238 



HORTICULTURi: 



August 14, 1909 



PENNOCK BROS. 



Retail Orders Filled and 

 Promptly Delivered 



1514 CHESTNUT STREET 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



JOHN DUNN, JR. & CO. 



Customs Brokers and 

 Forwarders of Plants and Bulbs 



TO ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY 



Bourse Building, PHILADELPHIA 



greatly improved by selection. Hyb- 

 ridizing has contributed to improve- 

 ment, particularly iu the fruiting types 

 of vegetables, such as tomatoes, pota- 

 toes, egg plants, peppers, etc., but the 

 steady and constant march forward 

 through seven decades has been 

 achieved by virtue of the sure, unfail- 

 ing method of careful and intelligent 

 selection. The Dreer greenhouses, 

 nurseries and trial grounds, are lo- 

 cated at Riverton, within half an 

 hour's ride of the city, and constitute 

 one of the show places of Philadel- 

 phia. The greenhouses alone, cover 

 upwards of five acres. Dreer's was 

 the first American house to grow dec- 

 orative and ornamental foliage plants 

 •on an expensive scale, and has been 

 the means of bringing many varieties 

 of palms, ferns, araucarias, pandanuses, 

 etc, etc., within the reach of every- 

 one, and has helped to make these 

 plants as much a part of the decora- 

 tion x)f a room as its furniture. They 

 have also made a specialty of stove 

 plants, their catalogue describing 

 more varieties than can be found in 

 any other American list, and all of 

 which find an important place either 

 id house decoration or in the furnish- 

 ing of the greenhouse and conserva- 

 tory. To illustrate the rapid growth 

 of the business take one item only: 

 Ferns. Twenty years ago all the 

 ferns sold were grown in a greenhouse 

 covering less than 400 square feet. 

 Today, over 65,000 square feet of glass, 

 with a large staff of specialists, are 

 devoted to fern growing, and more 

 than two million plants are distrib- 

 uted every season. The business in 

 hardy perennials, and other outdoor 

 subjects, hardy and otherwise hardy, 

 is also very large. Ten acres are de- 

 voted to peonies and as much more 

 ^o phloxes. Of cannas, a quarter of a 

 million are distributed annually. 

 Twelve years ago the sales of dahlias 

 totaled 8000 roots. Today over forty 

 acres are devoted to their cultivation, 

 and over 300,000 roots are grown for 

 one season's sales. In giving this 

 brief sketch of Mr. Dreer and his es- 

 tablishment, we must not forget to 

 say a word about the chief of the 

 plant department. We know he al- 

 ways has the uneasy feeling of the 

 ultra modest man when one attempts 

 to say anything nice about him. He 

 can stand chaffing a great deal better 

 than a little bit of honest praise. He 

 says William F. Dreer is directly and 

 in every way responsible for the plan- 

 ning and building of the mammoth es- 

 tablishment. When you ask Mr. 

 Dreer he says Mr. Eisele did it. 



Whichever way the truth lies thb 

 monument is big enough to do for 

 both, and at all events Mr. Eisele is 

 universally recognized as the foremost 

 man in his line today. Not only that, 

 but a Herculean worker. Seventeen 

 hours a day is nothing to him. If 

 work calls — which means duty and 

 necessity to him — the day of rest set 

 apart by Divine command has to be 

 sacrificed, and those other days of 

 rest set apart by a patriotic republic 

 are not even given a thought — they 

 practically don't exist for J. D. Eisele. 

 He is the real and only original tire- 

 less and sleepless florist! 



M. RICE & CO.— Started in 1885 as 

 the Philadelphia Immortelle Design 

 Co. at 904 Filbert street; changed in 

 1S92 to Miarschuetz & Co., and on the 

 death of Mr. Marschuetz in 1894 as- 

 sumed its present title. While origi- 

 nally specialists mainly in immortelles, 

 the business gradually broadened until 

 it now covers the entire field of florists' 

 supplies. The firm is now composed 

 of M. Rice and B. Eschner, and occu- 

 pies its own five-story fireproof build- 

 ing at 1220 Race street, designed and 

 built specially for this business. When 

 this building was erected less than 10 

 years ago the problem seemed to be 

 what to do with all the room, but ad- 

 ditional warehouse space has now be- 

 come necessary. The concern manu- 

 factures its own specialties to a large 

 extent, as well as importing from all 

 parts of the world, and there is scarce- 

 ly a town of any importance in North 

 America but what holds one or more 

 of its customers. Mr. Rice states that 

 their fiscal year ending July 1st last 

 was the best in their history. 



ROBERT CRAIG CO.— This busi- 

 ness is celebrating the fiftieth anni- 

 versary of its foundation — the father 

 of the present head of the firm, Alex- 

 ander Craig, having started in the 

 florist business in 1859, down in what 

 is termed by Philadelphians "The 

 Neck." In 1864 moved to lath and 

 Pine street; continuing there until 1871 

 when the firm of Craig .S' Bro. was 

 formed, with a retail store at 11th and 

 Walnut street, and greenhouses at 49th 

 and Market streets. Robert and George 

 Craig were the partners, George taking 

 charge of the retail end. This con- 

 tinued for twenty years until 1891, 

 when the rapid specializing of the 

 growing business made it advisable to 

 operate independently. Robert took 



over the greenhouse plant and oper- 

 ated same under the title of Robert 

 Craig & Son. Fourteen years later (in 

 1HII51 the concern was incorporated as 

 The Robert Craig Company, with Rob- 

 ert Ciaig, president and Robert A.' 

 Craig, his son, as secretaiy and treas- 

 urer. Another son. W. P. Craig, has 

 recently been admitted as vice-presi- 

 dent. All the members of the "original 

 firm are more or less interested in tiie 

 new company financially; but the ac- 

 tive management is in the hands of 

 the president and secretaiy. The glass 

 area is about 110,000 square feet. The 

 49th and Market street locality is rap- 

 idly building up with residences and 

 is now too valuable for greenhouses so 

 the intention is to move the entire 

 plant in a year or two to Norwood, a 

 suburb nine miles southwest of Phila- 

 delphia on the Pennsylvania R. R., 

 where a tract of land was bought some 

 ten years ago, and where greenhouse 

 building has been actively going on 

 during the past year in anticipation of 

 this move. When completed this estab- 

 lishment, Mr. Craig says, will be un- 

 surpassed in the country for conven- 

 ience and compactness. The great 

 specialties of the company are foliage 

 and flowering plants; palms, terns, 

 crotons, rubbers, begonias, cyclamens, 

 lilies and all kinds of Christmas and 

 Easter plants. A considerable space 

 is devoted also to cut flowei-s, princi- 

 pally roses, carnations and gardenias. 

 In meritorious new plants Robert 

 Craig Co. are usually among the lead- 

 ers. They were the first to demonstiate 

 the commercial value of the Crimson 

 Rambler rose as an Easter plant. They 

 were prompt in adding otheis of this 

 familv. They captured the original 

 stock of TMcus pandurata when othei-s 

 could see nothing in it; brought it to 

 this country and quickly demonstrated 

 that it was one of the greatest foliage 

 plants of the century. They were 

 large factors in the introduction of 

 the Lace Fern (Amerpohlii), and for 

 the past twenty years have had much 

 to do in the introduction of new 

 forcing roses, even including that 

 great staple, American Beauty, either 

 independently or in conjunction with 

 others. The same with many good 

 carnations. In short, for two decades 

 Robert Craig has been one of the fore- 

 most in seeing merit in new things, 

 and has done a striking service to 

 American floriculture in demonstrat- 

 ing the value of these introductions. 

 His judgment has seldom been at 

 fault in this connection. In this short 

 sketch we have dwelt purposely on the 



