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22 



The Horists' Revkw 



OCTOBEB 5, 1016. 



They were fine spikes, I admit, but 

 did you get the same price for spe- 

 ciosum lilies at the same tiraef I have 

 had telephone calls from the wholesalers 

 in this town and also from Atlantic 

 City, offering me $25 for 250 spikes of 

 Belladonna delphinium, which convinced 

 me that the demand was there, waiting 

 to be supplied. I replied that we were 

 not in the cut flower business, and dili- 

 gently set to work to harvest all the 

 seeds possible, so that you could have a 

 chance. 



I have read with interest the items 

 discussing whether a 4-inch geranium 

 can be sold profitably at 10 cents 

 straight or $1 a dozen. Sow digitalis 

 and campanula about a month earlier 

 than you put your geranium cuttings 

 in, get them into 31^-inch pots by fall, 

 keep them in a frame all winter, with 

 a few dry leaves over them as a protec- 

 tion for the foliage, give them air early 

 in the spring, keep them nice and 

 stocky and hand them out to your cus- 

 tomers at $1.50 a dozen — they will get 

 a lot of satisfaction and you will get 

 a better profit. 



Get acquainted with some of the best 

 hardy plants and make your customers 

 feel you are giving them intelligent ad- 

 vice when they ask for suggestions. 

 Your customers are taking a greater in- 

 terest in outdoor gardening than they 

 ever did before. They are not going 

 to Europe in such large numbers every 

 year and many of them are using the 

 time to beautify their own grounds. 



A Large Demand. 



Look up some of the magazines de- 

 voted to outdoor life and country pur- 

 suits and note the number of garden 

 clubs that have been formed. See the 

 number of demonstrating lessons that 

 are being given actually in the gardens 

 of the members. Result? I will ven- 

 ture to say that many of the stocks of 

 hardy plants in the larger nurseries are 

 lower at the present time than they 

 have been for many years. 



If you grow a few more hardy plants 

 than you dispose of in the spring, plant 

 them out; they will give you flowers 

 that will be acceptable before the new- 

 ly-planted carnations have begun to 

 bloom and when the first crop of roses 

 opens up too quickly on you. They 

 will also give you a greater variety — 

 and one sale leads to another. 



In the autumn you will have noted 

 the flowers that have been in demand. 

 Increase your plantings by division in 

 October or early spring. Tonight I am 

 to speak only for fall flowers, but a 

 good plant catalogue and your own 

 good judgment will suggest plants that 

 you can profitably use all through the 

 summer months. 



Some Specially Good Things. 



The new Anemone Hupehensis, a re- 

 cent introduction of merit from China, 

 grows one foot high and produces flow- 

 ers of a pleasing pale mauve rose, one 

 and one-half inches in diameter, from 

 August until late autumn. 



The buddleia, or butterfly bush, as it 

 is called, is deservedly popular with the 

 florist. This shrub, from a young plant 

 set out in May, will mature to full size 

 the flrst season. It produces long, grace- 

 ful stems which terminate in tapering 

 panicles of beautiful, lilac-colored flow- 

 ers that are of miniature size and borne 

 on a flower head which is frequently ten 

 inches long. The second year it gen- 

 erally commences to flower in June and 



continues until nipped by severe frosts. 

 I venture to predict that buddleias will 

 become one of the most popular plants 

 ever introduced. 



Coreopsis lanceolata, with its rich, 

 golden-yellow flowers, is valuable for 

 cutting and succeeds everywhere. 



Eupatorium ageratoides, a strong, 

 free-growing plant, with minute white 

 flowers in dense heads, is splendid for 

 cutting and the pretty Eupatorium 

 coelestinum, with light blue flowers, 

 similar to ageratum, is in flower from 

 August until frost. 



The gorgeous Gaillardia grandiflora 

 succeeds in any soil, in a sunny posi- 

 tion, and is in flower all the time from 

 June on. 



The new Salvia uliginosa, growing 

 five to six feet high and producing free- 

 ly flowers of a cornflower blue with a 

 white throat, is a splendid acquisition 

 in the autump border. The carmine- 

 colored flowers of Salvia Greggii, a na- 

 tive of the mountains of Texas, are par- 

 ticularly bright from August on. 



To those of you who have grown the 

 large round-leaved senecios of heavy 

 stem and have, after a trial, consigned 

 them to the bog, or the border of a 

 lake, I would recommend S. pulcher. 



There are few flowers that are more 

 suitable than the tritomas, call them 

 red-hot pokers, flame flowers, torch lilies 

 or what you will. The ever-blooming 

 Tritoma Pfitzeri, in bloom from August 

 to October, produces a grand effect in 

 rich orange-scarlet, planted either sing- 

 ly or in masses. Probably most of you 

 will think the best effect is produced 

 in the retailer's store, when My Lady 

 exclaims, "What wonderfully gorgeous 

 flame flowers!" and immediately places 

 an order. 



Outdoor Chrysanthemums. 



If the characteristics of a popular 

 garden plant are hardiness, dwarfness 



of habit, freedom of flowering, useful- 

 ness as a cut flower, and a range of col- 

 oring embracing every shade except 

 blue and intense scarlet, then the early- 

 flowering outdoor chrysanthemum may 

 lay claim to the distinction of being an 

 almost perfect plant, because it pos- 

 sesses these qualities in a remarkable 

 degree. 



Such enthusiastic cultivators as 

 Nonin, Cannell, Davis, Godfrey, Goacher, 

 Holmes, Wells Mud Totty will b« ever 

 associated with the early-flowering 

 mum. The introduction of Mme. Marie 

 Masse about 1891 brought about a revo- 

 lution in the growing of this plant. A 

 new era had dawned upon it, because 

 we had in this an introduction of won- 

 derful constitution, a perfect habit, and 

 most profuse in its blooming qualities, 

 and today it is one of the most popu- 

 lar varieties in general cultivation; and 

 with its sports, Ralph Curtis, Horace 

 Martin and Crimson Masse, covers quite 

 a range of coloring. 



A mistaken impression has been 

 given with regard to outdoor mums, 

 which is, that all one has to do is sim- 

 ply to plant them in a bed and they will 

 continue to improve from year to year 

 without any further care. That they 

 are entirely hardy and will come up in 

 the spring in most sections is perfectly 

 true, but the best way to produce the 

 greatest quantity of flowers is to take 

 cuttings from the young plants every 

 spring and, as soon as they are rooted, 

 plant them out in good soil in rows 

 about two feet apart. These can be 

 pinched back several times to make 

 them bushy and then in the fall they 

 will produce large quantities of long- 

 stemmed, beautiful flowers, much supe- 

 rior to old stalks that have been grow- 

 ing for several years, and which are 

 consequently to a greater or less extent 

 exhausted. 



Rotterdam, Holland. — The indications 

 are that conditions are shaping them- 

 selves so that bulb dealers will do well 

 to figure on considerably higher prices 

 for tulips and hyacinths of the 1917 

 crop. 



Marseilles, France. — One of the rea- 

 sons why French bulbs will cost more 

 in 1917 may be found in the statement 

 of U. S. Consul General Gaulin that in 

 the Marseilles-Ollioules district, whence 

 come the bulbs, "the average prices 

 of nearly all the necessities have in- 

 creased since the outbreak of the war 

 between forty-five and fifty per cent." 



Paris, France. — L 'Horticulture Fran- 

 caise, the official organ of la Federation 

 Nationale des Syndicats Horticoles de 

 France, the nurserymen's association, 

 continues to be published as a quarterly 

 instead of a monthly. The greater part 

 of its contents is lists of members of 

 the trade who have been killed, injured, 

 captured or honorably mentioned in the 

 war, but there also is much discussion 

 regarding labor, embargoes and other 

 questions growing out of the great con- 

 flict. 



Erfurt, Germany. — As a means of 

 offsetting the labor shortage, prisoners 

 of war have been set to work at the 

 civilian tasks for which they are best 

 fitted. As a result many French, Eng- 

 lish and Belgian gardeners, seed grow- 

 ers and nurserymen now are employed 

 at similar work here, at Quedlinburg 

 and at other places where trade inter- 

 ests need assistance. 



London, England. — The Horticultural 

 Trades Association recently proposed a 

 schedule of minimum prices for rose 

 plants and fruit trees. At the recent 

 meeting the secretary reported that 

 out of 470 members 210 had signed the 

 slips; seventy-six others approved of 

 the action taken but for one cause and 

 another were unable or unwilling to 

 bind themselves to any definite sched- 

 ule; twelve were not interested, being 

 exclusively occupied in other branches, 

 and nine disapproved of the action 

 taken. Of these last, only one or two 

 were directly interested in the subjects 

 in question. The members present con- 

 sidered that the result of the movement 

 had so far been highly satisfactory. 



