October 31, 1914 



HORTICULTURE 



619 



rieties of apples. James Dutliie of 

 Oyster Bay, gardener for Mrs. E. M. 

 Townsend, was awarded special prizes 

 for three exhibits of dahlias, and John 

 Lewis Childs of Floral Park received 

 honorable mention for display of seed- 

 ling dahlias, and a certificate of merit 

 for celosia. 



THE ROSE GROWING INDUSTRY 



Prepared by Robert Pyle, West Grove, Pa., for the American Associa- 

 tion of Nurserymen, Cleveland, June 24th. 



ST. LOUIS SOCIETY MEETINGS. 



The St. Louis County Growers' As- 

 sociation will hold a meeting on 

 Wednesday night, November 4, at the 

 Eleven Mile House. 



The Retail Florists' Association held 

 a meeting Monday night, October 19 

 at the Washington Hotel and had a 

 splendid attendance and took a new 

 lease of life. 



The Florists' Union met on Monday 

 night, October 26, in the Public Li- 

 brary. A. Artmann is president. Max 

 Rotter, vice president and Mrs. Seeleg 

 secretary. They now have a member- 

 ship of thirty-two. 



CLUB AND SOCIETY NOTES . 



The Horticultural Society of Chica- 

 go will give what they call "A Sea- 

 sonal Display of Chrysanthemums ' at 

 the Art Institute, Nov. 9-10. The only 

 awards will be medals and no flowers 

 except chrysanthemums will be exhib- 

 ited. Novelties in blooming plants 

 « ill be accepted. 



At a meeting of the Newport, R. L, 

 Horticultural Society, Oct. 27, W. A. 

 Manda of South Orange. N. J. had 

 on exhibition some very promising 

 seedling decorative dahlias and certifi- 

 cates of merit were awarded to the 

 following varieties in the collection; 

 Minnie Burgess. Albert Manda and 

 South Orange Surprise. 



The eighty-third annual exhibition 

 of The American Institute of the City 

 of New York, will be held in the En- 

 gineering Building. 25 to 33 West 

 Thirty-ninth street, on Wednesda.v, 

 Thursday and Friday. November 4, 5 

 and 6. It will be a Grand Chrysanthe- 

 mum Show, together with orchids, 

 roses, carnations, ferns, palms, fruits 

 and vegetables. 



The prize schedule for the Sixteenth 

 Annual Exhibition of the Tarrytown 

 (N. Y.) Horticultural Society has been 

 received. The show takes place In 

 Music Hall, Tarrytown on Wednesday 

 Thursday and Friday, November 4, 5 

 and 6. There is a splendid list of 

 special prizes in addition to the reg- 

 ular class premiums, each day hav- 

 ing its distinctive classes. 



The next meeting night of the New 

 York Forists' Club will be Ladies' 

 Xight and Alexander J. Guttman of 

 the entertainment committee is mak- 

 ing an unusual effort to have an at- 

 tractive program for that evening for 

 the entertainment of the ladies. The 

 nominating committee held a meeting 

 on Friday, the 23d. and will make 

 their renort at the November meeting 

 of the Club. 



INDUCEMENT TO START NOW. 



Every new subscriber who sends 

 $L00 for the fifty-two issues of HOR- 

 TICULTURE for 1915 will receive free 

 all the issues for the remaining weeks 

 of 1914. 



It would be a pleasure if I migh! d 

 vote my time this afternoon to a dis- 

 cussion of the new roses which from 

 information gathered in various parts 

 of this country appear best adapted to 

 American gardens. New hybrid per- 

 petuals like Gloire de Chedane Guin- 

 oisseau, George Arends and Coronation, 

 new hybrid teas like George Dickson, 

 Edward Mawley, John Cook's new 

 Panama, also the new pernetianas, 

 Mme. Edouard Herriot and Willow- 

 mere, with many others, some just 

 christened and not yet launched, this 

 subject alone deserves our attention, 

 for it seems almost neglect to pass by 

 such modern celebrities as American 

 Pillar, Christine Wright, Climbing 

 American Beauty, Excelsa, Shower of 

 Gold, with which rose gardens have 

 recently been enriched. 



I pass by the opportunity offered for 

 a discussion of the newer roses to a 

 phase of the subject which appeals to 

 me as deserving the thoughtful consid- 

 eration of no less important a group of 

 men than are gathered here. Three 

 years ago I traveled through western 

 Europe with the express purpose of 

 coming in touch with the leading rose 

 growers and rose gardens, with camera 

 cocked and eyes open for ideas as well 

 as roses. 



I do not pose as an expert, but wish 

 to submit for consideration some facts 

 that bear a close relation to your fu- 

 ture balance sheets. Suppose for con- 

 venience, we divide the rose growing 

 industry in America under three heads, 

 first the cut-flower business from pro- 

 ducer to ornamental decorator; sec- 

 ond, and in this the nurserymen are 

 more interested, the production of the 

 small roses because really in itself a 

 branch of the trade: and third, field- 

 grown roses for outdoor planting. Re- 

 garding the first I will not even cite 

 statistics. You know as a rule that 

 the cut-flower men are a thrifty lot 

 with acres of glass and still extending. 

 Single firms there are that handle eas- 

 ily a million roses annually, and yet 

 concentrate on a little more than a 

 dozen varieties all told; that is one 

 thing the nurserymen cannot do. 



Second, the increasing demand for 

 small roses is indicated by the growth 

 of one center in this state alone which 

 claims an output of seven million roses 

 a year, and that is by no means the 

 only place where such roses are pro- 

 duced in large quantities. While the 

 first named class influence the taste of 

 the .American public and the second 

 class mentioned influence the nursery- 

 men by what they have to supply them, 

 I believe the subject that most closely 

 concerns vou and that deserves the at- 

 tention of us all is that of field-grown 



i-oses for gardiii |il;iiiting, and whether 

 they be own root or ijudded, whether 

 they be produced on the Pacific coast, 

 the great gulf states of Mississippi and 

 Alabama, the Atlantic coast states of 

 Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, 

 whether from New York and Ohio or 

 from the very heart of the country it- 

 self, while of real importance to us 

 (uoducers does not matter so much as 

 does whether those in charge of these 

 vast producing areas are awake to 

 what api)eals to me as an opportunity 

 for bigt;er business at better prices. 



You will remember that in the 

 sacred history account of the people 

 of Egypt it was "Joseph the dreamer." 

 whose foresight and gumption had 

 provided in advance for the lean years 

 during which his people had enough 

 and to spare. Call it a dream if you 

 will, and there are those here that 

 know more about this industry than 

 I, but it is my firm belief that the rose 

 growing industry in America is on the 

 threshold of a new ei'a. and if 1 mis- 

 take not, how rapidly we advance and 

 take possession of the field before us 

 will depend more upon the gentlemen 

 who are here (or who read these 

 words) than upon any other one group 

 of men I can think of in America, un- 

 less it be a very little group with 

 whose work I wish to make you later 

 acquainted. We are li\ing in an age 

 of co-operation. Noteworthy enter- 

 prises demand unity of purpose and 

 continuity of effort and that only I feel 

 is necessary to put the rose growing 

 industry in America where it right- 

 fully belongs, foremost among the nur- 

 serymen's specialties. 



Between the producer and consum- 

 er in this industry, as in others, stands 

 the sales manager: he is obliged to 

 know both ends of the game, as a part 

 of his proposition. He will tell you 

 that among the most important dis- 

 tributing agencies of field-grown ro&es 

 are the nurserymen's agents or the 

 small dealers; second, the department 

 stores, and third the catalogs of the cat- 

 alog houses. Perhaps the deiiartment 

 stores are least particular about the 

 quality and origin of their stock and 

 are prone to neglect the essentials of 

 care and treatment and in conse- 

 quence probably hand out more stock 

 that fails to make good than any other 

 of the three distributing agencies men- 

 tioned. The nurserymen's agents do 

 sell "stuff" as any one who grows for 

 this class of trade realizes, but I am 

 informed by one of the largest of 

 them, that it is not the grower or in- 

 deed the agents who control the 

 sales, but rather that as regards new 

 roses especially he is limited and in- 

 fluenced according to the stock color 

 plates which are distributed* by the 

 Rochester and other lithographers. So 

 I turn to the last of the three distri- 

 buting agencies the catalog man who 

 hires expensive salesmen, and hires 

 them by the thousands and con- 

 sequently the selection of the varie- 

 ties that he shall recommend and push 

 are more entirely within his own con- 

 trol. 



With a sales situation as above de- 



