896 



HOETICULTUKE 



June 20, 1914 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES 



AMERICAN PEONY SOCIETY. 

 Secretary A. P. Saunders' Address. 

 Mr. President, Fellow Members: 



J congratulate you and the society 

 as a whole on the completion of an- 

 other successful year. Our member- 

 ship is growing, our finances are im- 

 proving, the reputation of the society 

 is steadily widening, and peonies are 

 as lovely as ever. Last year we added 

 sixteen to our membership; the year 

 before, thirteen; the year before that, 

 eight. This year we shall add twenty. 

 So not only does our membership 

 grow, but even^ the rate of growth 

 ^rows. 



New American Varieties Needed. 



I wish that in America we might 

 liave a larger and more ardent band of 

 raisers of new sorts. There is still so 

 much to be done. Lemoine and Des- 

 sert, to mention no others, are at work 

 all the time, and give us wonderful 

 new varieties once in a w'hile; but 

 there is need of a hundred such en- 

 thusiasts. I wish we might have seed- 

 ling peonies raised here as they raise 

 seedling narcissi in England, where 

 amateur and professional raisers have 

 their sensational novelties ready for 

 the spring shows every year. Think 

 what Richardson produced — one man 

 working on a tiny plot of ground. Why 

 should we not do at least much better 

 than we are doing? This society 

 might, I believe, do much to encourage 

 the raising of new sorts. I should like 

 to see a good substantial prize offered 

 every year for the best new variety — 

 say $50 at the least; not with the idea 

 that we should have to pay it out 

 every year, but under the intention 

 that it should be given only for the 

 occasional really good things, to be 

 awarded, let us say, only to such varie- 

 ties as the Nomenclature Committee 

 would wish to put into their list of 

 best sorts. Very few American kinds 

 that I know of could get in on such a 

 requirement, but such recognition as 

 that would mean the reputation of the 

 variety ready made. 



Adopt a High Standard. 



I believe we might foster in that 

 way this infant industry and raise it 

 up to a stage of importance in the hor- 

 ticultural community. The tradition 

 of Richardson is bearing fruit in the 

 neighborhood of Boston, where the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 irom time to time puts its stamp of 

 approval on a new sort. But we 

 cannot all get to the Boston shows, 

 nor would the dates fall right for 

 many of us if we could. Our own 

 shows moving year after year north, 

 south, east and west, offer an oppor- 

 tunity to almost everyone once in a 

 ■while to bring out what he has. We 

 have, I know, in the past suffered from 

 an over-production of new kinds, or 

 rather from an over-naming of new 

 kinds. And our Nomenclature Com- 

 mittee has spent a good deal of time 

 In examining and describing kinds 



that might much better have been con- 

 fined to the originator's own premises. 

 But I think those days are over, and 

 it is just by setting up a high standard 

 that we can prevent them from re- 

 curring. 



Encourage the Amateur. 



Now I know that the professional 

 man often feels that he cannot be 

 bothered with a batch of seedlings 

 every year — they take too much atten- 

 tion. That may be true for him, but 

 certainly for the amateur who does 

 not have to look to his garden as a 

 source of profit, it is always possible 

 to set aside a corner for the "young- 

 sters." Only it cannot be too often 

 said that if he will avoid disappoint- 

 ments he must be very particular as 

 to the source of his seed, and take 

 only the very best. 



These thoughts of the amateur's gar- 

 den bring to my mind the fact that 

 we have this year lost from our so- 

 ciety one of its most enthusiastic 

 amateur members, Wilton Lockwood, 

 painter and lover of flowers. I sup- 

 pose very few of us had ever met him. 

 I do not think he had attended one of 

 our meetings in many years; there 

 were reasons why he could not come. 

 But he was a garden lover of rare en- 

 thusiasm. Mr. Lockwood was famous 

 not only as a painter of portraits, 

 in which line he achieved great 

 distinction, but particularly as a 

 painter of flowers, peonies espe- 

 cially; and one of the notices 

 of the memorial exhibition of his 

 paintings held last spring in New 

 York, speaking of his passion for the 

 peony, says, "these flowers had a 

 peculiar fascination for him, and can- 

 vas after canvas is given up to a study 

 of their fragile loveliness." We can- 

 not all have such gardens as Mr. Lock- 

 wood's, but the beauty of the peony 

 we can all enjoy, and indeed I do not 

 know what else has brought us all 

 here today, except "their fragile love- 

 liness." 



GARDENERS' AND FLORISTS' 

 CLUB OF BOSTON. 



Ladies' Night was duly observed by 

 this club on Tuesday evening, June 

 16. Considering that this was the 

 date of Class Day at Harvard and 

 other events of interest to different 

 club members, the attendance was very 

 good, over 200 being present. The lec- 

 ture hall was used for the entertain- 

 ment and dancing, and the large ex- 

 hibition hall for the strawberries, cake 

 and ice cream, which were served in 

 generous quantities. The only address 

 was made by President Kennedy who 

 briefly voiced the welcome of the club 

 and referring to the great coming 

 event of the year, asked every member 

 to constitute himself a committee of 

 one to help make the S. A, F. conven- 

 tion a credit to Boston and to make 

 the visitors who will come on that oc- 

 cassion feel at home. Mr. Singer con- 

 tributed songs and two young ladies 

 gave some fancy dances, after which 

 dancing was participated in by the 

 young folks until midnight. The af- 

 fair was a great success. 



WESTCHESTER AND FAIRFIELD 

 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There was a large attendance at the 

 monthly meeting of this society, held 

 in Greenwich, Conn., June 12th. Let- 

 ters were read from several friends of 

 the society, offering substantial cash 

 additions to the premium lists of the 

 Summer and Fall Exhibitions. M. C. 

 Ebel, who was present, gave an ad- 

 dress on the National Association of 

 Gardeners and after discussion it was 

 unanimously decided by those present 

 to co-operate with this body and sup- 

 port any movement tending to the ad- 

 vancement of horticulture and the pro- 

 fession generally. The president ap- 

 pointed a committee of three members 

 who will endeavor to look after local 

 conditions and work in conjunction 

 with the national co-operative commit- 

 tee. 



An interesting feature of this meet- 

 ing was the competition open to assist- 

 ant gardeners only for the silver and 

 bronze medals offered by the H. F. 

 Michell Co. for the best arranged cen- 

 terpiece tor dinner table. There were 

 four contestants, each displaying taste- 

 ful and artistic work. First prize was 

 awarded to David B. Ridpath of Mam- 

 aroneck, N. Y., assistant to James Stu- 

 art; 2nd to Andrew P. Clarkson of 

 Portchester, N. Y., who is with Alex. 

 Marshall. A hearty vote of thanks 

 was aw-arded to Neil Maclnnes of 

 Mamaroneck. and to Adam Smith, of 

 Rye. N. Y. The judges made the fol- 

 lowing awards to the other exhibits: 

 Cultural certificates to Alex. Marshall 

 for Miltonia vexillaria and cut spray 

 of Cattleya Mendelli. Thos. Aicheson 

 highly commended for Oncidium Went- 

 worthianuni. P. W. Popp, vote of 

 thanks for Climbing American Beauty, 

 a novelty of recent introduction. Next 

 meeting July 10th. P. W. Poi-p. 



LENOX (MASS.) HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



The regular monthly meeting of the 

 abo\e Society was held on Saturday 

 evening, June 6th. A committee of 

 three was appointed to cooperate 

 with the National Association of 

 Gardeners, namely: A. J. Loveless, E. 

 Jenkins and S. W. Carlquist. Thos. 

 Proctor was awarded a certificate of 

 merit for Clarkia Queen Mary and a 

 diploma for Clarkia Salmon Queen. 

 Burton N. Gales, assistant professor 

 in bee keeping at Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College, gave a very interest- 

 ing lecture entitled. "More Bees for 

 Massachusetts." The speaker men- 

 tioned how valuable bees were to the 

 fruit grower for fertilization of vari- 

 ous fruits, such as melons, cranber- 

 ries, etc. JoHX M.iiK. Asst. Secy. 



ST. LOUIS FLORIST CLUB. 



The florist club meeting, June 11, 

 was poorly attended. The trustees re- 

 ported that all arrangements were 

 complete for the anniversary banquet 

 fcr Wednesday. June 24th at the Jef- 

 ferson Hotel in the Floral Hall. State 

 V P. Windier of the S. A. F. reported 

 as to the work he was doing and urged 

 the members to make the trip to the 

 convention at Boston. The Sunday 



