368 



HORTl CU LT U R£ 



October 6, 1906 



horticulture: 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephon*, Oxford 292 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and Manager. 



We present some interesting bulb pic- 

 The prosperous tures in this issue. There will also 

 bulb trade l,,. fmmil in our advertising columns 

 some tempting Imlb oilers, which we hope our readers 

 will take advantage of. From the dealers we learn that 

 the general bulb demand this fall is unprecedented in 

 volume, the advance orders being in some instances so 

 large that doubt is expressed of ability to fill them. 

 Nothing is simpler tlian the building up of a profitable 

 garden bulb trade by the local florist. A few dollars' 

 worth of first-class varieties conspicuously planted can 

 be made the means of selling many thousands when they 

 are in bloom next spring, for fall delivery. 



We have heard considerable of late 

 The qualifications concerning the education necessary 

 of a gardener to the making of a gardener worthy 

 of the name. Between forty and 

 fifty yeai-s ago there was published in London a volume 

 entitled "The Young Gardener's Educator." The sub- 

 jects treated upon as essentials included English gram- 

 mar, geology, botany, vegetable physiology, hoj-ticul- 

 tural chemistry, physical geography, entomology, meas- 

 uring, architectural drawing, letter-writing and pen- 

 manship. Quite an ambitious array, but the man who 

 has mastered all these need have no fear that he will 

 ever be asked by his employer to "milk the cow or sift 

 the ashes." 



The house plant is sure to be an issue 

 About the again this season. The popular demand 

 house plant grows apace, and it only remains with 

 the growers and dealers to assure its continuance and 

 constant increase from year to year indefinitely. The 

 need for more attention to the proper preparation and 

 hardening off of both foliage and flowering plants for a 

 more enduring existence after they have passed into 

 the hands of the retail buyer cannot be overdrawn. In 

 a majority of cases tliis most essential point in the 

 healthy development of the house plant business is 

 given minor consideration and the great and promising 



future is lost sight of and its splendid opportunities 

 recklessly sacrificed in the blind scramble for the dollar 

 of the moment. 



'i'he views expressed by the sec- 

 The dahlia in the rotary of the newly-organized dahlia 

 flower market society in this issue strike us as 

 well-founded and distinctly practi- 

 cal, it is very true that no commei-cial grower has yet 

 taken up the culture of the dalilia primarily for cut 

 flower purposes in a wholesale way. The l)looms have 

 come in as a by-product only and their qualifications 

 for position in the cut-flower market has been a sec- 

 ondary consideration. One look at the crates of blooms 

 as shipped from the dahlia fields to the city flower mar- 

 kets will quickly convince anyone of the facts as Mr. 

 Fuld states them. The possibilities under conditions 

 giving a paramount consideration to the dahlia's value 

 as a standard cut-flower treated on the same basis as are 

 roses, carnations, asters and sweet peas, will readily 

 suggest themselves. 



About three weeks remain before the 



Help the opening of the series of fall exhibitions 



exhibitions which have been instituted in nearly 



every community from the Atlantic to 

 tlie Pacific where horticultural industry has obtained a 

 foothold. We reiterate our advice, often before re- 

 peated, that every florist and gardener who can possibly 

 do so, should plan to visit one or more of these — the 

 more the better — and, moreover, make it a point to con- 

 tribute to at least one of these shows examples of his 

 own cultural or artistic ability. We cannot conceive 

 how any one engaged in horticultural employment, 

 whether commercial or otherwise, can ignore these im- 

 portant affairs or underrate their substantial value to 

 him. No better educational incentive can be imagined 

 for the progressive florist and gardener, and there ex- 

 ists no more effectual stimulus to a public interest in 

 his products and a willing expenditure for what he has 

 to offer whether it be his services or his goods. 



One of our contemporaries advances 

 The advertising the proposition that the paper carry- 

 problem iiig the most advertisements is in- 

 variably the best advertising medium. May be, some- 

 times, but not always. There are a good many ifs to be 

 considered. The paper from which we quote seems to 

 forget the strenuous claims it made on its own behalf 

 a few years ago when it was very shy on advertising 

 patronage. Advertisers have learned that advertising 

 returns from any source are perplexingly elusive and in- 

 comprehensible at times. Horticdlture has nothing 

 to complain of in the extent of its patronage, seeing it is 

 not yet two years old, and its advertisers seem to be as 

 well satisfied with the business it brings them as any 

 one could wish. Good reading matter from which in- 

 telligent readers can draw useful information has been 

 Horticulture's trump card from the beginning and 

 an increasing number of wide-awake advertisers are 

 reaping the benefit therefrom. 



