HORTICULTURE 



VoL XXXI 



APRIL 3, 1920 



No. 14 



THE TALK OF THE TRADE 



Of course I was not very much sur- 

 prised to get a comeback from Mr. 

 W. N. Craig in answer to my article on 

 Daylight Saving, and I am not satisfied 

 to let his letter go without my reply. 



To begin with, I made a mistake in 

 using the word "florist"; what I in- 

 tended to say was "grower," and when 

 I say that the growers are not gener- 

 ally favorable towards Daylight Sav- 

 ing I still think that I am not very 

 far away from the truth. First of all, 

 I will admit freely enough Mr. Craig's 

 right to his opinion, but he mustn't 

 get disgruntled if he can't make every- 

 body think the same way. 



As to the meetings of florists' organ- 

 izations, I think I have attended prac- 

 tically all of them. When the Garden- 

 ers' & Florists' Club of Boston voted 

 to favor it, that club surprised no one 

 in taking that stand, for first a good 

 strong talk was given entirely favor- 

 ing it, and secondly it was not voted 

 by commercial growers, as the commer- 

 cial grower is not the majority at those 

 club meetings. That also applies to 

 the meeting of the Florists' Association 

 of Boston, as the growers are also in 

 the minority, as we all know the mem- 

 bership shows a large number of sales- 

 men in the market, wholesalers and re- 

 tailers, and more than that I know sev- 

 eral growers who attended that meet- 

 ing who opposed daylight saving but 

 knew it was useless to vote against It 

 as they would be outvoted; conse- 

 quently did not voice themselves in 

 any way. 



I want to say also that I don't blame 

 any of the florists for favoring it. I 

 like it myself; I like the plan, but a 

 florist who is a grower employing help 

 and growing outdoor crops has his 

 business affected and that is why I 

 said that many of them do not approve 

 of it. The answer that the possibility 

 of earlier cutting of flowers in the 

 morning offsets the rose grower's ob- 

 jection to cutting so early in the after- 

 noon is not tenable. I believe that it 

 is a recognized fact that late in the 

 afternoon flowers open very rapidly. 

 Many a rose grower knows that some 

 varieties of roses really demand cut- 

 ting very late in the day, and that they 

 stand practically still until the sun be- 



gins to show its rays the next morn- 

 ing. 



Certainly if we must have D. S. it 

 would be much better if we had a 

 National law for daylight saving; that 

 is about the only point where I can 

 agree with Mr. Craig, but until we 

 have that there are going to be a great 

 many complications which will be an- 

 noying. However, I come back to the 

 point which I had previously in mind: 

 The grower whose business is affected, 

 and that, of course, means his pocket- 

 book, cannot be expected to favor day- 

 light saving, and that grower is the 

 one who operates glass and who also 

 has outdoor crops. 



As an illustration of the inconveni- 

 ences if Daylight Saving is to be 

 localized instead of becoming a 

 National law, I quote from a news- 

 paper clipping: Outside of Massachu- 

 setts chaotic conditions reached a 

 climax in Hartford, where both time 

 schedules are in operation with little 

 apparent success. Hartford courts 

 were nm yesterday on standard time, 

 while the daylight saving plan was 

 followed in the offices of the United 

 States marshal and by the United 

 States district attorney and deputy 

 clerk of courts. On the other hand, 

 the customs and department of justice 

 offices were adhering to standard 

 time. Deliveries of mails, however, 

 were made on the daylight saving 

 schedule, despite the fact that rail- 

 roads were running on standard time. 

 Other Connecticut cities and towns ex- 

 perienced the same difficulties, which 

 were by no means lessened when 

 thousands of citizens set their clocks 

 an hour ahead, while thousands of 

 others decided that they would rise 

 by the old schedule. 



These difficulties as noted above are 

 in addition to the troubles which the 

 grower finds it necessary to face. 

 Again I say let it be National or not 

 at all. 



season. The firm started with only 

 fifty plants, he said, but the stock has 

 now been increased to sixty-four thous- 

 and. "In fact," said Mr. Peacock, "we 

 consider that we now have the finest 

 commercial collection of orchids on the 

 North American continent." 



As a matter of fact, orchids have 

 been grown commercially in Canada 

 only about fifteen years, and during 

 that time the bulk of the flowers have 

 been shipped to the United States. It 

 is only recently that Canadian florists 

 have been able to educate the Canadian 

 taste for this flower. Now the call is 

 .growing and it is fair to expect that 

 the Canadian demand will soon large- 

 ly absorb their total output. 



It is interesting to learn that or- 

 chids are being grown in largely in- 

 creased quantities across the border. 

 Mr. W. G. Peacock, of the Dale Estate, 

 Toronto, recently told me that he Is 

 having a large business in orchids this 



Continuing the talk on Chrysanthe- 

 mums, I come to a list of Pompons, but 

 this is not easy. There is certainly one 

 wonderfully fine lot of Chrysanthe- 

 mums grown; the varieties cover all 

 shades, types and seasons. I shall try 

 to mention some which to me appear 

 to be of the best. Other growers may 

 have their favorites which with them 

 are most satisfactory, but in a general 

 way these which I will mention are 

 good marketable varieties in their 

 seasons. 



For early white, we have both Maid 

 of Kent which is an excellent button 

 type and Wanda, which is a pure white 

 of the larger flowered type. Both come 

 in between October 15 and 30 accord- 

 ing to the season. White Lillian Doty 

 is without question as fine a white 

 pompon as there is on the market. It 

 is an all around satisfactory and prof- 

 itable variety. This also comes in the 

 latter part of October. Following this 

 we might mention Marianna, which is 

 a large flowered pompon and an excel- 

 lent grower. Its flowering season is 

 from November 1st on to the middle of 

 the month. Baby Margaret is a sport 

 of the yellow button type Baby and 

 comes in about the middle of Novem- 

 ber, and for a Thanksgiving white I 

 find that a lot of growers favor the old 

 standby Diana. It has good size, is 

 a wonderful producer and will turn in 

 dollars and cents if any pompon can 

 do it. 



In pink, a lot of growers think flrst 

 of all of Niza. It is pale pink in color, 

 is as early as any good pompon and 

 shows good returns each year. It ma- 

 tures between Oct. 1 and 15. Nesco Is 



