26 



The Florists^ Review 



Mabch 11, 1920 



culiarities as well as they now know 

 Columbia, Premier is going to be a won- 

 derful rose in the dark pink class. Per- 

 sonally, I do not consider that it con- 

 flicts with Columbia, as it is so differ- 

 ent in color. It will most certainly 

 bury Mrs. Russell, as it is much more 

 tractable in habit and will easily pro- 

 duce four crops to Russell's three. The 

 fragrance of Premier is wonderfully 

 fine and any rose that lacks this most 

 desirable attribute cannot long be a 

 favorite of rose lovers. 



In 1920 we have Frank H. Dunlop, 

 Madame Butterfly and Pilgrim as can- 

 didates for popularity and we may safe- 

 ly defer judgment on these varieties un- 

 til they have been through the grilling 

 which the different growers will put 

 them through before giving them final 

 approval. Butterfly does not differ rad- 

 ically from Ophelia, saving that it is a 

 much freer grower and of better color. 



Yellow Roses. 



Yellow roses were represented for 

 years by Perle des Jardins and its two 

 sports, Sunrise and Sunset. None of 

 these would take the graft, as there 

 seemed to be no congeniality between 

 this type and the Manetti stock. When 



Mrs. "Ward was introduced, that grafted 

 so well tVat' it was hailed with joy and 

 Ward soon became a good money-maker 

 and still is in many places. Melody was 

 introduced in 1910, but did not meet 

 with popular favor, since Lady Hilling- 

 don, introduced in 1911, quicklj 

 squelched its aspirations. Hillingdon, 

 however, has a tendency to throw con- 

 siderable blind wood, though it is to- 

 day unapproached in its lovely color. 



With the advent of Sunburst in 1912, 

 yellow roses began to get popular. Sun- 

 burst, like the old Perle des Jardins, 

 evinced a disinclination to graft and we 

 had lots of trouble before we found this 

 out; practically all the Sunburst grown 

 today is own-root stock. Tipperary 

 flitted across the scene in 1915 and 

 Primerose in 1916, but neither one left 

 any indelible impression. In 1917 came 

 Madame Collette Martinette, which has 

 the distinction of being the yellowest 

 rose, but also has an unconquerable 

 aversion to the Manetti stock. Mar- 

 tinette is "snub-nosed" and therefore 

 does not meet with popular approval, at 

 least not so much as Sunburst and Hill- 

 ingdon. We could use nicely today a 

 deep yellow rose of the freedom, size 

 and finish of Columbia. 



LADY, MAKE 

 MB YOURS** 



TULIP TIME 



Conceit of the Tulip is like that of the peacock — both are conscious of their 

 beauty. 



We are selling these potted aristocrats at 



$2.50 EACH 



Follow that impulse— PHONE TODAY 



GRIMM & GORLY 



Florists De Luxe 

 Washington Av., West of 7th St. 



St. Loufs Firm of Florists Uses Special Offer to Attract Trade. 



The history of white roses is compara- 

 tively short. Older growers will remem- 

 ber the varieties Cornelia Koch and 

 Niphetos. The latter is one of the 

 purest and most beautiful roses ever in> 

 troduced, but it had a regrettable weak- 

 ness in the stem; were it not for this 

 handicap, it would be largely grown 

 today for corsage work, as it is in Eu- 

 rope. Bride was a sport 6f the old 

 Catherine Mermet and for years was un- 

 approachable in white roses. The senti- 

 ment of the name and the beauty of the 

 rose itself combined to make it popular. 

 For years a bride's bouquet was not 

 truly a bride's bouquet unless made 

 with Bride roses and nothing except ap- 

 proaching age and infirmity with its 

 consequent crop reduction was responsi- 

 ble for the passing of the Bride rose. 

 Kaiserin had its day, but was grown 

 much more for summer work than win- 

 ter, because it proved "bull-headed" 

 for winter conditions. Since then, White 

 Killarney and Double White Killarney 

 have been the only white roses grown 

 for the market and, as in the case of 

 the yellow, we are anxiously waiting 

 for a first-class white. Mrs. John Cook, 

 introduced in 1920, we understand is not 

 an especially good white in color, but 

 we hear great reports of a new seedling 

 coming out of the west, which will make 

 its debut in a year or two. 



Such then, briefly, is the development 

 from a cut flower standpoint of all the 

 principal varieties of rose up to the pres- 

 ent day. Many other sorts were pre- 

 sented, but they proved hardly impor- 

 tant enough to mention in a passing re- 

 view such as this. 



Popularity and Efaciency. 



It depends greatly on the retailer 

 whether a new rose becomes popular 

 with the public. Another important 

 thing is the proper naming of a new 

 rose. Boses with names that stick to 

 the memory or are easily remembered, 

 such as Bride, Bridesmaid, Killarney, 

 Columbia, Sunburst, etc., and that are 

 euphonious, often perhaps sentimental, 

 are the kinds that sell best. Shake- 

 speare is credited with saying, "A rose 

 by any other name would smell as 

 sweet," but any retailer will tell you 

 that, however it may smell, it will not 

 sell as well as one with an easily re- 

 membered name. 



Rose growing as a business, in com- 

 mon with all other businesses, has 

 progressed tremendously during the last 

 twenty-five years, but the advent of 

 the efficiency expert has taken away 

 considerable glamour which the old-time 

 grower threw around his roses. If a 

 grower fancied a certain rose himself, 

 he would not discard it even though the 

 market did not have much call for it. 

 Present-day eflSciency methods keep 

 track of each foot of bench space de- 

 voted to growing each variety. The cut 

 from each bench is recorded, also the 

 price the flowers bring, and at the end 

 of every season the returns are totaled 

 and show which kinds are the "sheep" 

 and which kinds are the "goats." Then 

 the variety that makes the poorest show- 

 ing is thrown into the discard. In few 

 places do we see nonpaying kinds car- 

 ried over simply because the grower 

 himself admired them. It is sometimes 

 a matter of regret to older growers to 

 see this and yet nothing can be done to 

 remedy it. Every line of business shows 

 it. I read of an efficiency expert the 

 other day who was trying to produce a 



