Habch 25, 1916. 



The Florists' Review 



87 



MB. BASSETT IS EIQHTT. 



Many messages of felicitation will 

 pass westward this week, to Pasadena, 

 Cal., where O. P. Bassett is about to 

 celebrate his eightieth birthday anni- 

 versary. This pioneer Chicago grower, 

 who blazed the way for the big estab- 

 lishments of the present day, is enjoy- 

 ing excellent health under the sunny 

 southern skies, and retains all his old- 

 time interest in the trade, keeping in 

 touch by regular perusal of The Re- 

 view. 



Orland P. Bassett was born in west- 

 ern Pennsylvania, March 30, 1835. 

 When only 12 years old he started to 

 work in a printing office and in early 

 life drifted to Sycamore, 111., where he 

 started a newspaper. After removing 

 to Chicago, he started the Pictorial 

 Printing Co., manufacturing druggists' 

 labels. This business, now located at 

 Aurora, 111., he is still running, being 

 president of the corporation. 



March 1, 1887, Mr. Bassett moved his 

 family to Hinsdale, 111., where he 

 bought a fine old residence property 

 with twenty acres of ground, building 

 his first greenhouse that year. Andrew 

 Benson, the present superintendent for 

 Bassett & Washburi^ started to work 

 for Mr. Bassett initis first greenhouse 

 in 1887 and has b^gn with him ever 

 since. The f ollow^fe year, four green- 

 houses were built, j Kji Mr. Bassett got 

 his first supply of^fots of the Ameri- 

 can Beauty rose from Washington. He 

 was the pioneer grower of the Beauty 

 in the west and by studying closely the 

 character and growth of the plant soon 

 was able to develop the long stems and 

 extremely large flowers that made Bas- 

 sett 's Beauties famous. But Beauties 

 were not the only flowers he grew. 

 The first year he was in business he 

 imported quite a large supply of Har- 

 risii lily bulbs from Bermuda. At that 

 time the Harrisii bulbs were all free 

 of disease and, by getting plants in 

 full bloom by Christmas, they were 

 made to pay handsome profits. 



Year by year Mr. Bassett. continued 

 to erect greenhouses, increasing his 

 plantings of Beauties and starting on 

 miscellaneous roses. He grew the old 

 La France to perfection, but foiind that 

 the winters were too severe for this 

 beautiful rose. In 1893 he took his 

 son-in-law, Charles L. Washburn, into 

 partnership with him, forming the firm 

 of Bassett & Washburn. By this time, 

 they were growing 30,000 plants of 

 Beauty, besides some 50,000 or 60,000 

 of other roses. Mr. Bassett was a natu- 

 ral rose grower. He had a peculiar 

 faculty of knowing how to handle roses 

 successfully from a money-making 

 standpoint. Any rose that could not be 

 grown to show a profit was discarded 

 after a short time. He always contend- 

 ed that, given a good, large, airy house, 

 plenty of ventilation, plenty of heat 

 and plenty of feed, with proper atten- 

 tion to small details, would produce 

 good roses. His methods of rose grow- 

 ing made a distinct impression on the 

 growers of that period, as hundreds of 

 florists visited his place to study his 

 system of growing roses. 



When he started to grow carnations 

 he put in a whole house of the old Gar- 

 field, which was plunging, for those 

 days. This good *ld variety was made 

 to come in with an immense crop for 

 Christmas, and paid handsome returns, 

 but as the carnation developed in size 

 arid quality the old varieties were soon 



Orland P. Bassett. 



discarded. Mr. Bassett bought and 

 planted 10,000 of the Lawson the first 

 year it was introduced, and in roses he 

 bought) and planted 10,000 of Richmond 

 when it was first introduced. At that 

 period such large purchases of new va- 

 rieties were considered remarkable. Mr. 

 Bassett kept up his connection with the 

 flower business till 1907, when he re- 

 tired from the firm, moving to Pasa- 

 dena. He is still a florist, however, 

 and grows some of the most beautiful 

 roses that are to be seen in that glori- 

 ous country. 



In addition to being a florist, Mr. 

 Bassett was always an enthusiastic au- 

 tomobilist. In 1895 he had the first 

 steam buggy that was run in the vicin- 

 ity of Chicago, and since that time ho 

 has had no less than twenty makes of 

 automobiles, spending at least $50,000 

 on machines alone. Today he has a 

 beautiful 6-cylinder Packard, in which 

 he has toured California from one end 

 to the other a number of times, and in 

 the last two years he has driven this 

 car some 60,000 miles. 



A warm welcome always is extended 

 to every visiting florist and those of 

 the trade going out to the California 

 exposition who have the opportunity to 

 call on Mr. Bassett will find him hale 

 and hearty, eager to show the beautiful 

 horticultural features of that countrv. 



MILWAUBIEE. 



The Market. 



Business was fair last week, but 

 prices have been fibnormally low. This 

 condition is possibly due to the fact 

 that generally right before Easter there 

 iai asJslump in prices^ 8t'. Patrick 's day 

 created a demand for white carnations 



and cleaned up the market. Prices, 

 however, showed no advance over what 

 they had been previously, and the trade 

 hardly noticed any increase for that 

 day. 



There is plenty of every kind of cut 

 stock to supply the demand. While the 

 volume of stock handled is undoubt- 

 edly greater, the monetary value shows 

 little increase. Spring stock is abun- 

 dant and is quite good, but not moving 

 freely. There is an elegant supply of 

 sweet peas, but prices show a down- 

 ward trend and the stock is not realiz- 

 ing nearly what it should. Wisconsin- 

 grown violets are at their best and are 

 cleaning up fairly well each day at 

 prices that are low compared with the 

 excellent quality of the stock. Valley 

 is in fine shape, but is moving some- 

 what slowly. Carnations and roses are 

 plentiful and there is an exceptionally 

 large crop of Russell roses. Shawyer 

 is also in good supply and is selling 

 well. 



From present indications there will 

 be no shortage of stock for the Easter 

 trade. Plants are in large demand 

 again this year and the trade is making 

 preparation for a bigger Easter trade 

 than ever. 



Various Notes. 



Holton & Hunkel Co. reports a large 

 number of plant orders for Easter. 



Gust. Rusch & Co. state that business 

 has been good and they are anticipat- 

 ing a banner Easter business. 



John Arnold, 784 Third street, haa 

 opened a flower department in the 

 Schuster store, corner Third street and 

 Garfield avenue. As this is one of the 

 busiest spots on the north side, there 

 should be no difficulty in making a suc- 

 cess of this venture. 



Adanj Zender, of Chicago, was the 



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