The Florists^ Review 



NOTEMBBB 6, 1919. 



Left Half— a Panoramic Pliotograph of the First Large California Palm-Growing 



retail florists ' point of view there is 

 only one palm, the kentia, and outdoor 

 culture has not given the requisite per- 

 fection of finish. 



It was in 1913 that Edgar B. Wash- 

 burn, a graduate of the agricultural col- 

 lege of the University of Wisconsin and 

 a member of the firm of Bassett & 

 Washburn, Chicago, undertook the 

 growing of kentias in California. Mr. 

 Washburn had located at Pasadena to 

 escape the unlovely winters at Chicago. 

 He found the climate so beneficial to 

 his health that he decided to remain, 



and the palm-growing enterprise devel- 

 oped from an inclination to employ his 

 energies in the line of his education and 

 business training. Thus the quarantine 

 found Bassett & Washburn with a stock 

 of close to 400,000 kentias in all sizes, 

 from seedlings to 6-inch pots, and a 

 going establishment capable soon of 

 turning out 100,000 6-inch plants per 

 year. 



Six Years of Study. 



Except for eighteen months spent as 

 a lieutenant in the airplane production 



Kentia at the Sierra Madre Potting Stage, Soil Washed Out. 

 (Iniert, enlarjred plioto of root system which must be cut down to fit fi-lni-li pot.) 



service, Mr. Washburn has devoted all 

 his time for six years to growing ken- 

 tias on the coast. His first step was to 

 look over the work that was then being 

 done in growing palms in the open and 

 in lath houses, mostly for garden use. 

 From this survey certain well defined 

 ideas were obtained and a site for the 

 undertaking was selected. 



Twenty-five acres were purchased at 

 Sierra Madre, about fifteen miles north- 

 east of Los Angeles. Mr. Washburn's 

 home is in Pasadena, midway between,, 

 and in the course of time a business 

 office was established at 611 Central 

 building, Pasadena. There is a boule- 

 vard from the office to the nursery, 

 which is located on the foothills of 

 Mount Wilson. It is 300 or 400 feet 

 above the bottom of the valley, which is 

 three or four miles away, and the frosts 

 slide down the slope just like water down 

 a hillside. Frost damage is not infre- 

 quent in the valley, but at the nursery 

 it has left its mark only once; that time 

 not on the tips of the leaves but in the 

 shape of a seared streak on the upper 

 side of the topmost curve of the arch- 

 ing foliage. The thermometer regis- 

 tered 29 degrees that morning. 



Conditions Nearly Perfect. 



The soil at Sierra Madre is a deep 

 sandy loam made up of decomposed 

 granite. .,The subsoil is sand or gravel. 

 There is good drainage. The place is 

 known for the high percentage it re- 

 ceives of the possible number of hours 

 of sunshine, for its freedom from fogs 

 and for its low humidity. It is warm 

 in the day, cool in the night, summer 

 and winter. In the summer the daily 

 temperature usually ranges between 60 

 and 100 degrees, in the winter between 

 40 and 90 degrees. 



The kentias are grown in the open 

 ground at Sierra Madre, the seedlings 

 being planted out far enough apart so 

 they can make five years' growth un- 

 disturbed, protected only by lath 

 houses. The purpose is to protect from 

 the sun, not from the frost. 



The Lath Houses. 



The structures common in California 

 get their name from the fact that they 

 are made of ordinary plasterers' lath, 

 supported by a frame of redwood posts 

 and stringers. Redwood is used because 

 of its splendid lasting qualities. Grow- 

 ers of Asparagus plumosus use such 

 houses and so do others whose crops 



