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HOBTICULTUEE 



August 19, 1916 



Florist Telegraph and Mail Order Service 



Will be stronger and better as soon as every good reliable 

 Retailer fills an out of town order the same way as he would 

 fill an order FOR THE BEST PATRON OF HIS SHOP. 



In order to give your Retail Florist correspondent a fair 

 chance to fill this order according to your wishes give him the 

 FULL AMOUNT FOR WHICH YOU HAVE TAKEN THE ORDER. 



We have sent a great many orders to a good many different 

 cities, also received many orders and comparatively few com- 

 plaints have come to us where A MEMBER OF THE FLORISTS' TELE- 

 GRAPH DELIVERY filled the order. I can also safely state that 

 in most cases we received our money very promptly from F. T. D. 

 Members and we also have seen to it that our bills were paid 

 within thirty days to Retailer filling orders for us. 



Our annual business of transferring and receiving orders from 

 and to other Retail Florists amounts to more, than $5,000. We 

 are always sure to make 20 per cent on all orders we send other 

 Retailers to fill, yet we are never so sure of making 20 per 

 cent on orders we fill here as the amount telegraphed to us is 

 sometimes not enough to carry out the order, like we must to 

 uphold our firm's reputation. 



THE L. BEMB FLORAL CO. 



Albert Poohelon Proprietor, Detroit, Mich. 



A GLADIOLUS FETE. 



The opening of "Cedar Acres," the 

 beautiful estate and gladiolus farm of 

 Mr. and Mrs. B. Hammond Tracy, at 

 Wenham, Mass., for charitable pur- 

 poses, as announced for Wednesday, 

 August 9, created much interest in so- 

 ciety circles along the North Shore. 

 Unfortunately the rains descended on 

 Wednesday as they had done during 

 the greater part of the past weeks and 

 it became necessary to postpone the 

 event until Thursday, when, although 

 it still was showery, the occasion was 

 eminently successful and a substan- 

 tial sum of money, resulting from gate 

 receipts and the sale of flowers, was 

 added to the fund for the American 

 Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly, 

 France. 



The gladiolus farms at Cedar Acres 

 comprise 27 acres in one piece, 15 

 acres in another and 2% acres in an- 

 other. All the leading gladiolus no%-el- 

 ties and popular varieties are seen 

 here in vast plantations and when in 

 the height of their blooming the laud- 

 scape is a veritable sea of flaming 

 color. Ot the variety Halley alone, there 

 are one million plants this season. A 

 violent electric storm and cloudburst 

 three days previous to the fete had 

 beaten down the spikes and crushed 

 the flowers in the soil but still there 

 was a grand array of cut blooms in 

 the big concrete storehouse, arranged 

 with the cleverness and taste which 

 Mrs. Tracy has demonstrated wher- 

 ever she has placed these rather diffi- 

 cult flowers on exhibition. There were 

 splendid combinations of harmonizing 

 and contrasting tones that compelled 

 admiration. While manv of the va- 



rieties on display were the outstand- 

 ing favorites of present day gladiolus- 

 dom yet among the most noticeable 

 ones were many seedlings of which 

 Mr. Tracy has obtained control and 

 which are really sensational in their 

 qualities of substance, form and color. 

 One only we shall mention here, a deep 

 velvet red flower with a black throat, 

 closely resembling an enormous fancy 

 pelargonium. 



In the fields, the widely varying 

 character and habit of the different 

 varieties was distinctly in evidence 

 after the heavy rains. Halley, un- 

 rivalled in its class as a cut flower, 

 was prone in the mud everywhere, 

 while Klondyke stood up with foliage 

 and flower spikes as rigid as if made 

 of steel, while Princeps with its yucca- 

 like foliage and stocky spikes of ama- 

 ryllis-like flowers seemed the ideal 

 bedder. 



Cedar Acres is 23 miles from Bos- 

 ton and visitors always receive a hos- 

 pitable welcome. 



THE NEW "RAINBOW" FREESIAS. 



Since some parties feel a little hesi- 

 tancy about investing in the Rainbow 

 Freesias, seemingly scared by their 

 cost, we addressed the grower for 

 further particulars and in reply we 

 can report as follows: 



These freesias have been hybridized 

 for the last seven years. The result 

 has been a strain far superior to any 

 imported stock. Reproduction of fixed 

 shades being uncertain, they can be 

 offered safely only in the mixture of 

 sundry neutral tints in lavender, old 

 gold, yellow, and pinkish, all blending 

 very harmoniously, and giving even an 



orchidlike effect. This will surely be 

 appreciated by a discriminating better 

 class trade; and it should be the free- 

 sia to be grown by those who run 

 store and greenhouses. Once intro- 

 duced, they will be permanent addi- 

 tions to the better-class store cutflow- 

 er trade. Too expensive? Not at all 

 when you will obtain, as has been 

 done in the past, with their branching 

 habit two to four sprays from the 

 main shoot, and larger bulbs produc- 

 ing repeatedly two and more flowering 

 spikes to the bulb. The old freesia 

 seldom produces more than one flower 

 spike; thus at .?10 per 1000 for these 

 and $40 per 1,000 for the Rainbows, 

 the flowers cost about alike. All it 

 takes is a little confidence and courage 

 to help introduce a new acquisition of 

 merit. When more than 30 years ago 

 the first freesias from the cape were 

 consigned to our firm, they sold at ?40 

 per 1,000, and proved a paying success. 

 They were called at the time African 

 lily of the valley. Many a dollar has 

 been since then made on freesias by 

 many growers. 



WiNFBIED ROEXKEB. 



Niagara Falls, Ont. — John Dobble, 

 florist, of Victoria avenue, has not 

 heard any word from his son. Private 

 Gordon Dobbie, who three weeks ago 

 was reported among the missing in 

 the European war at the front in 

 France. Young Dobbie had been on 

 the firing line since the early part of 

 the conflict. When last seen during 

 the Ypres battle Gordon was assisting 

 a comrade, and it is feared that he 

 has been killed, as he has not been re- 

 ported among the list of Canadian 

 prisoners. 



