10 



The Florists^ Review 



June 28, 1917. 



won't bud.' That's what the other fel- 

 lows said and are still saying. We are 

 growing them here in quantity at Eu- 

 reka; in other words, following Edi- 

 son's advice and doing what the other 

 fellows say cannot be done. 



"How did we find it out? Just by 

 accident. A Christmas azalea was 

 bought from Frank Pelicano, of San 

 Francisco. Another was purchased from 

 the Art Floral Co., of the same city. 

 Both were taken to Eureka. They kept 

 on blooming till March and were then 

 planted out in a bed of pansies and for- 

 gotten. The next January many fat 

 buds were noted on these plantis. They 

 were dug, potted up and taken inside. 

 In a short time they were a mass of 

 blooms, even larger blooms than they 

 carried when we bought them in San 

 Francisco. 



' ' Our curiosity aroused, we ordered 

 100 azaleas from the east, potted them 

 and kept them under a slat house, where 

 they were sprayed and watered. In the 

 fall they were a mass of big, fat buds. 

 They were forced alongside imported 

 stock, were in bloom much sooner than 

 the imported ones and were sold out be- 

 fore one of the others found a pur- 

 chaser. 



Masses of Native Azaleas. 



"This seems to dispose of the ques- 

 tion of budding; but, if it does not, we 

 have other proofs galore. 



"From Eureka northward all the hills 

 facing the sea are a mass of native aza- 

 leas. These are annually covered with 

 sheets of immense blooms; sometimes a 

 seedling plant a foot high bears a fine 

 head of bloom. The hills in the next 

 range behind are covered with native 

 rhododendrons. They never fail to 

 bloom profusely. Every female holly 

 plant is fully berried every year. The 

 toyon is a mass of scarlet. Cotoneasters 

 bear crops of berries that are the envy 

 of nonresidents. Strawberries, cur- 

 rants, raspberries and otlier small fruits 

 bear two and three-fold the average 

 eastern crops. The fact is, this climate 

 affords ideal conditions for seed produc- 

 tion, and budding is the first step to- 

 ward seed production. ' ' 



Vigorous Growth of Plants. 



G. G. Vanden Abeele, superintendent 

 of the azalea department of the Cot- 

 tage Gardens Nurseries, says azaleas 

 grow much faster there than in Bel- 

 gium, and he thinks he can produce as 

 good plants in three years at Eureka as 

 the Belgians can turn out in four years. 

 In fact, he says that any sort of plant 

 which is suited to a comparatively cool 

 climate grows with reniarkable freedom 



at Eureka. "The rapidity of plant 

 growth in this locality," he states, 

 * ' cannot be appreciated till one starts 

 work here. ' ' He adds that, as a con- 

 sequence of this vigor of growth, the 

 Eureka azaleas bear plumper buds and 

 larger flowers than are usually seen on 

 the imported stock. 



The Stock for Grafting. 



One of Mr. Ward 's first endeavors 

 at Eureka was to improve the azalea 



Mr. Ward at Eureka. 



stock for grafting by selecting the 

 strongest, most vigorous seedlings for 

 stocks. He now has a seedling which, 

 he believes, has exceptional merit for 

 this purpose. As indicated by the two 

 left-hand plants in the upper picture 

 on the prece<ling page, this seedling 

 seems to retain the lower leaves much 

 longer after grafting than does the or- 

 dinary stock used for grafting in Bel- 

 gium. Mr. Vanden Abeele finds that 

 grafting tlie azalea in the Eureka cli- 

 mate is not at all difficult. He re- 

 marks that at tlie end of the first year 

 the grafted plants at the Cottage Gar- 

 dens Nurseries have 6-inch to 8-inch 

 heads and some varieties even measure 

 nine to ten inches in diameter. 



One of the most noticeable character- 

 istics of Mr. Ward's method of azalea 

 culture is the comprehensive and dis- 

 criminative use that he makes of the 

 different forms of structure — frame, 

 slat house and greenhouse — according 

 to the season or the plants' stage of 

 development. 



Ward's Azalea Range. 



More than 400,000 of the plants can 

 be wintered in his present group of slat 

 houses, which occupy three acres. The 

 slat houses are heated, when necessary, 

 by a large oil-burning boiler, connected 

 with steam pipes under the gutters, but 

 the artificial heat is needed only when 

 dangerous frosts occur, say ten or a 

 dozen times during the winter. In addi- 

 tion to these slat houses, the azalea 

 range comprises a steel-frame house 

 which covers one-fourth of an acre and 

 holds 35,000 plants. There are also 

 two acres of special frames, fitted with 

 slatted covers for use in sunny summer 

 days; these frames will shelter 250,000 

 plants. Two acres more of greenhouses, 

 especially designed for azalea culture, 

 are now under construction and will 

 provide room for nearly 300,000 plants. 



"All this," says Mr. Ward, "means 

 about a million azaleas under culture 

 and an annual oiitput of a quarter of a 

 million salable plants. ' ' 



GOKLY'S GLORIOUS GLADIATORS? 



Several weeks ago it was reported 

 .that Frank Gorly, of Grimm & Gorly, 

 St. Louis, was trapesing around among 

 the florists of his home and nearby 

 states organizing a squad, or company, 

 or regiment, or whatever military divi- 

 sion he could get enough members to 

 fill. Mr. Gorly 's activity was the in- 

 centive for tlie following, which was 

 suggested as the first verse of a battle 

 hymn for fighting florists: 



Florist-warriors bold are we, 

 And our trade is (;rimin & Gor(l)y, 

 Peace and quiet suit us not; 

 We want war, and we want it liot! 



Having this much as a starter, per- 

 haps the poets in the trade will supply 

 other verses. You try and let's have 

 the result. 



VARIEGATED ASPIDISTRAS. 



We have some aspidistras of the 

 variegated type that are in a good, 

 healthy condition, but they all have 

 turned green. Is there any remedy for 

 this, or is there any treatment that will 

 make them come striped? 



J. C. Z.— Tex. 



It is necessary to depend upon selec- 

 tion in order to perpetuate the varie- 





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10,(lO» Azal.a (Inilts Aft.T 'l\v.. M.mtlis. 25.(»30 Azalea Mnic. Pctiick, Own IJoot, Kiiivka Grown. 



Glimpses of Azalea Propagation in the Greenhouses of the Cottage Gardens Nurseries at Eureka, Cal. 



