February 6, J 909 



HORTICULTURE 



175 



this same prominent Massachusetts firm 

 sent out a seedling, Mrs, Thomas W. L., 

 I relieve. V/e gave it a good write-up 

 in our catalog— "Size enormous, stems 

 stiff, free in growth, profuse in bloom, 

 of healthy constitution, never bursts its 

 calyx, everything has been claimed for 

 it and our opinion is that it will justi- 

 fy the claim"; and it did very nearly 

 but I believe it was late in May before 

 our orders were filled, and so despica- 

 ble is feminine human nature that I 

 confess to pure enjoyment in going to 

 our file and copying verbatim several 

 letters addressed to us four years pre- 

 viously, only substituting the name 

 Mrs. Thomas W. Lawson for Jubilee, 

 asking why we were not receiving 

 those cuttings promised us with such 

 absolute certainty for early delivery 

 in the January past, and I think that 

 the secretary of the disseminating 

 comimny must have duplicated our re- 

 plies of even date, for I recognized the 

 same tone of chastened humility that 

 had characterized our own. 



I never felt my sympathies more 

 deeply stirred than in the case of a cer- 

 tain magnificent jiink variety grown 

 not a thousand miles away from this 

 city, which seemed to have every neces- 

 sary qualificaticn for success, but it 

 later developed that the cuttings would 

 not root. Now a perfect carnation, 

 like the great American mortgage 

 lifter, must "Root, hog or die." We 

 waited and waited for those cuttings, 

 so did the rest of you; each time we 

 were told that the last batch had failed 

 to root. One giowe- was sure the plants 

 were grown too warm; another that it 

 was too much bottom heat in the pro- 

 pagating house; a third that they 

 needed a Bordeaux spray. A happy 

 thought struck our firm; we would ask 

 for unrooted cuttings, take them over 

 to Richmond; under our perfect condi- 

 tions we would root them in three 

 weeks and complete our orders. 



Our disseminating friend was very 

 accommodating and sent us baskets of 

 the loveliest tips imaginable, but with 

 every appliance known to modern car- 

 nation culture, we failed to root over 

 ten per cent. 



It would not have been safe for you 

 to talk to the owner of Mrs. Nelson 

 that year on tne elevating influence of 

 flowers. Nothing short of diabolism 

 itself could have been more tantalizing 

 than the antics of that magnificent 

 beauty. . 



Our firm has at different times tested 

 for their owners a number of aspirants 

 for favor with varying success; it's a 

 risky thing to do; if they fail to make 

 good, the owner will always have a 

 doubt in his mind as to whether all 

 the conditions were just right to 

 bring out their good points, and the 

 gentleman who does the testing, and 

 his grower, will have arguments about 

 wasted space — and the nice discrimina- 

 tion needed in endorsing a novelt.v. 

 Less than a decade ago. your 

 Toastmaster went down into the 

 Kast to take a last look at a fine white 

 seedling which we were to test, and, 

 if satisfactory, to help disseminate; it 

 showed up so fine down in its eastern 

 home thar he could hardly wait to get 

 the stock planted on his own place; in 

 the meantime, our Mr. Lemon had gone 

 up into the Northwest on a similar 

 en-and with regard to a gorgeous pink. 

 On his return he gave the usual wheat- 

 field description, buds and blooms 

 knocking their heads together — and 



such hoaiTs — on such stems! E. G. II. 

 wanted a south bench to test his 

 White Beauty and P. H. L. insisted on 

 a southern exposure for his glorified 

 pink; they each had a 200 foot bench 

 facing south in the best 400 ft. housc'. 

 When the date of the annual meeting 

 of this society came around, where the 

 White Beauty and the Glorified Pink 

 were to take ycnr breatJi away, E. i>. 

 H.'s south bench was covered with a 

 dense growth of pale green carnation 

 grass which would have required a 

 scythe to cut it and not a flower in 

 sight; F. H. L.'s south bench looked 

 like a patch of seedling onions in very 

 early Spring, with an occasional petal 

 of pink thrown in for cheer. The two 

 gentlemen never went together to in- 

 spect the two benches; the senior 

 member might be seen gazing with a 

 pained expression at Lemon s choice, 

 but carefully avoiding a glance at his 

 own Eastern Beauty. An hour later, 

 "j5rer" Lemon could be found, amis 

 folded, an unholy smile upon his face, 

 gazing at 200 ft. of Hill's Hopes, but 

 without a glance at the onion patch, 

 and to this day their only comment 

 has been, "Check." but the check never 

 went through the treasurer's hands. 



Then there was Adonis and hei-e 

 words fail me for the present — but- 

 some day, when Richard W. and Rob- 

 ert C. and the secretary of the E. G. 

 H. Co. have all reached the age limit, 

 and have leisure to take up literature, 

 we are going to collaborate a bio- 

 graphy and romance of the Young 

 Adonis, the most ravishing scarlet car- 

 nation ever sTiown to human gaze; be- 

 hold a bench of it in full bloom, heads 

 erect, a color far beyond words to de- 

 scribe — you can see the ecstacy in the 

 faces of Messrs. Craig, Hill and Witter- 

 staetter as they devoured its dazzling 

 beauty. This is not yet a matter of 

 ancient history, and still it was before 

 the days when the florist had grown 

 sadly wise and had learned to balance 

 a ca,rnation stem on his index finger 

 as the juggler does his pole to test 

 its stiffness; before he had learned to 

 draw the flower slowly through his 

 closed hand and watch the petals 

 spring back to the horizontal — before 

 he had learned to slap the bloom upon 

 the table and watch the resisting 

 power of the texture. Adonis helped 

 to teach the trade this last trick, and 

 so was not wholly lost in the economy 

 of carnation culture. 



Since Adonis there have been others; 

 they are current history and still in 

 mind. Father Dorner and Mr. Peter 

 Fisher have been the means o£ giving 

 us the most popular carnations and the 

 best wage earners in the family; we 

 can gaze long and fondly upon White 

 Perteciion and Enchantress as a father 

 does uopn a good child and say: "They 

 have never given me an anxious mo- 

 ment." Oh! but the waste of it all, 

 the squandering of hard-earned dol- 

 lars, you may s.ay; but progress always 

 costs in any line of trade or life, and 

 the expenditure of money is the small- 

 est item; the thing that really couuts 

 is endeavor and patient perseverance, 

 and absolute honesty, and this is as 

 tr\ie in commerce as in manufacturing 

 or in carnation culture, and flowers do 

 have an elevating influence en their 

 j-Tower.-j, if the soil is mixed with good 

 will for one's fellows and faith in a 

 kindly Providence that sends the 

 needed rain and sunshine and finally 

 gives the increase. 



During Recess 



New 'Vork and New Jersey Plant 

 Growers' Association. 



In the ability to provide and the 

 capacity to get away with a princely 

 feasit, iJie plant gcowers can give the 

 r.iero florists all the trumps and then 

 beat them out. The "New York and 

 New Jersey" is one of the youngest of 

 the special organizations, yet its past 

 performances in the piinic and ban- 

 quet have brought it prominently into 

 tl'.e ;ime light and when announcem'ent 

 was made that on the evening of Jan- 

 uary 28 the annual dinner would be 

 held at the St. Denis, a wave of antici- 

 patory agitation swept over the old 

 town and now the Indianapolis frater- 

 nity can easily see what happened to 

 keep the New Yorkere away from the 

 Carnation convention. President 



Julius Roehrs, Jr.'s willowy form oc- 

 cupied the seat of honor and in front 

 of him and on the small tables around 

 which were grouped the seventy mem- 

 bers and guests ^\''ere flowei-s in pro- 

 fusion, each lady having a favor of 

 orchids in a little Japanese receptacle, 

 all donated by enthusiastic members of 

 the as-sociation. The orating was done 

 by E. V. Hallock, Robert Craig and 

 Patiick O'Mara — nam'es which at once 

 settle the fact of its adequateness and 

 quality and, to put a characteristic 

 finish on the performaace, J. Austin 

 Shaw presented an original poem — a 

 sort of dreamy oriental idyl crossed 

 with a Borough Park pastoral — which 

 d'elighted the ladies and thrilled the 

 ftemer sex to the limit. 



If one can't be a plant grower surely 

 the next best thing is to have the 

 honor of the plant growers' acquaint- 

 ance. They ar'e the people. 



Nassau Co. Horticultural Society. 



This society held its fourth annual 

 dinner in the Oriental Hotel, Glen 

 Cove. N. Y., on Wednesday evening, 

 January 29th. President Everett pre- 

 sided over a well attended dinner, 

 about forty members being present. 

 Quite a number of invited guests also 

 joined us in the feast. J. Austin Shaw 

 acted as toastmaster. On rising, Mr. 

 Shaw called upon the president to pre- 

 sent H. F. Me\er with a cup which he 

 had won in the points competition in 

 190S. The cup, a massive silver one, 

 was the gift of Rickards Brothers, of 

 New York City. Ex-President Jaenicke 

 and ex-Corresponding Secretary Kesson 

 were presented by the society with a 

 pearl and diamond pin and fountain 

 pen, respectively, in recognition of 

 services performed in 1908. An inter- 

 esting talk on Society Organization 

 was given by Mr. Maynard of the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle. 



The singing was first-rate. Rickards 

 Brothers, C. Russel and W. Armstrong 

 each gave of their best. As a violinist 

 R. J^ngus of Tarrytown proved himself 

 an able exponent of old Scottish airs. 

 Andrew Wilson of Summit, N. J., also 

 did his part towards the entertainment 

 of an appreciative audience with some 

 of his clever tricks and witty stories. 



One of the most successful dinners 

 ever given by the society was brought 

 to a close by singing Auld Lang Syne. 

 The society enters upon its fifth year 

 with brighter hopes than ever before. 

 WM. H. MacKENZlE. Cor. Sec. 



