November 20, 1909 



HORTICULTURE 



709 



ST. LOUIS HORTICULTURAL SO- 

 CIETY. 



Last week's show at the Coliseum 

 was the best effort of this society since 

 its organization. Exhibits were fine 

 and attendance bttter than usual. The 

 Park and Water Works Departments 

 helped to fill the hall with fine dis- 

 plays. A large Japanese pagoda by 

 F. C. Weber attracted much attention. 

 Ostertag's fisherman specialty, de- 

 scribed in another column, was also 

 very effective. P. H. Weber bad a 

 beautiful table of orchids surrounded 

 by fine decorative plants. Other im- 

 port.aiU displays were by Sanders' 

 Nursery, Theo. Miller, C. Young & 

 Sons Co., Koenig Floral Co. and Elli- 

 son Floral Co. During the week Chas. 

 Knopf staged his new carnation Ad- 

 miration, A. C. Brown staged Sangamo 

 and his new seedling Clara Mae. J. A. 

 Peterson showed plants of his new 

 begonia Glory of Cincinnati. F. R. 

 Pierson sent his new Nephrolepis and 

 H. A. Dreer Acanthus montanus. Spe- 

 cial mention should be made of J. F. 

 Ammann's Ivory and John Steidle's 

 White Killarney. 



Names of first prize winners includ- 

 ed Wm. Schray & Sons Co., J. A. 

 Peterson, Koenig Floral'Co., Vaughan's 

 Seed Store, C. Young & Sons, E. G. 

 Hill Co.. W. J. & M. S. Vesey, H. J. 

 Weber & Sons Nursery, Chicago Car- 

 nation Co., J. F. Ammann, Poeblmann 

 Bros. Co., John Steidle, Tlieo. Miller, 

 Sanders' Nurseries, F. H. Lemon and 

 A. C. Brown. F. R. Pierson Co. were 

 awarded a bron/e medal for Nephrole- 

 pis superbissima. Peter Reinberg won 

 the Hess & Culbertson loving cup for 

 too Am. Beauties, W. J. & M. S. 

 Vesey the Mermod, Jaccard & King 

 cup for 100 chrysanthemums with 

 variety Robinson. The Shaw gold 

 medal was not awarded. The prize 

 for seedling caniations not yet dis- 

 seminated went to Chicago Carnation 

 Co.'s Conquest and Sangamo. The 

 best 2.5 white carnations was Miss Sara 

 Hill by W. J. & M. S. Vesey, the best 

 25 pink, May day by J. F. Ammann, 

 and the best 25 red, O. P. Bassett, by 

 Ammann. 



On Wednesday night the society 

 tendered a banquet to the visiting 

 florists and the ladies were entertained 

 by a theatre party by the St. Louis 

 ladies. On Thursday the St. Louis 

 Florist Club entertained the visitors 

 at their meeting and at lunch at the 

 New Knickerbocker Cafe, after which 

 all were taken to the flower show in 

 a big touring car. 



The show was in charge of Otto G. 

 Koenig and Fred Meinbardt and they 

 did their work well. The judges were 

 I. C. Bertermann of Indianapolis, J. 

 T. Temple of Davenport, la., and R. 

 F. Tesson. There was a large num- 

 ber of visitors. 



THE ST. LOUIS SHOW AS A LADY 

 SAW IT. 



Mr. Editor:— We have just returned 

 from the St. Louis Flower show, and 

 thinking that you might like to know 

 something about it from a visitor's 

 point of view, I am taking the liberty 

 of sending you these rambling com- 

 ments, hoping that they may prove of 

 interest to you, and to the readers of 

 HORTICULTURE. We arrived early 

 Tuesday morning, and going almost di- 

 rectly to the Coliseum, found it even 

 then in festive array, the flag decora- 



tions of the recent horse show having 

 been left up, and they added quite con- 

 siderably to the gala appearance of the 

 auditorium, which is very fine indeed 

 for exhibition and show purposes, and 

 the light is excellent; indeed, you arc 

 hardly aware that there is a roof over- 

 head, as it does not seem to exclude a 

 single ray of light. 



The floor of the auditorium w3s laid 

 out in a handsome geometric design, 

 the several figures lieiug out!ini?d with 

 sod, and the space within covered with 

 tanbark, forming a very pretty back- 

 ground for tiie groups of plants ai\d 

 vases of flowers. 



The central figure was a huge cir- 

 cular basin encircled with a border of 

 crotons, Pandanus Veitchii, ferns, etc., 

 and a fine fountain in the center, the 

 exhibit of the Water Works depart- 

 ment. 



The Park department contributed 

 two large groups of foliage plants, and 

 the Missouri Botanical Garden a 

 group of "Bible Plants," and, speak- 

 ing of this group, while making a call 

 on Mr. Gurney, at Tower Grove, the 

 dear old gentleman gave us a very 

 interesting account of how he gathered 

 this collection of plants, which took 

 something like sixteen years to com- 

 plete, and told of their wonderful sig- 

 nificance, giving one instance, that of 

 the almond tree, the "flower of hasten- 

 ing," and proving by chapter and verse 

 that wherever mentioned in the Bible, 

 the idea of "haste" was connected with 

 the reference to the Almond. 



The display of roses was very fine, 

 at least, they looked good to me; 

 there were some very fine white and 

 pink Killarneys, sent by Poehlmann 

 Bros. Peter Reinberg won a beauti- 

 ful silver cup for the best 100 Beauties 

 and W. J. & M. S. Vesey the silver 

 cup offered for the' best 100 chrysan- 

 themums. 



Among the exhibitors from outside 

 St. Louis I noticed the following: E. 

 G. Hill Co., Fred. H. Lemon Co., and 

 The Chas. Knopf Co., of Richmond. 

 Ind.; W. J. & M. S. Vesey, Ft. Wayne; 

 J. A. Peterson, Cincinnati; Chicago 

 Carnation Co.. Joliet, 111.; H. A. Dreer, 

 Phila., Pa.; Peter Reinberg and Poehl- 

 mann Bros., Chicago, 111.; J. F. Am- 

 mann, Edwardsville, 111.; and A. C. 

 Brown, of Springfield, 111., who has on 

 exhibition one new carnation, "San- 

 gamo"; also, D. S. Brown, of Kirk- 

 wood, Mo., has a table of cut orchids, 

 cattleyas, cypripediums, etc. 



There were several booths showing 

 table and mantel decorations, which 

 were after the same old stereotyped 

 style, a mass of flowers, suggesting 

 nothing, but, just simply a mass of 

 flowers. Why do our good people per- 

 sist in making a "hodge-podge" of 

 what might, and ought to be, a beauti- 

 ful picture? The Schisler-Corneli 

 Seed Co. and the St. Louis Seed Co. 

 each had a booth tastefully decorated 

 with autumn leaves and greenery, and 

 fine displays of seeds, bulbs, etc. F. 

 C. Weber showed a very pretty Jap- 

 anese booth of bamboo, decorated with 

 Japanese lanterns and foliage plants, 

 and this booth was to have been used 

 on Wednesday afternoon, for the serv- 

 ing of tea, at which the Japanese 

 ladies accompanying the visiting Com- 

 mission, were to have assisted, but un- 

 fortunately, the Baroness was taken ill 

 on the car and had to be taken back 

 to her hotel, and of course her ladies 

 could not leave her. The most unique 



of all the booths was gotten up as a 

 fisherman's tent, of poles covered with 

 autumn branches and decorated -with 

 all sorts of "finny" things, nets and 

 rods, dried specimens of fish, and a 

 big hornet's nest. There were eight 

 covers laid, and the place cards were 

 paper plates, each having a colored 

 caricature of some member of the St. 

 Francis Hunting & Fishing Club of 

 St. Louis. In the center of the table 

 was a deep pool, a fountain, and live 

 fis'n and frogs sporting in the water; 

 ferns, bulrushes, lycopodiums and 

 other green, and tiny electric lights, 

 making a very pretty and attractive 

 scene. The chairs were .rustic, and 

 each had a fisherman's duck coat hang- 

 ing over the back; a clever idea 

 cleverly carried out and refiecting 

 much credit on the exhibitors, the Os- 

 tertag Bros. Another novel feature 

 was a fruit and flower design, entitled 

 "Fall," the work of Theodore Miller, 

 which received one of the special 

 prizes, and it was a most artistic piece 

 both in conception and execution. On 

 a tall easel was a large, broad placque 

 of dull bronze-yellow plush, and 

 in the center a large cluster of ap- 

 ples, pears and California grapes, 

 some of the latter trailing down one 

 side of the easel, which latter was 

 decorated with two fine sprays of yel- 

 low chrysanthemums, ferns and 

 autumn leaves, tied with pale bronzy- 

 yellow ribbon: it was a most har- 

 monious combination of color and a 

 "picture" at the same time. It brought 

 to mind the beautiful and artistic ar- 

 rangements of flowers that I saw in 

 Hamburg and other European cities 

 some two years ago, and which I wish 

 might become popular here. In addi- 

 tion to the flowers, there was a fine 

 display of fruits, apples, peaches, etc., 

 which looked most tempting, especial- 

 ly when that "all gone" feeling had 

 me in its grip. 



Among the visitors, I noticed Pres. 

 Valentine, who stopped for a day on 

 his way home from Chicago; also. W. 

 N. Rudd, S. S. Skidelsky, Geo. Asmus, 

 W. W. Coles, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. May- 

 nard. Mr. and Mrs. Geo. A. Kuhl, Mr. 

 Karens, and T. Mellstrom, of St. Al- 

 bans, Eng. Mr. Jo. Hill, who staged 

 the exhibits for the E. G. Hill Co. and 

 the Fred. H. Lemon Co., was accom- 

 panied by his wife and Mr. and Mrs. 

 Gaar, Mrs. Hill's father and mother; 

 Judge and Mrs. Vesey and Miss Mar- 

 garet Vesey were also among the ex- 

 hibitors, and received as usual, a fair 

 share of the honors. 



The St. Louis ladies of the L. S. A. F. 

 entertained with a matinee party on 

 Wednesday afternoon, and in the even- 

 ing, Mrs. Fred. Meinhardt gave a very 

 pretty dinner at the Missouri Athletic 

 Club for the visiting ladies. At the 

 same time and place, the St. Louis 

 Florists' Club entertained with a 

 "stag" dinner for the visiting florists, 

 and on Thursday afternoon there was 

 a meeting of the Club, and a "smoker." 



The weather was ideal until Thurs- 

 day evening, when there was a regu- 

 lar "down-pour" of rain, which caused 

 a very considerable falling-off in the 

 attendance. A very pleasant feature 

 was the serving of light refreshments 

 in the interests of several charities, 

 the Neighborhood House, the Home of 

 the Friendless, and others, and there 

 were concerts both afternoons and 

 evenings, all of which served to make 

 it seem more like a pleasant social 



