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HORTICULTURE 



December 2, 1911 



ROBERT CRAIG'S REMINISCENCES 



We take pleasure in presenting here- 

 with a few interesting extracts from 

 the talk given by Robert Craig, Phil- 

 adelphia, at the Michel] Saturday lec- 

 ture on November 25. In connection 

 with this lecture there was an ex- 

 hibit ot the new scarlet carnation St. 

 Nicholas. 



The subject of my talk this after- 

 noon is "Progress in Floriculture." 

 This subject I did not select myself 

 and, as I have not had time to collect 

 statistics and facts covering any wide 

 territory, I think if I relate some of 

 the facts that have come under my 

 own observation the past half century, 

 it may prove to be of some interest to 

 my hearers, particularly to the 

 younger ones. 



At that time, that is, about fifty 

 years ago, there were only about a 

 dozen firms in Philadelphia, the prin- 

 cipal ones were Dryburgh, Sherwood, 

 Dick, Buist, MacKenzie, Ritchie, Fer- 

 guson, Karl Muller and Robert Scott. 

 It was interesting to hear John Dick 

 tell of his early struggles to establish 

 himself in business. He was, as a 

 young man, a private gardener, in 

 charge of the greenhouses of Dr. Pep- 

 per on Arch St., near Tenth, and 

 had saved a little money which he in- 

 vested, in partnership with Jas. 

 Ritchie, at Third & Berks Sts., under 

 the firm name of Ritchie & Dick. In 

 about two years the firm dissolved, 

 Ritchie retaining the old place and 

 Dick locating at 52nd St. and Dar- 

 by Road. Some of his friends tried to 

 dissuade him from starting, using the 

 argument that Dryburgh and Sher- 

 wood who had already embarked in 

 business, could supply all the de- 

 mands and that there really was no 

 chance for another, but he succeeded. 



As early as I can recollect anything 

 in connection with the business, 

 there were always timid souls, in- 

 clined to take a pessimistic view of 

 the future. 



I was quite early in life engaged 

 practically in the business, working 

 in the greenhouses and grounds for 

 my father who had a small place on 

 Irish Track Lane below Federal St. 

 Irish Track Lane started at Broad 

 and South Sts. and ran diagonally to 

 about 19th St. and Back Road in 

 that section of the city known as the 

 Neck; it terminated at about what is 

 Snyder Ave. today; it was a track or 

 wagon road cut through the woods by 

 the Irish Societies in Revolutionary 

 times and has now entirely disap- 

 peared. West Philadelphia at that 

 time was also undeveloped and was 

 very sparsely populated. 



It is interesting to recall the char- 

 actor of the greenhouse structure of 

 this time: it was very crude and 

 cheap, the houses glazed mostly with 

 6x8 glass, and heated by very chaaj 

 furnaces connected with brick and 

 terra cotta flues, with the result that 

 the houses were too hot at the end 

 nearest the furnaces and liable to 

 freeze on cold nights at the end near- 

 est the chimney. At this time, and 

 for many years after, the work of 

 the plant grower had to do mostly 

 with plants used for bedding out In 



for home adornment in winter and 

 porch decoration in summer was not 

 known, and the preparation of fine 

 blooming plants for Easter and Christ- 

 mas had scarcely made a beginning. 

 These two seasons are now the most 

 profitable to the plant grower and to 

 the retailer, and much of the work of 

 the year is done with these two pe- 

 riods in view. Then the plants were 

 sold in the market houses and quite a 

 market was established on Market 

 street pavement on the site of the 

 present public building. 



In the branch devoted to the pro- 

 duction of palms, ferns and market 

 decorative foliage plants. I will cite 

 only a few facts which help to illu- 

 minate and illustrate the advances in 

 this direction. A half a century ago 

 the only plant of Pandanus Veitchii in 

 this country was in possession of Rob- 

 i rt Buist. It had been imported from 

 London and was sold to the United 

 States Botanic Garden at Washington 

 for $25. Now this plant is grown in 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia alone by 

 the hundred thousand annually, and 

 a good plant in a 4-inch pot can be 

 bought for 50 cents. Many other 

 plants, then scarce and high-priced, 

 are grown in as large proportion. The 

 same increase in quantity grown and 

 the same tendency to popular prices 

 is noticeable in the palm family and in 

 the fern family. Kentias, for instance, 

 then very rare, are grown now by the 

 acre and the production of other palms 

 and other foliage plants has increased 

 a hundred fold. The increase in the 

 quantity of ferns grown is even more 

 remarkable. No florist fifty years ago 

 had more than 100 or 200 ferns on 

 hand at any one time and these most- 

 ly small specimens in three or four- 

 inch pots; the whole city could hardly 

 supply 500 little and big. Now they 

 are grown by the million in the vi- 

 cinity of Philadelphia alone and well 

 grown too. As a matter of fact one 

 firm, which, although its greenhouses 

 are located on the Jersey side of the 

 Delaware. I call a Philadelphia firm 

 because its principal office is in this 

 city, grows ferns literally by the mil- 

 lion. It is safe to say that, taking all ' 

 the departments of this one firm into 

 consideration, — the greenhouse, herba- 

 ceous, vegetable plant and aquatic sec- 

 tions — the output has increased a 

 thousand fold and the quality of the 

 plants produced almost incomparably 

 better. Many other firms have also 

 made great advances. 



In the line of cut flowers, especially 

 in winter, the advance is even more 

 marvellous than is the increase in the 

 plant business. Take for instance 

 carnations which are now grown in 

 winter in this country finer than any- 

 where else in the world and in great- 

 er quantities. Visitors from England 

 and Germany, which nations were em- 

 barked in carnation culture cent u lies 

 before Americans, are lost in admira- 

 tion when they see our wonderful car- 

 nations. Forty years ago we had only 

 half a dozen inferior varieties; De- 

 graw (white) and LaPurite (pink) 

 were the two best and the methods of 

 culture were just as inferior as the va- 



spring; the great business which now rieties. They were planted outdoors 

 exists in producing and selling plants just as we do now but they were not 



brought into the houses until October 

 and sometimes not even until Novem- 

 ber; they were put into houses not at 

 all adapted for producing cut flowers 

 in winter even if they had been other- 

 wise correctly treated. The houses 

 were glazed mostly with 6x8 glass and 

 were built with too much wood work, 

 making them dark and damp; they 

 were badly heated, too, with the re- 

 sult that few flowers were had before 

 spring and those of so inferior a char- 

 acter that they would be absolutely 

 without money value today. They 

 were cut without stems and sent to the 

 retailer in all colors mixed. The 

 brightest imagination of those days 

 could not conceive of the fine blooms 

 that are produced so freely today. The 

 advanced growers of carnations in 

 England and Germany today look to us 

 continually for new varieties; the de- 

 mand there is steady and increasing 

 for all new varieties that are sent out 

 by introducers of established reputa- 

 tion, of whom we have several in this 

 country who are making the improve- 

 ment of the winter-flowering carna- 

 tion largely their life work. 



In roses, too, especially for cut flow- 

 ers in winter, the advance in produc- 

 tion, both in quantity and quality has 

 been most astonishing. I can recall 

 the time when there were only two 

 houses in Philadelphia, and these 

 small and poorly constructed, devoted 

 to the culture of roses for cut flowers 

 in winter; precious few they got be- 

 fore March and April, the houses be- 

 ing too dark to produce flowers in 

 winter. One of these houses was on 

 Andrew Dryburgh's place at 19th and 

 Race streets and the other at Robert 

 Buist's, 67th street and Elmwood ave- 

 nue. In Dryburgh's house was a num- 

 ber of old varieties; La Pactole I re- 

 call as being prominent. In Buist's 

 house were Bon Silene, Safrano, La 

 Pactole and Duchess de Brabant; 

 none of the flowers produced in either 

 houses would have any market value 

 today. It is hard to realize that these 

 are the facts when we consider the im- 

 mense quantities now grown, the num- 

 ber and fine character of the houses 

 built for their culture, the almost per- 

 fect nature of the heating apparatus 

 and the large capital invested in this 

 branch of Floriculture. Truly, rose 

 growing has increased more than a 

 thousand fold in the past half century. 

 When we look back at the cheap and 

 unsuitable structure used so short a 

 time ago and then contemplate such 

 rose houses as have recently been 

 erected by modern growers and the 

 fine quality of the stock produced 

 therein, we cannot adequately express 

 our astonishment. Contrary to many 

 preconceived notions these large 

 houses seem to be comparatively eas- 

 ily heated, and to produce under good 

 management extra fine flowers. I look 

 upon these very large wide houses as 

 one of the miracles of these latter 

 days. There are many of them now 

 in various parts of the country, and 

 their number is constantly increasing. 



In thinking over how scarce roses 

 were forty years ago, I recall a trip 

 made by Thos. Cartledge and John 

 Westcott to New York in search of 

 roses for the Assembly Ball; they 

 were well posted and knew where to 



