316 



HOETICULTURE 



September 4, 1915 



committee in charge of the garden all 

 School Garden work is well organized, 

 and the back yards of the thousands 

 of little houses reveal a taste and in- 

 dustry of great importance to any one. 

 No one city probably is doing more by 

 organized effort to make up home and 

 public gardening instruction than is 

 Toronto, Ontario. Here is a climate 

 the opposite in its make-up to that of 

 Southern California, yet the same ap- 

 preciation of the beautiful and the 

 value of economic thrift is evidenced 

 in both sections. Down the Ohio river, 

 in city after city its entire length, this 

 school gardening and home gardening 

 is being carried on. At Evansville, 

 Ind., our old friend and pioneer mem- 

 ber of the society, J. D. Carmody, has 

 encouraged this sort of work and late- 

 ly given valuable land for garden and 

 park use. This illustration serves 

 simply to show the interest in this 

 great work. It is one that grows, and 

 no craft can do more to encourage it 

 and profit by it than the florists of 

 America, and in so doing the homes of 

 the people of America are made the 

 more beautiful. 



FROM THE S. A. F. CONVENTION 

 CITY OF 1916. 



One week has passed since the 

 storm, and the florists have about 

 cleaned up the wreckage, and are be- 

 ginning to rebuild. After checking up 

 the stock we find the damage to ex- 

 tend to about 25 to 35 per cent. In 

 about two or three weeks we will not 

 know we had a storm. Everybody Is 

 working a large force of men and will 

 soon have things straightened out. 



All the florists are enthusiastic over 

 the S. A. F. Convention for next sum- 

 mer. Very shortly we shall name our 

 committees, and get busy early in the 

 game. We propose to make this a rec- 

 ord breaking Convention for the Soci- 

 ety. I firmly believe it will come right 

 up to the best Convention the S. A. P. 

 has ever known, if it is not a record 

 breaker. In view of the line of pub- 

 licity we are going to give the Con- 

 vention the coming year, it will stir 

 up interest throughout the United 

 States, and very few of the members 

 will feel like staying at home. 



As far as trade exhibits are con- 

 oerned. we have a large auditorium, 

 and I am sure it is going to be packed 

 to its capacity. I cite you for example 

 our Texas State Florists' Association, 

 which is as yet a small organization, 

 and we were enabled to stir up enough 

 interest to fill a good sized building 

 with exhibits. Now compare, if you 

 please, the Texas State Florists' Asso- 

 ciation and the great S. A. P. and you 

 will have in comparison the kind of 

 an exhibit we shall have at the 1916 

 S. A. F. Convention in Houston. 

 R. C. Kerr, Vice-Pres., S. A. F. 



The premium list for the Maryland 

 State Horticultural Society and affili- 

 ated organizations has been received. 

 Among the special features are a 

 "Maryland Week" Essay Contest, and 

 a "Club Exhibit" Contest, intended for 

 farmers' clubs and granges, etc. Pros- 

 pects are for the largest and best exhi- 

 bition in the history of the organiza- 

 tions. Copies of the schedule may be 

 obtained from Thomas B. Svnions, 

 Secretary, College Park Md. 



THE PROBLEMS ATTENDING THE 

 ESTABLISHMENT OF PERMA- 

 NENT CONVENTION GAR- 

 DENS. 



(Paper by Theodore Wirth.) 

 Tliere can be no question as to the 

 importance and desirability of arrang- 

 ing for Convention Gardens wherever 

 our annual meetings are to be held. 

 The usefulness and value of such gar- 

 dens as a medium of publicity and edu- 

 cation will not be doubted by any one 

 who gives the subject due considera- 

 tion. 



There is, to the best of my knowl- 

 edge and belief, no great difficulty in 

 establishing such a garden tor each 

 convention, and the only real problem, 

 it seems to me, is to make it perma- 

 nent. This necessarily is a question 

 which, in the main, must be solved 

 by the local promoters of the garden. 

 The same spirit that was employed in 

 its creation, should be able to solve 

 the question of its future existence, 

 permanency and growth. 



I have, in the past, presented the 

 question whether or not it wpuld be 

 possible to select the Convention City 

 two years in advance, instead of one. 

 in order to provide for two years' 

 growth of the hardy material, which 

 could be used to advantage in the 

 planting of the garden. 



Personally. I wish this could be done, 

 because I realize the great and re- 

 sulting benefits that would accrue; 

 and I believe that all plantsmen will 

 agree with me. There can be no 

 doubt but that the value of the gar- 

 dens, from every point of view, would 

 be greatly enhanced by this additional 

 time given them in preparation; and 

 that the interest of professionals and 

 the public alike, before and after, as 

 well as during, the Convention, would 

 be correspondingly increased. 



However, if this plan is not deemed 

 feasible, there is still one advantage 

 open with the present arrangement, 

 which has not been made use of in our 

 past undertakings along this line. 



If our brother florists and horticul- 

 turists of the city ambitious of secur- 

 ing the next Convention are real anx- 

 ious to have the best garden thus far 

 made, they will select a piece of land 

 for that purpose, far in advance, and 

 will submit a well arranged plan to 

 the Convention at which they make 

 their bid for the next meeting. If 

 they land the prize, they should pre- 

 pare the grounds at once, and secure 

 without delay all planting material 

 that can be transplanted to advantage 

 in the fall. In this way, most of the 

 perennials, shrubs, and trees will be 

 well established in the spring, and 

 make a very good showing by Conven- 

 tion time. 



Early solicitation amongst prospec- 

 tive exhibitors is. for many reasons ab- 

 solutely necessary. A time limit should 

 be set for allotment of space in the gar- 

 den, and the special attention of such 

 prospective exhibitor must be called to 

 this. All space not applied for by a 

 certain date, should then be offered to 

 nearby and local growers with a slight- 

 ly extended time limit. This limit 

 should be set so as to give the com- 

 mittee in charge an opportunity to 

 secure suitable planting material for 

 fllling the unsold spaces in the gar- 

 den in good time. It is absolutely 

 necessary, in my opinion, to give the 

 necessary power and means, and to 

 concentrate the actual direction and 



supervision in one active, experienced, 

 dependable man. Tell this man to go 

 ahead, and then do not interfere with 

 him; but give him all the assistance 

 he needs, when he asks for it. I be- 

 lieve it would be a good investment, 

 generally speaking, to send him on a 

 two months' trip to visit personally 

 the principal growers in all parts of 

 the country for the purpose of solicit- 

 ing exhibits. Let liim start right at 

 the Convention. The right man will 

 thereby awaken the general interest of 

 the trade and secure the desired sup- 

 port. Correspondence would not be 

 nearly as effective. 



I cannot lay too much stress on the 

 necessity of giving all exhibits the best 

 possible attention and care, and of 

 guarding the interests of the exhibitor 

 in every possible way. Be sure that 

 he gets the space he bought; that his 

 plants are properly labeled, and his 

 firm's name is properly displayed. 

 Give him all he is entitled to and as 

 much more as you can. 



It is too much to expect that very 

 many distant firms will keep up their 

 exhibits after the Convention year. Yet 

 some of the wide-awake and progres- 

 sive growers will undoubtedly be glad 

 to permanently make use of our gar- 

 dens and thus exhibit their goods and 

 special novelties in different parts of 

 the country at the same time. In most 

 instances, it will, therefore, become 

 desirable and necessary, after the first 

 year, to change the layout of the gar- 

 den and to devote the larger part of 

 the grounds to hardy material, and a 

 much smaller portion to the tender an- 

 nual bedding plants. This we have now 

 done at Minneapolis and the new lay- 

 out will be as beautiful and instruc- 

 tive to our people from now on as the 

 real Convention Garden was to us pro- 

 fessionals two years ago. 



The Convention Garden must, in my 

 opinion, always be created and main- 

 tained under the auspices of the 

 National Society. The price for space 

 should, if at all possible, be the same 

 wherever the Garden is, and same 

 should be high enough to defray the 

 expense of maintenance. The chair- 

 man of the local garden committee 

 should be appointed a member of a 

 similar committee of the National So- 

 ciety and as such could act as the ex- 

 ecutive officer of both committees. 



The garden should be located on 

 public land in order to make its fu- 

 ture existence possible and I know of 

 no good reason why every city park 

 administration should not only be will- 

 ing, but really anxious, to cooperate 

 with us in the establishment of such 

 trial and exhibition grounds which 

 cannot help but be of educational 

 value to the people of their city. 



Our esteemed President, Mr. P. 

 Welch,, has assigned to me the subject 

 herein presented, but I am not sure 

 that I have covered the ground to his 

 entire satisfaction. There are really 

 no great problems, no great obstacles, 

 that I can see, attending the estab- 

 lishment of permanent Convention 

 Gardens, and 1 believe that if the old 

 saying — "where there is a will, there Is 

 a way" — is applied at all times, there 

 can never be any doubt as to our 

 ability to establish such Convention 

 Gardens wherever we may go. and to 

 make them successful in every in- 

 stance. 



