November 17, 1906 



horticulture: 



527 



THE CHICAGO SHOW 



This stupendous exhibiiiuii was 

 easily the event of the season anil was 

 so recognized by the profession gen- 

 erally as evidenced by the attendance 

 which represented every impnrtaut 

 district from Benver on tlie west to 

 Boston on the east. The vast Coli- 

 seum was well -filled with exhibits, the 

 whole show comparing favorably with 

 the notable display of last year. The 

 ceiling was festooned with laurel. 

 15,000 yards being used. The attend- 

 ance fell off on the first Ihree days as 

 compared with last year's record, but 

 picked up well at the close and the 

 financial outcome was satisfactory. 



The retailers' booths were fewer in 

 number and, as a whole, did not im- 

 press us as equal to last year. Some 

 of them were very fine, however, 

 among the most artistic and elal)orate 

 being those of Samuelson. Wein- 

 hoeber, McAdams and Schiller. One 

 of the best displays in the hall was 

 Peter Reinberg's table of roses. Orr 

 (^ Lockett contributed a florists' 

 refrigerator which looks like a good 

 one. Fine examples of greenhouses 

 of Foley and Moninger construction 

 were on exhibition. 



Begonia Agatha, shown by .J. A. 

 Peterson, attracted much admiration. 

 It has a close general resemblance to 

 Lorraine, but the flowers are somewhat 

 larger and clearer pink, and the foli- 

 age is thick and leathery. Mr. Peter- 

 son says it is much more readily 

 propagated. Its parents are Socotrana 

 and Moonlight. Killarney roses as 

 shown by Benthey-Coatsworth Co., 

 were a revelation to the rose gi-owers 

 on account of their great stems. 

 These were obtained by disbudding 

 stron.g growths. Nephrolepis Amer- 

 pohlii showed up beautifully. It is a 

 gem of fine lace-work. On Saturday 

 there were some fine displays of special 

 flower baskets, one of which — a 

 handle basket of Enchantress carna- 

 tions, buds and foliage, by Samuel- 

 .son, was a piece of artistic work rare- 

 ly equalled. Rose baskets by C. 

 Frauenfelder, of Richmond and adian- 

 tums. by Butler Floral Co., of Killar- 

 ney and by Eaton Flower Shop of Sun- 

 rise and asparagus were all excellent. 

 A basket arrangement of foliage plants 

 by Frauenfelder was well done. In 

 the chrysanthemum basket competi- 

 tion Samuelson won first with a hand- 

 some basket of pompon, small single 

 and "liaby" chrysanthemums in 

 sprays, all yellow. 



The exhibition closed on Sunday 

 evening, November 11, with the great, 

 est attendance in the history of Chi- 

 cago flower shows. 



The Exhibition as Uncle John 

 Thorpe Saw It. 

 Never in America has there been 

 gathered together more magnificent 

 chrysanthemums — and it's really no 

 wonder, when all the giants made the 

 fight— and then it was the east against 

 the west, or vice versa. On the one 

 side was Duckham, Totty, Herrington, 

 Vince, Livingstone; on the other was 

 Hill, Smith, Poelhmann, Bassett, 

 Washburn, Wietor Bros, and Gunner 

 Teilmann, all winners .somewhere. 

 The east let the west fight for the 

 classes of 100 flowers— and they fought. 

 The best white is Fidelity; the best 



pink, Mary Mann; the best yellow, 

 Appleton; the best "any other color' 

 not much. All the time the east was 

 eager to display itself, and it did — in 

 IG different classes— not that it had a 

 walk-over. It's not necessary to men- 

 lion the names of the winners, or of 

 all the flowers — except the names of 

 the new, or scarce varieties — a good 

 new variety always displaces a good 

 old (me. The good new ones were as 

 follows — and they are worth hunting 

 up; the colors and descriptions may he 

 found in the different catalogues — be- 

 ginning with Chrystine Leroux, British 

 Empire, Amateur Consiel, Madame 

 Roussel, Donald McLeod — when 1 said 

 McCloud, Elmer Smith said I had pro- 

 nounced it wrong — .Jos. Roacher, M. L. 

 Dupuy. Victoria and Albert, Money 

 .Maker. Loissean Rosseau. I am not 

 sure as to the latter, some laliel writers 

 think it easy to make out what they 

 do not write plainly — Suzzane Gauth- 

 ier, Mdme. Rosseau, A. Scalandrus, 

 Mre. H... Barnes. Mrs. H. Partridge, 

 May Seddon, White Duckham, Mayor 

 Weaver, M. G. Rivol, May Inglis, 

 Ongawa, Crocus, Md. Pechou, Mdlle 

 Charbonne, Mrs. Geo. Beach, San 

 Souci, M. F. Plant, Director Guard, 

 Gen'l Hutton, Norman Davis, Mrs. 

 Mease, Dubois Fourssert, Miss M. 

 Hankey, W. Wells. Mrs. Geo. Reed 

 ("or Read"! and H. Dick. Perhaps 

 these are not all but they are all good. 

 The flowers of pompons, from May, 

 Hill, and others, were of the greatest 

 interest, and had crowds around them 

 continuously. 



The chrysanthemum plants are of 

 ordinary merit — nothing striking or 

 meritorious except the White Mountain 

 shown by the Chrysanthemum Society 

 of America, a specimen of Mrs. J. 

 B. Traintor, eight feet across. It was 

 a magnificent specimen and its equal 

 has been rarely seen. 



The show is greatly indebted to 

 South Park, Lincoln Park and the 

 West Parks for the several magnificent 

 groups of fine palms, ferns, orchids 

 and other plants — thanks for all. 

 There are fine araucarias and all the 

 family of Nephrolepis as far as re- 

 corded. There were some absolutely 

 new tropical plants collected by Prof. 

 John F. Cowell, which will be de- 

 scribed In next issue. 



A new Begonia Agatha from Peter- 

 son is fine and all the florists' 

 booths are revelations — fifteen of 

 them. 



Now we ccme to Vaughan's flower 

 garden, so charmingly laid out. A 

 new privet shown here is promising 

 enough to take the place of box for 

 edging. The display of nursery stock 

 by Swain Nelson & Sons. Porter Co. 

 and the Dundee Nursery Co. were 

 features of the exhibition to which we 

 shall again refer. The orchids of 

 Pres. Uihlein were beautiful, and 

 how thankful the west ought to be 

 to him year in and year out. The 

 Self ridge orchid collection shown by 

 Lincoln Park were also very fine. 



There was a "battle royal" among 

 the roses on Tuesday. Bassett & 

 Washburn, Poehlmann, Dittmann. 

 Wietor Bros.. Benthey & Coats worth, 

 Pet€r Reinberg, E. G. Hill Co., all 

 winners in either Beauty, Bride, 

 Bridesmaid, Chatenay, Uncle John, 

 Killarney (what a gem), Perle, Rich- 



mond or Liberty — Liberty beat Rich- 

 mond. 



On Wednesday, the Divine Flower 

 was aggressive and even stronger than 

 yesterday's roses. The schedule 

 named forty-one classes, of which 

 thirteen did not fill, the total number 

 of competitions being about ninety. 

 One class — Enchantress — had eleven 

 entries, and so down to only one in a 

 class. The most remarkable thing 

 was that of Mrs. T. W. Lawson, the 

 breadwinner of so many. There were 

 only live entries. The Enchantress 

 family of which there is such a num- 

 ber that the difliculty is to keep track 

 of them, monopolized the show, most- 

 ly all being meritorious. The end of 

 this Enchantress with her wiles is not 

 yet in sight. In whites. White Per- 

 fection — a gem of the first water — and 

 While Lawson led, followed by Lady 

 BouiMiful, Wolcott. Queen and Moon- 

 light. Of reds. Red Lawson and No. 

 49 of the Chicago Carnation Co. (by 

 the way, no flower under number 

 should be permitted to compete in 

 the regular schedule classes), Robert 

 Craig and Victory. Of crimsons only 

 one variety, Harlowarden, was shown, 

 and it is good always. Of pinks. En- 

 chantress, Mrs. Thos. W. Lawson, 

 Fiancee, Nelson Fisher, etc. The 

 best of all, and the best carnation to 

 date is Aristocrat. Of striped only 

 five entries. Of new varieties there 

 were No. 49, Skidelsky's Pink Enchan- 

 tress and Melody, but White Perfec- 

 tion and Aristocrat held all other 

 competitors safe. The main exhibitors 

 of carnations were: Chicago Carna- 

 tion Co. (winning thirteen firsts), 

 Poehlmann Bros., Bassett & Wash- 

 burn. H. W. Buckbee, Anton Then, 

 Peter Reinberg, Sol. Garland, Fritz 

 Bahr, Gunnar Ticlmann, J. D. Thomp- 

 son Co., W. C. Hill Floral Co., E. H. 

 Blameuser, J. C. Ahrenfeld, B. K. 

 Floral Co. and Guardian Angel Co. 

 JOHN THORPE. 



THE BANQUET. 



The banquet on Thursday evening 

 .given in honor of the Chrysanthemum 

 Society of America and the visitors to 

 the exhibition was a great success in 

 every respect. There were about two 

 hundred guests. President Hauswirth 

 of the Chicago Florists' Club presided. 

 When the oratorical session had been 

 reached he spoke a few words of cor- 

 dial welcome to the visitors and asked 

 J. C. Vaughan to serve as toastraaster 

 who first called upon president W. F. 

 Kasting of the S. A. F. to respond for 

 the national society. Mr. Kasting 

 spoke in commendation of what Chi- 

 cago had accorai)lished in the exhibi- 

 tion now in |)rogress and expressed his 

 conviction that it is the only city that 

 can make the contemplated national 

 flower show of 1908 a success. 



"The Chrysanthemum Society of 

 .America" was the toast given its presi- 

 dent. Wm. Duckham. Mr. Duckham 

 expressed hope for the future growth 

 of the C. S. A. and the placing of the 

 chrysanthemum in its deserved posi- 

 tion of importance. He regretted the 

 lack of entries for the valuable prizes 

 and urged that more enthusiasts take 

 hold and do something for the 

 autumn queen, especially in the matter 

 of hybridization. 



Secretary W. J. Stewart was then 



