642 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



MARCH 17, IS 



rapidly now and immense quantities 

 of young stock are to be seen, all in 

 unusually fine condition. 



In one thing Bassett & Washburn 

 have been peculiarly fortunate. They 



have never had any rose diseases to 

 contend with. Mr. Bassett says he 

 knows nothing about them from per- 

 sonal observation and adds that he 

 hopes he never will. 



NEW VARIETIES OF 1897. 



Of pink varieties there were six that 

 made their debut this past season, 

 five of light shades and one a dark 

 pink; Mrs. McBurney, Mrs. C. H. 

 Duhme, C. A. Dana. Emma Wocher, 

 Victor and Sloan, all meritorious and 

 worthy of cultivation, but not of the 

 value of Mrs. G. M. Bradt or P^lora 

 Hill. They will never be universally 

 grown, as many other varietites, but 

 will find preference in special locali- 

 ties. Owing to their inferiority and 

 large number of much the same color, 

 none of these varieties found a very 

 large dissemination and are in some 

 sections yet unknown. 



If all the young stock was of the 

 same quality as mine, those who are 

 growing McBurney must have been 

 agreeal)ly surprised, for there was not 

 much assurance of it being a healthy 

 grower. Of a pale green color looking 

 soft and full of bacteria I felt more in- 

 clined to throw them away tlian to give 

 them benchroom. But conditions have 

 changed very much; they made fair 

 sized plants by fall, and have bloomed 

 uninterruptedly, giving a fair crop of 

 large blooms on good strong stems. 

 The form of the flower is rather flat 

 which may be considered a defect by 

 many. The color is a pleasing light 

 salmon pink and would be more de- 

 cided if of greater purity, for by a 

 close examination we find it very fine- 

 ly sprinkled or sanded with crimson. 

 This will not detract from its general 

 effect but by looking at it closely it is 

 painfully observant. I have noticed 

 this defect, if it may be called so, more 

 in the early part of the season and now 

 it begins to appear again. The flowers 

 shown at the Chicago exhibition were 

 fine blooms of large size and on strong 

 stems. The habit is good. Foliage 

 seems rather soft, of that undesirable 

 pale green color and is very suscepti- 

 ble to bacteriosis. but under good treat- 

 ment the plants will, in a short while, 

 outgrow that disease. I believe this 

 variety has not been very widely dis- 

 seminated, and I will be wrong in my 

 conjectures, if we do not hear more 

 regarding it in the future, 



Mrs. C. H. Duhme, much of the color 

 of Albertini, is one of the earliest 



bloomers at our place, and makes a 

 good substitute for Albertini, where 

 that variety is desired, but which does 

 not give satisfactory results on ac- 

 count of it being a late bloomer. We 

 have grown it for the last five years, 

 and it has given immense satisfaction 

 in our retail trade, giving us nearly 

 as many flowers as Scott, and more 

 than twice the number of Albertini, 

 It is not a first class shipper, and does 

 not quite possess an up-to-date stem, 

 but its merits consist in it being an 

 early, free and continuous bloomer, its 

 large flower of pleasing form and color, 

 which make it a valuable variety for 

 the florist who retails his own flowers, 

 and depends on his own plants for a 

 daily supply. We depend wholly on 

 this variety for light pinks in our home 

 trade. Growth is strong and habit 

 very good. This variety is rather sen- 

 sitive as to being kept too dry or wet, 

 showing it quickly in the drying up of 

 the points of the leaves. This I have 

 found particularly when the bottom of 

 the bench becomes too dry. It is a 

 slow propagator, taking a longer time 

 to root than most other varieties. It 

 has always been a healthy grower with 

 us and responds nicely to a liberal 

 feeding. 



C. A. Dana originated with us in 

 1S92, being a cross between Uncle ,Iohn 

 and Scott, and sent out by C. W. Ward, 

 Queens, New York. Desirable in every 

 way, with the exception that the flow- 

 ers were rather small I discarded it, 

 but the stock sent to Mr. Ward im- 

 proved very much, and as developed 

 by him justified a dissemination. This 

 variety is admired by many for its 

 clear pink color and smooth petals, 

 being only slightly fringed, more close- 

 ly resembling the style admired in 

 England. The stock sent us by Mr. 

 Ward shows a very marked improve- 

 ment over the original. It retains the 

 f'ee lilooniing qualities of its parents, 

 the flowers much larger, of better form 

 and stronger stem, making it a very 

 desirable variety. This gives an ex- 

 ample as to how a variety may Im- 

 prove in another locality. 



Emma Wocher made quite a sensa- 

 tion at the Cincinnati exhibition, but 

 is very little seen or heard of now. The 

 plants we rccived were badly infected 

 with rust. We tried to clean them and 

 succeeded in so far that we have com- 

 paratively clean plants now. Our 



plants made a good growth and pre- 

 sent a fine appearance, showing a 

 healthy color; flower stems excellent; 

 flowers a fine light pink color but only 

 of medium size and at the same time 

 not very full, often semi-double. This 

 variety was reported as extremely free,, 

 which I believe correct, as the habit 

 tends that way. Our plants bloom rath- 

 er late, but for the same reason that all 

 our carnations were late. 



I believe Victor, the celebrated sport 

 of Daybreak, has been more widely 

 disseminated than any other of the 

 pink varieties mentioned above, and 

 gives general satisfaction. The color 

 is several shades darker than Day- 

 break, a desirable acquisition but still 

 remains in the range of the light pinks. 

 It is claimed for it that it possesses, 

 more vigor in every respect than the 

 parent variety. As our plants show 

 up I cannot sustain this opinion for 

 I see no difference except that of color, 

 which is very decided. It is often the 

 case that a new variety receives a lit- 

 tle more care and attention, and this 

 may account for a better appearance. 

 At our place the choicest seedlings 

 and the oldest varieties receive the 

 same care, and our Daybreaks are still 

 as good as they were years ago. So it 

 is no disparagement to this sport when 

 I say it is as good as its parent. It 

 shares in the susceptibility to rust with 

 its parent and the stock we received 

 was very badly rusted. Daybreak has 

 never shown any rust at our place, 

 and I may succeed in seeing this va- 

 riety clean also. 



Sloan makes with us a good growth. 

 The plant has a fine appearance, flower 

 stems up-to-date, color a deep b.ight 

 pink, but the flowers have so far been 

 of poor quality, lacking in substance, 

 and showing that curling, incurving 

 habit that makes them unsalable. 



I will close my notes on the new va- 

 rieties of 1897 with the variegated va- 

 rieties Lily Dean and Maud Dean. Lily 

 Dean is a beauty of large size and ex- 

 quisite form and coloring, white with 

 stripes and edging of a very pleasing 

 shade of red. It lacks in stem and ap- 

 pears with us a little shy. We shall 

 grow it again, as our trial of this beau- 

 tiful variety has not been quite satis- 

 factory tliis year. 



Maud Dean appears with us worth- 

 less, as we have not as yet had any 

 good flowers, but t^his will not prove 

 that it will not be of value in other sec- 

 tions, as I have heard from several 

 places where it is liked very much. 



FRED. DORNER. 



CARNATIONS AT HINSDALE. 



While roses are the great specialty 

 at the establishment of Messrs. Bassett 

 & Washburn, Hinsdale, 111., they grow 

 an acre or so of carnations, just for 

 variety's sake, so they say. Here 

 Daybreak is seen in all its old time 

 glory. But the. new Mrs. McBurney 

 gives promise of eclipsing it. Jubilee 

 is, alas, bad^y infested with rust. In 



