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The Weekly Florists' Review* 



November 27. 1902. 



66 Huntington avenue, near Mechanics' 

 building. It is a little jewel named 

 "Imperial Florist" and managed by 

 Feffer & Co. 



Prices, as given in our Boston list on 

 another page, do not allow for the prob- 

 able jump at Thanksgiving, which may 

 exist a few days only, or may prove per- 

 manent. 



Salesman Ed. Chamock is painfully 

 ill with a somewhat serious stomach dif- 

 ficulty. 



Is it not a peculiarity of this season 

 that violets do not throw a more marked 

 perfume? Most of them now throw a 

 marked earthy smell not usually ranked 

 as a perfume. 



Casey's Place. 



Accident brought me here, but it is 

 'a good place to visit. Who does not 

 know Casey, formerly chief grower of 

 the Perle rose for the Boston market? 

 His greenhouses are in Melrose, on the 

 south side of one of those rugged crags 

 so common in that part of the world, 

 and so hemmed in by it that expansion 

 looks out of the question. Whatever is 

 being done in that line is in connection 

 with hardy material across the street, 

 where the low land makes costly filling 

 in necessary even for that. So much 

 of this has just been done that work is a 

 little behind in the houses, but a mixed 

 growth, for local trade strictly, is com- 

 ing on nicely. 



A novelty in his office consists of a 

 quite complete collection of the beetles 

 and butterflies of New England, and the 

 young gentleman knows how to talk 

 about them, too. which is also a novel 

 idea in a florist's make-up. 



A flying trip to the houses of Peter 

 Ball found them in their usual spick and 

 span condition, but now quite off crop; 

 while the nearby houses of "Jack" Foote 

 are distinctly in a fine crop of carna- 

 tions, but being built on the plan of an 

 old feudal castle, one must be well versed 

 in ancient history to describe them. I 

 think the portcullis is there and am 

 sure of the moat, because I nearly fell 

 off the drawbridge into it. But there is 

 not a finer looking lot of plants in the 

 commonwealth than that same Jack 

 Foote's. J. S. :Manter. 



PITTSBURG. 



As election day was the time of the 

 regular monthly meeting of the Pitts- 

 burg and Allegheny Florists' and Gar- 

 deners' Club, it was thought well to 

 defer the meeting until Wednesday even- 

 ing, the 12th inst.. which was done. It 

 was chrysanthemum night, and we had 

 a fine show of flowers, a rousing, big 

 meeting and a lively and interesting 

 discussion. 



John N. May, of Summit, N. J., sent 

 a lot of blooms of his newer varieties 

 and promising unnamed seedlings; so 

 did Nathan Smith & Son, Adrian. Mich., 

 of theirs. Henry Eichholz, Waynes- 

 boro, Pa., sent a big bunch of the lovely 

 pink Berkeley, and another of a lovely 

 solid-headed pure white flower with stiff 

 stems and good foliage. R. Vincent, 

 Jr., & Sons, White Marsh, Maryland, 

 sent a big lot of named pompon varieties 

 cut from their outdoor fields. 



Among our home growers the Blind 

 Brothers brought in magnificent Golden 

 Wedding and Timothy Eaton; Fred 

 Burki had a sheaf of Mrs. Chamberlain 

 in splendid form ; the Phipps Conserva- 

 tories. Schenley Park, contributed a lot 

 of varieties not common in cultivation. 



and the Pittsburg Cut P'lower Co. showed 

 samples of the choicest stock consigned 

 to it by its clients. A member from 

 McDonald, Pa., brought in some well 

 developed flowers of Indiana for identi- 

 fication. He had 500 more of them at 

 home, he said, and on the spot an Alle- 

 gheny market man bought the lot. 



The flowers were arranged in vases on 

 the side tables. As the meeting pro- 

 gressed vase after vase was placed on 

 the president's table, and if the flowers 

 were new varieties they were taken out 

 one by one and handed around among the 

 members to be properly seen, handled 

 and commented upon, and the boys were 

 inighty snap with their opinions, too. 

 In the case of standard varieties the con- 

 tributors or growers had to stand up 

 and tell all about them, how they win- 

 tered the old stock, propagated the new, 

 planted them and when, soil, watering, 

 ventilating, insects, etc., and as question 

 after question was fired at them they 

 had to 'fess right up. A man with a 

 secret needn't come to our meetings. 

 And, to the credit of the boys be it 

 said, they speak out the truth without 

 halt or reservation. 



Among J. N. May's flowers were "45 

 G," a pink with very large broad petals, 

 likely to be one of the largest and most 

 distinct of exhibition sorts. "44 G," 

 autumn- foliage colored flowers and a 

 full round head. "57 G" has very large 

 pale pinkish bronze flowers, flat petals, 

 shows considerable eye, only for exhi- 

 bition use. "49 G," brilliant crim.son, 

 very large, open-eyed flower ; for private 

 or exhibition purposes. "25 G," clear 

 yellow, full reflexed. "60 M." distinct 

 and novel, very full head of clear pink; 

 evidently a good pot plant. "25 M." 

 crimson-purple, silvery reverse, large, 

 flat flower. "65 M," very full, pink. 

 "50 M." deep wine-purple, full head, 

 stout stem, late. In Mr. May's lot were 

 also Queen Alexandra, a lovely, large 

 flower, pale pink, good stem, good fo- 

 liage; Godfrey's King, full, reddish, 

 turning to yellow near center, and Golden 

 Hair, dense bundles of fine, hair-like 

 petals. 



In Nathan Smith & Son's lot were 

 "26-1 -'01." yellow, tinged bronze, fine 

 flowing blossoms. "15-8-'01," very good, 

 dark red, spreading flowers. Providence, 

 white tinged with pinkish and lemon, 

 close round heads, fine stiff stems, good 

 foliage. Pluma, white tinged with pink, 

 dense heads, very hairy. Guy Hamilton, 

 pure white, broad but full flowers, with 

 curious ineurve-hooked petals. F. J. 

 Taggart, the yellow, massive, hairy 

 giant, the winner of the $150 premium 

 and gold medal at the recent Kansas 

 City flower show. 



If in any of the foregoing varieties I 

 am a little off in the colors, please lay 

 it to failing eyesight and lamplight and 

 very little time to note them. 



In the Vincent collection of pompons 

 were Little Pet, red; Anna ilaria. pink; 

 Yellow Queen, bronzy yellow; Julia La- 

 gravere. crimson; Fairy Queen, pale 

 pink; Nellie Bly, pink, a little later 

 than the others; Eosinante, small, pale 

 pink, very double; Maid of Kent, white, 

 but shows eye; Kanaut, pink, very dou- 

 ble, tall-growing; Naomi, rose pink, 

 paler in center; Mrs. Vincent, bright 

 crimson : Fire Ball, golden bronze, shows 

 little of eye, and Gold Nugget, small, 

 very double. There were many more, but 

 the other boys ran away with them be- 

 fore I got their names. 



Among our home growers the system 



of cultivation is much the same. The 

 old plants are wintered in flats or pots 

 in a cool greenhouse, and the propaga- 

 tion in spring is from the stoutest and 

 fattest shoots. Planting on the benches 

 is done from April till June. Soil is 

 ordinary field loam with a fair mixture 

 of rotted manure, and 4 to 5 inches 

 deep' on the benches. Tlie Blind brothers 

 use manure freely in the soil ; Fred 

 Burki uses less in the soil than he used 

 to, and more later on as a top dressing. 

 The former uses no commercial fertiliz- 

 er, either in the soil or as a top dress- 

 ing, or as a liquid manure; the latter 

 uses a little bone meal in the soil, but 

 nothing else. Fred Burki likes sheep 

 manure, but has difficulty in keeping it 

 from heating before using. Last sum- 

 mer, however, he got some from an 

 eastern finn. It had been put through 

 some process to prevent fermentation. 

 He was doubtful of it at first, thinking 

 it might have lost its virtue, but no, 

 it proved all right. All feed their 

 mums with liquid manure from the 

 time flower buds are first seen till the 

 blossoms begin to color. 



The sense of the meeting among the 

 commercial growers was few varieties. 

 Mr. Burki grows Bergmann, Glory of the 

 Pacific, Merry Monarch, Marion Hender- 

 son, Mrs. Robinson, Viviand-Morel, 

 Maud Dean, Bonnaffon, Mrs. Chamber- 

 Iain and Timothy Eaton. 



Jos. E. Bonsall, of Salem, Ohio, 

 a visitor at the meeting, and a big 

 grower of chrysanthemums, described 

 his method. He winters his plants as 

 our folks do, pots off the sprouts in 

 early spring, then plants these out in 

 a cold frame, then retops them, striking 

 the cuttings in the frame, and in Juno 

 transplants these rooted cuttings direct 

 from the frame to the benches in the 

 greenhouse, and he gets strong, sturdy, 

 short-jointed, well-leaved plants, that 

 take to their new quarters at once and 

 go right ahead. 



Julius Ludwig made the boys' mouths 

 water when he told them of some splen- 

 did flowers he was going to bring to the 

 meeting, but couldn't, for he had just 

 sold them. He paid 40c apiece for them 

 and sold them for a dollar each ! Then 

 he told us of the vast quantities of the 

 little pompon hardy varieties the Ger- 

 man farmers and truck gardeners in the 

 suburbs grow and bring in to market 

 and sell them for a few cents a bunch, 

 and how the rich people, more than the 

 poor people, buy them. And still there 

 isn't enough to supply the demand. And 

 he urged that the farmers grow more 

 of them, but be more choice of their 

 varieties, holding to the pretty pinks 

 and eschewing the dirty purples. 



Mr. Clark, of the Cut Flower Co., 

 declared that selling these flowers for 5 

 or 10c a bunch was inexcusable, the 

 rich people would ju.st as readily pay 

 $5 as 2oc a bunch for the pompons if 

 they took a fancy to them. "Yes," re- 

 turned Julius, "that's all very well in 

 isolated stores, where they cannot see 

 what the next fellow has, but at a 

 stand in the market place like mine, 

 where everyone around me is selling 

 for lOc a bunch, were I to charge a 

 dollar I couldn't sell a bunch at all." 



Tlien up sprang John Bader to cham- 

 pion the poor people and everyone gave 

 rapt attention and smiled and urged 

 him on, for John is chuck full of sound 

 common sense and practical knowledge. 

 He is awfully earnest, though, and 

 speaks with his Rrms as well as his 



