the methods he found best for treat- 

 ment of the various plants and natur- 

 ally we talked of my loss. He said to 

 me, "you have the land and cheap fuel, 

 why don't you try rose growing? Go 

 over to John Henderson's at Flushing 

 and see what he is doing." And I did. 

 Now _to this advice I owe whatever of 

 success I may have made in the work 

 and it is little I can do to repay and, 

 as I have said. I felt it a duty to say 

 yes, let this be my apology. 



It was about 1882 that I first gave 

 my attention to rose growing, and 

 to-day when Bon Silene, Souvenir d'un 

 Ami. Sprunt. Mermet and the other 

 nearly forgotten roses of the past are 

 mentioned it takes me back to the days 

 when I struggled to get some slight 

 return for the efforts I put forth to 

 learn why Perle would not open and 

 why Nipbetos preferred to bow its head 

 to mother earth. Then Cornelia Cook 

 stood peer of all the whites, with her 

 long, erect stems and delighted in 

 brick dust and cow manure -piled high 

 around the pots. Do you remember 

 when John May sent out the Bride? 

 And how happy all were that at last 

 we had a white rose that would give 

 us freely, flowers without coaxing. Do 

 you remember Charley Anderson and 

 how he urged that Madame Cusin was 

 a good rose. Then what a stir there 

 was over the Bennett, sweet of flavor, 

 short of stem, and blue ot color. Mrs. 

 Pierpont Morgan "as large as Beauty" 

 and so much more in evidence. How 

 from Mermet. tame God-given, through 

 the hands of .Mr. Moore, the Brides- 

 maid; then Meteor bur i out of 



darkness to give us the first good red 

 of profuse bloom. 



Sprinkled here and there through all 

 this time new roses grew, bloomed 

 and died because not good, hopes built 

 but to be blasted and Perle remained 

 the only yellow for the florist. Liberty 

 came, sweet yet disappointing to most 

 growers, now Richmond comes to do 

 her battle, which shall win? Each 

 succeeding year brings before you new 

 candidates for your favor, they rise, 

 they shine, they disappear, sweet as 

 the child of one's own raising. Each 

 thinks his will succeed, and, yet when 

 brought before the judgment of the 

 buyer, they are doomed to live only in 

 the memory of the originator. And 

 beauty reigns, as ever, in plant or 

 woman, still queen of all. 



To go over the long list of roses that 

 from time to time has been added to 

 by candidates for popular favor would 

 seem useless, since, once condemned, 

 there is little hope for resurrection, 

 and they stand only as monuments to 

 the immense if fruitless labor of care- 

 ful painstaking workers. Here and 

 there one remains for a brief period, a 

 seeming success, supplanted by some 

 new candidate, perhaps better, far 

 more probably not so good as the old; 

 still there remains the list of but ten 

 or a dozen, the standby, the reliance 

 of grower and salesman. That Beauty 

 has so long been a favorite is not to be 

 wondered at, for although not a truly 

 beautiful rose (at least in some eyes) 

 never as yet has one been produced 

 with the vigor of growth and luxuri- 

 ance of this rose, and when to these 

 is added its fine fragrance, it is not 

 surprising that it has a hold on the 

 popular heart only to be broken by a 

 more wonderful rose yet to be pro- 

 duced. Whether a Hybrid or a Hybrid 

 Tea, found by accident or purpose, the 

 fact remains that it was the first of 

 the Hybrid class that proved to be ever 

 blooming under glass; may we not 

 learn from this accident that there 

 may be others among the Hybrid Per- 

 petuals which under skilful treatment 

 could be induced to give us as freely of 

 their bloom and of their brilliant 

 coloring. Bride and Bridesmaid, off- 

 spring of' good old Mermet, must re- 

 main long the leaders in their race of 

 tall growing Teas. 



Testout came, a revolution in the 

 clear pink class, and while never a 

 great favorite was, I think, among the 

 very best of summer roses under glass. 

 It still remains a most prolific bearer. 

 To me it has been a source of wonder- 

 ment that the retail florist who grows 

 flowers for his own use, has not made 

 more of this rose. It responds to a 

 generous treatment as gratefully as 

 any rose I know of. Do you remem- 

 ber it as shown by E. G. Asmus at the 

 shows of say ten years ago? \\ 

 not fine? 



Mrs. Pierpont Morgan with Canadian 

 Queen, and Mrs. Oliver Ames followed 

 Madame Cusin. both sports from her, 

 and except for the size of Mrs. Mor- 

 gan, no great improvement over their 

 mother; for delicacy of flower when 

 great length of stem is not required, 

 to me there can be no more pleasing 

 bloom and certainly the production is 



not stinted. Meteor was the first con- 

 i inuous blooming red rose of size and 

 merit sufficient to warrant growing it 

 in number, and the finest blooms were 

 doughty rivals of Jacqueminot, but its 

 had habit of throwing faulty blooms 

 on the best growth set all the world 

 agog trying for an improvement, and 

 when Liberty came there was great re- 

 joicing. But this is not a rose that 

 grows for everyone and murmurs of 

 dissatisfaction were heard from many 

 quarters. Now that there is Richmond 

 to fall back upon it is to be hoped that 

 for everyone an abundance of red 

 roses may be had; the choice between 

 is a matter for the individual, and no 

 opinion of one will influence the other. 

 These seem to be the bulk of roses 

 grown for market in the large centres, 

 and while the demand for them con- 

 tinues, they must of necessity be the 

 ones to which the grower will give the 

 closest attention. 



I have omitted any mention of the 

 lesser lights and will content myself 

 with simply mentioning some that ap- 

 pear in the markets with more or less 

 regularity, saying, that in roses as in 

 other things, variety is the spice of 

 life. La France, once so popular, 

 seemed to die when Nyack soil refused 

 to longer perform its wonders. There 

 have been and still are others in the 

 line, that, while candidates for favor, 

 have gradually disappeared. Today, 

 Wellesley, on the same line, is a candi- 

 date. May it live long and prosper! 

 Franz Deegan, a yellow with orange 

 tint; old Madame Hoste, yellowish 

 white; now and then Bon Silene, fore- 

 runner of them all, still has her ad- 

 mirers. Madame Chatenay, fine when 

 well grown; Golden Gate, ugly when 

 large, droopy when medium, ragged 

 when small; Sunrise, essence of light 

 in color, rather small and yet beauti- 

 ful, can still be seen, while Sunset 

 went the way of all the earth. Kil- 

 larney is a candidate for favor among 

 the pinks; what success it may have 

 still remains to be seen. Resurrected 

 from the forgotten, it may be there are 

 others that if handled differently, 

 might prove at least worthy of a trial. 



There are still others that, beautiful 

 in and by themselves, when brought 

 under the fire of close examination, do 

 not stand the test and have been rele- 

 gated, most of them, to the scrap pile. 



You will notice I have made no men- 

 tion of Hybrid Perpetuals, chiefly be- 

 cause I know nothing of them. As 

 market men they concern us little, 

 since they are of little moment for cut 

 bloom and it was only about roses for 

 market that I understood I was expect- 

 ed to talk tonight. As a grower for 

 market, while thinking of what I 

 should say to you, there have come to 

 me several questions that perhaps may 

 have come to you and this may be a 

 good opportunity to ventilate them in 

 a degree. There seems to be one ques- 

 tion, unanswered, yet ever coming up, 

 that, since each year there are new 

 roses brought forward, is it good busi- 

 ness to keep planting old kinds to the 

 exclusion of the new? Do we advance 

 as rapidly as we might? Do we give 

 the new roses a fair show? Is it pos- 

 sible that the old are so good that we 



