10 



HORTICULTURE 



January 7, 1911 



Obituary. 



Fred Dorner. 



The death of this eminent carnation 

 raiser, as recorded briefly in part of 

 our edition of last week, is a severe 

 loss to floriculture and the news will 

 be received with profound regret 

 throughout the world and keenest sor- 

 row among those who have been close- 

 ly associated with him in the Ameri- 

 can Carnation Society and in other or- 

 ganizations and business life. Fred 

 Dorner was held in high esteem as a 

 man of strict integrity, possessing 

 manly qualities and companionable 

 traits that endeared him to his business 

 associates and fellow citizens as well 

 as abilities in his chosen profession 

 which brought him honor not only at 

 home but abroad. 



Fred Dorner was born in Baden, Ger- 

 many, November 29, 1S37. He came 

 to Lafayette, Ind., when IS years old 

 and obtained employment for a time 

 •with a florist named Lloyd. He fol- 

 lowed farming for a period and started 

 as a florist in "Lafayette in 1870, rent- 

 ing some greenhouses on Underwood 



Fred Dornek 



street. In 1S75 he moved to Indiana 

 avenue, moving in 1SS9 to a new loca- 

 tion and in 1905 had a modern estab- 

 lishment of over 100,000 ft. of glass. 

 He died on Thursday, December 29, af- 

 ter a week's illness of pneumonia. He 

 had been, however, in poor health ever 

 since last winter. 



It was in 1892, we think, that Mr. 

 Dorner first attracted attention to his 

 abilities as a carnationist, when he ex- 

 hibited at the A. C. S. first annual 

 meeting in Buffalo, a sensational group 

 of seedlings. PYom that time he was 

 a constant worker in that organization 

 and was elected its president at the 

 meeting in Boston in 1895, presiding 

 at New York the following year. The 

 number of his introductions was large 

 and it is needed only to name a few 

 of them — such as Mme. Diaz Albertini, 

 Mrs. G. M. Bradt, William Scott, Storm 

 King, The Stuart, White Cloud, Lady 

 Bountiful, Red Chief, Winona and Pink 

 Delight — to indicate the tremendous In- 

 fluence Fred Dorner's productions have 

 exerted on the florist trade wherever 

 an American carnation is grown or 

 Msed. 



John J. Gormley. 



The Chicago retailers lost one of 

 their best known men when John J. 

 Gormley passed away early Saturday 

 morning, Dec. 31st, 1910. Three weeks 

 only had he been out of his store, 

 known as Ganger & Gormley's at 29 

 State street, and while it was thought 

 that his ailment was a serious one his 

 death was a surprise to his family and 

 friends. But a few hours previous to 

 his death he was reading his favorite 

 poems by Robert Burns while sitting 

 in his accustomed chair and listening 

 to the Scotch airs which he requested 

 his daughter to play on the piano. 



John J. Gormley was born in the 

 north of Ireland, Sept. 3, 1863, and 

 when twelve years of age came to 

 Boston to work for his uncle, John 

 Gormley, then one of the leading flor- 

 ists of that city. Just previous to the 

 World's Fair he came to Chicago and 

 for many years was manager for the 

 B. Weinhoeber Co., going into busi- 

 ness for himself about seven years 

 ago. He was considered one of the 

 most expert decorators in Chicago and 

 was a genial, whole-souled man, a 

 favorite with all. The funeral was 

 under the auspices of the Royal 

 League, Sunday at 2 o'clock, and in- 

 terment was at St. Boniface Ceme- 

 tery. All the old florists were repre- 

 sented and the floral offerings were 

 unusually many and beautiful. The 

 casket was covered with Beauties sent 

 by his partner, Mr. Ganger, and white 

 roses by E. Wienhoeber. 



Mr. Gormley leaves a widow and 

 two daughters, Helen and Mary. 



Louis IVIuth. 



Louis Muth, retail florist at Fifth 

 street and Fairmount avenue, Phila- 

 delphia, died of typhoid fever on De- 

 cember 28th, at the age of about 35 

 years. He had been four years in busi- 

 ness at that location, succeeding Al- 

 bert Knapper. Previous to that he 

 worked for eleven years for Haber- 

 mehl. Mr. Muth was an expert deco- 

 rator. He leaves a wife and one boy. 



The Late Uhel Suzuki. 



When the death notice of Uhei 

 Suzuki appeared in your paper, some 

 people in the horticultural line knew 

 that the founder of the Yokohama 

 Nursery Co. had passed away, but 

 very few realized who the man really 

 was, what he had achieved and how 

 greatly horticulture is indebted to him 

 in Japan, the United States and 

 Europe. 



Born in some country place in 

 Japan, he came to Yokohama a poor 

 country fellow. All he could call his 

 own was a wife, a boy — Bunzo — and 

 a few of those famous dwarf trees, 

 which long years after became the 

 admiration of our people here and 

 were bought at marvelous prices, 

 when brought here for the first time. 

 He became head gardener to some 

 English nobleman residing in Yoko- 

 hama, who was a lover of Japanese 

 gardens and horticulture. 



The gold banded lily (L. auratum), 

 although they were admired by the 

 Japanese on account of their gor- 

 geous flowers, were chiefly valuable 

 at that time as a vegetable, the 

 bulbs being boiled and preserved in 

 sugar. A German — Louis Boehmer — 

 settled in Yokohama and started to 

 export some of them to Europe where 



they created quite a sensation on ac- 

 count of their beautiful flowers. The 

 demand increased, although high 

 prices prevailed because the largest 

 part of the shipments generally 

 reached their destination in rotten 

 condition. Mr. Boehmer engaged Mr. 

 Suzuki as his buying agent and they 

 began to export, besides L. auratum, 

 L. speciosum album, rubrum and 

 Melpomene in large quantities. 



That was at the time of Japan's 

 awakening, but foreigners were still 

 restricted to the boundary lines of 

 the seaports which were opened to 

 foreign trade. Wide awake Suzuki 

 saw with a sharp eye the future pos- 

 sibilities for a new trade and urged 

 the Japanese farmers who heretofore 

 had made a bare living to take up the 

 cultivation of lily bulbs, which up to 

 then had mostly been gathered wild. 

 By degi-ees one after the other fol- 

 lowed his advice and the price paid 

 for the bulbs was such that the Japan- 

 ese could not afford any longer to use 

 them as a vegetable. Then came the 

 time when Mr. Suzuki saw in the 

 Japanese Lilium longiflorum, a good 

 substitute for the Bermuda grown Lil- 

 ium Harrisi, for which there was an 



increasing demand. He severed his 

 connection with Boehmer Co. and 

 started the Yokohama Nursery Co., 

 buying up property on the Bluff In 

 Yokohama, which today is considered 

 the most exclusive neighborhood and 

 mostly settled by foreigners. There 

 he created his gardens which are now 

 among the greatest attractions of Yo- 

 kohama. Some of the first American 

 visitors were the late Dr. Smith, fath- 

 er-in-law of Wm. F. Dreer, and John 

 T. Morris of Philadelphia. Mr. Morris 

 visited the gardens first and induced 

 Dr. Smith to see them also and both 

 gentlemen bought several thousand 

 dollars' worth of plants which sur- 

 prised Mr. Suzuki so much that he had 

 doubts whether their checks on the 

 Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Cor- 

 poration would be honored. Mr. Mor- 

 ris started the first Japanese garden 

 in this country which is still consid- 

 ered the best. Some years after Mr. 

 Dreer took a trip to Japan and be- 

 came one of the first trade customers 

 of the Yokohama Nursery Co. on a 

 large scale. Mrs. Berger of H. H. Ber- 

 ger & Co., San Francisco, followed 



