July 



HORTICULTURE 



Obituar\ 



LOUIS SIEBRECHT 



In the death of Louis Sicbrcchl the pro- 

 fession has lost another one of its old time 

 growers of specialties for the New York mar- 

 ket. He was one of the last of the old Long 

 Island pioneer cut-flower growers, especially 

 in the Une of carnations, following close upon 

 Charles Zeller, John Dalledouze, Gus Mes- 

 senburg, and several others, all of whom, in 

 their days, were the great carnation growers 

 in the country. 



Louis Siebrecht came of a long line of 

 growers and horticulturists and nurserymen 

 in Germany. His ancestors, Uke those of all 

 the Siebrechts, came originally from the old 

 city of Franken in middle Germany, but it 

 was in the city of Castle, in Northern Ger- 

 many, where Louis Siebrecht was born, and 

 there served his apprenticeship with his uncle, 

 the late Wilhelm Siebrecht, who was famous 

 in his day for originating many valuable 

 varieties of market plants, amongst which 

 were the Odier pelargoniums. In fact, 

 Wilhelm Siebrecht was the Lemoine of Ger- 

 many. It was here Louis received liis prac- 

 tical education as a gardener and florist. 

 When he had finished his apprenticeship, 

 he worked in some of the largest commercial 

 places in Germany, until the age of 24, when 

 he took a position as head gardener with 

 Baron von Schachten, who has a famous 

 estate at Shafenhausen near Frankfurt, and 

 which position he occupied successfully for 

 three years. During this time he became 

 engaged to his first wife, Caroline, who was 

 maid to the Baroness, whose displeasure he 

 thereby incurred and was compelled to re- 

 sign his position, but he took his Caroline 

 OTth him. 



After their marriage, Louis determined 

 to seek his fortune in the New World, and in 

 1867 came to tliis country. His first position 

 here was with the late, and then foremost 

 florist of New York, Isaac Buchanan. It 

 was not long before his valuable set-vices and 

 practical knowledge were recognized by Mr. 

 Buchanan, and he was made assistant fore- 

 man of the then large establishment at .As- 

 toria, Long Island, where the growing of cut 

 flowers was the principal business. 



Two years later he took a position as pri- 

 vate gardener on Staten Island, which he 

 occupied until 1871, when he entered the 

 employ of Henry A. Siebrecht & Co., then 

 located at the northwest corner of Fifth ave- 

 nue and Forty-Second street, where he was 

 in charge of the plant and out-door gardening 

 department until 187,^, when he established 

 himself at East Hinsdale, his late home, but 

 the name of the place was afterwards changed, 

 through the efforts of former Senator John 

 Lewis Childs, to that of Floral Park. 'Here 

 Louis Siebrecht built the first year four 

 greenhouses of the then most modern and 

 approved style. These were especially con- 

 structed for the growing of cut flowers for the 

 New York market. The stock grown the 

 first year was one house of Bon Silcnc and one 

 house of Safrano roses, with bouvardias on 

 the side Benches; one house of carnations, 

 consisting of the only two or three varieties 

 then in existence; one house of smila.x, and 

 afterwards several variety houses were added. 

 These proved so successful, that the next year 

 several more houses were added, though rose 

 growing was soon abandoned — carnations 

 seemed to do much better. In fact, they be- 

 came one of the principal products.together 

 mth the other varieties mentioned. There 

 was also a house of poinsettias, in which were 

 the first poinsettias ever grown in open 

 benches. Then, when poinsettias had been 

 cleared out, Easter stock was put in for a 



made his houses yield successive crops in the 

 same season. It was he, too, who first grew 

 in quantity the old-fashioned Lilium longi- 

 florum for Easter, with such a remarkable 

 success,that plants woulustand from three and 

 one-half to four feet high, and bear as many 

 as a dozen and fifteen flowers on a single 

 stalk. These bulbs were grown in a cool 

 house in solid beds. The first year the bulbs 

 were allowed to bear only one or two flowers 

 each, and the flowers were cut rather short. 

 Then the bulbs were gradually and properly 

 ripened and matured, and the largest se- 

 lected for the following Easter season. It 

 was he who brought out the once famous 

 carnation Hinsdale. 



Louis, as he was familiarly known, was a 

 most congenial and happy fellow, somewhat 

 odd in his ideas, but his confidence, once 

 gained, he was a true and lasting friend, and 

 would do anything in liis power to aid or 

 assist when necessity required. One of his 

 characteristics was his persistency in con- 

 quering plants of difficult culture. The 

 writer well remembers that when he under- 

 took the growing of one of the most difficult 

 plants, the Clianthus Dampierii, he vowed 

 that he would grow it to perfection, and he 

 certainly did grow an entire bench of it; and 

 it created quite a sensation. 



One of the most unique features of the 

 establishment was his partner, Caroline, his 

 wife. While Louis worked hard in growing 

 flowers, Carohne took them to the market, 

 and there are some of us yet living who well 

 remember the pleasant little woman coming 

 around with a large basket on each arm every 

 morning, except Sundays, rain or shine. 

 Indeed, she was one of the four people who 

 really started the East Thirty-Fourth street 

 flower market, with the late Patrick Smith, 

 Henry Tompkins, and one or two others, with 

 headquarters in Old Dan's coffee-stand. 



In those days Louis Siebrecht and his 

 estabUshment was quite a considerable factor 

 in the florist business. During the early 

 years of the Society of American Florists, 

 Louis attended the annual conventions regu- 

 larly, and he contributed a good deal of prac- 

 tical knowledge and experience about violet 

 culture, when the dreadful disease of that 

 plant first made its appearance. He made 

 these contributions in a most humerous and 

 jovial manner. A few of the old time florists 

 who survive him and who knew him well, 

 and a host of the younger generation, by all 

 of whom he was beloved, will mourn his loss. 

 He leaves a widow and nine children, all 

 but three of whom are married. Louis 

 Siebrecht was quite a distant relative of Henry 

 A. Siebrecht and WilUam H. Siebrecht, and 

 was 64 years of age at the time of his death. 

 Henry A. Siebrecht. 



DUNCAN McGregor 



Duncan McGregor of the United States 

 Propagating Gardens at Washington, D.C., 

 died^ at the Sibley Hospital on July 8, after 

 an illness of several months. He was a 

 native of Aberfeldy, Scotland. 



GEORGE CROUCHER 



George Croucher, a well-known gardener 

 and frequent contributor to the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, died at his home, Ochtertyre, near 

 Crieff, Scotland, on June 27, aged 72 years. 

 The coUection of conifers under his charge 

 is considered one of the finest in Great 

 Britain. 



Persona, 



W. R. Smith sailed from New York on the 

 Numidian, July 20. 



Charles Emslie of MontpeUer, Vt., started 

 on a trip to Scotland, July 18. 



Leonard H. Vaughan was married to 

 Miss Anita G. Wilkcns at Chicago on July 



Mr. S. KeUer, of Reed & Keller, New York, 

 sailed for Europe on Thursday, July 20, on a 

 business trip. 



James' K. Tappan has been appointed 

 flonst on the grounds of the U. S. Machine 

 Co., Beverly, Mass. 



Thomas F. Galvin and son arrived at 

 Boston on the Saxonia, July 13, after a 

 short transatlantic trip. 



John F. Parson of South Lawrence, Mass., 

 by occupation a florist, is soon to wed Miss 

 Ruth Fredericka Johnson. 



L. A. Giger of the late firm of Pratt & 

 Giger of New London, Conn., is now em- 

 ployed as a gardener on the Morton F. 

 Plant estate. 



W. B. Arnold of Rockland, Mass., has 

 gone to California and will not return for 

 some months. He may decide to locate 

 somewhere in that state. 



Recent visitors in Boston were A. Ringier, 

 representing Barnard, Chicago; Mr. and 

 Mrs. Chas. L. Seybold, Baltimore, Md.; W. 

 E. Chappell, Providence, R.I. 



Mr. R.M. Rahaley, representing Mich. Cut 

 Flower Co., Detroit, Ph. Breitmeyer, Detroit, 

 J. B. Murdock, Titusville, Pa., and Chas. 

 Eble, New Orleans, were visitors last week 

 in Buffalo. 



Prof. S. W. Fletcher, professor of exten- 

 sion teaching in the Cornell college of agri- 

 culture, has resigned to take the directorship 

 of the department of horticulture and land- 

 scape gardening in the Michigan agricul- 

 tural college, one of the best equipped col- 

 leges of its kind in the countrj-. 



Mr. Francis Canning, head gardener and 

 in.stru, tor in flnri. ulture at the Massachusetts 

 .\gri, uliur,,l (-..llr^.c, sailed Tuesday from 

 Boston h,r ],JM rpoi.l. Mr. Canning is an 

 En^lwliiiKin l.\ l.irih and will -visit the scenes 

 of his boyhood in Leamington and Stratford- 

 on-,^von. He will return about September i. 



second 



crop. 



It is the 



Louis Siebrecht was one of the first 1 



:'s opinion that 



THERE IS ROOM FOR IT 



The device, advertised fur the first time in 

 this issue of Horticulture, for acceUerating 

 and controUing the circulation of hot water in 

 greenhouses, is well worthy of investigatic; 

 by every grower who uses hot water heating 

 apparatus. It claiins to solve what has 

 hitherto proved a most annoying puzzle for 

 many. 



HYDRANGEAS IN NEWPORT 



It has been remarked more than once — 

 What would Newport be like without its 

 privet hedges and its gorgeous masses of 

 hydrangeas? No doubt if they were to dis- 

 appear suddenly their loss would be greatly 

 felt. There are, without question, in New- 

 port some of the finest specimen plants of 

 hydrangeas in this countr>- or perhaps in any 

 country, but while these specimen plants are 

 beautiful stiU it is when grouped in large 

 masses as they are on many places here, that 

 the best effect is produced. Hydrangeas are 

 at home in Newport as they are in no other 

 place and despite the severity of the past 

 -winter they never looked better at this sea- 

 son of the year than they do now. 



John Lewis Childs, Floral Park, N.Y. 

 Advance Price List of Gladioli Bulbs for 

 1906. The new and beautiful variety, 

 America, is herein offered for the first time. 



