72 



HOETICULTUEE 



July 19, 1913 



horticulture: 



VOL. XVIII 



JULY 19, 1913 



NO. 3 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HOR.TICULTUR.E PUBLISHING CO. 

 II Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford 292. 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manaser. 



SUBSCRIPTION BATES. 



One Year, in advance, $1.00; To Foreign Conntries, $2.00: To 



Canada, $1.60. 



ADVERTISING RATES 



Per Inch. 30 Inches to pagre $1.00 



Dlflcoants on Contracts for consecntive insertions, as follows: 



One month <4 times), 6 per cent.: three months (IS times), 10 

 per cent.; six months <26 times), 20 per cent.; one year (52 times), 

 SO per cent. 



Paffe and half pagre space, special rates on application. 



Entered as second-class matter December 8, 190i, at the Post Office 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



CONTENTS Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— Sweet Pea Exhibition at 

 Boston. 



NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' STOCK— 

 Bougainvilleas — Calanthes — Care of Chrysanthe- 

 mums — Cocos Weddeliana — Planting Carnations — 

 Planning for Next Winter — John J. M. Farrell 69 



FRUIT AND VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS— Pot Up 

 Strawberries — The Vegetable House — Pot Trees and 

 Their Care — Our Friends — George H. Penson 70 



ROSE GROWING UNDER GLASS— Burning of the Fo- 

 liage on Roses— Tying the Young Beauty Plants — 

 Manure for the Early Mulches — Arthur C. Ruzicka. . 71 



BRITISH HORTICULTURE— W. H. Adsett 71 



AMERICAN SWEET PEA SOCIETY— The Exhibition 

 —Massachusetts Horticultural Society Prizes— The 

 Meeting — The Banquet — Visitors — Report of the 

 Sweet Pea Trials for 1913, Prof. A. C. Beal—A Few 

 Notes on Sweet Peas, Ocorge W. Kerr 73-74-75 



SEED TRADE) — California Seed Crops 80 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



Steamer Departures 82 



Flowers by Telegraph — New Flower Stores 83 



House Cleaning 84 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— St. Louis Florist Club — 

 Chicago Florist Club — Gardeners' and Florists' Club 



of Boston — Society of American Florists 85 



Club and Society Notes 85 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo, Chicago 87 



Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Wash- 

 ington ^8 



OBITUARY — Joseph Clarke — Mrs. Wm. R. Smith— E. 

 B. Sutton — J. C. Lewis — Oliver H. Weldon 94 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Hydrangea Madame Mouillere — Illustrated 75 



News from the Convention City 78 



News Notes 78-89 



Personal 80 



In Bankruptcy — Incorporated 83 



Chicago Notes — Washington Notes 84 



Philadelphia Notes — Hoodooed? 89 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 94 



Mr. Kerr, in his very interesting ad- 

 Overloaded dress to the Sweet Pea Society asked 

 lists "Has the sweet pea reached its zenith?" 



We believe that the majority of those who 

 have watched the rapid development of this flower in 

 recent years will coincide with Mr. Kerr that the possi- 

 bilities of the sweet pea are as yet but lightly touched 

 upon. Permanent advancement is considerably ham- 

 pered, however, by the same conditions that have dis- 

 couraged and tried the patience of all those who have 

 ever become enthusiastic in the exploitation of any spe- 

 cial race of flowers — the unreasonable multiplication of 

 named varieties. Every catalogue firm apparently feels 

 eallod upon to give to the world a "set" each year and 



the temptation to inordinate laudation of the superiority 

 of a new brood is too strong for human resistance. On 

 The tables at Boston were plenty of varieties that at one 

 time or another had been heralded as superior to their 

 predecessors of similar color but which if mixed together 

 iu one bunch could never again be segregated and posi- 

 tively named by the keenest expert. 



The cumbersome and needless multiplica- 



Society tion of named varieties is a nuisance which 



efficiency is almost certain to lireak out in the process 



of development of any flower in which the 

 growei's and the public become specially interested. In 

 latter years perhaps the chrysanthemum and the carna- 

 tion furnish the most conspicuous examples of excess 

 in this direction. That it has been effectually stopped 

 is something for which we have to thank the two socie- 

 ties devoted to the interests of these flowers. To at- 

 tempt to carry a runt through the barriers and scrutiny 

 now established by these societies is recognized as a 

 well-nigh hopeless undertaking and the trade and pub- 

 lic generally little realize their obligations to these or- 

 ganizations for what they have thus accomplished. The 

 Sweet Pea Society is confronted with the same problem 

 and the same duty as the chrysanthemum, carnation and 

 jjeony societies. In Prof. Seal's valuable report of the 

 sweet pea tests at Cornell, the mention of three or four 

 hundred named sorts being tried out suggests the old 

 days in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society when 

 the passport to fame as a pomologist was the ability to 

 exhibit four hundred or more varieties of pears under 

 name ! Prof. Beal's report seems to indicate that the 

 Sweet Pea Society is getting down to business on very 

 practical and serviceable lines. 



In that elaborate publication, 



The sweet pea Flanlae Utiliores, by M. A. 



seventy-five years ago Burnett, published in London 



in the year 18-1"2, we find 



in the ciiapter on Sweet Peas the following paragraphs 



which will doubtless interest many of our readers just 



at present : 



The sweet pea has several varieties, greatly differing in 

 color; the common sort, which is blue and dark purple, 

 sometimes with a tinge of red, is a native of Sicily. "The 

 more delicate kind, white and blue, or white and deep rose 

 color, sometimes with a mixture of pale blue, is a native 

 of Ceylon, and is called the painted lady. 



The Tangier pea is a native of Barbary, its colors purple 

 and red; it is an annual plant and grows to the height of 

 four or five feet, and blossoms in June or July, and dies 

 in the autumn. Although the sweet pea is now so common 

 ia this country that we seldom see a garden without it, it 

 is not more than a hundred years since it was numbered 

 among our rare and curious plants, and in the time of 

 Parkinson and Evelyn, it was not known in our gardens. 



There is a variety of this pea entirely white, but the 

 most beautiful is the red and white. But that I fear to 

 confess so great a heresy, I would say this flower need not 

 yield to the rose. Nothing can exceed the elegance of its 

 form, nor can there be a more delicate contrast of color. 

 They are justly termed Papilionaceous, for they do indeed 

 look like butterflies turned to flowers. It is sometimes dif- 

 ficult to believe that the little white butterflies which reel 

 about in the sunshine, are not white violets or peas which 

 have broken their bonds. It is equally difficult to believe 

 that these flowers want anything but will to fly; and we 

 almost expect to see them start from their stalks as we 

 look at them. 



No better evidence is needed to ?how that the jiopular- 

 ity of the sweet pea is neither new nor tran.«ient. A 

 beautiful portrait of the three leading sorts in colors 

 accompanies the text from which the foregoing wa.« 

 taken. 'I'iie individual flowei's appear hardly inferior to 

 our well-known Grandiflora varieties, but in each in- 

 stance tiiei-e are but two flowers to the stalk. 



