^UKCH 22, 1917. 



The Florists^ Review 



29 



efforts in rose growing and rose breed- 

 ing, on the diseases and insects which 

 affect roses, on rose popularity in vari- 

 ous parts of the United States and Can- 

 ada, on rose organizations, and on roses 

 grown for cut flowers, were of such 

 value that the volume will long remain 

 a standard reference book, comparing 

 favorably with the best issues of the 

 National Rose Society of England. 



As an illustration of how this An- 

 nual was received not only in this coun- 

 try, but in Europe as well, I ^ant to 

 read you from a letter of May 26, 1916, 

 from Joseph J. Lane, of the Garden 

 Magazine : 



I had the pleasure of being one of those 

 present at the meeting of the American Rose 

 Society during the Philadelphia flower show In 

 1916, because I joined the society two or three 

 days before. I tell you frankly that the reason 

 I joined the Rose Society was to get a copy of 

 the Rose Annual and to affiliate myself with an 

 organization which was so enthusiastically going 

 about its work. The majority of the horticul- 

 tural organizations as a riUe solicit you for your 

 dues and never think of making any plans for 

 you to get something back for your money. I 

 am glad to say that in receiving a copy of the 

 Rose Annual I have received sufllclent to pay me 

 for my entire dues. Next year I want you to 

 solicit us good and hard for advertising in this 

 book. The Garden Magazine and Country Life 

 in America, also some of our garden books, 

 should be in there and 1 will do everything in 

 my power to see that they are. 



The heading of a column and a half 



article in the Gardeners' Chronicle of 



July 8, 1916, an English publication, 



starts off in this fashion: 



The American Rose Society and Mr. McFar- 

 land, its editor, are to be congratulated on the 

 issue of the first Annual under the auspices of 

 the society. This forms a volume of some 150 

 pages, the last ten of which are devoted to 

 accounts of rose shows. 



Then it goes on, giving a thorough re- 

 sume of the book in its many phases. 



These are but two instances of many, 

 showing how wonderfully the Annual of 

 1916 was received, indeed a volume to 

 be proud of! 



Besearch Work. 



In the late spring of 1916 a fund 

 for research work in rose diseases was 

 started. A liberal response to the call 

 for subscriptions from interested rose 

 growers all over the country made it 

 possible for the oflScers to arrange 

 through Dr. H. H. Whetzel, the patholo- 

 gist of Cornell University, for the em- 

 ployment of Dr. L. M. Massey to under- 

 take the disease study desired. The 

 university itself bears an important part 

 of the cost of the work. 



Dr. Massey began work in the early 

 fall and his accomplishments up to date 

 have been most gratifying, even though 

 it was not expected that there would be 

 any particular result for at least a year. 

 For example, his investigation of the 

 new trouble which besets cut flower rose 

 growers, a form of crown root-gall, is 

 likely to result in the early checking of 

 a disease whicb certainly, under previ- 

 ously existing conditions, might easily 

 have put many growers entirely out of 

 business. It is most important that 

 every grower, particularly the commer- 

 cial man, should take careful note of 

 the disease. Dr. Massey has also taken 

 up carefully the study of the difficult 

 black spot and in the 1917 Annual will 

 be found his article bearing on this most 

 important subject. The research fund 

 was solicited largely through personal 

 effort and it is my sincere hope that 

 the subscriptions will be renewed and 

 extended, so that the work may be ear- 

 ned on for another year, or as much 

 longer as is necessary to keep the mem- 

 bers of the society fully informed as 

 to rose diseases and as to the best means 

 for combating them. 



Villlam L. Rock. 



(Vlce-Preeldent-Elect of the American Roee Society.) 



The Nursery Trade. 



It seems that the nurserymen are not 

 taking advantage of their opportunities, 

 in coming in and being represented more 

 strongly in the society. I would like 

 to quote from a letter of February 17, 

 1917, received from John Watson, presi- 

 dent of the American Association of 

 Nurserymen : 



I am a member of the American Rose Society, 

 hut a poor one, and a member of the committee 

 for the Cornell garden. I especially regret not 

 having been able to do anything for the garden 

 pxcept to send some rose plants, and to ask my 

 friends among the foreign rose growers to do 

 likewise; the war has so seriously handicapped 

 them that they have not sent as many plants 

 as they could have sent under normal conditions. 



No society of its kind is of greater importance 

 to the nursery trade than the Rose Society, for 

 it has so much to do. I was writing Mr. McFar- 

 l.ind the other day regretting the backwardness 

 of American growers in hybridizing. While we 

 have many new seedlings, they are nearly all 

 forcing varieties, except the Wichuralana hybrids, 

 which have been overdone. Some years ago, when 

 nt Mr. Lambert's in Treves, I was interested in 

 his enthusiasm for his plans to produce a race 

 of hardy everblooming climbers. You know in 

 Ills Trier he produced an almost everblooming 

 rambler. He will go the rest of the way, I feel 

 sure. Then there are the rugosas, which we are 

 leaving untouched, the easiest to cross, while 

 the results so far have given us the best that we 

 liave in hardy roses like Amelie Gravereaux, Mme. 

 Lucien VlUemlnot, Conrad F. Meyer and Nova 

 Zembla. That race is what we must look to in 

 .\merica: Hardiness, everblooming habit, good 

 foliage and fragrance. Our hybridizers all seem 

 to be working on forcing roses, of which we have 

 an abundance. We must look to the hardy, out- 

 door roses, just as the British growers devote 

 themselves to the hybrid teas. It is amazing 

 that the American nurserymen are doing nothing 

 for the rose and nothing for the American Rose 

 Society. 



From this you will see how one of 

 our prominent fellow nurserymen feels 

 not only about the society, but the intro- 

 ducing of new roses of American origin 

 as well. It would not only give me great 

 pleasure, but immense satisfaction, to 

 have the nurserymen and their inter- 



ests more closely allied with the Bose 

 Society and I hope we may have their 

 fuller support in the future. 



Bose Test Gardens. 



Our work in the past of the rose test- 

 ing gardens is too well known for me 

 to go over it at this time. These test 

 gardens, I am glad to say, are bringing 

 good results, but not as good as we 

 would like to have in the way of records 

 of how the gardens are being kept up, 

 as these are of great importance. These 

 test gardens are going to be one of the 

 valuable assets of the society, not only 

 in the actual garden tests, but in the 

 records of the roses. May we look for- 

 ward to only a few years hence when 

 every city of any size will take hold and 

 foster a rose garden such as Portland, 

 Ore., is undertaking at this time, which 

 is called the Portland Association Na- 

 tional Rose Test Garden, a wonderful 

 movement not only for Portland, but for 

 the Rose Society and the rose business 

 in general, which is being backed by 

 such bodies as the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, city council and ninety-seven 

 other organizations. Think of it: Ninety- 

 nine distinct organizations! This spells 

 progress in the broadest sense of the 

 word and to my mind should be an incen- 

 tive for every other city in this country. 



I want to read you a quotation from 



"Horticulture" of July 15, 1916: 



We have heard from a number of places where 

 municipal rose gardens are being established 

 this year, or are being planned. It is only a 

 question of time, and that not long, until a 

 rose garden will be regarded as an indispensable 

 feature of every public park and private estates 

 generally will follow suit. Until the advent 

 of the hardy hybrid teas and everblooming 

 polyanthas, tliere was little inducement for the 



