172 



HORTICULTURE 



February 11, 1911 



horticulture: 



VOL. XllI 



FEBRUARY II, 1911 



NO. 6 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTUR-i!: PUai,I5HING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place. Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford 292. 

 WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



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

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~~ CONTENTS P»e* 



COVER ILI,USTRATION~An Orchid Corridor. 



FLOWER SHOPS IN EVROPE— John H. Taylor 169 



ANGR^CUM SESQUIPEDALE— Illustrated 169 



PHAL^NOPSIS— /. MuUcr 169 



FRUIT AND VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS— Fig 

 House — Vines Bleeding — Dis-budding Pot Peaches 

 and Nectarines — Cabbage. Cauliflower and Beet — 



Cucumbers — G. H. Pcnson I'^O 



TEMPERATURE FOR MUSHROOMS— £. 0. Orpet... 170 

 SEASONABLE NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' 

 STOCK — Coelogyne cristata — Bougainvillea for 

 Easter— Gardenias— Lilies for Easter — Pandanus — 



Pelargoniums — John J. M. Farrdl 171 



AN ORCHID CORRIDOR 171 



AFTER AD.JOURXMENT 173 



BRITISH HORTICULTURE— [F. H. A 173 



ACIDANTHERA BICOLOR— £. 5. Miller 173 



AN AMERICAN BEAUTY BASKET— Illustrated 173 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES: 

 Florists' Club of Philadelphia — Chicago Florists' 

 Club — Western New York Horticultural Society — 

 Southampton Horticultural Society — American Rose 



Society — Massachusetts Horticultural Society 174 



Chrysanthemum Society of America — Yonkers Hor- 

 ticultural Society — Cleveland Florists' Club — Con- 

 necticut Horticultural Society— Detroit Florist Club. 175 



A FLORISTS' ICE BOX— Illustrated 176 



DURING RECESS: 



Chicago Bowlers — Cincinnati Bowlers 176 



SUMMER FLOWERING BULBS— I. S. Hendrickson . . 178 

 OBITUARY: 



George Hobday — Gus Van Velsen — Henry Mundt.. .. 182 

 SEED TRADE: 



A Danger Signal— Ohio's "Pure Seed" Bill — Notes.. 184 

 OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



The Gould-Decies Wedding — Steamer Departures — 



New Flower Stores — Flowers by Telegraph 186-187 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Chicago. Cincinnati, St. Louis 189 



New York. Philadelphia 191 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Personal 178 



Chicago Notes 179 



News Notes 179-181-182-187-198 



Fruit Growers Organize 182 



Vacancies in Bureau of Plant Industry 182 



Nursery Company Gets Judgment 182 



Catalogues Received 182 



Philadelphia Notes — Patents Granted 184 



Fire Record 191 



Plenty of Cheap Potash 196 



An Up-to-Date Chicago Range 196 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 197 



. McKinley carnation day seems to 

 McKinley Day be "dying a natural death." This 

 and the carnation was to be expected as the inspira- 

 tion back of the movement in its 

 inception was largely local and the popular spontaneity 

 required to make a permanent success of so sentimental 

 a project has never been strongly in evidence. Activity 

 on the part of the florists to create a demand and a sup- 

 posed readiness to take advantage of the opportunity to 

 increa.=:e carnation prices for the occasion certainly did 



United states 

 Standard seeds 



not help towards lasting popularity for the custom. 

 After all the best interests of the carnation growers lie 

 in the steady and regular use of their favorite every day 

 in the year and the more the people come to love the 

 carnation for its own sake the nearer we shall come to 

 this realization. 



Mention has been made in some of 



Tiie mid-winter our recent flower market reports of 



rose crop the good fortune coming to certain 



rose growers whose crop of bloom had 

 matured too late for the holidays but struck it just right 

 for the subsequent weeks of scarcity and continuous good 

 market prices. It would not do, of course, to recom- 

 mend that all rose growers should bear this in mind and 

 act accordingly next year although it is much to be de- 

 sired that the crop should be divided — a condition which 

 we all realize would be difficult to bring about. However, 

 it is safe to assume that, as this peculiar scarcity of roses 

 in late January has been experienced with fair regularity 

 for many years, any grower who can without jeopardiz- 

 ing his earlier or later crops so time his midwinter cut 

 as to come in from January 15th on, can safely count on 

 finding a strong market. 



The Sixth Section of the Mann Pure 

 Seed Bill provides that whenever the 

 Secretary of Agriculture shall have 

 made public any standards of seed 

 and bulbs, it shall be lawful for seed and bulbs comply- 

 ing in all respects with the standards so published by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture to bear upon the label, together 

 with the name of the article, the inscription "United 

 States Standard." Then follows the penalty clause of 

 fine not exceeding $1,000 for using such inscription, or 

 words of similar import in any way as descriptive of any 

 seed or bulb, subject to the provisions of this Act which 

 does not comply with the standards so published by the 

 Secretary of Agi-iculture. The possibility of such legis- 

 lation being enacted at once raises numerous questions. 

 What shall -the standards be ? How shall the seedsman 

 know when it is really safe for him to use the inscription 

 "United States Standard"? Shall he maintain a labora- 

 tory for the scientific examination and testing of the 

 three or four thousand varieties of seeds passing through 

 his hands, or take the alternative of having the stocks he 

 sells set down as being inferior to government standards ? 

 Would the short interval between the time of harvesting 

 .-^eeds and the sowing season be sufficient for cleaning, 

 drying, so that they will not mould when bagged for ship- 

 ment, — most of our flower seeds now being imported, and 

 for testing as to germination and other qualities de- 

 manded by the government standard ? Would not the 

 expense of such testing add materially to the actual cost 

 of the seeds to the user, and would he feel any more sure ■ 

 of the "United States Standard" seeds than those he now ■ 

 buys from his pet seedsman? The questions are inex- 

 haustible, but we would not weary you. We will rest for 

 the present b)' asking only one more. Would the fact 

 that the cultivator had the assurance of the government 

 that his seeds were free from the adulteration of weed or 

 other untrue seeds, of a high standard of vitality and 

 true as to variety prove of prime importance to him ? It 

 is common knowledge that the most ordinary strains of 

 both flowers and vegetables are usually of the strongest 

 germination and possess the greatest vigor. Garden seeds 

 are almost always free from weeds and true to their kind. 

 What the cultivator values far more is excellence of type 

 or strain, which is quite beyond the reach of the proposed 

 Mann Bill. Every intelligent florist knows that the finer 

 strains of pansy, stock, primula, cyclamen, petunia, etc., 

 are much more delicate than the common strains, and 

 the same is true of most of the vegetables. 



