546 



HOBTICULTUEB 



October 17, 1914 



HORTICULTURE 



VOL. XX 



OCTOBER 17, 1914 



NO. 16 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BT 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford tit. 



\VM. J. STEWART, Editor and Hanacer. 



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Discounts on Contracts for consecntWe Insertions, as follows: 



One month (4 times), 6 per cent.; three months (13 time«), 10 

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■ntered as Becond-class matter December 8, 1901, at the Poat Offlce 

 at Boaton, Mass., noder tbe Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



CONTENTS Pase 



COVER ILLUSTR.\TION— Water Lily Pond at "Pen- 

 broke," Bryn Mawr, Pa. 



NOTES ON CULTURE OP FLORISTS' STOCK— Aspar- 

 agus Sprengeri — Azaleas — Begonia Lorraine and Cin- 

 cinnati — Care of Carnations — Orchids — Sowing Stocks 

 -^John J. M. Farrell 545 



THE WATER LILY POND AT "PENBROKE," Bryn 

 Mawr, Fa.— Richard Rolhe 547 



WHEN TO PLANT IRIS— C. S. Harrison 547 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— Pittsburgh Florists' and 

 Gardeners' Club — American Cemetery Superinten- 

 dents—St. Louis Florist Club — New Bedford Horti- 

 cultural Society — Westchester and Fairfield Horti- 

 cultural Society — New York Florists' Club 548 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society — Chrysanthe- 

 mum Society of America — Cincinnati Florists' So- 

 ciety — Chicago to Indianapolis — Club and Society 

 Notes 549 



BOSTON CONVENTION GARDEN NOTES— JTennetft 

 Finlayson 550 



THE WASHINGTON ROSE GARDEN— F. L. Mulford 550 



HOLLYHOCKS AGAIN— C. S. Harrison 550 



MISSION OF BEAUTY— C. S. Harrison 552 



SEED TRADE— A Fair Exchange— California Notes- 

 Good Advertising, Illustrated 554 



OP INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



Seen in Mobile 556 



Flowers by Telegraph — Nejv Flower Stores 557 



NEWS ITEMS FROM EVERYWHERE: 



Boston — Washington — Cincinnati 558 



California Notes — Visitors' Register 559 



OBITUARY— Lilian A. Shaw, Portrait— Henry B. 



Mouillerat — John M. Griffith — Morgan Miles 559 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kno.xvilIe, New York.. 561 

 Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington 563 



WOOD ASHES AS SOURCE OF POTASH 568 



BRITISH HORTICULTURE— W. H. .Ulsett 568 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Enter, Autumn, Poetry 549 



L. W. Goodell's Sight Restored 550 



Philadelphia Notes 551 



Patents Granted 551 



Personal 552 



Catalogues Received 553 



Business Troubles 554 



News Notes 568 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 570 



iJi.-cu.-sing with a store man recently the 

 A qualifications of one of his employees we 



question of ^ere interested to learn that this particu- 

 policy lar clerk had especially endeared himself 

 to his employers by his persuasive abili- 

 ties in working off questionable or deteriorated material. 



"Anylwdy can sell the first class stuff; in fact, it sells 

 itself," said our friend, "but it takes a genius to get rid 

 of tlie leavings and that often represents our profits." 

 Perhaps he was right, but there is another side to the 

 (juestion and that is as to the effect on the future patron- 

 age of the customer who, perchance, later on realized that 

 he had been bitten. We acknowledge the "genius" part 

 of it, when it comes to selling "lemons," in the critical 

 disposition of the flower-buying public of the present 

 day, but — -what of the hereafter? Browning says: 

 "Genius has something of the infantine: 



But of the childish, not a touch nor taint 

 Except through self-will, which, being foolishness, 



Is certain, soon or late, of punishment." 



Having thus stumbled upon the subject of 



About "a genius" in our rambles about town we 



"geniuses" must here disclaim any intention of 



'Tiutting in" with a view to win that prize 

 offered by George Cooper Watson for the best definition 

 of a genius. The thing seems to be epidemic just now. 

 In this issue our esteemed correspondent Eichard Rothe 

 is "hot on the trail" too, and he lauds the genius who is 

 able to get aw'ay from the commonplace and traditional 

 rule-of-thumb and do something fitting and appropriate 

 in arrangement which was never done before. If, how- 

 ever, Dryden's belief that "genius must be bom, and 

 never can be taught," is well fotmded, then Mr. Rothe's 

 educational efforts and our own frequent editorial ex- 

 hortations arc, indeed, futile excepting when they strike 

 home to the man so bom and perhaps serve to awaken 

 his sleeping talents. Is the decorative talent displayed 

 at our floral exhibitions, as they run on the average, to 

 be considered a fair criterion of the number of floral 

 geniuses in our midst? 



Advices from many plant and bulb impor- 

 The dump ters in all directions are to the effect that 



shipments from the disturbed European 

 sources of supply are coming to hand, tardily but with a 

 very creditable promptness considering the difficulties in 

 the way. As predicted by some, there are evidences of 

 an inclination on the part of foreign houses to unload on 

 the American market not only our full legitimate needs 

 but also more or less of the stock heretofore used in the 

 countries now engulfed in war. This, in some instances, 

 is superior stock but the opportunity has been evidently 

 seized to throw in an enormous quantity of low grade 

 bulb mixtures, often under deceiving names, and these 

 find tlieir way through all kinds of cheap-john channels, 

 to the trade or the public — it matters not to the distribu- 

 tors who gets them — at whatever pittance they will 

 bring. While we may have sympathy for the distressed 

 growers of this material abroad this consideration does 

 not e.xtend to the parties on this side who are using the 

 situation to demoralize the market here and injure the 

 Inisiness of the legitimate dealers who paid regular mar- 

 ket values abroad and now find their trade menaced by 

 this deluge. The best protection against the invasion, 

 however, lies in the unreliability of much of the stuff so 

 offered and the wise buyer will stick to regular sources 

 of supply or else buy nothing outside without a guarantee 

 that goods are exactly as represented, coupled with a for- 

 feit should thev turn out otherwise. 



