June 22, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



817 



fore the public at the fall shows. How 

 many towns ever attempt even to hold 

 a show only in the fall, when the 

 "Mums" are at their height? Spring 

 and summer exhibitions can be count- 

 ed on The fingers of one hand, almost 

 in the entire country, but when the 

 fall comes, shows spring up from one 

 end of the country to the other, and 

 though the Chrysanthemum is the 

 principal attraction it affords the Rose 

 men, the Carnation men and the new 

 plant men a chance to exhibit their 

 stock to a large section of the flower 

 buying public that could otherwise 

 only be reached through the medium 

 of the retail store. The average re- 

 tailer is more interested in keeping 

 his trade down to the staples in the 

 trade than he is in pushing a lot of 

 new things that he will have to sink 

 his money into and run his chances 

 on selling them afterwards to a fickle 

 minded public. As an aid to instruct- 

 ing the public and giving an impetus 

 to the fall trade just at that time 

 opening up, the Chrysanthemum per- 

 forms a service to the florist that can- 

 not be measured in actual dollars and 

 cents. One of the most encouraging 

 features to me in the Chrysanthemum 

 business is the increasing number of 

 exhibitors. True, some of the older 

 ones drop out from one cause or other, 

 but this is only to be expected, and 

 the number of new men coming up is 

 very greatly in excess of older men 

 going out. 



Usefulness of the Chrysanthemum 

 Society. 

 The various local societies have 

 helped to bring about this condition, 

 and I pray it may continue, for when 

 the local interest dies and the local 

 show is discontinued, then do we see 

 the horticultural interest in that par- 

 ticular section, so far as the Chrysan- 

 themum is concerned, fading away. 

 While I give place to none in my in- 

 terest and loyalty to my local society, 

 I believe it is the duty of every Chrys- 

 anthemum lover to affiliate himself 

 with the National Chrysanthemum So- 

 ciety also. In union there is strength, 

 and I would like to see the Chrysan- 

 themum Society with thousands of 

 mebers where it now has hundreds 

 only, for gentlemen members of this 

 society should not forget that the 

 present head of the Chrysanthemum 

 Society is a Massachusetts man, Mr. 

 Loveless of Lenox, and as a matter of 

 State pride I know you will help him 

 all you can. To a grower interested in 

 Chrysanthemums the lists of varieties 

 issued by the society are worth much 

 more than the annual dues amount to, 

 not to mention the good work it does 

 In recognizing new and meritorious 

 varieties, winnowing the wheat from 

 the chaff and occasionally in detecting 

 old varieties that once in a while, 

 whether by accident or design, are re- 

 named and offered to the trade as new 

 varieties. And now what of the fu- 

 ture? I am neither a prophet nor the 

 son of a prophet, and when dealing in 

 futures it is the unexpected that al- 

 ways happens. So far as one can see 

 along the pathway at this time the fu- 

 ture is bright— very bright for the 

 Chrysanthemum. Changes will come 

 unquestionably. In fact, they are al- 

 ready looming up. I see it in a reac- 

 tion in some sections from the large 

 blooms solely. The past year has wit- 

 nessed to me a remarkable turn in fa- 



RAMBLER ROSE PARADISE. 



The rose which we 

 here illustrate is one 

 of M. H. Walsh's 

 finest productions. 

 It is a Wichuraiana 

 hybrid of vigorous 

 growth, hard\ and 

 with handsome 

 glossy foliage. The 

 flower is unique; 

 color, base of petals, 

 creamy white, tips of 

 petals carmine, the 

 centre filled with 

 golden stamens. The 

 petals reflex in a re- 

 markable manner 

 giving the flower a 

 star-shaped form 

 which no other rose 

 presents. The petals 

 are very persist- 

 ent, lasting- fully 

 four weeks from th^ 

 time of opening un- 

 til they begin to 

 drop. The plant 

 shown in the illus- 

 tration is one of the 

 group exhibited at 

 Washington last 

 March and the flow- 

 ers had begun to 

 oppn three weeks be- 

 fore it was shipped, 

 yet it arrived back in Woods' Hole 

 without losing a petal, Mr. Walsh 

 tells us. That such a rose, with its 



freedom of blooming is destined to 

 hold high rank as a florists' Easter 

 plant seems inevitable. 



vor of the single 'flowered types. The 

 singles cannot be called new. for I re- 

 call we made an unsuccessful effort to 

 have the market take them up ten 

 years ago and the market laughed at 

 them. True, varieties have improved 

 greatly since then, but the market at 

 that time was not in a receptive mood. 

 It was merely a big flower, the bigger 

 the better, with a stem like wire and 

 foliage hugging the flower. Today it 

 would seem that the artistic taste is 

 more developed. We see it in the in- 

 creasing iKjpularity of single flowers 

 not only in Chrysanthemum, but also 

 in roses, dahlias and other flowers. 

 Light, graceful, natural effects can be 

 produced, impossible of duplication 

 with the heavy double flowers that 

 have been the florists' ideal for so 

 long. The single varieties now seem 

 to be coming into their own after 

 years of neglect, and the next year or 

 two will see them popular. 1 notice 

 that several new singles were awarded 

 certificates in London last fall. Such 

 a thing would have been heresy not 

 so long ago, and I regard it as an in- 

 dication of the trend of the times. The 

 pompons or hardy types too will be 

 planted much more largely in the next 

 fevi- years. With the spread of the 

 civic improvement ideas of a city 

 beautiful instead of an aggregation of 

 bricks and stones, demand will come 

 for these humble but welcome flowers, 

 blooming as they do when everything 

 else is gone, and pointing an object- 

 lesson of hopefulness long after every 

 other flower has succumbed to the 

 rigors of early winter. 



Will the Big Flowers Stay? 



Will the big flowers stay? I say 

 yes. For large, massive decorations 

 they are unsurpassed; to make a 

 showing in an exhibition they are in- 



dispensable, and as evidences of cul- 

 tural skill they tell their own story. 

 That new types will crop up and have 

 a share of the popularity is certain. 

 The human mind from earliest history 

 is perpetually craving for something 

 different, and in this respect modern 

 civilization differs not one whit from 

 the ancient Greeks and Romans. The 

 large flower in its proper place has a 

 certain nobility about it that is not 

 to my mind approached in any other 

 flower, but its place is not stuck in a 

 low bowl to form part of a dinner table 

 decoration. That part of decorative 

 art can be more artistically done with 

 singles or pompons or other smaller 

 flowered varieties. 



That the hybridist will continue to 

 breed to larger and larger types is cer- 

 tain, but size and coarseness do not 

 necessarily have to go together. We 

 have seen the coarseness of Timothy 

 Eaton, for instance, eliminated, and a 

 flower equally large or larger produced 

 in Beatrice May or Mrs. D. V. West 

 without a trace of coarseness in their 

 makeup, and it is on these lines that 

 the hybridist will work. 



Some people in decrying size go to 

 the other extreme and condemn a 

 flower for its size alone. 1 say this is 

 wrong. The forest tree when a mag- 

 nificent specimen never excites any- 

 thing but admiration, and if nature 

 unlocks her storehouse of knowledge 

 and permits us to raise a Chrysanthe- 

 mum two feet across, if it be perfectly 

 proportioned 1 say it would be a mar- 

 vellous revelation. 



Whatever the future has in store we 

 may confidently say that the Chrysan- 

 themum will go on increasing in popu- 

 larity and usefulness from year to 

 year and adding its quota to the sum 

 total of the world's economy and hu- 

 man progress. 



