HORTICULTURE 



September 2, 1905 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST. PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



11 HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 

 WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



The date of this issue reminds us that the 



Our summer has gone and tliat we already stand 



purpose on the threshold of another busy season. 



At the longest, frost is not many weeks 



away and indoor topics will soon be uppermost. 



Horticulture is prepared to receive its due share of the 



reviving business and, in return, to perform its part 



towards gathering up for those who bestow on it their 



patronage a full equivalent for all the support 



accorded. We propose to see to it that Horticulture's 



advertisements get to tlie people who are interested in 



the goods and are willing and able to buy. 



Nicotiana Sanderse, as a garden orna- 

 Nicotiana ment, received rather severe handling at 

 Sanderae Washington. While some of the fault 

 found with this novelty may be justified, 

 yet we cannot subscribe to the wholesale denuncia- 

 tion some of our friends were disposed to subject it to. 

 In the vicinity of Boston this novelty started o£E rather 

 unsatisfactorily with the hot weather of early July, the 

 individual flowers being small and short-lived, but since 

 tlie advent of cooler days it has improved wonderfully 

 and makes an effect in the mixed border unrivalled by 

 any other flower of its color. The great variation in the 

 shades of color produced at present is a disadvantage, 

 some plants giving flowers of striking brilliancy while 

 others are dull and washy. A great variance in habit 

 and in time of blooming is also noted. No doubt im- 

 provement on all these points will yet be attained 

 through selection. 



The brown-tail caterpillars of the 



Fighting the young brood are industriously feeding 



brown-tail on the tips of the tree branches 



and already the forests where they 



swarm begin to look as though a scorching flame had 



swept across the sky line. There is evidence at hand to 



show that on trees where thorough spraying was done 



at the beginning of the season to destroy the old brood 



many of the young caterpillars are getting their death 



dose also. The young growths which have been made 



since the spraying furnish good food for a short time 



but as soon as the caterpillars work down to the 



sprayed foliage their doom is sealed. TWs double 

 service is a most encouraging point in favor of a general 

 and thorough spring-spraying with a strong adhesive 

 mixture that will hold on all through the season and is 

 a much more simple and inexpensive process than the 

 laborious work of nest-collecting which has hitherto 

 been the main reliance in moth suppression. 



The division of the exhibition 

 About s. A. F. iiito three sections at the recent 

 trade exhibits Washington convention was a 



most unfortunate but unavoid- 

 able necessity. The exhibition feature of the annual 

 meetings of the Society of American Florists 

 has grown amazingly within recent years. Those who 

 conclude from the lack of increase in membership or 

 convention attendance that the S. A. F. is at a stand- 

 still ever since the first Washington meeting thirteen 

 years ago, should not lose sight of the fact that on that 

 occasion one hall of the National Kifles Armory accom- 

 modated the entire exhibition whereas this year both 

 halls in the Armory and the Masonic Temple were filled. 

 It is to be hoped that more adequate arrangements can 

 be made at Dayton for the proper accommodation of 

 this most attractive of the convention features and the 

 convenience and welfare of the enterprising firms who 

 thus contribute so much towards the success of these 

 meetings in a general way. The extent and elaborate- 

 ness of the displays as made now-a-days suggest the 

 thought that it may soon be deemed wise to extend the 

 duration of the conventions to a full week, devoting one 

 day exclusively to the business of the exhibition. 



The spirit of energy and enter- 

 Opening the fail prise which takes possession of 

 campaign {tie normal man as he emerges 



from the heat and indolence of 

 summer into tlie invigorating atmosphere of autumn 

 and comes to a realization that the busy season is at 

 hand, if diligently cultivated, will do much at the start 

 to establish a momentum in business that will be felt 

 all through fhe season. Whether business is to be 

 good or bad is dependent to some extent on influences 

 beyond our control but it lies mainly in our own hands 

 and now is the time to set our pace. He who starts off 

 with the determination to accomplish something, self- 

 reliant as to the outcome and willing to make needed 

 sacrifices to that end, stands an excellent chance of 

 realizing his ambition. Ways and means are not lack- 

 ing for the florist animated by such a purpose. As a 

 pre-requisite his office and salesroom should, in their 

 furnishings and adaptability, bear evidences of refined 

 taste and the implied compliment to customers tliat 

 such are the surroundings they are accustomed to. The 

 wide-awake "supply"' dealers using Horticulture's col- 

 umns to proclaim the treasures they have to offer for 

 the opening season are ready to do their part and the 

 wholesale flower dealer and plantsman will not be found 

 lacking in the right kind of material when it is called 

 for. With all preliminaries attended to the next move 

 is the "opening" — an incident which no wide-awake 

 florist can now afford to omit from his prospectus. A 

 well-advertised fall opening exhibition, with invitation 

 cards widely distributed, can be depended upon to yield 

 a good direct reiurn and its stimulus will extend 

 throughout the entire season. And remember, every- 

 body, that every item essential to the successful carrying 

 out of such a program can be furnislied by the firms 

 whose announcements are found regularly in the adver- 

 tising columns of Horticulture. 



