Novh;:\rBKU '21. IIIO'J. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



View in the Philadelphia Wholesale Cut Flower Market. 



ply of Boston fern, arauearias, kentiaa 

 latanias. aiecas, dracaenas, ficus, antt 

 plenty of small ferns and Asparagus 

 plumosus you should always have on 

 hand, and it is good advice to say that 

 it is poor policy to leave your wanLs in 

 these important lines to within a few 

 days of Christmas, when you are driven 

 and the large plant grower also has his 

 hands full. 



The very handsome baskets of plants, 

 either assorted or of one kind, have 

 been gradually growing in favor, even 

 outside the precinct where multi-mil- 

 lionaires most do congregate, and many 

 are now sold in our cities. Of tlu'se 1 

 would like to say something next week, 

 for it can be tiuthfully said that these 

 are none the better for being made up 

 more than a day or so before Ihey are 

 wanted. Tliey are jammed in regardless 

 of roots, and are never so pretty as the 

 day they are filled. Th^s is not so with 

 a fern dish, which if carefully filled will 

 last a long time, and if filled a -.Aeek or 

 two in your houses will fill up ami look 

 much better than when just filled. 



WrujAM Scott. 



FOREIGN CHRYSANTHEMUMS 

 IN AMERICA. 



BY E. O. HILL. 



[Preseuted lo the Cbrysanthemuai Society or 

 America at the Chicago convention.] 



For the past twenty years we have 

 annually imported the foreign varieties 

 and tested them to find their value in 

 this country. A catalogue of 1884 con- 

 tains the names of forty-six sorts, about 

 equally divided between continental and 

 English varieties, not one of which is 

 now in general cultivation, and only 

 Elaine, Temple of Solomon, C. H. Glo- 

 ver and Geo. Glenny are even remem- 

 bered by name. 



For some four years later, up to 1888, 

 the catalogues list principally foreign 



sorts, most of them of French origin, 

 and a few exhibitions previous to that 

 (late showed imported sorts almost ex- 

 clusively; these exhibits were wonder- 

 fully beautiful, but the standard of ex- 

 cellence was totally different from that 

 of the present time, and as the years 

 have gone by, American varieties have 

 crowded the foreigners almost entirely 

 off the boards. 



Mrs. Jerome Jones was introduced in 

 1892, and had a marked effect upon the 

 standard of judging high quality blooms 

 both for exhibition and for commercial 

 purposes; we had been working up to- 

 wards this standard, but a glance at this 

 fine mum emphasized the necessity of 

 the upright stem, covered with glossy, 

 stiff foliage quite up to the flower, and 

 as this idea took firmer hold each year, 

 more and more of the foreign varielties 

 have been denied a place. 



M. Calvit has sent out some Ihirty to 

 forty new sorts each year for the past 

 ten years, all of which have been im- 

 ported into this country and tested; 

 there have been some magnificent blooms 

 among them, mammoth in size and of 

 fine form and color, in many particulars 

 approaching the American ideal and 

 showing a marked improvement from 

 year to year, yet up to the present time 

 only the following sorts have met any 

 recognition at all in this cotintry: Mme. 

 Carnot, M. Benj. Giroud, Mme. F. Per- 

 lin, Australian Gold, Soliel d'Oetober, 

 Fee du Champsaur and Lucie Faure. 

 ilmc. Carnot, in the hands of an expert 

 giowei', reaches a fine quality for ex- 

 hibition; M. Benj. Giroud finds favor 

 with a limited few, as a nice early com- 

 mercial red, but it is undersized and 

 rather short of stem; Lucie Faure had 

 nearly all the necessary good qualities, 

 but too often came bare-necked and 

 rather soft ; the same may be said of 

 Fee du Champsaur, though in a less de- 

 gree; .Australian Gold came within one 



count of being a perfect commercial yel- 

 low, its only defect being its long neck. 



Soliel d'Oetober, after five years i8 

 again being sought for, as it is showing 

 promise of many useful qualities; I can- 

 not help saying that I have little doubt 

 that a number of these varieties have 

 been too hastily discarded; importing 

 novelties into this country gives them a 

 serious check and they seldom disclose 

 their true character during the first sea- 

 son of trial and frequently even in the 

 second year we do not succeed in show- 

 ing them at their best, as we may not 

 have taken the bud at; the right time, 

 or they may have been planted too early 

 or too late, or the food may not have 

 suited the variety. 



We can all recall cases of new sorts 

 which have narrowly escaped oblivion, 

 even though in the hands of several 

 good growers, which have finally sur- 

 prised the experts by showing what they 

 could do. No better example comes to 

 mind at the moment than Eobt. Halliday, 

 and it had no voyage across the Atlan- 

 tic to give it a back-set. Of all the 

 French varieties introduced into this 

 country none has made the record or 

 held the place attained by V.-Morel, 

 and it must be a fine pinl< mum indeed 

 that can compete with it. though far 

 from being the ideal in color. 



'Hie survival of English sorts makes 

 little better record than that of the 

 French, though nearly all of the best 

 novelties are tried annually. White and 

 Yellow Fitzwygram are well known over 

 here, are heartily admired and almost 

 as frequently disliked by growers who 

 cannot "do" them. E. H. Pearson is 

 recognized as a finely colored early, of 

 medium size ; Mrs. Weeks is fatally soft 

 in petal, though exquisitely beautiful; 

 Mrs. Barkley, H. J. Jones, Kate Broom- 

 head, have all secured a good footing 

 and at the present writing it looks as if 

 this season would see them mount the 



