5?8 



HOETICULTURE 



December 14, 1918 



horticulture: 



VOL. XYVIII 



DECEMBER 14, 1918 



NO. 24 



rUBI-ISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 1^7 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



WM. J. STEW.iRT, Editor and Manager 

 Telephone, Beaeh 293 



CONTENTS Page 



SOCIETY OP AMERICAN FLORISTS— National Pub- 

 licity Campaign 577 



FLORICULTURE AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY— £. A. 



White 579 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— New York Florists' Club- 

 Philip F. Kessler, portrait — Gardeners' and Florists' 

 Club of Boston — A Year of Roses — Club and Society 



Notes 580-581 



DURING RECESS— Chicago Bowling .'.' 581 



THE FERTILIZER SITUATION 583 



THE LATE AMADEE HANS—/. F. Huss 583 



THE PLANT EXCLUSION TANGLE— Wi/i/red Rolker 585 

 SEED TRADE— Denmark Establishes Seed Prices- 

 Congressional Seed Distribution — Notes 586 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



Flowers by Telegraph 584 



Opportunity-Knocking at Our Doors — Henry Penn.. 588 



New Flower Stores 588 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Chicago, Cleveland 593 



Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, Rochester 595 



St. Louis, Washington 597 



LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS: 



New York, Rochester, Cincinnati, Chicago, Washing- 

 ton, St. Louis 596-597 



OBITUARY— William P. Johnson — Harry E. Guerinot 

 —A F. Tracy ". 597 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



College of Agriculture, Columbus, Ohio 577 



Missouri Botanical Garden — Illustrated 579 



Urges Less Use of Laurel 579 



Effective Home Planting— Illustration 583 



A Cheery Letter from J. J. Lane 585 



Business Troubles 585 



Just Keep On Keeping On, poetry 586 



News Notes 586 



New Corporation 586 



Christmas 1918, poetry 59O 



Visitors' Register 597 



Reduced Insecticide Prices 597 



It will be difficult for years to eoiiu'. 

 Quality of seeds jf n(it impossible, for growers ami 

 affected by war dealers to maintain the high stand- 

 ards of many kinds of seeds whieb 

 prevailed before the war. This will be due only in part 

 to the German sup])ly being cut off, because we are 

 now receiving direct, products of certain countries 

 which formerly' came to us through Germany. The 

 war has taken a heavy toll from the ranks of European 

 seed growers and thousands of men upon whom im- 

 portant work depended are numbered with the slain. 

 Their places cannot be filled and the work they did — 

 if it continues — will devolve upon others lacking in ex- 

 jierience and skill. We appreciate that seedsmen and 

 their growers are doing their utmost to meet the diffi- 

 culties of the situation ; nevertheless, it will be impossible 

 to maintain pre-wai- standards of excellence in many 

 cases and seed users cannot reasonably expect them. Xot 

 a few of the finer selected strains of .seeds have been lost 



and one leading French grower says it will take at least 

 ten years of continuous selection to restore them. 



It is not at all probable that evergreens 

 Protecting will suffer during the coming winter as 

 evergreens they did last winter. Conditions are de- 

 cidedly better now than they were at the 

 ccnesponding date last year. First, the ground is as 

 yet free from frost and contains ample moisture, which 

 all evergreens are still taking up freely and will con- 

 tinue to do until the ground freezes to a depth below 

 that to which their roots penetrate. When the ground 

 becomes frozen below the roots they can no longer ab- 

 sorb moisture — it is locked up. During last winter the 

 ground was continuously frozen to this extent for about 

 SIX months, resulting in the drying out or winter-killing 

 of thousands of evergreens. The native plants suffered 

 quite as much as those from Japan and China. On private 

 estates it is not difficult to protect plants against this 

 manner of injury by mulching the ground with leaves, 

 salt hay or other suitable litter to a depth of eight to 

 twelve inches and extending well beyond the radius of 

 the roots. Manure which contains ammonia should not 

 he used, it being fatal to l)oth conifers and liroadleaved 

 evergreens. In situations exposed to strong wind the 

 mulch may be held in place by sprinkling a slight cov- 

 ering of loam over it. With the cutting off of impor- 

 tation, evergreens wiU undoubtedly rule much higher 

 in price and it behooves us to take pains to protect 

 those we now have. 



The situation in the flower business at 



Where 



the present time is quite out of the ordi- 

 "weareat" nary, and, in fact, unprecedented in a 



great many years and in its pecuhar con- 

 ditions of insufficient supply and uncertain immediate 

 outlook, all over the country, is reminiscent to the older 

 members of the craft, of former days when the normal 

 |)roduction was far below the demands for the hohdays 

 and all kinds of expedients had to be adopted in the 

 effort to meet the emergency. As one of the results of 

 tbe situation, it is evident that prices vnll run on a 

 higher level than at any corresponding time heretofore. 

 Unfortunately the American public have been badly 

 educated in the matter of winter flower values and may 

 now prove reluctant to meet the prices which, for many 

 reasons, seem inevitable for Christmas. Time will tell, 

 ami much will depend upon the attitude which the re- 

 tail florists themselves shall maintain in their dealings 

 with the public, as to whether the florist will be met in a 

 s]iirit of toleration or with a public resentment that 

 might unfavorably affect the business during the whole 

 season. Instead of throwing blame on other depart- 

 ments of the business let each one, through the local 

 press and when called on by customers for an explana- 

 tion, frankly place the cause where it belongs, on the 

 commercial restrictions endured during the past two 

 years, including the limited fuel supply, the embargo 

 on supplies from abroad, the insufficiency o.f help, and 

 other factors that have caused the compulsory closing 

 up of a considerable portion of the greenhouses which 

 liave been a main dependence heretofore, and all of 

 which has resulted in a very much reduced supply and 

 enormously increased cost to produce. The habit of 

 railing at the practices of other departments of the 

 business which has been all too common in the past 

 should be avoided. Outside influences beyond our con- 

 trol are largely responsible for the situation which now 

 exists. Pass that fact around. 



