450 



HORTICULTUEE 



April 7, 1917 



horticulture: 



VOL. XXV 



APRIL 7, 1917 



Na 14 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHINC CO. 

 l<i^7 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Beach 292. 

 WH. J. STEWAST, Editor and Uanacer 



SUBSCRIPTION BATES: 



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ADVEK.TISING BATES: 



Per inch, 30 inches to page f 1.00 



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One month (4 times), 5 per cent.; three months (13 times), 10 

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Entered ss secnnd-cIaBs matter December 8, ISKM, at the Post OSlc* 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Coogress ot March 3, 1879. 



CONTENTS 



Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— View in Philadelphia Rose 

 Festival 



NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' STOCK— 

 Gardenias — Nephrolepis — Odontoglossums — Poin- 

 settias — Ramblers for Easter 1918 — Primulas — Re- 

 minders — John J. M. Farrell 449 



THE PEONY — ITS MARVELOUS ADVANCE— C. S.. 

 Harrison 451 



CENTAUREA— Bicftord Koifte— Illustrated 451 



CHRYSANTHEMUM CLASSIFICATIONS— B. K. 

 Thomas — A. H. Fewkes 452 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— Lancaster County Florists' 

 Association — Meetings Next Week — New York Fed- 

 eration of Horticultural Societies and Floral Clubs — 

 Horticultural Society of New York — Florists' Club of 



Philadelphia 453-454 



Club and Society Notes 456 



THE EXHIBITIONS — Philadelphia Rose Festival, 

 Illustration — New York International Flower Show, 

 Illustration — The Cleveland Flower Show — Pitts- 

 burgh Flower Show 454-456 



PROPOSED PROHIBITION OP IMPORTS OP PLANTS 

 — J. McHutchison 456 



OBITUARY— A. M. Kirby— The Late Lawrence Cotter 458 



SEED TRADE— Government Seed Proposals— Home 

 Grown Seed — New Seed Stores — Notes 460 



OP INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



New Flower Stores 462 



Flowers by Telegraph 463 



A Table Decoration — Illustration 465 



NEWS ITEMS FROM EVERYWHERE: 



Chicago, Washington. Pittsburgh, Boston 464 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia 467 

 Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Washington 469 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Assorted Springtime, poetry 452 



Acacia Heterophylla, Illustration 456 



Visitors' Register 457 



Catalogues Received — Publications Received 458 



For Blight-Immune Chestnut Trees 459 



Patents Granted 460 



New Corporations 462 



Personal 464 



A Visit to Cliftondale 465 



We see in the widespread campaign fo.r the 

 Consider utilization of a much hirger area of land 

 carefully fo.v the production of food crops, big busi- 

 ness for the seed trade, a boom for the 

 family table, and an eifective blow against the H. C. L. 

 But we see no .great necessity yet for the American flo,rist 

 to abandon his accustomed cultures and substitute food 



crops as has been found desirable in England, where the 

 members of the wholesale florisis' tracle have pledged 

 themselves "to devote at least 50 per cent of their open 

 ground to food production, to grow only sufficient flow- 

 ers and plants to keep the florists' trade alive and pre- 

 serve the stocks which will be necessary for immediate 

 development at the close of the war." Such a course 

 might prove profitable here as a business proposition but 

 that is open to doulit, at the jjresent time. 



The Hadley rose, as it finds its bearings 



A in various sections of the country, is dem- 



matchless onstrating qualities which make it the 



rose rose wonder of the day. Born and 



brought up in Massachusetts, it has rap- 

 idly forged to the front in New York until it ranked 

 with the Amercan Beauty in market value and the flow- 

 ers exhibited at the show by A. S. Burns, Jr. swept 

 everything else before them. We thought they had then 

 reached their limit but along comes Joseph Heacock in 

 Philadelphia with blooms of marvelous size and quality 

 which are declared by those who were privileged to see 

 both to have distinctly outdistanced New York's pre- 

 sumedly invincible achievements. Wliat next? The 

 two growers above mentioned have not yet to our knowl- 

 edge faced one another for a test of supremacy. It will 

 1)6 a battle royal when they do. And there are others. 



With the several special flower shows 



The now planned for next June there will be 



June shows ;itt"o.rdod a good test of the possibilities 



in public exhibitions at a season of the 

 year not hitherto regarded with much confidence as to 

 financial results. The ardent enthusiasm in horticul- 

 ture recently developed in "society" circles in this coun- 

 try, due in part to the discontinuance of European 

 travel, has done much to open up a new relationship be- 

 tween the public and the flower show as a standard in- 

 stitution and, as impressively demonstrated in the re- 

 cent March exhibitions, turned a new light on these 

 enterprises from the standpoint of the big daily news- 

 papers. The open air flower show to be given in Bos- 

 ton under the auspices of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society is a decided innovation as planned and 

 will be watched with countiywide interest. It will be 

 interesting, too, to note the outcome of the Pittsburgh 

 venture which also is scheduled for June but on differ- 

 ent lines from the Boston proposition. 



In the progress of events as they now 

 A shajJe up one can find but very little 



hint to to justify confidence in any nearby 



plant growers restoration of former established con- 

 ditions as to horticultural importa- 

 tions from abroad and it seems expedient that the 

 trade should take cognizance of the opportunity thus 

 presented for a larger investment and keener industry 

 in the production of home-grown ornamental material. 

 We refer here not alone or directly to the much dis- 

 cussed possibilities in the production in this country of 

 azaleas and the many other goods for which we have 

 heretofore depended upon foreign sources but to such 

 things as primroses, cyclamens, ericas and a host of 

 other plants which we are already accustomed to pro- 

 duce at home and for which in the absence of azaleas, 

 etc., the sale at Easter or otherwise should henceforth 

 be largely increased. There is every encouragement in 

 the situation for gardeners to keep on the lookout and 

 to try out a much greater variety of forcing subjects 

 than are now used. The field untouched as yet is jirac- 

 tically limitless. 



