JANCABY 26, 1922 



The Florists' Review 



31 



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HERR TELLS 'EM HOW 



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CASNATIONS, OLD AND NEW. 



Pioneer Growers. 



To speak of carnations in the past 

 is a misnomer, as they have no past, 

 being a strictly modern production. We 

 only know that the carnation evolved 

 from its predecessors up to the point 

 where it was noticed by man and 

 brought to its present state of develop- 

 ment. 



The past of this paper will go back 

 to October 15, 1891, at 2 p. m., when 

 Edwin Lonsdale opened the organiza- 

 tion meeting of this society. This 

 meeting was the result of a call issued 

 by C; W. Ward, nineteen of us signing 

 our names to the call. Sometimes in 

 the hurly-burly of success we forget 

 the men who made that success possible. 

 I am, if nothing else, a good Elk and 

 believe in writing the faults of our 

 fellow men on the sand and their vir- 

 tues on the tablets of our hearts and 

 memories. Before going any farther I 

 want to call to memory two men of two 

 distinct types, but both carnation noble- 

 men, Fred Dorner, Sr., and C. W. Ward. 



Fred Dorner, Sr., was perhaps the 

 pioneer in the present-day development 

 of the carnation, a development that 

 fortunately is being continued by Fred 

 Dorner, Jr., with equal success. (Jarna- 

 tion history will give you a long line of 

 hard-working predecessors, but Mr. 

 Dorner gave to C. W. Ward a vision, 

 and with his means to carry it out we 

 must give him credit for putting the 

 carnation on the higher plane financially 

 where it is today, as well as some won- 

 derful developments in the line of 

 hybridizing, developments that if fol- 

 lowed up would no doubt have given us 

 some valuable additions by this time. 



In those days the three great lights 

 of carnationdom were Dorner, Ward and 

 Fisher, with a number of smaller lights 

 all worthy of mention, and all or nearly 

 all attaining results, some greater than 

 others. To go back and recall these re- 

 sults is also a matter of history, and 

 today there are none, or at least but 

 few, of those results in evidence. This 

 business seems to be an ever-changing 

 one and, because of this, a fascinating 

 one, yet it does seem a pity that the 

 noble work done by your predecessors 

 in a few years becomes merely a 

 memory. Mr. Dorner at one of our 

 meetings made the announcement that 

 the life of a carnation was about six 

 years. This has been exceeded in many 

 cases with his own varieties, but it is 

 nevertheless true that varieties do not 

 have long-lasting qualities. 



Rules for Improvement. 



Getting back to that first meeting, 

 the following resolutions were adopted: 



"To improve the excellence of the 

 flower. 



"To improve the methods of cultiva- 



The nddrpsH of Albert M. Herr. of UTncnster. 

 I'n., on "Carnations: Past. Present ami Tii-' 

 ture," delivered at the meetinfj of the Amerioan 

 ramatlon Society at Hartford, Conn., January 

 26. 



Albert M. Herr. 



lion and the methods of placing it on 

 the market. 



"To increase its use as a decorative 

 flower. 



"To improve the methods of growing 

 cuttings and plants as well as market- 

 ing the same. 



"To infuse into the growers a nuiri' 

 thorough understanding of the general 

 rules of successful business manage- 

 ment." 



With slight modifications, these rules 

 can be apj»lied to the society and its 

 members today. In fact, they might 

 well be framed and hung up in your of- 

 fice, instead of that sign, "This is my 

 busy day." If you would cut a little 

 of that busy bee business and take a 

 little time each morning to read over 

 these resolutions before getting into 

 harness, perhaps at the end of the year 

 both you and your carnations would be 

 the better for it. 



Another suggestion brought out at 

 this meeting was the use of carnation 

 foliage in offering them for sale. Of 

 course, right now you need not offer 

 anything, not even service, to sell them, 

 but these conditions will not last for- 

 ever, and the day will come when you 

 must offer some inducement to the con- 

 sumer to buy your carnations. To any- 

 one who loves them, nothing can be 

 handsomer than a bunch of good carna- 

 tions with several buds in various stages 

 of development and some of their own 

 foliage. The critical and artistic buyer 

 will gladly pay the price if you are a 



salesman, and come back time after 

 time as regularly as the clock ticks. 



Retailers' Wants. 



Before leaving this first meeting we 

 must refer to the fact that three re- 

 tailers gave a detailed report of 

 what, in their estimations, was the ideal 

 lariiation, to serve as a guide for the 

 urower and hybridizer. The gist of 

 those reconinieiidafions was to strive 

 for a flower of large size, not too double, 

 hut with center j)etals erect to avoid a 

 li'it flower; the colors to be decided and 

 I'ure. They made a plea for a light 

 siip.de of jiink that would go with made- 

 up work and blend with other colors. 

 This has since been obtained in the 

 K'ichantress varieties and colors, pre- 

 ceded by Daybreak, a grand variety in 

 its day. I am not asserting that all new 

 ideas and all new things are tommy-rot 

 and not lialf so good as the old ones, 

 but some of these old-time ideas would 

 work out better today than thev did 

 then, and a few of them might and 

 should be revived. This to my mind 

 is one of them, real recommendations 

 from the retailer to the grower. 



A paper of this kincl would be incom- 

 plete without mentioning John Thorpe's 

 prediction of carnations with 4-inch 

 flowers on 3-foot stems and selling at 

 $1 each. We have had a few of these, 

 but the demand for this class of stock 

 is exceedingly limited. It seems that 

 the medium-sized flower of good color, 

 with plenty of fragrance and good keep- 



