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HORTICULTURE 



June 6, 1914 



horticulture: 



VOL. XIX 



JUNE 6, 1914 



NO. 23 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HOR-TICULTUR-E PUBLISHING CO. 

 II Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford 292. 

 WM. J. STEWART, Editor and MsnaKer. 



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Entered as second-class matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Office 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1870. 



CONTENTS 



Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION — Rhododendron (Azalea) 



Vaseyi 



NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' STOCK— Out- 

 door Sweet Peas — Palms — Bay Trees — Poinsettlas — 

 Orchids — Spraying and Syringing — John J. M. Farrell 829 



CRATAEGUS AND ARONIA 831 



VANILLA POMPONA— Illustrated 831 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— Lancaster County Florists' 

 Club — Florists' Club of Philadelphia — Date of Peony 

 Society Show — Society of American Florists — Chry- 

 santhemum Society of America — American Sweet 

 Pea Society — Pittsburgh Florists' and Gardeners' 



Club 832 



Horticultural Club of Boston — Illustrated — Club and 



Society Notes 833 



BRITISH HORTICULTURE— W. H. Adsett 837 



SEED TRADE— A Criticism of Agricultural Depart- 

 ment Methods — tiamiicl MilUken — Notes 838 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



Steamer Departures — New Flower Stores 840 



Flowers by Telegraph 841 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo 845 



Chicago, Cincinnati. New York, Philadelphia 847 



St. Louis 852 



OBITUARY— Anson Wheeler— Van Teylinger 852 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



The Happy Gardener — Alexander MacLellan 831 



The Cherry-Bloom 833 



Rhododendron (Azalea) Vaseyi 834 



New Corporations 834 



A Fine Tulip Display — Illustrated 834 



Pansies at Kenilworth — Illustrated 834 



Publication Received 834 



An Unique Azalea Collection 837 



Massachusetts Agricultural College Notes 838 



News Notes 841 



Philadelphia Notes — Chicago Notes 842 



Visitors' Register 842 



Texas News Notes 843 



Fires 852 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 854 



Patents Granted 854 



While delighted to record commendable ac- 

 Buiid up tivity in local preliminary work for a suc- 

 cessful convention in Boston we are moved 

 to call general attention to the necessity of something 

 more than efficient local i^reparations, a large attendance 

 and a good time. If we are to arise fully to the occasion 

 and its opportunity and if the convention is to go into 

 history as the most successful and memorable event in 

 the chronicles of horticultural development in America 



there are many serious matters that must be carefully 

 discussed and acted upon now. The work of the S. A. F. 

 at this epoch of its existence should be essentially con- 

 structive in character, and it should be the endeavor 

 of the horticultural interests individually and collec- 

 tively to so direct the forces of this great agency that 

 it will contribute in the most effective manner to the 

 liuilding up of the horticultural and allied industries 

 which are, beyond any question, still in their propagat- 

 ing bench in this counrty. So we hope that you will 

 all come to Boston with something on your mind 

 besides the vacation spirit — something that you feel 

 needs to be done and that can be done for the gen- 

 eral cause — and with something practical to impart 

 as to liow the needed forward step may be accomplished 

 and the prosperity and happiness of your fellow-crafts- 

 men promoted through the power of efficient organiza- 

 tion. If, perchance the S. A. F. has not sized up in the 

 past to what you think it should have done, forget it, 

 for perhaps vou misjudge it unfairly. Shakespeare said : 



"The fault-finder — it is his nature's plague to spy into 

 abuses; and oft his jealousy shapes faults that are not." 



The present time is no time for picking flaws or over- 

 turning what has lieen done. When, in the future, we 

 look back and record our estimate of the convention of 

 1914, its points of excellence will be computed not so 

 much on what we captiously pulled down as on what we 

 manfully built up. 



Did you hear anything drop about 

 An Memorial Day? Seems to us from 



ominous what we observed in certain flower mar- 

 manifestation kets and what we learn in reports re- 

 ceived from others that the antiquated 

 idea of winter prices on flowers at the end of May has 

 sufi'ered a knockout blow — one which we hope will finish 

 it for good. Of the various forms of business suicide 

 which prey on the prosperity of the flower trade this is 

 one of the most mischievous. Just one year ago we 

 wrote editorially as follows in reference to the scare- 

 heads circulated in the daily papers regarding alleged 

 prospects of a flower famine and high prices for 

 Memorial Day material : 



"Consider, you growers who rail against the sale of artifi- 

 cial flowers, how many metal wreaths were purchased as a 

 result of these announcements flashed in the faces of 100,000 

 readers!" 



Such warnings and entreaties we are well aware, have 

 no more effect on "the system" than has the throwing 

 of water on a duck's back. It takes bitter experience to 

 drive home the truths they seek to convey. Wlien we see 

 the cemeteries strewn with thousands of dried and arti- 

 ficial wreaths while, for the entire week, wagon loads of 

 natural flowers are rotting in wholesale markets, some- 

 thing is wrong from the standpoint of the flower grower.- 

 It is no exaggeration to say that thousands of dollars 

 went into the pockets of the manufacturers of imitation 

 material last week which might have been gathered in 

 by the growers of fresh flowers if an aggressive rational 

 policy had been established and the issue had been 

 squarely met by those whose interests were most at stake. 

 The problem is one of many angles and on the way it is 

 finally solved depends much of the future well-being of 

 the flower industry. The experience of Memorial Day 

 is one angle. There are others. 



