24 



The Florists* Review 



January 27, 1921 



board of directors held at Clevi'laiid 

 last August will be presented in the 



secretary's report. ^^ ^■ 



I wish to extend my thanks to the 



secretary for his conscientious work 

 during the last year and to the local 

 committee ' for their arrangements of 

 the details for this meeting. 



ODCN LETTEKS>^^ DEADEEid 



NEW USE FOR WAR RELICS. 



Some young boys of our family have 

 discovered that the gas masks brought 

 home by returned soldiers are dandy 

 adjuncts to night fumigation. The 

 boys stay inside and burn the scraps 

 of paper and thoroughly enjoy their 

 job. Varah A. Armstrong. 



WANT GOOSE FLOWER PLANTS? 



In tlio Januaiy (i issue of The Review 

 I saw an article askinj^ for tlic name of 

 someone who could supply plants or 

 seed of the goose flower or members of 

 the family. Wliile in Florida I saw a 

 lar}i;e vine of the bird flower, of tiio 

 aristolochia family, and the owner gave 

 me see<l of so\eral of the varieties, 

 which I planted. Tlicy grew, but 1 was 

 unable to keep them over winter in the 

 living rooms with dry furnace heat, 

 having no greenhouse at the time. 

 George V. Wooddell, Seven Oaks, R.F.D. 

 ], Clearwater, Fla., who operates a 

 nursery at Green iSpriiigs, Fla., will be 

 able to supply seed or plants or could 

 start ])lauts for anyone desiring tlu'in. 



W. N. Lcifrhly. 



HAVE YOU THESE MUMS? 



This is the time of year to lay ])lans 

 for this year 's cut of chrysanthemums. 

 Wlio Avill advise us on the following 

 ]>oints? Has anyone tried Christmas 

 Gold, a pompon, as a pot j)lant? It is 

 by "far the finest yellow pomi)on for 

 Christmas cut flower sales, but we need 

 ]iottcd yellow mums of pomjion tyjie, 

 also a good pink. Kamp & Sj)inti, of 

 North Milwaukee, Wis., write us they 

 grow Pink Seidewitz w-ithout disbud- 

 ding, and it jnakes a fine jdnk pompon 

 grown tlint way for late blooms. We 

 also need a largo red mum for Christ- 

 mas and a large bronze. We have 

 January Gold as a large yellow for 

 Christmas and midwinter, but we need 

 a pure white for the same dates. Who 

 has it? We have Dr. Hitch for laven- 

 der in midwinter, but it also is a large 

 bloom. We need more jiompons espe- 

 cially suitable for pot culture during 

 midwinter, when the days arc dark and 

 the carnations do not bloom fast 

 enough. 



If some grower would only "invent" 

 a fine large red and the same in a pom- 

 jion type to bloom at Christmas and 

 during midwinter, we florists would all 

 give Jiim thanks and buy his plants. 

 Who has tried Betsy Ross, the best 

 early large white ever produced? Who 

 lias plants of Professor J. T. Hines to 

 spare? Three years ago we saw some 

 advertisements in The Review and sent 

 for them. They arc the finest early 

 pink we ever saw, but suppose they are 

 slow in propagating, for even now we 

 liave not half enough to su]>]ily otir 



demand for cut blooms. They are of 

 the reflex type, two shades of pink, 

 silvery pink on the upper side and red- 

 dish pink on the under side. 



L. M. Smith. 



HERE'S SOME HELP. 



Referring to the item headed, "Who 

 Will Tell?" in the January 6 issue of 

 The Review, I wish to state that Gla- 

 diolus Von Binsing is listed by several 

 advertisers in Holler's Deutsche Gart- 

 ner Zeitung and also in the Gartenvelt. 



As to the query under the caption, 

 "Who Can Help 'Him?" in the same 

 issue, the goose flower in question is an 

 aristolochia, or birthwort. There are 

 about a dozen varieties, most of them 

 tropical. The common Dutchman's 

 pipe, Aristolochia macrophylla or A. 

 Sipho, which is hardy in the east, be- 

 longs to the same family. The tropical 

 varieties are of easy culture, a rich 

 sandy loam, plenty of pot room and a 

 temperature of between 60 and 70 de- 

 grees being the most favorable. They 

 are seldom bothered by insects, and 

 flower when five to seven feet high. 

 The blooms are gorgeous, but the odor 

 is not the most pleasant. We have a 

 number of these plants in five varieties 

 in 2%-inch pots, which will flower next 

 fall, and we should be pleased to make 

 some exchanges for other tropical 

 plants. F. Weinberg. 



WHY HE USES ARTIFICIAL. 



However much he may dislike to use 

 artificial flowers, sometimes Mr. Re- 

 tailer is driven to an attempt at sub- 

 stituting for Mr. Wholesaler's offerings 

 ;it the holiday seasons. The retailer is 

 ))eing forced to this diversion from his 

 custom rather tlian seeking it. It 

 covers liiiiidreds of cases, my own in- 

 cluded. 



We are twelve hours' traveling dis- 

 tance from the supply house on which 

 we rely to fill our telegraphic orders. 

 At Christmas, 1919, we received roses 

 for which it was necessary to charge 

 $12 ^cy dozen in order to break even 

 at all. When we saw the cost we knew 

 wo had overordorcd. We unexpectedly 

 came out of it on account of the death 

 of a wealthy citizen December 27, some- 

 thing that occurs about annually. How- 

 over, it was a good lesson. 



The ordinary trade wants flowers, but 

 it is beyond them to ]iay $1 for roses 

 at Christmas or any other time. The 

 town is small and we depend a great 

 deal on a whole county for support. 

 At such prices as this there are approxi- 

 mately twenty who will buy by the 

 dozen and half dozen. A few buy one, 

 two or three blooms, but this is not a 

 satisfactory way to do busiuoss. either 

 from our standpoint or the purchaser's. 

 We are not in business to lose monev; 



so we had to find a substitute, and this 

 we did. 



Memorial day, 1920, one order of over 

 $75 came too late. Another loss. Had 

 it been good stuff, we could have held 

 it and worked ilTTijff a bit at a time, 

 but it was pickled, soused and canned. 

 In three hours it looked as though it 

 had been fried. We do not blame that 

 particular supply house. We have tried 

 many in the last sixteen years and the 

 goods are all the same. However, the 

 big point was that we did not have the 

 goods. One more lesson. 



We had to counteract this. We tore 

 down our old wooden greenhouse and 

 built one three times as large. Roses 

 cannot be successfully grown in this 

 cold climate, in Maine, and even carna- 

 tions are not particularly successful. 

 So May 30 this year will find us depend- 

 ing on our own crop of sweet peas, 

 snapdragons, stocks, tulips and gladioli. 

 The prices will be fair, so that we can 

 furnish all who desire to buy, in addi- 

 tion to the few who have riches. The 

 flowers will be fresh, too. It must be 

 left to the future to decide whether we 

 lose or whether the wholesaler who 

 ships pickled flowers at double and 

 triple prices loses. 



Christmas, 1920, found us prepared, 

 not with pickled stock, but with arti- 

 ficial flowers, which even we were 

 forced to admit were "the goods," even 

 though we gritted our teeth every time 

 we wrapped them up. We found an ar- 

 tificial carnation which, arranged with 

 fern leaves in our display windows, 

 defied recognition even by a competi- 

 tor. We made rustic baskets ourselves; 

 filled them with pine, ruscus, immor- 

 telles, fiber ribbon bows, and sold them 

 for 50 cents, $1, and up to $12 for 

 baskets of carnations with ribbon brfWs 

 and artificial holly. Sales were double 

 last year's, profits were triple, and still 

 we didn't dq it until we were driven to 

 it. Can you blame us? Florists in large 

 cities can cater only to the elite at 

 Christmas, but we are small and in the 

 country. We must depend on every- 

 liody or starve. 



The whole sum and substance is that 

 the wholesaler makes his profit on ordi- 

 nary prices. Why jump the pricS* dur- 

 ing holidays on poor stuff? Our trade 

 likes to buy, but they will not buy 

 withered flowers. Therefore we igno- 

 miuiously resort to the artificial. We 

 hate it, but we sell it. 



Our ■ stock of artificial carnations 

 cleaned up so well that I cannot enclose 

 one at present. Will forward one later, 

 ns I want you to see them. 



George E. Newell. 



NARCISSUS BULBS USELESS. 



We have always thrown bulbs of 

 I'apor W^hite narcissus away after they 

 are through blooming. Are they of any 

 use after being forced once, and if so 

 how would they be handled? Will they 

 be of any use if planted in the field in the 

 spring, or are thev not hardy enough? 



W. L. T.— 111. 



Paper Whites are of absolutely no 

 \alue to carry over and it would not be 

 advisable to attempt it. Fresh imported 

 liiilbs are quite reasonable in price, and 

 you cannot afford to experiment with 

 forced stock. C. W. 



Dallas, Tex. — The Lang Floral Nurs- 

 ery Co. recentlv increased its capital 

 stock from $200,000 to $350,000. 



