452 



HOETICULTUEB 



September 26, 1914 



HORTICULTURE 



vol. XX 



SEPTEMBER 26, 1914 



NO. 13 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass. 



Telppbone, Oxford 292. 



WM. 3. STEWART, Editor and Uanaeer. 



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Entered as second-class matter December 8, 1901, at tbe Post Offlce 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act ot Congress of March 3, 18T9. 



CONTENTS Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— A Typical Rose House 



NOTES ON CULTURE OP FLORISTS' STOCK— Care 

 ot Gardenias — Cocos Palms — Orchids — Perennials for 

 Pots — Snapdragons — Propagating Sand — John J. M. 

 Farrell 449 



CEANOTHUS— i?«6ert M. Canning 449 



TWO USEFUL PERENNIALS FOR GARDEN AND 

 ROCKERY— Illustrated— i?itftard Rothe 450 



ROSE GROWING UNDER GLASS— Broken Glass- 

 Supplies for the Season — The Propagating House 

 — More About Curled Leaves on White Killarney — 

 Arthur C, Ruzicka 457 



HOME GROWN TREE SEEDLINGS— Ot<0 Katzenstein 453 



REMEDIES FOR POTASH SHORTAGE— ff. A. Huston 453 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— Lancaster County Florists' 

 Club — American Dahlia Society — Texas Nursery- 

 men's Association — National Association ot Garden- 

 ers — Rhode Island Horticultural Society — Club and 

 Society Notes 454 



OBITUARY— Mrs. Frank Zuber— John McMichael — 

 Peter J. Krug — Peter Bolander 455 



SEED TRADE— Crop Report ot Hjalmar Hartmann & 

 Co., Copenhagen 458 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS— The Florists' 

 Business from a Retailer's Point of View — Chas. F. 



Edgar 460 



New Flower Stores 461 



DURING RECESS— Poor Richard Club at Fordhook; 

 Illustrated — The Old Guards' Association 463 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York 465 



Philadelphia, St. Louis, Washington 467 



ADAPTATION OF PLANTS TO SOIL— Prof. George E. 

 Stone 472 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



House of Areca lutescens at Dreer's, Rlverton, N. J. 



— Illustration 455 



Personal — Visitors' Register 456 



New Corporations 458 



News Notes 458-462-474 



Chicago Notes — Washington Notes 462 



Business Troubles 462 



Philadelphia Notes 467 



What Conventions Do 474 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 474 



Patents Granted 474 



Our Cliicago advices state that circu- 

 An interesting Jgrg have been reeeive(3 from Europe 

 legal point hy plant and bulb importers quoting 



pre.sent prices as far below rates given 

 when import orders were taken. Doubtless other places 

 have also received quotations of a like character. At- 

 tention is called to the fact that many of the Holland 



order sheets carry at the top the words "Prices Subject 

 to Change.'"' Legal advice obtained by some of the Chi- 

 cago trade is to the effect that the circulars referred to 

 are evidence that the market prices have changed and 

 consequently the payment for previously ordered goods 

 may be based upon the reduced figure now quoted. 



Our friends, the members of the Lan- 

 "Price cutting" caster Florists' Club, have brought 

 forward the subject of "price cutting" 

 as a topic for discussion. The subject is broad enough 

 for plenty of discussion — in fact, too broad for profitable 

 discussion unless there is some definite mutual under- 

 ■■^tanding as to what is meant by "price-cutting." When 

 the motive of the party doing the cutting is merely to 

 seduce trade away from a rival dealer on the ground of 

 cheapness there is, of course, a limit to the wisdom of 

 such a practice as a business-building proposition and, 

 as a matter of ethics, simply, the practice of price-cut- 

 ting cannot be said to take high rank. Yet, it has ever 

 been acknowledged that "competition is the life of trade" 

 and "best quality at lowest price" is a slogan that any 

 business man may honorably adopt without any fear of 

 reasonable criticism and with every prospect of a suc- 

 cessful outcome, while, on the other hand, those who go 

 too far in the direction of fixed and unvarying prices are 

 sometimes liable to have the anti-trust ppo]ile taking an 

 interest in their affairs ! 



If, however, the disposition to distribute the surplus 

 flowers, when such exist, at a figure below the standards 

 arbitrarily set by the regular first-class flower stores for 

 sueli goods (and which rarely have any fi.xed relation to 

 the cost of production) is what is meant by price cut- 

 ting, then wc should say that the sooner some places get 

 at it the l)otter for the business. In fact, we miglit put it 

 much more strongly and say that such a course is inevi- 

 table in every flower market centre in the country. It is 

 apparent to everybody that the production of flowers for 

 commercial purposes has, in recent years, far outdis- 

 tanced the development of avenues for their consump- 

 tion, and the vital question of the hour in such centers 

 of production as New York or Boston, for example, is 

 how to secure for the rapidly increasing product an 

 equally rapidly increasing demand. Growers may well 

 stand aghast at the enormous quantity of their goods 

 which, in the oft-recurring "gluts" under present con- 

 ditions, are thrown away, and all the while very little is 

 lieing done in a practical way to open up new avenues of 

 distrilnition. Under such conditions, price cutting, as 

 a debatable proposition, l)ecomes a joke. 



It will be consoling to the jjlant and 

 Tiie forcing i^ih forcing trad(2 to find that, as 

 plant industry means of transportation through neu- 

 tral European ports are gradually got- 

 ten into working order the outlook for receiving a con- 

 siderable part of the normal imports of azaleas, pips and 

 bulbs is gradually assuming a mtich more hopeful aspect 

 tlian any one had dared to expect. But the situation 

 this year is not the only cause for concern. It is easy to 

 see that, at best, the production abroad for next year and 

 the next is a very grave uncertainty, and it seems too 

 much to hope for the adjustment and re-establishment 

 of former conditions for several years. We have re- 

 ceived from L. A. Berckmans of Augusta, Georgia, a 

 sample of the Indian azaleas they are raising there, as 

 told in their communication in our previous issue. As 



