HORTICULTURE 



Vol. XXX 



AUGUST 30, 1919 



No. 9 



WHAT THE DETROIT CONVENTION ACCOMPLISHED 



It was the biggest convention of the 

 Society of American Florists since 

 1912, and one of the best conventions 

 ever held. Everybody who attended 

 came away confident that the latter 

 statement is true. Much of the busi- 

 ness was reported in Hokhcultube 

 last week. The election of officers re- 

 sulted as follows: 



President, A. L. Miller. Jamaica, N. 

 Y. 



Vice-president. P. C. W. Brown. 

 Cleveland, O. 



Secretary. John Young, New York. 



Treasurer, J. J. Hess, Omaha. Neb 



The contest for president was one 

 of the liveliest which has ever taken 

 place at one of these conventions. At 

 the same time it was remarkably 

 friendly and free from rancor. The 

 two candidates nominated were A. L. 

 Miller and J. F. Sullivan of Detroit. Mr. 

 Miller won by 47 votes, showing that 

 the contest was very close. Some of 

 the western delegates stood solidly 

 for Mr. Miller, thus assuring his elec- 

 tion. He has previously been a vice- 

 president and is thoroughly alive to 

 the needs of the organization and 

 well equipped to be its leader. 



The only other contest was for di- 

 rector, the candidates being Herman 

 P. Knoble of Cleveland, Paul R. Kling- 

 sporn of Chicago, and Irwin Berter- 

 mann of Indianapolis. Mr. Knoble was 

 elected unanimously, but the vote for 

 Mr. Klingsporn and Mr. Bertermann 

 was a tie. The decision was reached 

 by the toss of a coin. Fortune favored 

 the Chicago man, and he was declared 

 elected. 



As voted last year, Cleveland will 

 be the convention city for 1920. 



Among the important actions taken 

 was one to raise the annual dues to 

 $5 and life membership to $50. 



All the amendments were passed 

 One of them does away with the old 

 plan of selecting a convention city two 

 years in advance. By the passage of 

 this amendment the plan of holding 

 convention gardens was also aban- 

 doned. 



It was voted to raise the salary of 

 the secretary, John Young, to $5,000 a 

 year, this being an increase of $1,400. 



Nobody seemed to doubt the assertion 

 that Secretary Young's work made 

 him well worth the additional amount. 



The retiring president, Mr. Ammann, 

 was presented with a beautiful silver 

 service as a token of the esteem in 

 which he is held by the association. 



The Washington representative, Mr. 

 William F. Gude, after reading his re- 

 port which showed a year of unusual 

 activity, was presented a gold cross, 

 fashioned in the style of a war cross, 

 and bearing on its face a rose set with 

 a diamond. The presentation speech 

 was made by Mr. Charles H. Grakelow 

 of Philadelphia. 



The New I'reniilent, A. L,. Miller 



The publicity work was given an en- 

 thusiastic endorsement by the conven 

 tion, and it was voted to appropriate 

 $5,000 to carry on the work. 



One of the most interesting reports 

 was that of William L. Gude, the 

 Washington representative. 



REPORT FROM WASHINGTON. 



The past year has been an eventful 

 one for your Washington representa- 

 tive, particularly the first three months 

 of our fiscal year during which time 

 the coal situation, which you are all so 

 familiar with, created much concern, 

 and much work for your Washington 

 representative. The war is now over 

 but the question of adequate help 



still concerns us very much, and as for 

 the coal situation while there is no 

 embargo now, unless those who have 

 not already gotten their coal for the 

 coming winter, get it on the ground at 

 once they may find themselves with- 

 out coal to carry them through the 

 coming winter. This is due to several 

 causes, such as not sufficient miners to 

 dig the coal, insufficient railroad 

 facilities to distribute the coal and 

 various other causes. However, I sin- 

 cerely hope that the coal situation is 

 not as black as it looks, because the 

 last several seasons caused enough 

 anxiety without having further coal 

 troubles this year. 



The Rose Garden which is conducted 

 by the Department of Agriculture in 

 co-operation with the American Rose 

 Society now contains 700 varieties. 

 During the year additions have been 

 made to the extent of 3 varieties, 24 

 concerns were requested to contribute 

 plants to the garden aggregating 161 

 varieties. Sixteen replies received and 

 3 firms sent plants totalling 15 and 

 consisting of 3 varieties. 



Fortunately at the time the Execu- 

 tive Committee of the Ro'se Society 

 visited the garden this year, the 

 weather was propitious and the roses 

 were in better condition than at any 

 previous meeting of the committee. 

 The condition of the garden was 

 creditable considering the difficulty of 

 securing labor with the limited funds 

 at the disposal of the Department. 



The work of Dr. Van Fleet in breed- 

 ing hardy garden types of roses has 

 yielded exceedingly interesting re- 

 sults. There are now in the trial 

 grounds between 3,000 and 4,000 seed- 

 lings and among the mature plants 

 which have been selected out of the 

 previous generations of seedlings, there 

 are five or six remarkably promising 

 new varieties which the committee of 

 the Rose Society feels warrant intro- 

 duction. These plants are not only 

 interesting because of their infloresc- 

 ence but because of their foliage and 

 habit of growth. 



While they have not yet been 

 tested out in a wide geographical way. 

 yet it is believed from the parentage 

 which has contributed to these varie- 

 ties that they will carry rose planting 

 into regions not now well supplied 



