14 



The Florists^ Review 



August 7, 1919. 



jilaiit idi'iitilicaticiii; (ii) kitelicn gar- 

 deiiinj,'; (4) hand . methods of surveying; 

 (5) jilanting design; ((!) drafting; (7) 

 bdtaiiy, and in the second year soil study 

 and entoniohigy in additicjn. 



Something About Lowthorpe. 



Lowthorjie iSehool is at (Jroton, lliirty- 

 six miles from Boston, in a distriet of 

 beautiful counliy estates. The stdiool, 

 designed as a girls' ''linishing scdiool ' ' 

 of old New England days, is surrounded 

 by se\<'nteen acres ]ilanted to adv;in- 

 tage. Tliere are one large greenhouse, 

 two smaller ones, and a conser\ atory. 



In the school is the home of some of 

 the girlSj the others living in two build- 

 ings a short distance away. There sur- 

 roundings are jirovided n(d only for 

 comfort, but also for the slimidus of the 

 girls in their study. Tuition at Low- 

 thorpe is .$15(1 per annum. Board is 

 from $375 upward j)cr annum. 



About four lifths of the women al- 

 ready graduated from- l.iOwthori)e have 

 made jiractica! use of their landscape 

 gardening training and arc successfully 

 established in jdaccs as far apart as 

 IVovidence, li. I., and Portland^ Ore. 

 Several have oflices of their own, many 

 are assistants in the oflices of landscape 

 architects, aiuj others are teachers and 

 garden suj)ervisors. 



A Philadelphia girl is practicing inde- 

 pendently as a landscape architect and 



receiving many well-paid comnussions 

 laying out the extensive grounds of 

 industrial establishiiients. The color 

 effects seen in certain Newport, ]{. I., 

 gardens and tlie wtdl-jiianned grounds 

 that enhance the beauty of the homes 

 in a well known New Jersey suburb are 

 due to other Lowthorpe graduates. One 

 woman has gone from JjOwthor[)e to be 

 employed by tlie city of Jialtimore as 

 sujiervisor of vacant lots and back door- 

 yards, with the result that she has made 

 many unpromising sections of Baltimore 

 bloom like a garden. One Lowthorpe 

 graduate of a few years ago does work 

 laying out country estates and gardens 

 on Long Island. She not only makes 

 the planting plan, but orders the plants 

 and suj»ervises in great detail the way 

 in which they are to be used. 



When the horticultural course has had 

 the years behind it that the landscape 

 gardening course has had, similar rec- 

 ords are exjiected in that line of work. 



At Ambler. 



The School of Horticulture for 

 Women, at Ambler, Pa., was founded in 

 liUO by a number of women who recog- 

 nized the need of such an institution. 

 The school ]iroperty consists of seventy- 

 one acres, twenty of which are used for 

 horticulture. There are commercial and 

 educational orchards, a nursery of orna- 

 mental trees, shrubs and young fruit 



trees, vegetable and flower gardens, 

 greenhouses, liotbeds and coldframes. 



The school buildings include an old 

 farmhouse, containing the administra- 

 tive offices and th(> dining rooms, and 

 two dormitories, housing twenty stu- 

 dents and the faculty. The other stu- 

 dents obtain rooms in the vicinity. 



Being two miles east of Ambler and 

 eighteen miles north of I'hiladelphia, 

 the school is near a number of large 

 nurseries, seed gardens, greenhouse 

 ranges and large estates. 



Tuition is $\~)i^ jier year. Board is 

 $:!.")() for the forty school weeks. The 

 terms begin early in Sei)t ember .and 

 late in January, the summer vacation 

 being six weeks and the winter vacation 

 five weeks. 



The diploma course requires two 

 years. The courses of the junior year 

 are fruit culture, floriculture, vegetable 

 gardening, botany, chemistry, economic 

 zoology, canning and preserving, car- 

 pentry, and soils and fertilizers, the first 

 four subjects receiving the most em- 

 phasis. 



The senior year's schedule includes 

 fruit culture, floriculture, vegetable gar- 

 ilening, landscajie gardening and draft- 

 ing, woody ornamentals, botany, eco- 

 nomic zoology, s(d]s and fertilizers, and 

 minor elective courses. There are in 

 addition short courses on popular sub- 

 jects each term. 



&?V.'t^l>gfiag/Jl^t^l^.'l^t^t^tjg/4tjj8^t^l^^ 



j^ JAPANESE LILY BULBS ^ 



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ABOUT GIGANTEUMS. 



What Will the Public Pay? 



The following note appeared in the 

 July 17 issue of The Review: "If you 

 are a buyer of lily bulbs, you possil)ly 

 received, some months ago, a circular 

 offer of 7 to 9 giganteums at $65 per 

 thousand. It is only of interest because 

 now a New York dealer throws out the 

 suggestion th.at, at the rate the market 

 is rising, by the time delivery can be 

 made, 7 to 9s will be selling at $25(i 

 to $.'500 per thousand and 9 to lis at 

 $500! These are double the figures 

 thought of a fortnight or so ago." 



It occurs to 7ne that perhaps the spec- 

 ulative proclivities of a few importers 

 have secured the ascendency over their 

 common sense. 



The ultimate consumer is the deter- 

 mining factor in the demand for a com- 

 modity offered at inflated prices. Ad- 

 vance in price in any commodity is 

 attended by a drojijiing oft' in the num- 

 ber of consumers. These are economic 

 facts that admit of no contention. Ap- 

 plied to the matter of lily bulbs as noted 

 in the foregoing quotation, may it not 

 be reasonably assumed tliat at $lii(i jier 

 thousand twentyfi\e jier cent less bulbs 

 Avill be j)urchased tlian-would be bought 

 at $75? At $200 per thousand the de- 

 mand might be fifty jter cent less and at 

 $'At\() ]ier thous.'uid it ]irobaV)ly would be 

 seventy-five jier cent less. lieyond $.300 

 per thousand purchases would be so 

 nearly negligible as to practically elim- 

 inate lilies as an item of commercial 

 floriculture. 



It has come to my knowledge that the 



concern which issued the circular offer 

 of giganteums at $fi5 j)er thousand for 

 7 to 9s had ordered its requirements 

 from a responsible Jai>anese shipper in 

 January of this year, received accep- 

 tance notice of the order in ^Llrch and 

 dejiosited a letter of credit in Japan in 

 June covering the amount of this order. 

 From this it may be assumed that it 

 acted in . accord with business ethics 

 and with the desire to offer its trade 

 bulbs at a figure permissive of growing 

 on with reasonable profit in view from 

 the sale of the matured flowers. Yet 

 honest intent icuis may sometimes lie set 

 at naught. 



The Situation of Dealers. 



This concern lately has received no- 

 tic(> from the .lajianese shipjier abro- 

 gating the (pri<-e ."igreetnent he made last 

 ^L'lr(•h. This Japanese gentleman, who 

 is a responsible business man, states as 

 his reason for al>rogating the price 

 agreement made with tlie ,\merican con- 

 cern referred to, tliiit some American 

 buyers h;ive been canva'^sing the Jaj)an- 

 ese growers, offering fabulous sums for 

 their crops, with the obWous intentifui 

 of cornering the market. lie cites a 

 specific case of (me buyer who "is con- 

 tributing to collect here no less than 

 ;i,0U(l,0(i(t bulbs, offering wonderfully 

 dear prices, which have much disturbed 

 the growers' minds." He further states 

 that interference with his growers by 

 new American buyers has caused them 

 to demand of him extremely high prices, 

 with the result that he will either have 

 to pay what is asked or be denied bulbs 

 for his orders. 



Hence we find that speculative manip- 



ulation has caused Japanese lily bulbs 

 to increase in value approximately 100 

 per cent since June to the current date, 

 with a similar increase highly probable 

 at shipping time this coming fall. 



IJp to Trade and Public. 



The degree of success that will attend 

 this bold attempt to corner the market 

 in one of floriculture's chief items is 

 problematical. The florist of today is 

 a different man from the florist of five 

 years ago. Latent resourcefulness was 

 developed by the exigencies of the war 

 years, with the result that he can mas- 

 ter situations that formerly would have 

 proved untoward. 



I>ilies selling at wholesale at $.3 per 

 dozen, and at $5 per dozen retail, are 

 profitable for both grower and retailer 

 and attractive to the public. If the 

 grower—ints to pay an exorbitant price 

 for bulbs, however, it will be necess.ary 

 for him to ask more than $3 per dozen 

 for his product and it is qnestion.able 

 if the retailer would find sufficient pub- 

 lic demand .at the increased price he- 

 would be forced to ask to warrant his 

 buyinjj them. Hence the force of the 

 ultimate consumer would regulate de- 

 mand to a point that would make lilies 

 of slight importance in the business of 

 the majority of retail florists. 



Last p].aster was a highly successful 

 one in both volume and value of busi- 

 ness transacted, and this without azaleas 

 and with about twenty per cent of the 

 normal sujiply of lilies. The florist of 

 today is adept at improvisation and lily 

 bulbs at a price exceeding $100 per 

 thousand will incite him to produce a 



