14 



■ ■- Y • ■■■• ; -^ ^.;. 

 The Florists' Review 



Mat 8, 1919. 



^ 



for, while the bloom is nob quite so 

 large, the foliage is much more beauti- 

 ful than Fortunei. The color is a deeper 

 green and more wax-like than Fortunei. 

 This combination pt the wax-like flower 

 and wax-like leaves is simply irresisti- 

 ble. I have never ^ seen blooms of the 

 winter-flowering variety, Veitchii, as 

 grown in the north, but am sure there 

 can be no possible comparison between 

 Veitchii and G. florida and am under 

 the impression that the bloom of the la^^ 

 ter is about twice the size of. Veitchii, 

 while the foliage of Veitchii which I 

 have seen is not attractive. " 



A Bit of Culture. 



Gardenia jasminoides is a tender 

 shrub four to six feet high, with thick, 

 glossy, dark green evergreen foliage. It 

 propagates readily from cuttings and in 

 the Alvin district the bushes are grown 

 in rows across broad fields, the plants, 

 having been set about eight feet apart, 

 which permits cultivating with the plow 

 as well as the hoe. The flowers usually 

 begin to open about the middle of May. 

 The cutting is done in the bud and the 

 work gives employment during the sea- 

 son to as many girls and boys as are 

 available in the town. Cutting is begun 

 as early in the morning as it is light 

 enough to see, and only the buds in the 

 right stage of development are taken, 

 the field being gone over four or five 

 times a day. Even then a considerable 

 part of the crop is lost, as the buds pop 

 open and are not suitable for shipping. 



Too Early or Too Iiate? 



In the days of late April and early 

 May there always is great perturbation 



aad .find that most of them are later 

 tban at any previous season in the last 

 tWenty^six ytMB. AboaA thirty^^r cent 

 of the plants Will not produce iany buds 

 for Memorial day use and at least fifty 

 per cent will not start before May 20, 

 in my opinion. A small portion will 

 start May 10 and about fortj^ per cent 

 by May 17 or 18, which is just about 

 right for heavy orders to forward May 

 22^to 27 inclusive, according to distance 

 they are to travel. 



"To offset this l^ackward condition, 

 which is caused, I think, by a combina- 

 tion of drought last year and lack of cul- 

 tivation due to scarcity of labor, the 

 fields which will produce are carrying 

 about 100 per cent nfioTe buds than last 

 year. Consequently,' with a continuation 

 of heavy dews we are getting now and 

 our usual rainfall/ the output of buds 

 available may be pearly as large as last 

 year or the year before. We had nearly 

 seven inches of/rain in one week the 

 latter part of It^arch and the ground in 

 the cultivated/fields is now black with 

 moisture two inches below the surface 

 and this can be retained for several 

 weeks. '^ 



May 2, Carlisle & Sons made this 

 statement: "Warmer weather and a 

 fine rain are bringing the jasmine crop 

 along rapidly. We believe there will 

 be more fine stock than ever before for 

 Memorial day." 



Two Seasons' Prices. 



You may have heard the story of the 

 Indian in the northern woods who was 

 asked why he had doubled the price of 

 a pail of wild huckleberries: "Hell of 

 a war on some place." So the Alvin 



K 



This is the Cape Jasmiae^ Gardenia Jasminoides. 



among the jasmine growers and shippers 

 at Alvin, an uneasiness which communi- 

 cates itself to large numbers of the 

 townsfolk who annually go into the 

 fields to help cut the crop. The cause 

 is the uncertainty of the weather; will 

 the crop be too early or too late fojf 

 Memorial day! Either contingency 

 would be serious in any ordinary sea- 

 son. 



April 25 C. W. Benson said: "I took 

 special pains today to visit all the fields 



shippers, along with everybody else, 

 have raised their prices this season. 

 Years ago they did what other florists 

 have been unable to do: They estab- 

 lished standard grades, used by all the 

 shippers, and they adopted fairly uni- 

 form prices. This is how it stands, 

 prices per thousand: 



Grade Stems 1918 1919 



B under 8 Inches $6.00 $8.00 



A 8 to 12 Inches 10.00 14.00 



X 12 to 18 Inches 15.00 20.00 



There is another factor which will 



affect the cost to the consumer who puts 

 a jasmine breath on the grave of some 

 loyed one May 30, for of course the re- ' 

 tail florist will pass all the extras on to 

 his customer. It is the increased ex- 

 press charges. The government took 

 over the express service since the last 

 Alvin crop moved and has made two ad- 

 vances in rates, amounting to about 

 thirty per cent. 



Length of Stem. 



There is one interesting point in con- 

 nection with the jasmine business which 

 has never been discussed between 

 grower and retailer. It is the length of 

 stem. "While in Dubuque at Memorial 

 day several years ago, ' ' said C. W. Ben- 

 son, "the florists there showed me why 

 they could not use a 4-inch to 6-inch 

 stem to advantage in making up work, 

 but except for altar vases and similar 

 uses I cannot see the advantage of a 

 greater length of stem than eight to 

 twelve inches and, now that express 

 rates are higher, the additional weight of 

 stems twelve to eighteen inches in length 

 will add, on an average, about $3 per 

 thousand to the transportation cost. Of 

 course, we must try to grow what our 

 customers demand. By pruning, thor- 

 ough tillage, etc., we can make our fields 

 produce about 10,000 blooms to the acre, 

 carrying 24 to 30-iiich stems, but I have 

 never urged any of my customers to use 

 a longer stem than eight to twelve 

 inches, although we can make more 

 money growing the longer stems at 

 higher prices." 



It has been suggested that if retailers 

 will make known their preferences as 

 to length of stem, the growers will un- 

 dertake to supply the demand, but it 

 seems probable that this already has 

 been done and is unconsciously reflected 

 in the present output. The growers must 

 never have felt much actual need of 

 longer stock than their 12 to 18-inch 

 stems or it would be reflected in their 

 standard grades and price list. As a 

 matter of fact, previous years' price lists 

 showed a XX grade, 18 to 36-inch stems, 

 at about one-third higher price than the 

 next shorter grade, but it has practically 

 disappeared from the offers, evidently 

 because little called for. The summing 

 up of the season's orders on the part of 

 any of the shippers would serve to show 

 the percentage of each grade now 

 wanted. 



AS IT LOOKS TO HOLLANDEBS. 



European growers whose products will 

 be excluded from th'e United States 

 after June 1, by the operation of Quar- 

 antine No. 37, are having a great deal 

 of difficulty in accepting the sincerity 

 of the act; to them it looks as though 

 the Democrats have in this instance to- 

 tally eclipsed the protection ideas of the 

 Republicans as exemplified by the tariff. 



The following is by C. M. GruUemans, 

 Sr., of the well known llolland firm of 

 J. J. GruUemans & Son: 



* ' I wish to say a few words about the 

 American restrictions on trees, shrubs 

 and some kinds of bulbs. I should like 

 to place the following questions before 

 the Federal Horticultural Board of the 

 United States: Why are gladioUis bulbs 

 excluded? Is this because a good num- 

 ber of these are grown in their own 

 country? Is this to protect their own 

 trade? Why are Spanish iris, ixias, ' 

 scillas, babianas, spiipbas and hundreds 

 of other bulbous sorts excluded? Did 

 anyone ever sell a cleaner, nicer, 



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