486 



HOKTICULTURE 



October 12, IHOT 



CANNAS. 



A paper re:iil by John T. Temple liitoro 

 tlie Society ot Iowa Florists. 



Within the lecollection of your es- 

 sayist the most popular flower tor 

 the garden was the verbena. Dexter 

 Snow of Chicopee. Mass., a verbena 

 specialist, used to send out a list of 

 over fifty varieties which were quoted 

 from 25 to 50 cents each. After the 

 verbena lost its popularity through 

 disease and the effects of the ver- 

 bena rust, the zonale geranium, as it 

 used to be commonly called, began to 

 loom up as the most popular plant, 

 especially as Lemoine, Bruant and 

 other French florists began to send 

 us their double and dwarf blooming 

 varieties, and John Thorpe and others 

 in this country raised such good sorts 

 as S. A. Nutt, Gen. Grant, Sam Sloane 

 and others. But of late years, either 

 from over-propagation or some un- 

 known cause, the geranium is not 

 what it used to be and the varieties 

 of the present day have not the free- 

 blooming qualities of the early varie- 

 ties For the past three seasons the 

 geranium beds are mostly all foliage 

 and have few flowers compared with 

 former seasons. The best bed seen 

 in Des Moines at the present time is 

 one of S. A. Nutt geranium. Most of 

 the local florists will tell you that on 

 account of its color and free blooming 

 qualities they dispose of from three 

 to six plants of S. A. Nutt to any 

 other variety. It is a seedling raised 

 by .John Thorpe. Not believing in 

 after-death glorification, I think that 

 the S. A. F. would honor itself by pre- 

 senting to Uncle .John Thorpe a 

 handsome testimonial for the boost 

 he .gave to the culture of the carna- 

 tion, chrysanthemum and geranium 

 by the fine varieties he raised from 

 seed and disseminated while he was 

 in business. 



The Claims of the Carina as a Bedding 

 Plant. 



Some few years ago the canna be- 

 came prominent as a bedding plant, 

 especially since the advent ot the va- 

 riety Mad. Crozy. Owing to its value 

 as a decorative plant both as regards 

 foliage and flowers the canna is used 

 extensively. When properly attended 

 to it blooms from June until frost 

 and because of its ease of culture and 

 elegant foliage it is seen in nearly 

 every park and garden in the United 

 States. The question arises, what 

 would our gardens and parks look like 

 it we did not have the canna to em- 

 bellish them with, or in other words, 

 what would the florists do without 

 the canna to make the effective plant- 

 ing of these modern times? It, is 

 everybody's flower through its ease of 

 culture and its bright colored flower 

 and elegant foliage, still the S. A. F. 

 has not given it the attention that 

 should be given to such a popular 

 plant; just appointed a canna com- 

 mittee for a couple of years and let 

 them off with a meagre report. The 

 carnation, rose and chrysanthemum 

 growers, not fancying that sort of 

 treatment have each started a society 

 of their own. The question is, is the 

 S. A. F. worthy of our support? True, 

 it has accomplished some good in cer- 

 tain lines, but not all that a national 

 society could do. But I am digressing 

 from the subject. If your secretary 



had asked for the best 25 or even 50 

 varieties of cannas instead of the best 

 six, it would have pleased me, for 

 there are others that I like better, 

 but they have some fault and would 

 not do for planting by the majority 

 of people. Among the best six that 

 I can recommend from my own ex- 

 lierience the first one is Express, a 

 dwarf red sort sent out by Nathan 

 Smith & Son. In some seasons can- 

 nas do not do as well as others, but 

 for the last three seasons Express 

 has not failed. Second, Florence 

 Vaughan, the gem of the yellow 

 Crozy type; golden yellow spotted 

 bright crimson, and largely planted 

 all over the country. Third, we must 

 not omit Mr. Crozy's original intro- 

 duction. Mad. Crozy, red bordered 

 with yellow, which even today is one 

 of the best cannas grown. Fourth, 

 another that is very good is Chicago. 

 The handsomest flower bed in the 

 Iowa State Fair Grounds is one of 

 Canna Burbank, a very effective yel- 

 low variety, introduced by Luther 

 Burbank, the California hybridist, 

 which an Eastern critic seeks to dis- 

 parage, claiming that Burbank and 

 Austria are identical. Sixth, the 

 peer of the best six cannas. equally 

 effective for its foliage as well as its 

 very large handsome red flowers, is 

 King Humbert, a perfect gem which 

 as it becomes better known will be 

 largely planted. 



I have named the six, but there are 

 others that I cannot stop without 

 mentioning, such as Black Beauty, 

 grown for its foliage, Kate Gray, 

 Compte de Sachs, Tarrytown, Betsv 

 Ross. Marlborough, Washington, But- 

 tercup, Gloriosa, Pennsylvania, Phila- 

 delphia, Louisiana, and numerous 

 other fine sorts raised by Antoine 

 Wintzer. 



The victories of peace are equally 

 as grand as those of war, and as it 

 is not feasible to patent a new plant 

 we could or should reward the raisers 

 ot highly meritorious new varieties 

 of plants by having something like an 

 American Legion of Honor of various 

 degrees that money could not buy to 

 be conferred upon them for their serv- 

 ices, but only after a thorough test in 

 different locations and different soil 

 and conditions. 



COMING EXHIBITIONS. 



Tile louitli annual OntHiin 'loilicul- 

 tural E.\hibition will be held at Mas- 

 sey Miisic Hall, Toi-orito, Ont., No- 

 vember 12 to Iti, 1907. Copies of the 

 schedule eontaining rules, entry form, 

 price lists, etc., may be obtained from 

 the secretary, E. F. Collins, 415 Pape 

 avenue, Toronto. 



DEFINITION OF AN AUCTION. 



At last Tuesday's plant sale Hubby 

 & Wife attended, accompanied by their 

 youngest child. The boy became curi- 

 ous and asked his father if there was 

 going to be a lecture. Father informed 

 him only an auction sale; child at 

 once wanted to know what an auction 

 sale was. he replying, "Where they 

 sepai'ate you from your money and 

 then sting you." After a pause the 

 parent arose to ask the auctioneer a 

 question, when the child called out: 

 "Pady, tome back; you will get stung 

 if you don't!" (Laughter.! 



The schedule for the twelfth annual 

 flower show of the Morris County 

 Gardeneis' and Florists' Society to be 

 held at Madison, N. J., on October 31 

 and November 1, offers $500 in cash 

 prizes for chrysanthemums, roses, car- 

 nations, violets, etc., including many 

 special preniiams offered by seedsmen 

 and othei' commercial houses. Copies 

 of the list iuay be obtained from E. 

 Reagan, secretary, Morrlstown, N. J. 



FROST. 



The first frost in tlie Boston district 

 occurred on the night of October S 

 and the morning of October 9 brought 

 to light wrecked gaidens all around. 

 Dahlias intended for the exhibition at 

 Horticultural on the 10th and llth 

 were completely ruined and the more 

 valuable garden flowers and vegeta- 

 bles generally were laid low. 



The following have been mentioned 

 at length in preceding issues of HOR- 

 TICULTURE: 



Jlenlo Park Horticultural Society, 

 Menlo Park, Cal„ Oct. 18, 19. F. G. 

 Hi'.tchinson, secretary. 



Lenox Horticultural Society, Lenox, 

 Mass.. Oct. 23. 24. G. H. Instone, sec- 

 retary. 



Marin County Horticultural Society, 

 San Rafael, Cal., Oct. 26. T. P. Red- 

 mayne, secretary. 



Monmouth County Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Red Bank, N. J., Oct. 30, 31. H. 

 X. Kettell, secretary. 



.Moiris County Gardeners' and Flor- 

 ists' Society. Morrlstown, N. J., Oct. 

 .11, Nov. 1. Edw. Reagan, secretary. 



New Haven County Horticultural 

 Society, New Haven, Conn., Nov. G-8. 

 Walter Koella, 58 Bishop St., New 

 Haven, secretary. 



Chrysanthemum Society of America, 

 American Institute, 19-21 West 44th 

 St., New York City, Nov, 6-8. David 

 Fraser, Homewood and Penn Ave., 

 Pittsburg, Pa., secretary. 



Nassau Countv Horticultural Socie- 

 ty. Glen Cove, N. Y., Nov. 6-8, J. F. 

 .lohnston, secretary. 



Denison Civic Improvement League, 

 Denison, Tex., Nov. 6-8. T. W. Lar- 

 kin, secretary. 



Tarrytown Horticultural Society, 

 Tarrytown, N. Y., Nov. 6-8. E. W. 

 .\eubrand, secretary. 



Massachusetts Horticultural Socie- 

 ty. Horticultural Hall, Boston, Chrys- 

 anthemum show, Nov. 8-10. W. P. 

 Rich, secretary. 



Horticultural Society of Chicago, 

 Chicago, Nov. 6-12. E. A. Kanst, 5700 

 Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago, secre- 

 tary. 



Hoiticultural Society of Buffalo, 

 Buffalo, N. Y., Nov. 11-17. J. H. Tran- 

 ter, P. 0. Box 994, secretarv. 



Florists Club of Washington (D. C), 

 Nov. 12-14. Chas. McCauley, ISth & 

 Kearney Sts., Washington, D. C, sec- 

 I'etary. 



Montreal Gardeners' and Florists' 

 Club, Chrysanthemum show, Nov. 13, 

 14, Victoria Rifles Hall, Montreal, Que. 

 W. H. Horobin, 283 Marquette St., sec- 

 reta r.v. 



State Floral Society of Arkansas, 

 Little Rock. .\ov. 1416. 



Rhode Island Horticultural Society, 

 Providence Nov. 10. 16. C. W. Smith, 

 27 Exchange St., secretair. 



Worcester County Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Chrysanthemum show, Worces- 



