HORTICULTURi: 



July 7, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 

 DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Tilephone, Oxford 292 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and Manager. 



With this issue Horticcltukk starts on its 



Looking fourth volume. It has now been before tlie 



ahead profession sufficiently long to indicate tlie 



scope and character on which we propose 



to build — thus far we have been laying the foundations 



only — and we shall be glad to receive suggestions and 



advice from our friends as to what, in their opinion, 



we can do to increase its value to the great horticultural 



industries of our land. 



A perusal of our British notes will disclose 

 At a the fact that the florists over the water are 

 standstill eciuallv lacking with many of our own in 

 the art of artistic floral arrangement. The 

 description given of their efforts at decorative designing 

 has a very familiar sound. Unfortunately the work of 

 the best floral artists is seldom seen at the public exhi- 

 bitions here and doubtless the same conditions prevail 

 abroad. How shall we wake them up? 



That peony names are almost hope- 

 Peony lessly mixed is evident from what 

 nomenclature President Ward had to say in his 



address before the American Feony 

 Society. Definite identification of many varieties can 

 be reached only after many years of close and patient 

 investigation and in other cases accurate determination 

 is almost out of possibility. Whatever Mr. Ward and 

 his associates may be able to accomplish in the direction 

 of nomenclature revision will l^e a great boon to the 

 peony lover and especially to the nurseryman. The 

 task will be an arduous one for which the gratitude of 

 the profession will be but small recompense. 



According to the story of the Xew-ark 



Midsummer Call, there is a man — Smith by name — 



madness -^lio has a formula for grow-ing black 



roses. It consists in cutting off the limb 



of a black oak tree and covering the stump with soil 



in which a slip from a rose bush is planted, with tlie 



result that a black rose with black stems and leaves is 

 produced. The eminent gentleman refuses to part with 

 any of his productions at any price. A "special cable 

 despatch" from Paris to the Boston American seems to 

 indicate that this country cannot claim ownership of all 

 the great wizards, for it informs us that at a recent 

 dinner given in Paris by Mrs. Ogden Goelet, the table 

 was decorated with a pale blue carnation, "a new 

 flower obtained by crossing the cultivated blue corn- 

 flower and a white carnation."' These achievements cer- 

 tainly open up to the imagination a long vista of 

 startling possibilities. "Masters, spread yourselves." 



A woman in Sayville, L. I., New 

 "For a desperate York, has discovered that the black 

 disease a flies that feast on dead fish are 



desperate cure" also fond of rose-bugs, and as the 

 hitter have swarmed on the island 

 this summer the trees, grape vines and bushes in the 

 vicinity of Sayville have been decorated with dead fish 

 suspended from the branches to attract these enemies 

 of the rose-bug. What the success of this novel remedy 

 for the hitherto invincible pest has been we do not know 

 but it is presumable that most i>eople will consider the 

 cure as bad as the rose-bug. From all accounts this pest 

 has been more abundant and destructive this season than 

 ever before, devouring not only the flow'ers but the 

 leaves of the roses and of many other garden plants, 

 shrubs and trees. He has been observed feeding vora- 

 ciously on foliage that had been well-sprayed with 

 arsenate of lead for the gypsy moth and there is no 

 evidence that it gave jiim any discomfort. 



The New York Herald's assertion 

 A word to tluit "who reads a newspaper is vastly 

 Horticulture's j^ore important to the advertiser in 

 friends its columns than liow many read it," 



is unqualifiedly true. It is equally 

 true that there exists in every field a class of readers 

 w-Jio, by a policy subservient to their tastes, may be 

 secured as a following but whose value to the advertiser 

 of anything outside of the cheapest bargain ofi'erings is 

 very small. The many outspoken testimonials which 

 Horticulture has been receiving from satisfied adver- 

 tisers of substantial goods are very gratifying to us as 

 showing tliat our course in securing for our columns 

 material that will interest refiective, intellectual readers 

 has resulted as hoped. Tlie index to the contents of 

 our issues for the past six months, which accompanies 

 this issue shows most forcibly the vast amount and wide 

 variety of permanently valuable reading matter which 

 we have gathered together and placed before our sub- 

 scribers at a cost of less than two cents per issue. That 

 this stature has been reached in an existence of eighteen 

 months, in the face of the keenest high-pressure rivalry 

 is the best guarantee of future efficiency that we can 

 offer. As we have said before. Horticulture's growth 

 will be limited only by the volume of loyal support its 

 readers may accord to it. Make it a rule to give your 

 business exclusively to those whose advertisements are 

 to be found in its columns. It is now tlie dullest period 

 of the year. Plan tluit with tlie opening of the busy 

 season your buying and your selling shall be done 

 througli Horticulture. Your interests and ours are 

 mutual. 



