July 14, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



39 



Cut Flower Market Reports 



Flowers are fewer in the 

 BOSTON wholesale markets and the 

 situation shows a slight 

 improvement in consequence. The de- 

 mand is very light, however, and there 

 is an abundance of everything needed. 

 Small roses are hard to get rid of at 

 any price, but the better grades of 

 Beauty, Kaiserin and Carnot find a 

 more or less steady call. Sweet peas 

 of the indoor crop are about finished 

 up and the outdoor bloom is not yet 

 noticeable.' Carnations are cheap and 

 of inferior quality. Outdoor candidum 

 lilies are selling at from $1 to $2 per 

 hundred. 



Summer dullness was 

 BUFFALO witnessed the past week. 

 Cut flower stock has 

 suffered all along the line in values 

 and there is little prospect of recovery 

 for a week at least. Carnations, roses 

 and sweet peas were a drug and could 

 not be disposed of at any price, there 

 being no demand. Beauties have fallen 

 in quality together with Brides and 

 Bridesmaids. Carnot, Liberty and 

 Kaiserin are of good quality but have 

 not been plentiful; some good out-door 

 iris have been seen and sell well. 

 Candidum lilies were on for a few 

 days and moved freely. Longiflorum of 

 good quality was received. Indoor 

 gladioli were on the list with no 

 special demand; lily of the valley, 

 swainsona and other stock were plenti- 

 ful. It was a case of the wholesaler 

 carrying all the stock and the retailer 

 buying only what he needed. 



We have settled to a 

 COLUMBUS summer basis as re- 

 gards trade, there are 

 the usual few scattering orders, and a 

 little something doing all the time — 

 that about describes how things are. 

 As a whole good stock is scarce; roses 

 especially are poor and small. There 

 are no good American Beauties to be 

 had; all there are have short stems: 

 the same is true of Kaiserin and 

 Chatenay. Sweet peas have had a 

 good run, but now the stems are get- 

 ting short and the trade seems to tire 

 of them with the result that they go 

 hard and very cheap. Carnations still 

 continue in enormous supply and sell 

 not over rapid at a minimum price. 

 Collections are very prompt, more so 

 than for a long time; in fact, many of 

 the craft are surprised at the quick- 

 ness with which their customers send 

 in the checks. Outdoor stuff is look- 

 ing fine. 



Business conditions 

 LOUISVILLE remained very good 

 and stock in general 

 was in fair supply. Carnations and 

 roses were poor in quality, with the 

 supply and demand about equal. Lilies 

 and sweet peas continued fairly good 

 and were called for to some extent. 

 There was an abundance of other 

 stock, but it moved slowly. 



Although there is even 

 NEW YORK less business being 

 done this week than 

 last week, conditions are more com- 

 fortable because daily receipts have 

 fallen off heavily and the stock in 

 sight is very light. It is also very in- 

 ferior as to quality. This applies to 

 practically all roses, carnations, sweet 

 peas, etc. Lily of the valley is excel- 

 lent as to quality. Cattleyas are 

 abundant, and selling low with the ex- 



ception of Cattleya gigas, which com- 

 mands the highest quoted price and is 

 well worth it. 



The market was rather 



PHILA- featureless last week and 



DELPHI A business only fair. The 



Fourth is about the only 

 day the florist can really call a 

 holiday. All the other festive oc- 

 casions find him working like go 

 it man go it bear. The hot 

 weather also had an effect but as 

 it cooled off on the last three days 

 things brisked up considerably. Many 

 carnation growers are now replanting 

 which curtails the cut. Roses and 

 carnations are if anything poorer 

 than when last reported. Cattleyas 

 are about done. A good many out- 

 door subjects are in evidence. Aura- 

 tums are welcome. There are lots of 

 phlox sprays, bunched achillea and 

 feverfew. The first of the dahlias are 

 in and water lilies, rudbeckias. bluets, 

 and gaillardia are still plentiful. The 

 most refreshing summer windows are 

 those with tanks of water lilies, flanked 

 by gold fish aquariums, with a back 

 ground of araucarias and rubber plants 

 — with a few inexpensive touches of 

 color interspersed. A cheerful note 

 is given to some of the stores by a 

 few cages of Hartz Mountain canaries. 



SOME REMARKS ABOUT ROSES. 



(Alexander P. Seott. at Diekson Bauquet. 

 Philadeliihia, Juue 6th, 190G.> 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I 

 have taken the liberty of changing the 

 subject assigned to me this evening 

 from "Ireland — The Gem of the Ocean" 

 to "Newtownards — The Gem of Ire- 

 land." for from this little garden spot 

 have been raised and sent out all of 

 Messrs. Alexander Dickson & Sons' 

 Irish roses. 



Many of the members of our Phila- 

 delphia Florists' Club that are present 

 this evenin.g will recollect Mr. Hugh 

 Dickson's last visit ten years ago, and 

 you will remember with how much 

 force and spirit he introduced Alexan- 

 der Dickson & Sons' Irish roses to 

 American florists, and how well they 

 were received. Most of the roses at 

 that time were hybrid perpetuals. and 

 the demand was largely for Ulrich 

 Brunner. Rodocanachi. Magna Charta. 

 and other hybrid perpetuals that could 

 be forced for winter blooming. I think 

 it would be well to note at this time 

 the great advance in the raising of 

 new roses that Messrs. Alexander 

 Dickson & Sons have made in the last 

 ten years. The hybridizers of the firm. 

 Mr. Alexander Dickson and Mr. George 

 Dickson .Tr.. were amon.g the first to 

 realize that the hybrid tea rose was the 

 rose of the future, and that the great 

 rose-lovin.g public wanted hardy ever- 

 blooming roses, rather than hybrid 

 perpetuals that flower but once, with 

 an occasional flower in the autumn. 

 During the past ten years, of G6 new 

 roses introduced by them, 43 have been 

 of this class, and 19 have received gold 

 medals from the National Rose Soci- 

 ety. Of this number we in America 

 are very thankful for two of them — 

 Killarnev, introduced in 1898. and 

 Liberty in 1900. 



Last summer I visited Newtownards 

 and spent two weeks among 7000 seed- 

 ling hybrid tea roses. I do not think 

 there is a man here tonight who would 



not agree with me that this little patch 

 of four or five acres during the month 

 of .Inly is the most interesting spot 

 in the world to rose growers; in fact. 

 it is a Mecca for rose growers, both 

 amateur and professional. 



Two thin.gs I was Impressed with 

 very forcibly; one was the vast 

 amount of labor and care in the pro- 

 duction of these seedlings; not one of 

 these 7000 varieties were chance seed- 

 lings, and I found out that for the past 

 25 years they have been keeping a rec- 

 ord of every cross they make, with 

 notes of the result of that cross. Since 

 they have raised so many good things 

 themselves they have for the past few 

 years confined their crossing and hy- 

 bridization to roses of their own rais- 

 ing, and the result is shown in the 

 varieties I inspected last summer. The _ 

 other thing that impressed me is the ' 

 care with wliich they select their eyes 

 for budding- I had often wondered 

 why it was that the Dickson roses had 

 such a remarkable vitality, and while 

 they do not appear to be stronger in 

 growth than selected stock from other 

 sources, they invariably give larger 

 and finer flowers a year or two after 

 planting. I found last summer that 

 the eyes put on in their vast establish- 

 ment were selected by members of the 

 firm; a boy generally waited on them 

 while they were cutting the flowering 

 wood of the plant; with their knife 

 they cut out all the flat or poorer eyes, 

 and only the sound plump eyes went 

 to the budders. They believe in the 

 survival of the fittest, and they have 

 found by experience that a' constant 

 selection of the best and plumpest 

 eyes from flowering wood only, will 

 keep up their standard to its present 

 high mark. 



In their seedling roses I was of 

 course very much interested in the 

 varieties in bloom that I was abso- 

 lutely sure would be winners for win- 

 ter forcing in America; I would cut a 

 bloom and take it to my room for its 

 keeping qualities; I would*then exam- 

 ine it in the field the following day. 

 and would find that it had developed 

 something thatr would not suit, and 

 would have to be discarded. One vari- 

 ety (hat I was particularly impressed 

 with was a strong growing variety 

 which flowered in the open ground 

 with " ft. stems, and the flowers were 

 even bri.ghter and more velvety than 

 Liberty: I thought that if this acted 

 in America as it did in Ireland, we 

 would have a crimson American Beau- 

 ty. I received four plants in October, 

 and they all grew; they grew so well 

 that by the first of March they had at- 

 tained a height of 17 feet without a 

 flower, and they have not flowered 

 yet. I brou,ght over with me :iO varie- 

 ties, and have them now growing at 

 my nurseries; several of these are 

 very promising, buf my faith is in two 

 sterling varieties; one is a yellow with 

 petals larger than Killarney. and the 

 other is a light pink with a rosy cen- 

 tre. I hope I may have these two 

 varieties in good shape for exhibition 

 next year. 



In hardy everblooming roses for 

 outside culture they have the grandest 

 collection I have ever seen; they have 

 almost every shade of color, many of 

 them having the Killarney type of 

 growth. I only hope the time will 

 come very shortly when they will get 

 stock enough to introduce them to 

 general cultivation. 



