The American Carnation Society held its twe^itij -sixth annual meeting 

 and exhibition this week at Indianapolis, in the heart of the Indiana car- 

 nation helt. The success of the affairwas achieved along lines made famil- 

 iar by being closely followed for several years. Has progress slowed up? 



ONE of us will concede 

 that progress has ceased to 

 be made in the develop- 

 ment of the carnation, 

 once dubbed "pink" and 

 ^ ^ later rechristened the 

 ^^ — "divine" flower; but it 



is contended by many that 

 the pace has slowed down. 

 The exhibition which 

 opened at the Claypool hotel, Indian- 

 apolis, January 31, while perhaps more 

 attractive than any previous showing 

 of carnations in the middle west, owed 

 its success to the participation of the 

 retailers rather than to the advance 

 made by the growers. 



This was the twenty-sixth annual ex- 

 hibition of the American Carnation 

 Society and for several years it 

 has been at work along the same lines, 

 holding its meeting 

 in a popular hotel, 

 arranging a show 

 for the public and 

 inviting the flower- 

 lovers of the com- 

 munity to come and 

 admire. Even at In- 

 dianapolis, where 

 the carnation at its 

 best is well known, 

 there was nothing 

 but praise for the 

 quality of the stock 

 shown. It was good 

 — almost too good, 

 for the average 

 grower appreciates 

 that he cannot com- 

 pete and does rot 

 enter his stock, 

 with the result that 

 the annual shows 

 are almost wholly 

 made by a few spe- 

 cialists. 



Good CultuTe. 



High culture is 

 the outstanding fea- 

 ture of these shows. 

 The exhibitors al- 

 most to a man are 

 possessed of unusual 

 ability as growers 

 and the stock they 

 stage is of such 

 splendid quality 

 that it takes a 

 mighty good nov- 

 elty to make a 

 showing that will 

 command favorable 

 attention when it is 



OFFICERS ELECTED. 



President— W. J. Vesey, Jr., Fort 

 Wayne, Ind. 



Vice-President — Charles S. Strout, 

 Biddeford, Me. 



Secretary — A. F. J. Baur, Indian- 

 apolis, ind. 



Treasurer — F. E. Dorner, Lafay- 

 ette, Ind. 



Director for Five Years — Peter 

 FisKier, Ellis, IVIass. 



Judges — William Nicholson, J. H. 

 Duniop. 



IVIeeting Place for 1918 — Boston. 



set up alongside the older varieties 



grown by these experts. That is why 



progress appears to have slowed down. 



The 1917 show makes it seem more 



William J. Vesey, Jr. 



(President-elect American Carnation Society.) 



than ever apparent that the effort to 

 increase the size of the carnation has 

 been abandoned; it looks as though, by 

 general agreement, the modern carna- 

 tion is large enough, at least that 

 greater size is not desirable until form, 

 substance, fragrance and stem have 

 been further developed, while the 

 grower of average ability, ground be- 

 tween rising costs and falling prices, 

 will assert that floriferousness, produc- 

 tivity, is what is wanted of the novel- 

 ties — sorts that will give more than the 

 twenty blooms per plant which now is 

 considered a good average by those who 

 keep count. 



The size of the Indianapolis show was 

 helped by two factors, first of which 

 is the fact that carnations have been 

 more plentiful and lower in price this 

 January than at this time in any of 

 the last few years, 

 while Indianapolis 

 is one of the most 

 accessible of west- 

 ern cities. The ex- 

 hibitor farthest 

 from home was 

 Strout 's, of Bidde- 

 ford, Me., but Bos- 

 ton growers were 

 well represented 

 and the Cottage 

 Gardens upheld the 

 banner of Long 

 Island growers. The 

 eastern specialists 

 always have been 

 staunch supporters 

 of the society. 



Dominant Varieties. 



The Indianapolis 

 show served to dem- 

 onstrate the stay- 

 ing qualities of the 

 varieties that have 

 been in the lead the 

 last few years. 



Flesh pink still 

 predominates; just 

 as Enchantress is 

 the most abundant 

 variety in the mar- 

 kets, so is Enchant- 

 ress color the lead- 

 ing one in the ex- 

 hibitions. But 

 where the market 

 growers as a body 

 cling to Enchant- 

 ress, the special- 

 ists have discarded 

 it and use Enchant- 

 ress Supreme, Pink 



