68 



The Florists^ Review 



Junk 22. 1922 



Mews from 



rom 



AMERICAN AT LONDON SHOW. 



Wister Gives Impressions. 



John C. Wister, president of the 

 American Iris Society and secretary 

 of the American Bose Society, who is 

 spending the summer abroad gathering 

 material for tlie lectures with which he 

 supplements his activities as landscape 

 designer, visited the Chelsea show of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society last 

 month, while in London. Of it he wrote 

 the following record of his impressions 

 for the Gardeners' Chronicle, of Lon- 

 don: 



"For an American gardener a visit to 

 the Chelsea show is a rare and happy 

 privilege, an inspiring lesson in the pos- 

 sibilities of making a flower show not 

 only instructive, but beautiful, and also, 

 alas! a source of despair in seeing so 

 many exquisite x^^i'iits wliich will not 

 survive •ur cold winters and hot sum- 

 mers. 



"In recent years we have had in the 

 eastern United States many fine flower 

 shows of which we are proud, but even 

 the large size of our biggest national 

 shows had left me unprepared for any 

 show on such a gigantic scale as the 

 1922 Chelsea exhibition. We hope that 

 the rapidly growing interest in horti- 

 culture may make such shows possible 

 with us in the not far distant future. 



"The show impressed me on account 

 of its great size, its artistic arrange- 

 ment, the high quality of the exhibits 

 and the tremendous variety of the plant 

 material used. I liked it all so much 

 that it is difficult for me to try to pick 

 out the best things to comment on, for, 

 with the possible exception of the big 

 Carter clock and the garden surrounded 

 by bright pink dwarf rhododendrons, I 

 liked everything. 



"As my greatest interest is in the 

 iris, I naturally spent much time in 

 B. Wallace & Co. 's garden, which re- 

 ceived such high honors. This garden 

 was a gem of design and color arrange- 

 ment, and contained two of the newest 

 irises of English origin, Asia and Pros- 

 pero, side l)y side with the French va- 

 rieties, Ambnssadeur and Souvenir de 

 Mme. Gaudichau. and the American va- 

 riety, Jjcnt A. Williamson. Lady Fos- 

 ter, Crus.'ider and Neptune also ap- 

 peared to good advantage here, but Do- 

 minion Imd suffered fioni too hard forc- 

 ing, and the flower was not characteris- 

 tic. The lilies, azaleas and regelio- 

 cyclns iris blended well wit4i the iris 

 and made a perfect whole. 



"The Bunynrd iris garden was also 

 a source of delight to me, and here Am- 

 bassadiur, I^ord of June, ilagnifica and 

 Isolenc stood out as giants among some 

 of the older sorts. In the i'crry and 

 WliitelcLTg exliiliits, rcgelio-cyclus iri-i 

 were the feature. 



"Perhaps even more fascinating than 

 the iris gardens were the rock gardens, 

 sonicthinjr wp hardly know in Anierioa. 

 1 liked Mr. Wood 's conception best, be- 

 cause it was so simple tliat it leniindcd 

 me of some ex(|uisi1e bits of wild land- 

 Hc.'ii)e in sdHie of our New llanipHliire or 

 A'craiont hills. 



' ' B. Tucker & Sons ' garden contained 

 a greater variety of plant material and 

 was also beautiful; in fact, nearly all 

 the rock gardens struck me as being 

 wonderfully artistic, as well as showing 

 many exquisite little plants, and I spent 

 more time with them than I did in some 

 of the formal gardens. 



"The rhododendrons were finer than 

 any I had ever seen, the big bushes in 

 one of the big tents and in B. Wallace 

 & Co.'s natural garden being the most 

 striking. To rhododendron experts the 

 cut flowers were probably equally in- 

 teresting. 



"Another group of plants that I ad- 

 mired particularly were the clematis 

 hybrids exhibited l)y G. Jackman & Co. 

 and one or two others. European gar- 

 deners are used to these, but to an 

 American all but one or two varieties 

 are totally new. I do not know how they 

 would grow under our conditions. 



American Boses. 



"We are used to fine displays of roses 

 in our American shows, and perhaps for 

 this reason the roses did not impress 

 me so much as some of the other flowers. 

 They were of splendid quality on the 

 first day, and I was glad to see some 

 of the triumphs of two of America's 

 greatest rose breeders. Dr. Van Fleet 

 and W. II. Walsh, both of whom have 

 died within the past few months. The 

 varieties noted were American Pillar, 

 Hiawatha, Paradise, Excelsa and Min- 

 nehaha. We are glad that these are ap- 

 preciated in England, where so many 

 fine roses have originated. The Amer- 

 ican rose, Los Angeles, which won a 

 gold medal at Bagatelle in 1918, was 

 also noted in good condition, as were 

 several other American varieties. The 



number of varieties exhibited was much 

 greater than in most American shows. 



"Paul's Scarlet Climber was seen in 

 wonderful form, but I did not think the 

 flowers of the beautiful new Souvenir 

 de Claudius Pernet were quite as fine 

 as those staged in our New York show 

 last March. 



* ' There were so many new roses to at- 

 tract attention that I can comment on 

 only a few. I liked Padre the best, but 

 admired also Bev. F. Page Boberts; the 

 singles, Mrs. Oakley Fisher and Pink 

 Delight, and the polyanthas. Queen Wil- 

 helmina and La Beine Elizabeth. 



"The tulips were gorgeous. I have 

 never seen a display as fine as Dobbie 

 & Co.'s, although I have seen as fine 

 flowers in small quantities in our shows 

 at home. As usual, I liked La Tulipe 

 Noire the best of all, and Dom Pedro, 

 Faust and Louis XIV were noted in fine 

 condition in many exhibits. 



Carnations a Surprise. 



"Carnations surprised me, because I 

 had always supposed the American car- 

 nation was far superior to those grown 

 in Europe. True, there was a liberal 

 sprinkling of American varieties, like- 

 Enchantress Supreme, Beacon, Benora 

 and White Wonder, all of excellent 

 quality, and also a few of Laddie, which 

 were not nearly so big as with us, but 

 the British varieties seemed equally 

 good. I made no notes on varieties, but 

 Thor impressed me the most. We have 

 no commercially important carnation 

 of the color of Marion Wilson, which 

 I liked very much. I was also impressed 

 with the fact that at least one breeder 

 was emphasizing the fragrance of his 

 new varieties — a point forgotten by 

 many American breeders in the race 

 after size and productiveness, 



"The sweet peas were as fine as 

 those shown by Burpee in New York, 

 and were shown in greater quantity. 

 The display of orchids was larger than 

 usually seen with us, with the exception 

 of the recent special orchid exhibitions 

 put on by A. C. Burrage, president of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety." 



"Passed by the censor," commented 

 Louis J. Renter, representing Clarence 

 U. Liggit in an official capacity and 

 acting unofficially as observer for the 

 horticultural department of a leading 

 state university on the subject of the 

 chrysanthemum midge. The comment 

 was made at the Sunnyside Green- 

 houses, Schenectady, N. Y., and was well 

 pleasing to the Felthousen boys, Ed- 

 ward imd Raymond. Discussing the 

 topic of geraniums Tater with the 

 founder of this establishment, E. V. B. 

 Folthouseii, this gentleman expressed 

 rpccrrt tliat the jiojiular taste for gera- 

 niums has dwindled to Benuto Poite- 

 \ine. Ricartl and 8. A. Nutt in the or- 

 der nanu'il. While there seems no pres- 

 ent likelihood of waning popularity in 

 these, a larger variety would tend to 

 strengthen the interest. A tour among 

 the glowers in Albany county found 

 jilanting of chrysantliemums somewhat 

 late. A watchful eye is being kept for 

 tlie first signs of an invasion of the 



midge, familiarized through the infor- 

 mation furnished by The Review. 

 "This information is of inestimable 

 value to all interested,", observed our 

 versatile confrere. 



• * • • 



What were admitted by critics to be 

 the most elaborate furnishings seen in 

 many seasens were produced at a recent 

 wedding where the Danker Flower 

 Rhop, Albany, N. Y., had carte bl.anehe 

 instructions to do its best. Commenting 

 upon the general trend of the public 

 taste, Fred A. Dankrr observed that it 

 is refreshing to see the leaning towards 

 the natural in flowers, giving due credit 

 to the effort of the S. A. l'\ ]niblicity 

 coiniuittce in helping to bring this 



leaning about. 



* • * • 



"How nicol " observed Conrad C. 

 Gindra, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., referring 

 to a comjiliment paid the establishment 

 by a sweet Va^sar graduate, who 

 dropped in to pay her bill and say "A« 



