February 17, 1916. 



The Florists^ Review 



19 



The Boston Gardeners' and Florists' Club Holds Its Annual Banquet and Gala Night. 



in 3 1/^ -inch or 4-inch pots for spring 

 sales, sow the seed now. For bedding 

 purposes the intermediate types are, on 

 the whole, preferable to the tall and 

 dwarf strains, pink, pure white, yellow 

 and red being the favorite colors. You 

 also can take cuttings from the green- 

 house stock and get almost equally good 

 plants at the time they are wanted, 

 but it is well to remember that such 

 plants possess much less vigor than 

 seedlings and will be sure to develop 

 more stem-rot in case we get such a 

 wet spell as we had last July and Au- 

 gust. 



For a Memorial day crop the present 

 is a suitable time to plant out snap- 

 dragons. They give an enormous quan- 

 tity of bloom and few flowers are bet- 

 ter adapted for bouquet work. It is not 

 necessary to disbud the shoots se- 

 verely for a Memorial day crop, for, 

 as a rule, spikes of moderate size are 

 preferable to the larger ones. GLet your 

 young plants run up to flower and at 

 least show color before pinching back. 

 The plants will then branch much more 

 vigorously than if the pinching was 

 done while the shoots were soft. 



Plants which have been flowering 

 since fall should now have a good top- 

 dressing of cow manure, or pulverized 

 sheep manure. Mix the latter with an 

 equal proportion of damp, screened 

 loam before using it. This prevents 

 the manure washing into ridges in the 

 benches, as is often the case when the 

 dry manure is applied alone. A night 

 temperature of 48 to 50 degrees should 

 not be exceeded for snapdragons. 



BOSTON. 



The Market. 



Last week was not a satisfactory one 

 for cut flower growers. Supplies were 

 considerably in excess of demand, ex- 

 cept in the case of roses, which continue 

 off crop. Weather has been, on the 

 whole, cold and decidedly wintry in 

 character, with more snow than we 

 have previously had. Valentine's day 

 gave considerable of a fillip to the mar- 

 ket, such flowers as violets, valley, 

 sweet peas, cattleyas and roses being in 



the strongest demand, and the outlook 

 is now slightly improved. Carnations 

 are in heavy supply and there is an 

 unusually large number of split flowers. 

 Enchantress and Beacon being specially 

 bad in this respect. Eoses are not in 

 heavy supply and there is no trouble 

 in cleaning all up at excellent prices. 

 Of Russell the supply at present is 

 limited. Beauties also are scarce. Kil- 

 larney Brilliant and Sunburst are com- 

 ing off color with several growers. For 

 the little Mile. Cecile Brunner there is 



an excellent demand at $2 to $2.50 per 

 hundred. 



Violets had a great sale for Valen- 

 tine's day and made as high as $1 for 

 fancy singles, but have now dropped 

 back again. Somehow violets are not 

 so popular as they were a few years 

 ago. Sweet peas are arriving in large 

 quantities. For the Spencer type the 

 demand is good. Bulbous flowers rule 

 lower in price, owing to the heavily 

 increased supply, but prices are much 

 better than a year ago. Calendulas 



have been selling well, also yellow mar- 

 guerites and pink snapdragons. Of 

 lilies and callas the supply is in excess 

 of the demand. Mignonette is now of 

 fine quality, but moves slowly. 



Forget-me-not is eagerly bought up 

 and English primroses and cornflowers 

 clean up well. Gardenias have been 

 scarce and still sell at $6 per dozen. 

 Cattleyas are in abundant supply and 

 sell at from $3 to $5 per dozen, accord- 

 ing to quality. For asparagus there 

 is a decidedly better market. 



Club Banquet. 



The annual banquet of the Gardeners' 

 and Florists' Club at the New Amer- 

 ican House February 9 was a success- 

 ful and enjoyable one. There was an 

 attendance of 300, including a number 

 of guests. The tables were, as usual, 

 beautifully decorated with orchids, 

 roses, carnations, freesias, sweet peas 

 and other cut flowers and pot plants. 

 James Methven acted as toastmaster at 

 the postprandial exercises. The speak- 

 ers included William P. Rich, who re- 

 sponded for the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society; Wilfrid Wheeler, secre- 

 tary of the state board of agriculture, 

 who spoke for that body; William N. 

 Craig, who replied on behalf of the 

 National Association of Gardeners; 

 William C. Stickel, for the Boston 

 Flower Exchange, and John McFarland, 

 for the Boston Cooperative Flower Mar- 

 ket. The concluding speaker was the 

 new vice-president, William J. Patter- 

 son. 



Entertainment was furnished by Miss 

 Barbara Mayer, contralto; Miss An- 

 nette Luvick, contralto; C. E. Tasker, 

 tenor; Gilmore Corbin, monologuist; 

 Raymond Pugh, pianist. Following the 

 3peeehmaking and entertainment, danc- 

 ing was enjoyed until midnight. Don- 

 ald J. Crighton was floor director, his 

 aides being J. R. Ness, J. L. Russell, 

 Edward Rose, Geo. W. Hamer, Luther 

 Webb and Robert E. Montgomery. 



Club's Carnation Night. 



The annual carnation meeting of the 

 Gardeners' and Florists' Club was held 

 February 15 in Horticultural hall. The 

 roll call showed an attendance of 175 



