HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephone, Oxfoid, 292 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



What can we do to accelerate the growth and 

 extend the usefulness of our national society ? Go to 

 Washington? Certainly; the power of numbers is 

 not to be despised. But if we go let us go with 

 ideas and prepared to express them as to how this 

 great instrumentality with its almost unlimited pos- 

 sibilities may be developed in the line of the largest 

 usefulness to the largest number. Or, if impossible 

 to go, put the ideas into shape and send them along, 

 and, as an evidence of earnestness, send membership 

 dues along with them — if this has not already been 



The Editor Has His Say 



It is a very gracious concession on the part of the 

 Florists' Club of Washington to grant the request of 

 the Baltimore Club for the privilege of entertaining 

 their guests on the afternoon of the closing day of 

 the Convention. The fact that it upset previously 

 matured local plans, makes the unselfish spirit dis- 

 played all the more noticeable. - No doubt the oppor- 

 tunity to visit the rehabilitated city under such 

 agreeable auspices will be eagerly seized. 



"The question is not, ivho is going? l)ut who, in 

 the profession, can afford to stay away." This quota- 

 tion from the first prospectus issued for a S. A. F. 

 Convention is as applicable to-day as it was un- 

 doubtedly pertinent then. No meeting of the So- 

 ciety, in the intervening twenty-one years, has been 

 of greater importance to the welfare of the organiza- 

 tion and of the horticultural profession than the one 

 now. close upon us. Let it tie a. representative one. 



Midsummer advertising seems to be somewhat "a 

 thorn in the flesh" to many dealers in various horti- 

 cultural lines. Some simply shut down on it; others 

 would like to, but are reluctant to leave their com- 

 petitors in possession of the field. Our conviction is 

 that the concern that keeps everlastingly at it, 

 through all seasons, never relaxing its efforts to hold 

 its business constantly in the eye of the buyer, is 

 the one that will "get there." 



If you have the right goods and want to dispose 

 of them there is no such thing possible as too much 

 publicity. And it is a mistaken economy to shut 

 down at any season. 



Mr. F. M. Meyer, for the past year employed as 

 a gardener at the Missouri Botanical Gardens has 

 been sent to China to explore the flora with a view 

 to introducing new and worthy plants. The Plant 

 Bureau of the U. S. Department of Agriculture is 

 conducting the work. Mr. Meyer was previously with 

 Professor De Vries of Amsterdam, Holland, and has 

 since travelled in Mexico and Western United States. 

 The plant world will follow Mr. Meyer's work with 

 special interest, and it is hoped he will be enabled 

 to materially extend the good work of Mr. E. H. 

 Wilson, of London, who is supposed to be the best 

 collector Messrs. Veitch ever sent out. 



Our reading notes call attention to the great use- 

 fulness of Mr. Walsh's rambler roses in extending 

 the season of blooming so that it is now possilile, 

 with judicious selection, to have an abundance of 

 roses for a period of more than two months in lati- 

 tudes where only the hardiest varieties will exist. 

 This is a gratifying advance, and we doubt not that 

 Mr. Walsh will yet give us these peerless garden 

 ornaments in varieties that will keep the rose garden 

 brilliant until the last davs of autumn. 



• That the gardener and the florist are rapidly ad- 

 vancing to a higher plane in the public eye is not 

 surprising when we stop to consider the influences 

 under which their lives are spent. The affection for 

 and the companionship in his plants, which are char- 

 acteristic of the typical gardener, are such that even 

 in his hours of relaxation, their contemplation affords 

 ' Hiih'tTfe^ highest gratification, and the mental and 

 ar-tistic perceptions cannot but grow in the direction 

 of a higher civilization. The follower of horticulture 

 is distinctly different from those in most other pur- 

 suits in that he is never weary of his avocation and 

 even when he abandons the routine of daily labor for 

 a period of relaxation, his interest in plant topics is 

 never left behind. 



The exhibitor who contributes to the flower show 

 "for exhibition only" does not always get due ap- 

 preciation. We refer not to the one who takes this 

 course because he doesn't wish to face the possibilities 

 of being worsted in a competition, but to him who, 

 out of good feeling and actuated by a spirit of gen- 

 erosity, does his best to promote the success of the 

 show without any thought of recompense other than 

 the consciousness of doing something helpful for an 

 enterprise he believes in. We should always find 

 soine way of thanking him. 



Our British correspondent tells us some interesting 

 facts in this issue regarding the progress of fruit 

 culture in Great Britain. The care in packing and 

 generally attractive form in which American fruit is 

 presented to the customer have been commented 

 upon frequently as contributing much toward the 

 popularity of American fruit abroad. We shall be 

 glad if our success -in this line shall spur the English 

 growers to emulation. The result will benefit them 

 and will not injure us. It is undoubtedly a fact that 

 the quantity of fruit consumed per capita is but a 

 fraction of wha<; it might and should be and every 

 movement whic^i ha:s for its object improved facili- 

 ties for supplying good fruit in abundance to all 

 classes of people should be enthusiastically supported. 



