July 17, 1920 



HORTICULTURE 



55 



BOSTON FLORAL SUPPLY & SNYDER CO. 



15 Otis- 96 Arch St. 



Wholesale Florists 



BOSTON, MASS. 



^Haln tS74 

 _ , . I Fort Ulll lOM 



Telephone. ^ j.^^ H HI 1084 



I Fort BUI 108S 



Largest distributors of flowers in the East. 

 Manufacturers of artificial flowers, baskets, wire frames, etc. 



William F. Kastino Co. 



568 570 WASHINGTON STREET 



BUFFALO, N. Y. 



Would like to handle consignments from growers of good 

 Snapdragon and novelties. 



HERMAN WEISS, Wholesale Florist 



55 West 26th Street, New York City 



AS MR. ENGELMAN SEES US 



British Carnation Grower Writes About Conditions in the United 



States 



The many florists in this country 

 who were so fortunate as to meet Mr. 

 C. Engelmann, the famous carnation 

 grower of Saffron Walden, England, on 

 the occasion of his recent visit to the 

 United States will naturally be very 

 much interested to see what he has 

 to say about conditions which he 

 found here and about the people in 

 the trade with whom he came in con- 

 tact. The following articles from the 

 current issue of the Carnation Year 

 Book issued by. the British Carnation 

 Society is therefore published in full: 



It is well known that the true Per- 

 petual Flowering Carnations were in- 

 troduced into this country from the 

 United States, and from here found 

 their way to the rest of Europe and 

 many other parts of the world. 



It must be 16 years ago, when I saw 

 the glorious "Enchantress" exhibited 

 by Mr. Button at the old Temple Show, 

 and fell in love with it at first sight. 

 Many British growers have since taken 

 up the cultivation of the American 

 Carnation, and dozens, aye, hundreds 

 of British-raised varieties have been 

 introduced, many of these, according to 

 the raiser, are far superior to "Enchan- 

 tress." Where are they all today? Well 

 — De mortuis nil nisi bonum, so let 

 them rest in peace. The sad fact is 



that even now, probably 75 per cent of 

 all the carnation blooms we see in the 

 florists' shops, or in the flower mar- 

 kets of this country are still American 

 varieties. However, there is another 

 and more pleasing aspect, namely, 75 

 per cent or more of the plants we meet 

 with in private gardens are of British 

 origin. The reason for this state of 

 affairs is this: The American raiser 

 caters solely for the commercial 

 grower, the British raiser mainly for 

 the private grower. 



The American raiser will often sell 

 as many as 100,000 plants of a novelty 

 which has caught on during the first 

 season, whereas the British raiser may 

 not sell l.UOO in the same period. The 

 American novelty is, consequently, 

 rarely placed on the market until 

 about the fifth or sixth year after the 

 first plant of the new variety was 

 raised from seed, while British varie- 

 ties have even been sent forth to 

 charm, or otherwise, the buying public, 

 during the second year of their ex- 

 istence. 



The natural consequence of all this — 

 and we on this side may just as well 

 confess it — is, the American raised 

 novelties have, on the whole, up to 

 now, been less disappointing than the 

 British ones. I do not for one mo- 

 ment believe that raisers on this side 

 have ever placed anything on the mar- 

 ket which they considered inferior to 

 existing varieties, but I am certain 



that it is impossible to judge a variety 

 sufficiently to justify its being dis- 

 seminated before it has been at least 

 three or tour seasons in the raiser's 

 hands. Even after that it will fre- 

 quently prove disappointing, as I have 

 discovered more than once to ray cost. 



Another point in favor of the prin- 

 cipal American raisers is the long ex- 

 perience they have had in the art of 

 liybridising. Mr. Dorner told the 

 writer that he, and his father before 

 him, had been raising carnation novel- 

 ties for 32 years, and a careful record 

 has been kept of all the crosses. It is 

 no wonder then that some of their 

 latest productions have considerably 

 raised the standard. It is the opinion 

 of the majority of the carnation grow- 

 ers in the U. S. A. that their new 

 variety "Laddie," with blooms up to 

 four and one-half inches in diameter, 

 and stems up to three feet long, has 

 oi)ened a new era in the carnation 

 world. Certainly nothing has been put 

 into commerce to approach this grand 

 variety since "Enchantress" made its 

 appearance. I have seen others of this 

 "Laddie" type which are coming along, 

 and which are destined speedily to find 

 a place in the sun. 



The method of growing carnations is 



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