470 



HOETICULTURE 



October 5, 1912 



horticulture: 



VOL. HKl 



OCTOBER 5, 1912 



NO. 14 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BT 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place. Boston, Mass. 



Telephvne, Oxford ftH. 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and MansKcr. 



ADVERTISING BATE« 



Per Inch, SO in^-hea to page »!••• 



DlecoantH on Contractn for consecutive insertion§, as follows: 



One month (4 times). 6 per cent.; three months (13 times), 10 

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 M per cent. 



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Bntered as secoud-class matter December 8, 1»04, at the Post Office at 

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CONTENTS 



Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— A Florist's Window. 



NOTES IN CULTURE OF FLORISTS' STOCK— An- 

 tirrhinums — Allamaudas — Cinerarias — Hydrangea 

 arborescens — Orchids — O.xalis — John J. M. Farrell.. 469 



ROSE GROWING UNDER GLASS— Cloudy Days- 

 Temperature — Plants in Solid Benches — Looking 

 After Blackspot — Other Plants in Rose Houses — 

 Rats and Mice— Handling Cut Roses— Sheep Manure 

 — Leaky Propagating Houses — Arthur C. Ruzicka. . ■ ■ 471 



THE EXHIBITIONS— National Dahlia Society (Eng.) 

 — New Jersey Floricultural Society — Rhode Island 



Horticultural Society— Bronx Park Show 472 



Vincent Dahlia Show 473 



PLANT QUARANTINE RULES AND REGULATIONS 474 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— Florists' Club of Washing- 

 ton — Florists' Club of Philadelphia — Connecticut 

 Horticultural Society 476 



SEED TRADE— Sam Sibley, portrait — Notes 478 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



Steamer Departures— New Flower Stores 480 



Flowers by Telegraph 481 



A Florist's Window, Illustrated 482 



DURING RECESS — Yonkers Football — Chicago Flor- 

 ists' Club — Cook County Florists' Association 483 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati 48.5 



New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Washington 487 



OBITUARY — Mrs. Warren Ewell — William W. Thomp- 

 son—Thomas Fletcher — Richard E. Evans— G. Harry 

 Baker — Martin Kennedy— Paul Allerth — George Car- 

 penter 492 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Publications Received— Catalogues Received 478 



Personal — Cincinnati Notes 481 



A "Lorraine" Expert 482 



New York Notes 482 



News Notes 483 



Chicago Notes 483 



Fire Record — In Bankruptcy 487 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 494 



In his very interesting talk on advertising 



Advice at the Cliicago convention, L. W. C. Tut- 



accepted ]nll took occasion to criticise the location of 



the "List of Advertisers" in the florist trade 

 papers and to suggest that the proper place for tliis 

 feature is the first page following tlie cover. This par- 

 ticular remark evoked so much applause that we became 

 convinced there was "something in it" and consequently, 

 as Horticulture is ever ready to adopt anything that 

 appears progressive our list of advertisers will be found 

 in this and succeeding issues, for a while at least, in the 

 place suggested by Mr. Tuthill. We should like to hear 

 the views of both advertisers and readers on this change 

 of make-up, whether favorable or otherwise. 



Referring to the successful meeting 

 Our and exhibition of the S. A. F. at Chi- 



"International" cago last August the Journal of Hor- 

 ticulture (London) says: 



"This causes us to wonder how long it will be before 



the "International" takes place across the Atlantic, for not 

 long since a prominent American warned us that if Britain 

 desired to maiutain her eminent ijosition she must "hoist 

 her slacks." However, we are not alarmed, and will hail 

 the day when the I. H. E. becomes a real live Inter- 

 national." 



All of which seems to suggest that the London "In- 

 ternational" did not quite attain the ideals set for it. So 

 far removed are we from the great horticultural nations 

 of the old world that America can hardly hope to set 

 any extraordinary pace in the "International" line but 

 we are going to have a try at it next April and although 

 it has not been very long or loudly proclaimed we have 

 reason to believe a very fair beginning will be made. 

 The more there are of foreign exhibitors the happier we 

 shall be and those who favor us with their presence will 

 never forget or regret the occasion. 



After reading the cut flower market 

 A practice tinat reports from the various centres, and 

 hurts -^vith a general knowledge of the sit- 



uation and the progress of produc- 

 tion on all sides, one cannot but feel exasperated over 

 the items that repeatedly creep into the daily news- 

 papers, avowedly based on the statements of some local 

 florist, concerning the alleged scarcity of flowers and 

 their prohibitive value for people of moderate means. 

 Easter and the Christmas holidays are favorite occa- 

 sions for the dissemination of this sort of stuff but it is 

 confined to no season and no locality. It has already be- 

 gun its mischievous work for this season. Just what 

 peculiar motive or line of reasoning prompts a florist 

 to spread broadcast reports that must cause a direct 

 injury to his business, through its' discouraging and 

 deten-ent effect on prospective buyers, is past our com- 

 prehension. We hear much regarding the value of news- 

 paper publicity in bringing the public to appreciate 

 what the florist business can do to gladden their exist- 

 ence. In this connection we would respectfully sug- 

 gest that one of the most practical things the florists can 

 do in their publicity campaign is to set their feet down 

 vigorously on this "scare head" business, for which there 

 may have been some reason away back in the dim past 

 but for which none now exists. 



The Department of Agriculture has re- 

 Testing seed cently issued a Bulletin giving the 

 germination results of a five years' germination test 



of packeted vegetable seeds as sent out 

 by some sixty "box trade" houses and twenty mail order 

 concerns. The average germination of all the packets 

 of box seeds was 60.5 per cent, and of the mail order 

 seeds 77.5 per cent. Naturally the results varied great- 

 ly, some lots scoring high and others very low, and in 

 the case of the box or commission seeds seeming to 

 justify somewhat the prevalent distrust of seeds sold 

 under that system. The Department, in drawing its 

 conclusions, suggests as a remedy that "The sale of pack- 

 eted seeds will not be on a proper basis until each packet 

 is labeled with the percentage of live seed which it con- 

 tains. This practice would do away with the trade in 

 seeds of low vitality and at the same time give the pur- 

 chaser the information to which he is entitled and with- 

 out which he can not use to the best advantage the seeds 

 he buys." This proposition is hardly feasible. Mail order 

 houses put up millions of packets of seeds, while the 

 commission houses put up many millions more and it is 

 frequently impossible to fill the packets all with one lot 

 of seed and the percentage of growth would consequently 

 vary. The names of the seed houses whose goods were 

 under test are not furnished but it is safe to say that no 

 honest house would knowingly send out seeds of as weak 

 vitality as the smaller percentages reported by the De- 

 partment. 



