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HORTICULTURE 



December 7, 1912 



HART MAKES HANDLES for POTS 



With Paper or Porto Rican Mats They Make Baskets. These are the Well- 



Known HART'S HANDY HANDLES. 



» 



Shipments are being made now for Holiday use eastward to Boston, 

 westward to San Francisco — and everywhere else. Once used, always 

 used, because they are SO HANDY. 



Prices per dozen— No. 1, &2.50 ; No. 2. 13.50; No. 3, S4.00 ; 

 No. 4, S5.00 ; No. 5, &6.00. 



GEORGE B. HART, 24 Stone S.., Rochester, N.Y. 



OUT OF THE GINGER JAR. 



On page 740 of HORTICULTURE I 

 find this sentence ; , "There is noth- 

 ing that will kill a town quicker than 

 cut-priced florists, because flowers are 

 largely regarded as a luxury and there 

 is no such thing as a cheap luxury." 

 Where did Ralph get that idea? 

 Rushes in Queen Elizabeth's day were 

 a floor luxury, but in this glorious 

 era of the world's history even a 

 day laborer can have carpets — and 

 cheap at that! On the contrary, 

 Ralph, there is most emphatically 

 such a thing as a cheap luxury, and 

 of all the wonderful things we have 

 to be thankful for it is — as our friend 

 Ross says — "beauty and fragrance for 

 little money." No greater crowning 

 glory to the present era of civiliza- 

 tion can be cited than its cheap luxu- 

 ries. For which we all ought to be 

 truly thankful. And not only that, 

 but we ought to be particularly care- 

 ful, in the interests of our business, 

 to frown on the yawps of the daily 

 press that dilate on the high cost of 

 flowers. That proposition is and 

 long has been an absolute myth. 

 High-grade flowers are cheaper today 

 comparatively speaking, than they 

 ever have been before. 



ing to them, "Keep away from us; 

 only millionaires can enter here!" 



The worst thing you can do is to 

 talk about high prices for flowers. 

 They never were so cheap in the 

 world's history. One of the glorious 

 privileges about living in 1912 is that 

 we can afford things that only a king 

 could have a hundred years ago. By 

 all means boost the idea among the 

 people that they can have "beauty 

 and fragrance tor little money." The 

 man who does that with acumen and 

 good judgment deserves plaudits from 

 all of us and has a right to go around 

 with rings on his fingers and bells 

 on his toes. 



GEORGE C. WATSON. 



Leaders who have been marked suc- 

 cesses in retailing flowers have based 

 their campaigns on the low cost idea. 

 Note for instance, the Century flower 

 stores and the Ross Flower Shops in 

 Philadelphia. 



All the reputable trade papers have 

 for twenty years back consistently set 

 their faces against creating public 

 opinion about the high cost of flowers. 

 These notions originated with un- 

 thinking retailers and were passed 

 along by the imaginative reporters. 

 But all who took time to think a min- 

 ute must have seen that it was the 

 worst kind of bad form and bad busi- 

 ness. 



A NOTABLE DECORATION. 



One of the most elaborate decora- 

 tions ever gotten together in this coun- 

 try was put up in the great ball room 

 and foyer of the Copley Plaza Hotel 

 in Boston on Wednesday evening, Dec. 

 4, the occasion being the debut of a 

 society young lady. The scene repre- 

 sented a Roman garden with all the 

 accessories of pergolas, arbors, lattice 

 work, fountains, pools and classic stat- 

 uary. The artist who conceived and 

 carried out the tremendous undertak- 

 ing was Mr. James Farquhar and it 

 took an army of lieutenants and help- 

 ers to place the thousands upon thou- 

 sands of plants, forests of ericas and 

 araucarias and ferns; cyclamens and 

 Lorraine bsgonias in great waves of 

 color, hanging baskets of white Lor- 

 raines by the hundred, vines and or- 

 chids in exquisite finish all contributed 

 to a most entrancing picture which 

 we hope to be able to show by illustra- 

 tions in a later issue. The walls were 

 hidden by formal arrangements of tall 

 cedars and yews and the steps to the 

 foyer and around the receiving stand 

 drooped veritable fountains of that 

 most graceful and fragrant of new dec- 

 orative plants, Buddleia asiatica. It 

 was a centre of interest in itself. 



Of course, the very rich want to pay 

 big money. They always want some- 

 thing abnormal, no matter what the 

 cost, and a wise salesman can easily 

 handle that. But to use that to at- 

 tract the rank and file who in the 

 long run are the mainstay is like say- 



Rudolph Holtzelaw, who has just 

 accepted a position as grower in the 

 Rosebud greenhouses, Newton, Kan- 

 sas, was formerly with the George M. 

 Kellogg Flower and Plant Co., of Kan- 

 sas City, Mo. 



HORTICULTURAL CLUB'S VISIT 

 TO THOMAS ROLAND. 



The Horticultural Club of Boston 

 held its monthly conference at the 

 Parker House on Wednesday evening, 

 Dec. 4. W. J. Stewart entertained the 

 members with a descriptive talk on 

 Bermuda, with observations on its cli- 

 mate, topography, people and plant 

 growth. The guests were E. W. Breed, 

 president of the Worcester County 

 Horticultural Society, George B. Hart 

 of Rochester, N. Y. and George Hamp- 

 ton, Philadelphia, Pa. 



In the afternoon preceding the 

 meeting a number of the members vis- 

 ited, on invitation, the establishments 

 of Thomas Roland at Nahant and Re- 

 vere. The sight that presented itself 

 was one worth going many miles to 

 see. Mr. Roland is recognized as 

 a plant grower who has no superior in 

 this country if anywhere. The visitors 

 had an opportunity to admire the con- 

 tents of the big acacia house where 

 some thirty species are seen and many 

 specimens are being put into shape to 

 surprise the visitors at the Interna- 

 tional Flower Show in New York next 

 spring. Pubescens and Bayleyana are 

 the best of all in Mr. Roland's esti- 

 mation. The Lorraine and cyclamen 

 houses are simply gorgeous. Of the 

 latter, all yearlings, Mr. Roland has 

 been selling finished plants for the 

 past two months and, starting with 

 16,000 has now only 4000 left. Erica 

 melanthera up to 6 ft. in height, ardi- 

 sias dracaenas, poinsettias, oranges, 

 crotons, cattleyas, cypripediums and a 

 glorious forest of crimson celosias are 

 among the attractions and "made-up" 

 pans of all these things with ferns 

 were much admired. 



AU the Revere place another mam- 

 moth Lord and Burnham house, 60x525 

 is now receiving the finishing touches 

 and the soil is all in and ready, for 

 the 16,000 tomatoes which are to be the 

 first tenants. The other house of equal 

 size is planted entirely with sweet 

 peas which are already well up on the 

 trellises and beginning to bloom. The 

 heating of this plant is by steam and 

 there is boiler capacity and stock suf- 

 ficient to provide 750 H. P. The boiler 

 house is of concrete and iron, and the 

 equipment all through is of the best 

 possible character. 



