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The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



FEBRUARY 3, 1S98. 



Personal Notes. 



B. P. Critchell is on the sick list. He 

 was taken ill last Friday, and for a 

 time was in a serions condition, but is 

 now convalescent. 



W. G. Matthews, of Dayton. O., was a 

 caller last week. He has recently taken 

 charge of a new store in his city and re- 

 I)orts a good business. 



E. G. Gillett came down to business 

 last Thursday morning wearing a two- 

 by-four smile. Upon inquiry it was 

 learned that a little Gillett had arrived 

 at his home. 



Mr. Julius Bner will shortly w-ed a 

 charming young lady of the west end. 

 Congratulations are in order. 



Mr. J. M. Gasser. of Cleveland, O., is 

 with us this week. He is on his way 

 south for his health, where he will 

 spend a couple of months. B. 



Among the Growers. 



At Walter Grey's place on College 

 Hill we find most of the space devoted 

 to roses. He reports having cut a very 

 heavy crop during the holidays. They 

 are somewhat off-crop at present, 

 though in excellent health. Most of 

 the roses here are grown in solid beds, 

 some of them having been in same bed 

 for eight years. I noticed a batch of 

 l)ouvardia, that once popular flower; 

 Mr. Grey is working up a stock of it. 



At Corbett & Wilson's pot plants are 

 largely grown for market. Their roses 

 and carnations are good. They have a 

 space devoted to the new violet Prin- 

 cess of Wales. It is excellent and will 

 surely be in great demand another sea- 

 son. 



Fred Walz & Son have not fully re- 

 covered from the flood of last spring. 

 We were interested in their carnations. 

 Queen of the West, a good pink, and 

 Ruby, a red. Mr. Walz considers them 

 excellent commercial varieties. Quite 

 a number of seedling cannas on this 

 place give promise of being decided ac- 

 quisitions. Here, too, we find a mum 

 which flowers at Easter. 



At B. P. Critchell's Sons' place in 

 Carthage, we noticed a fine stock of 

 young palms. They have a bench of 

 Eucharis Amazonica that was growing 

 and blooming when we first saw the 

 place, not less than twelve years ago, 

 and we do not know how much longer 

 it has been there. We cannot under- 

 stand why more florists who do a retail 

 business do not grow this useful flower, 

 nothing is easier of cultivation. 



I found Mr. Henry Schwarz at home 

 and busy getting some imported roses 

 into pots. Henry does a retail busi- 

 ness, growing plants for bedding and 

 market, and will have some excellent 

 stock when spring trade opens. He also 

 has a large cemetery trade. 



Anyone visiting Mr. J. A. Peterson's 

 place is immediately struck by the ex- 

 cellent arrangement and condition of 

 the houses, which are models, and the 

 stock grown in them is second to none. 

 Cut flowers are largely grown, but 

 much space is devoted to decorative 



plants, and ferns for filling ferneries. 

 Roses, though off-crop, are in excel- 

 lent health. Carnations, as grown by 

 Mr. Peterson, are hard to beat. Our 

 old friend Daybreak appears in the fin- 

 est form; long, stiff stems surmounted 

 by an immense bloom of exquisite 

 color. Bridesmaid is seen in good 

 form and is considered one of the best. 

 A red, which Mr. P. disseminated last 

 season, is excellent, both as to stem 

 and color, and bears the catchy name 

 of The Outcast. Here again we meet 

 that excellent violet. Princess of 

 Wales. It is in a house with other vi- 

 olets which are so diseased as to be ab- 

 solutely worthless and are being 

 thrown out. while the Princess is per- 

 fectly healthy and the great number 

 of buds and blooms is simply amazing. 

 Its fragrance is more lasting than that 

 of any other violet in cultivation. At 

 Christmas it sold for double the price 

 of the best Marie Louise and Califor- 

 nias. 



Of course we visited Mr. Witterstaet- 

 ter, to be introduced to Evelina in 

 her home, and we find her reigning su- 

 preme, and truly it is an ideal flower 

 with its good calyx and stiff stem. An- 

 other seedling seen here that will 

 doubtless prove a winner is Opal. It is 

 a light pink, similar in color to Day- 

 break, though a brighter, livelier 

 shade. Mr. Witterstaetter has a num- 

 ber of houses of seedlings which are 

 exceedingly interesting. An excellent 

 scarlet seedling, brighter than Jubilee, 

 with good calyx and stem, is very 

 promising. Here also we find a large 

 stock of ferns, and here again Mr. W. 

 is fortunate, for he has a seedling 

 pteris that is evidently a cross between 

 tremula and serrulata. These were the 

 only varieties on the place at the time 

 the seedling was discovered. In gen- 

 eral appearance it resembles tremula 

 except at the end of each branch of the 

 frond has an extension like serrulata. 

 The plant, too. fills up the entire top 

 and does not leave space between pot 

 and frond as in tremula. 



A call at A. Sunderbruch's Sons re- 

 veals the fact that they are good grow- 

 ers of a large variety of stock, smilax, 

 asparagus, decorative plants, roses and 

 carnations. In carnations we saw par- 

 ticularly fine Queen of the West and 

 Ruby. Daybreak is also in good form. 



N. H. G. 



ALBANY, N. Y. 



Balls, assemblies, weddings, etc., are 

 keeping the craft hustling around and 

 putting forth their best energies and 

 most artistic efforts. 



Some Pretty Decorative Effects. 



Goldring Brothers last week had sev- 

 eral large events at which Sam outdid 

 himself. Some of the effects are worth 

 detailing. One was Roman hyacinths 

 and Scott carnations, with colored 

 galax leaves, in silver baskets; an- 

 other was mignonette, white roses and 

 foliage of crotons; another, large vases 



of Lilium Harrisii, with Dracaena ter- 

 minalis; and yet another, silver baskets 

 filled with Bride roses and colored ga- 

 lax leaves. But the decorations at the 

 Adelphi club, which is the bon-ton, and 

 celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversar.v 

 on the 26th inst., will tax his artistic 

 efforts. The whole is to be an effect 

 in green and red, which are the colors 

 of the club. Evergreen curtains tied 

 with red ribbons will hide the retiring 

 rooms, where the sets of furniture will 

 harmonize. The tables will be laid 

 with mirrors running down the centers. 

 Upon these will be arranged tiny elec- 

 tric lights in the colors of the tri-color,. 

 nymphaeas land possibly nymphs) 

 will apparently glide upon the surface^ 

 so complete will be the illusion. 



H. G. Eyres has his hands full. At a 

 splendid wedding at Troy on the 17th 

 he astonished the Trojans with the ef- 

 fect of his decorative skill. Eight hun- 

 dred yards of laurel, with vast quanti- 

 ties of southern material, were con- 

 sumed. Great bunches of American 

 Beauties, from Thomas Totten, of Sar- 

 atoga, and Jubilee carnations, made a 

 beautiful effect. A novel plan was 

 adopted in chartering an electric ex- 

 press car, duly heated, for it is no Joke, 

 with the mercury dancing around the 

 zero mark, to convey even southern 

 palms, as, like their charming admirers, 

 they are so susceptible to a chill. The- 

 job gave such satisfaction it was re- 

 peated almost in duplicate the follow- 

 ing day at a grand ball. 



Mr. Eyres is receiving some lovely 

 orchids from his place at Saugerties. 

 Cattleya Trianae alba, so chaste and 

 rare, some exquisite sprays of Odon- 

 toglossum crispum, were made up with 

 maidenhair fern for the coiffure of a 

 bride; how sweet! Harry is also re- 

 ceiving some fine violets from the same 

 place, 



Mr. Goldring's Violets. 



Speaking of these coy, deliciously 

 fragrant fiowers, Fred Goldring is a 

 past master in the art of growing these. 

 He feels so elated over his continued 

 success that he is giving his experience 

 in the columns of a contemporary — 

 what one should do and should not do. 

 But with a business wink he remarked 

 to the writer that the secret will be 

 lost as soon as the old houses take a 

 tumble, which they do not look like 

 doing for a while yet. Part of the se- 

 cret is keeping the soil saturated and 

 not allowing a drop of water on the 

 foliage. I noticed the paths even were 

 fairly reeking with moisture. The 

 houses are low. open at gutters, unfit 

 to grow anything else. The tempera- 

 ture is arranged so that cool or warm 

 waves are felt, and would look like 

 the lines upon a weather chart could 

 they be described. Cleanliness, of 

 course, is a great factor. 



Growers' Notes. 



I must not finish without noting the- 

 success of the white seedling carnation 

 Katharine Goldring. 'Tis a beauty, pro- 



