pp|i -jii!yjpji^iji!4Fff»^T'';' 



r.wTH^T!r."#'ir'.'»»f'"^'''." »v .••i">'i. 't*p|i3<(ji»'!*,"',,"i.('i'!iji^wi^!FJ*,f»,*-**''.'/. i^'-'j^'wi^.^ff,!?*"*""*. 



lU|mP!|ini|flf|f l|lll , i| WI>.^(^,IJ| I (lll.llli f^MiPlI 1 1 ■!! JUpillI,! IfUUHU •»W,,V.'< 



March 11, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



25 



ROSES FOR CUT FLOWERS is 



ag?ityi\ih^rrs\iri^ri^fi^ri^f/s\irysvirir8\iri«vit 



T IS not my purpose to re- 

 vive ancient history when 

 discussing rose growing 

 from a cut flower stand- 

 point. The live business 

 man is naturally more in- 

 terested in the varieties 

 that are coming than in 

 "water that has already 

 passed under the bridge," 

 and yet a brief review of the develop- 

 ment of the varieties may be of inter- 

 est. My commercial experience with 

 rose growing extends back only some 

 twenty-five years, at which time I re- 

 call that Bride, Bridesmaid and Ameri- 

 can Beauty were by far the most grown 

 of any roses. Yellow was represented 

 by Perle des Jardins and, to a much 

 less extent, by its two sports, Sunrise 

 and Sunset. 



In the red section. Meteor was reign- 

 ing supreme; Liberty was the first seri- 

 ous rival with which Meteor had to con- 

 tend. Liberty did not require such an 

 intense heat as Meteor and gave a much 

 longer stem and eventually crowded it 

 out, to be in turn supplanted by Rich 

 mond, the E. G. Hill Co. introduction 

 of 1904. Eichmond proved much more 

 tractable and more free-blooming than 

 Liberty, which, therefore, finally struck 

 its flag in favor of Eichmond. Hadley, 

 Milady, Hoosier Beauty and Francis 

 Scott Key followed Eichmond in rapid 

 succession, with the odds all in favor of 

 Hadley, though men in some sections of 

 the country have made considerable 

 money growing Milady, and Hoosier 

 Beauty, with its delightful fragrance, 

 is still quite a favorite 

 in some markets. The 

 year 1920 ushers in the 

 new red Crusader and, 

 coming as it does from 

 one of our most conserv- 

 ative growers, Mr. Mont- 

 gomery, who gave us 

 Hadley, it seems a safe 

 bet that Crusader will, 

 in the language of the 

 race track, "trot a good 

 heat. ' ' 



Pink BfMses. 



In pink roses, my first 

 recollection is a house of 

 Bridesmaid, which, if I 

 recall correctly, I saw 

 in the winter of 1895 in 

 magnificent condition. 

 The memory of that 

 house of roses has never 

 loft me and Bridesmaid, 

 if we could get it today 

 as good in color and as 

 productive and free 

 from mildew as it was 

 then, would still be one 

 of our finest pink roses. 

 Killarney came along 

 and was never formally 

 introduced to the Ameri- 

 can public. Imported by 

 several growers, intro- 

 duced once, if I recall 

 correctly, by Siebrecht 

 as Mrs. Westinghouse 

 a^nd known under va- 



The address of C. II. Totty, of Jlndlson, N. J., 

 on "The Developmeut of Kose Growing from 

 a Cut Flower Standpoint," delivered before the 

 New York Florists' Club Marcli 8. 



rious other names, it finally came into its 

 own and was for several years one of 

 our most popular and best paying roses. 

 Killarney was really the first rose 

 that gave definite results; that is to say, 

 it could be pinched at a given date and 

 the crop brought in with the utmost 

 regularity at any desired time. Kil- 

 larney gave us successively White Kil- 

 larney, Double White Killarney, Kil- 

 larney Queen and Killarney Brilliant, a 

 magnificent record, and many growers 

 still have a soft spot in their hearts for 

 the Killarneys, even though they have 

 to give way to the newer aspirants for 

 popularity. Mrs. Jardine flitted across 

 the scene in 1910, but its period was 

 short. 



John Cook's Seedlings. 



Eadiance, also, was somewhat of a 

 factor, but was quickly dropped, save 

 by a few of the private growers who 

 liked its free-growing propensities and 

 freedom from mildew. Eadiance and 

 its relative, My Maryland, were both 

 American seedlings of John Cook's, of 

 Baltimore, and neither of them was 

 ushered into the arena with the beat- 

 ing of drums or a brass band accom- 

 paniment; still they played a useful 

 part in progress. My Maryland is still 

 grown to some extent in certain sections 

 of the country. Lady Alice Stanley 

 was imported and grown by several 

 growers about this same time, but Stan- 



Cbarlfs H. Totty. 



ley, unfortunately, is inclined to be 

 weak in the neck and not so quick on 

 its "pins" as some of the other roses; 

 therefore it did not last long. 



In 1913 there was great competition 

 between Mrs. George Shawyer and 

 Mrs. Charles Eussell. Shawyer in some 

 sections becomes badly affected with 

 mildew, but the fact remains that for 

 form and finish a perfect bloom of 

 Shawyer today cannot be beaten in the 

 market. Eussell did not prove so tract- 

 able and it took the growers a year or 

 two to size up this newcomer; when they 

 did, Eussell proved itself a money- 

 maker, since, when properly handled 

 and cut at the right time, it is a marvel- 

 ous keeper and shipper. Today Eus- 

 sell has many friends. Ophelia, which 

 was properly introduced in 1914, jumped 

 into instant popularity. It is a lovely 

 pink color and its delicate shading ren- 

 dered it immensely popular, as it could 

 be used as a light rose in funeral decora- 

 tions. If a lady wanted a pink rose 

 and there was nothing else in the store, 

 Ophelia was sent and it could be made 

 to cover yellow roses in cases of neces- 

 sity. In many cases it was, and still 

 is, without a rival. I might mention 

 also Jonkheer J. L. Mock, which, how- 

 ever, did not get any especially popular 

 introduction and, while grown well to- 

 day in some places, it can hardly be 

 classed as a rose for the average grower. 

 The year 1918 was responsible for 

 the introduction of Columbia, which 

 the C. H. Totty Co. sent out in conjunc- 

 tion with the E. G. Hill Co. Columbia, 

 like every other new introduction, was 

 severely criticised, some 

 growers contending that 

 all the buds were of poor 

 shape and that the rose 

 was coarse, common and 

 everything else. At the 

 present time Columbia 

 stands at the top of the 

 list with the public, and 

 with the grower also, on 

 account of its lovely 

 color and freedom of 

 growth. Where the 

 grower knows enough to 

 let Columbia stay on 

 the plant until the bud 

 has assumed a definite 

 character, there is little 

 trouble about bad buds. 

 Columbia also is spot- 

 proof and the man who 

 is not growing this va- 

 riety should put him- 

 self down as a " back 

 number. ' ' 



Premier. 



In 1919 we intro- 

 duced Hill 's Premier, 

 also in conjunction with 

 that firm, and this is 

 still passing through its 

 test period. Some grow- 

 ers who bought it last 

 year treated it a little 

 too well and got a bad 

 dose of spot in conse- 

 quence. When growers 

 get to know its little pe- 



