578 



HOBTICULTUEE 



May 5, 1917 



HORTICULTURE. 



VOL. XXV 



MAY 5, 1917 



NO. 18 



rUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 l^-? Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Bea«h 293 

 WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager 



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Entered as second-class matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Office 

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CONTENTS 



Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— Rhododendron Vaseyi 



NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' STOCK— Asters 

 — Chrysanthemums — Ficus— Hydrangeas — Palm Seed 



— Reminders — John J. M. FarreU 577 



YOUR CARNATIONS— (7. S. Strout 579 



ONE PHASE OF THE FOOD PROBLEM— C. S. Harrison 579 

 THE LATE W. C. LANGBRIDGE— WoJson iS. Woodruff 579 

 CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— American Rose Society- 

 North Shore Horticultural Society— Horticultural 

 Society of New York— Meetings Next Week — Club 

 and Society Notes 580 



HOW TO RAISE ORCHIDS METHODICALLY— WoZJer 

 Gott 581-582 



THE EXHIBITIONS— Boston Outdoor June Exhibition, 

 Illustrated — Cleveland Flower Show 583 



OBITUARY — Mrs. Robert Potter — Fred Ponting— 

 Augustus W. Boerner — John W. Fink 584 



SEED TRADE— The Outlook for Food Crops— Notes. . 588 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 

 The First Florists' Club National Advertisement- 

 New Flower Stores 590 



Flowers by Telegraph 591 



NEWS ITEMS PROM EVERYWHERE: 

 Pittsburgh, Washington, St. Louis, Chicago, New 

 York, Boston, Rochester, N. Y 592-593 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Rochester, Washington 593 



Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati 595 



New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis 597 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Cover Illustration 579 



Hill-Bertermann Indianapolis Interests Merge 580 



News Notes 584 



Visitors' Register — Personal 584 



Begonia Lucerna, Illu.strated 584 



Publications Received 586 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 587 



Patents Granted 587 



New Corporations 590 



The Mothers' Day propaganda as con- 

 Improvement ducted this year under florist trade 



auspices is to be commended as a vast 

 improvement over the iiijudicions exploiting which it 

 sn tiered from at the start and which tended to cheapen 

 and degrade not only those who were responsible for 

 the methods adopted but the entire floral industry. 

 We hope to see still further improvement next year in 

 the method of appeal to the public for patronage on 



account of this annual occasion and shall be pleased if 

 the returns from its observance this year may substan- 

 tially recompense the efforts that have been made to 

 bring business decently to the florist, whose intere.sts 

 are already being jeopardized by the unwarranted in- 

 terference of narrow-minded theorists and professional 

 agitators who would have the flower business put under 

 jiublic ban as a wicked luxury in the present 

 emergency. 



The home gardening movement, under the 

 Seed stimulation of agricultural departments, so- 

 problems cieties, newspapers, governors, corporationsy 

 mayoirs and innumerable other influences, 

 including the H. C. L. as a mainspring, has everywhere 

 assumed gigantic proportions as evidenced on all sides 

 wliere a piece of vacant ground is available and a visit 

 to any one of the popular seed stores reveals a scene sug- 

 gestive of a special bargain day at some department 

 store. One disturbing thought in connection with all 

 this scramble is that so much precious material in veg- 

 etable seeds is doomed to be wasted, for a large propor- 

 tion of the people who are about to try their hand at 

 vegetable gardening are p.rofoundly ignorant of cultural 

 requirements and the outcome of many of these first 

 attempts, without expert supervision, is easy to imagine. 

 It is a pity that the test should come at a time when 

 every bit of seed in the country has a rare potential 

 \alue and when so much uncertainty attaches to the 

 reidenisliment of stocks for the following season. As is 

 well known, there would have been difficulty in supply- 

 ing even the normal demand for .some of the most useful 

 seed staples owing to short crops last year. A full seed 

 supply fo.r next year is a vital necessity and with every 

 ounce of holdover stock used up, a crop failure this sea- 

 son will be nothing short of disastrous. A bumper 

 yield of vegetable seed will be worth more than money. 



We have received from Harlan P. Kelsey, 

 Order socretaiy of the American Joint Com- 

 out of mittee on Horticultural Nomenclature, a 

 confusion copy of the 1917 Official Code of Stand- 

 ardized Plant Xames which has been 

 adopted and pulilished by the committee for use in 

 ordering, labeling and catalogue compilation. Eepre- 

 .sented in the joint committee are the American Associ- 

 ation of Nurseiymen, Ornamental Growers' Associa- 

 tion, American Society of Landscape Architects, Amer- 

 ican Pharmaceutical Association and American Asso- 

 ciation of Park Superintendents. The compilation of 

 this code is a big forward step for which tlie nurser^^ 

 and plant trade should be profoundly gi'ateful and we 

 hope to see its style of classification come into general 

 use and its scope further extended and elaborated. The 

 co-operation oi^ the Society of American Florists and 

 Omamcutal Horticultitrists would add much prestige 

 and greatly help toward the standardization of such a 

 document. In its present form it has been included as 

 an important feature of the supplement to the la.«t 

 volume of Bailey's Standard Cyclopedia of Horticul- 

 ture. The need for such a code or list of plant names 

 will not be questioned. Its proper use should go far 

 to reduce the confusion, inconvenience and losses 

 which have hitherto beset buyers and dealers alike 

 from the widespread use of different names for the 

 sa7ne ]ilaiit and identical names for different plants. 



Among the various forms of "patriotism" which 

 have been urged upon the public the proposition to 

 put the florist out of business should be slated for a 

 quick death. 



