H R r r I C ULTU R E 



April 19, 1919 



RHODE ISLAND HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



The April meeting was held in the 

 Lecture Room of the Public Library, 

 Providence, on Wednesday evening, 

 April 16, 1919. Mr, Joseph J. Pills- 

 bury, of the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture, lectured on Insect Pests and 

 Plant Diseases, and told how to con- 

 trol insects and plant diseases which 

 attack garden and orchard crops. 



FLORISTS' TELEGRAPH DELIVERY 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 The following timely advice was 

 sent out from headquarters last week: 

 Warning to F. T. D. Members. 

 Be sure and make your telegrams 

 for Easter orders plain and correct, 

 read over twice before sending them. 

 Be sure and get correct addresses. 

 Do not encourage orders too small 

 but do not deny F. T. D. Service to 

 people who cannot afford more. 



Remember that in a great many 

 parts of the country it is very hard to 

 make deliveries of plants and cut flow- 

 ers for less than $3.00 or $4.00 and 

 have them be a credit to the sender as 

 well as the florist who makes the de- 

 livery. 



Be sure and acknowledge every 

 order immediately after you receive it. 

 Be sure and mail bill immediately 

 after your Easter rush is over. 



Be sure and always state a price 

 limit on your orders, you may be sell- 

 ing a dozen roses for $3.00 and in some 

 other town they may sell for $5.00 or 

 $8.00 per dozen. 



Be sure and give the man who fills 

 the order a chance to do his best, 

 leave some leeway and tell your cus- 

 tomer that the man at the other end 

 will do his best. 



We have now eight hundred and 

 fifty F. T. D. branch stores. 



THE LANCASTER COUNTY FLOR- 

 ISTS' ASSOCIATION. 



Via trolley train and machine about 

 forty of the craft met at the green- 

 houses of Chas. M. Weaver, Ronks, Pa., 

 and made a thorough inspection of the 

 new early flowering sweet peas, the 

 regular houses of sweet peas, the hovise 

 of mignonette and the hundreds of 

 thousands of pompon chrysanthemums 



in process of preparation for the fall 

 crop in these houses. The early flow- 

 ering sweet peas were from the Burpee 

 collection, the result of crosses by Geo. 

 W. Kerr and the quality of the flowers 

 were a revelation to all of us. In addi- 

 tion to this was the pleasure of Mr. 

 Kerr's company in going through the 

 houses and his pride in and love for 

 his productions demonstrated an old 

 time truth "the man who forgets self, 

 and really loves his work is the man 

 who gets to the top." Mr. Weaver 

 furnished cigars for the crowd and the 

 houses were fumigated en route. At 

 7 p. m. an adjournment was made to 

 Elmer Weaver's greenhouses across 

 the way where sweet peas are the 

 main crop, carnations a close second 

 and later on the peas will be followed 

 by a crop of tomatoes. At 7.30 a 

 supper was provided for the party by 

 Elmer Weaver and served by the 

 Ladies Auxiliary. About 8.30 the pres- 

 ident rapped for order and announced 

 the meeting open. After a bit of pre- 

 liminary business Geo. W. Kerr read 

 an interesting and instructive paper 

 on the manner in which he produced 

 the sweet peas we had just seen, and 

 opened the eyes of our members to the 

 possibilities of hybridization in a way 

 that they never had presented in as at- 

 tractive manner before. 



Visitors to the meeting were James 

 L. Brown of Coatsville, Wm. Swayne, 

 Edw. Marshall. Lawrence & Howard 

 Thompson, Frederick Carey from Ken- 

 nett Square and Geo. W. Kerr and S. S. 

 Pennock of Philadelphia. 



The Ladies' Auxiliary met for a busi- 

 ness session at the home of Mrs. Chas. 

 M. Weaver and then after serving the 

 lunch met in conjunction with the club. 

 Mrs. A. M. Herr, president of the Aux- 

 iliary, thanked the club for the privi- 

 lege of being able to listen to such an 

 interesting paper and hoped that we 

 would have many more joint meetings 

 so that they could learn more of their 

 husband's business and some of the 

 "husbands are guessing yet. 



A vote was taken as to the place to 

 hold our next picnic and by a large 

 majority Wild Cat was the chosen 

 place. Wild Cat is a river resort above 

 Marietta and has one of the most 

 picturesque glens found any where and 

 an observatory that gives one a view 

 up and down the river for miles. It is 

 nationally known by its being the 

 home of the Wild Cat Club, a club that 

 has membership in all parts of the 



United States and at its annual meet- 

 ing they nearly all attend. 



After a vote of thanks being ten- 

 dered the hosts and the Secretary in- 

 structed to send Mr. Kerr a vote of 

 thanks for his paper the meeting ad- 

 journed to meet at the home of B. F. 

 Barr in peony time, the date left to 

 Mr. Barr and which will be announced 

 later on. 



Axbert M. Hekk. 



CONNECTICUT HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



A wonderful exhibit of schizanthus 

 was made in the rooms of the Connec- 

 ticut Horticultural Society on Friday 

 evening, April 11th, H. R. Hurd, head 

 gardener of the Vine Hill Farms, made 

 the display and delivered a most inter- 

 esting address on the culture of this 

 delightful flower. 



He stated in part as follows: The 

 schizanthus or "Butterfly Flower" also 

 known as "The Poor Man's Orchid" is 

 a herb imported from Chili, South 

 America. There are about six species, 

 most of which have cut leaves. The 

 culture requires a light soil and the 

 plants should be repotted often as the 

 roots grow very fast. The red spider 

 and the white fly are its worst enemies, 

 and close attention is necessary to 

 keep them under control. The schiz- 

 anthus has a range of color as varied 

 as a rainbow. There are four types: 

 hybrids, Wisetonensis. Retussus, and 

 Pinatusus. The hybrids are the larg- 

 est. Wisetonensis is very popular, be- 

 ing white with a yellow center and 

 pink and brown. Retussus is very 

 beautiful, having a great range of 

 color and markings. Pinatusus has a 

 very small bloom compared with the 

 other varieties. 



The schizanthus should be more 

 largely grown as it is very valuable 

 as a cut flower, lasting two or three 

 weeks in water, and is especially 

 adapted for mixing with other flowers. 

 The outlook for more flowers during 

 the present season is brighter than tor 

 several years. Everyone has been 

 raising vegetables, eliminating flowers 

 from their seed order, but this year 

 few gardens will be complete without 

 the flower section. 



The next meeting of the society will 

 be held on Friday, April 25th, when 

 the matter of a flower show will be 

 brought up for discussion. 



Axfked Dixon, Secy. 



