576 



HOKTICULTURE 



September 18, 1915 



NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 



The summer meeting of the Na- 

 tional As&ociation of Gardeners was 

 held in the Civic Center Auditorium, 

 San Francisco. Cal.. Wednesday, Aug. 

 18, 1915. In the absence of President 

 John W. Everitt. of New York, Vice- 

 President William S. Rennie. of Cali- 

 fornia, presided. 



Although the meeting was not as 

 largely attended as some of the mid- 

 summer meetings have been in the 

 East, what was lacking in numbers, 

 however, was fully offset by the gen- 

 eral interest and enthusiasm mani- 

 fested by those present in the pro- 

 ceedings. 



Mr. Rennie in welcoming the visit- 

 ing members to California expressed 

 his regrets at the inability of the 

 president of the association to be on 

 hand. He presented a message to the 

 meeting from the president, however, 

 in which the latter stated in part. 



"Whether we come from the East, the 

 West, the North or the Soutli. as profes- 

 sional gardeners our aim should l)e to 

 produce a broader development for orna- 

 mental horticulture which cannot fail to 

 Iiring greater recognition to our profes- 

 sion, and which will ultimately result in 

 increasing benefits to those in it. 



"A strong national association of the 

 gardeners, heartily supported by those 

 who follow the profession, I lielieve. could 

 l>e made most powerful and influeutial in 

 its work for the good of the profession, 

 although it may at times prove disappoint- 

 ing to individuals seeking direct benefits 

 from it. It is. as you are aware, the 

 policy of our as.sociation to develop along 

 lines where it will serve its members and 

 aid those striving to advance and better 

 themselves In their calling. We have com- 

 mittees at work endeavoring to thrash out 

 the problems with which an organization 

 like ours is confronted in its development 

 stage, and these committees, and also your 

 officers, at all times court and welcome 

 suggestions from members which may lie 

 valuable in aiding the progress of the or- 

 ganization.'* 



Following the reading of the presi- 

 dent's message, V'ice-President Rennie 

 called on the different members pres- 

 ent for a few remarks, and in respond- 

 ing, Robert Williamson, of Greenwich. 

 Conn., said: 



"J am indeed glad to be here to meet 

 with the gardeners of the West. I am 

 somewhat disappointed that there are 

 not more of our Eastern members 

 present, as we expected to have a 

 larger body with us. but. of course, 

 we are rather young as an organiza- 

 tion and on account of the distance 

 being so great we must make allow- 

 ance for so few of us here from a dis- 

 tance, but personally I am glad to 

 have taken the trip to meet with the 

 other gardeners here. 



David F. Roy, of Marion, Mass., re- 

 I'erring to President Everitt's message, 

 said, "1 can quite understand why it 

 is that he is not here. Men in our 

 position, if they want to succeed, find 

 that oue of the first requisites is that 

 they must cater to the wishes of their 

 employers." 



L. P. Jenson, of St. Louis, Mo., in 

 urging a campaign to increase the 

 membership, remarked: 'This is the 

 first opportunity 1 have had to be with 

 this body of gardepers. 1 hope in the 

 future 1 will be with you often. It 

 seems to me that the gardeners 

 throughout the country do not know 



enough about it. I think we ought to 

 make a strong effort to have our mem- 

 bers throughout the country get in new 

 members. In that way in a short time 

 we would have a strong representa- 

 tive body of men throughout the 

 United States. 



W. T. Lee, of San Francisco. Cal.. 

 speaking on increased membership 

 remarked, "It seems to me that as we 

 develop and get more members we 

 should have local organizations if it 

 can be done, to affiliate with the cen- 

 tral body in some way, so that we 

 could meet once in a while. I under- 

 stand that there are quite a number 

 of members on the coast." 



A. Bischke, of Noroton, Conn., speak- 

 ing on the pleasures of the trip and 

 the future of the association, said: 

 "I am greatly surprised to see the 

 strides that have been made by these 

 great western cities; for instance, Min- 

 neapolis and Seattle. Then take Ta- 

 coma, with its giant trees; we have to 

 take our hats off. to those trees, lakes 

 and boulevards. We have nothing like 

 them in the East. I think we should 

 strive to start a propaganda in each 

 community to develop our association 

 right now. It should not be a local 

 society. It should be a national or- 

 ganization. The more members we 

 can get in. the better, and scattered 

 all over the United States. Our pro- 

 fession is a great one. What would a 

 city like Minneapolis or New York, or 

 any of the greater cities, be without 

 their parks, or without gardens and 

 trees? They would be a barren 

 waste." 



Percy EUings, of Menlo Park, Cal., 

 secretary of the Menlo Park Horticul- 

 tural Society, extended an invitation 

 to the visiting gardeners to come to 

 Menlo Park and be the guests of the 

 society for a day. stating that they 

 had made arrangements to take the 

 gardeners all through the principal 

 estates down on the Peninsula, and 

 afterwards to treat them to a good old- 

 fasiiioned Spanish barbecue. 



Theodore Wirth. of Minneapolis, 

 Minn., on being called on said in the 

 course of remarks: "While I am a 

 park superintendent now, I came to 

 that position as a gardener, and I am 

 proud to be a gardener and always 

 have been proud of it and always will 

 be. There are many possibilities in 

 our profession, so many different ways 

 to develop that it is certainly very im- 

 portant that we make more effort in 

 the future than in the past to get to- 

 gether and enlarge the usefulness of 

 the National Association of Gardeners. 

 The only way that this can be done 

 best in my opinion is through the for- 

 mation of local organizations and hav- 

 ing them represented by delegates to 

 the national meetings wherever they 

 may be held." 



Vice-President Rennie next called 

 on Richard Vincent. Jr., of White 

 Marsh. Md.. who said: "In regard to 

 this matter before us, I am something 

 like tlie boy who made his first trip 

 out in the country. I may be a little 

 green as to whKt the idea of this asso- 



ciation is, but I think that the sugges- 

 tion in regard to building up the or- 

 ganization is an excellent one. Every 

 man who wants his organization to go 

 ahead ought to put a little energy into 

 it. It is only by thorough work that you 

 can make this organization what it 

 ought to be. It is now in its infancy, 

 but it can and will grow if you will 

 only put your shoulders to the wheel 

 and give it a little push up hill." 



Mr. Vincent was followed by some 

 of the members of the Pacific Coast, 

 and what they had to say indicated 

 that they were thoroughly interested 

 in the work that could be accomplished 

 by an organization such as the Na- 

 tional Association of Gardeners and 

 that they might be counted on to give 

 their support and co-operation. 



An invitation was received at this 

 time from the American Association 

 of Park Superintendents to attend the 

 illustrated lecture of Hon. Samuel E. 

 Hill on "Good Roads" and the meet- 

 ing adjourned to attend the lecture. 

 It was intended to re-convene after 

 the lecture, but owing to so many 

 other attractions of the exposition city 

 there was no re-convenIng and the 

 meeting stood finally adjourned. 



BIENNIALS AT GLENSIDE, PA. 



The cover illustration represents a 

 partial view of Foxgloves and Sweet 

 Williams which, exposed to a lively 

 traffic on two Philadelphia suburban 

 pikes during last June attracted con- 

 siderable public attention. Calculated 

 to demonstrate to some extent their 

 usefulness for floral mass-effects it also 

 offered a good opportunity to study 

 the attitude of the average visitor. The 

 frequent question, "What are those 

 lieautiful flowers?" indicated less fa- 

 miliarity of even well-educated people 

 with biennials than one would sup- 

 pose. The fact that this class of plants 

 do not flower "all summer" and as a 

 rule do not last over two seasons, In- 

 variably brought to light by succeed- 

 ing questions, did not seem to dampen 

 the admiration for the display. But 

 t!ie most appealing feature to many 

 Interested callers was apparently the 

 possibility of easy raising from seed. 

 I am inclined to believe that from the 

 purely business standpoint similar dis- 

 plays are likely to, first of all, benefit 

 the seed trade. There is, however, not 

 the least doubt in regard to their stim- 

 ulating influence in general. To see 

 a thing brings the desire to have it and 

 tlie American garden owner, particu- 

 larly when the quality warrants it. Is, 

 as a rule, quick to act. 



Knowing the readers of Horticul- 

 ture to be well posted on the simple 

 proceedings of growing biennials from 

 seed I wish to call attention only to 

 the matter of strains in seeds. From 

 the very start the best should be just 

 good enough for your planting and 

 while foxgloves, for instance, "grow 

 like weeds", to obtain strong evenly 

 grown stock means systematic work 

 and the necessary care. Keeping this 

 strictly in mind and. acting according- 

 ly, the matter is indeed an easy one. 

 Glenside, Pa. Riihvhii Rothe. 



