■V'-S, 



Apbil 6, 1922 



The Florists^ Review 



59 



OUTLOOK FOR CUT KOSES. 



Maintaining Interest. 



The questions are always interesting: 

 Is the rose meeting its obligations as a 

 cut flower subject? Is it increasing in 

 popular demand or is the demand fall- 

 ing ofiff 



These questions can easily be an- 

 swered by anyone making a tour of our 

 cut flower markets in any of the large 

 cities. The rose is really the funda- 

 mental basis on which the bulk of the 

 cut flower business is conducted. This 

 applies both in the volume and in the 

 value of the flowers sold every day. 

 While it is true that the rose never 

 loses its hold on the public mind, at the 

 present time the rose is more popular 

 than ever. This situation has been 

 brought about, of course, by the fact 

 that the new introductions coming in 

 every year maintain interest. 



For next year we are all awaiting the 

 new introduction, Hill's America. 

 Everyone who sees this variety growing 

 is highly enthused over it. This seems 

 to be the "perfect rose" in every sense 

 of the word. 



There is no doubt that the popularity 

 enjoyed by the carnation several years 

 ago was caused by the advertising and 

 publicity afforded it by Thomas W. 

 Lawson. That period, however, has 

 passed. Now the rose cut flower men are 

 alive and active and, to my mind, repre- 

 sent the progressive end of the florists ' 

 business. They are the men who talk 

 "cost of production," "returns per 

 square foot," and other terms, well 

 known to the efficiency experts, but not 

 so often understood by the florists. 



What Last Christmas Taught. 



Christmas, 1921, was marked by a 

 large supply of long-stemmed flowers in 

 the market, which did not, however, 

 bring nearly the prices of recent years. 

 The "pinching" business — that is to 

 say, the blooming of the plants that had 

 been "stopped" to produce quantities 

 of flowers for Christmas— had been 

 slightly overdone. The growers of our 

 acquaintance who had large crops for 

 Thanksgiving, getting then compara- 

 tively poor prices for their flowers, did 

 not come in strongly for Christmas, but 

 came in with a wonderful crop again the 

 last two weeks in January, when the 

 market was bare of good foses on ac- 



foP'^Q^.".'"? "l '""'« ^°»* Cut Flower Outlook 

 for 1922" by Charles H. Totty In the American 

 Rose Annual for 1922. 



count of the Christmas pinching, and 

 then secured good results. 



The lesson of last Christmas is, that 

 the long-stemmed, expensive rose sup- 

 ply can easily be overdone. While the 

 demand at such seasons is for medium- 

 length stem, or what is known in the 

 parlance of the trade as "No. 1" and 

 "extras" — a demand that is practi- 

 cally unlimited — there is only a lim- 

 ited call for the extra long-stemmed 

 roses. The wise grower observes the 

 signs of the times and governs himself 

 accordingly. 



A variety such as Columbia, for in- 

 stance, gives stems amply long enough 

 for all average purposes witliout any 

 pinching whatever, and this should be 

 borne in mind by all growers. 



Another outstanding fact is, as we 

 predicted two years ago, that Mine. But- 

 terfly has taken the place of Ophelia 

 in all of the large markets. It is a 

 much kinder, stronger grower and sev- 

 eral shades better in color. Every day 

 one notices, in going around the mar- 

 ket, that until Mme. Butterfly is sold, 

 there is little call for Ophelia. Yet I 

 do not want to decry the wonderful in- 

 fluence that Ophelia has had on the cut 

 flower industry, for I must note that 



Mme. Butterfly, Columbia and the won- 

 derful new Hill's America are all chil- 

 dren of Ophelia. 



Leaders. 



What is coming? Next year it will 

 be Hill's America. When we say this 

 variety is going to supplant Columbia 

 in the markets of the country, it sounds 

 like a tall story, now that every grower 

 knows how to grow and cut Columbia. 

 Not 80 long ago, when Mr. Hill distrib- 

 uted Columbia and we, in our humble 

 New Jersey way, collaborated, the com- 

 plaints were long and loud regarding it. 

 It would not produce perfect buds; it 

 was this and it was that, and the retail- 

 ers predicted it would never make a cut 

 flower success. That, however, is now 

 ancient history, for Columbia rapidly 

 climbed to the top. 



The fault is entirely overcome in the 

 ease of Hill's America. Not a single 

 flower have we seen malformed or flat 

 or disfigured in any way, in our test of 

 this variety. This alone stamps it as 

 an advance over Columbia. The bud is 

 long and pointed, a feature that always 

 gave Killarney most of its charm as a 

 beautiful rose. It is for these reasons 

 that I predict that Hill's America is 

 going to chase Columbia out of the 

 market. 



White Boses Losing Demand. 



So much for pink roses! We have 

 other candidates on the horizon, but 

 none, so far as I know, to touch Hill's 

 America. 



How is Angelus progressing in the 

 market? Here we have a curious con- 

 dition. For years the only white rose 

 that could be successfully handled was 

 White Killarney, which for a while was 

 quite productive. This eventually pro- 

 duced Double White Killarney, which 

 is a wonderful variety where it can be 

 grown without mildew, although it is 

 not free-flowering. Therefore, the grow- 



V_ 



A. N. Piersoa'i New Rose, Mrs. Warren!G. Harding, at Indianapolis. 



