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The Florists^ Review 



-IT 



Apbil 22. 1915. 



MOTT-LT MUSINGS. 



J. S. Hennon & Sod, Wampum, Pa., 

 opened a store at Beaver Falls for 

 Easter and may make it a permanent 

 enterprise. Situated between Wam- 

 pum and New Castle, where they have 

 for four years maintained an up-to- 

 date store, they will supply both by 

 means of a fine, new automobile truck. 

 J. J. Bolton, Beaver Falls, Pa., traces 

 his lineage to the time of Oliver Crom- 

 well, the motto or the coat of arms of 

 his ancestors being "Ve et virtute," 

 or, "By force and valor." He at- 

 tributes his success largely to follow- 

 ing under their standard. 



B. F. Engle, Rochester, Pa., says he 

 will relinquish the business as soon as 

 he finds a suitable successor. Failing 

 health and close application is the rea- 

 son. He has made good. 



John Walker, Youngstown, O., enjoys 

 the unenviable experience of having 

 six namesakes here, but he is the only 

 florist Walker. He has just returned 

 from the Isle of Pines, where, he says, 

 the climate is ideal, but the food far 

 from it. 



Toronto, Canada, favored with 

 bright weather, reports a good Easter 

 business. John H. Dunlop, H. Q. Dille- 

 muth, S. Tidy & Sou and Simmons & 

 Son had grand stock, while Thos. Man- 

 ton and P. Duffert led in displays at 

 the St. Lawrence market. Both pot 

 plants and cut blooms were choice, and, 

 although big prices were not realized, 

 the net returns were generally satis- 

 factory. 



W. M. Deyoe & Co., Oil City, Pa., 

 are well pleased with Easter returns. 

 Am abundance of home-grown stock 

 enabled them to handle their trade sat- 

 isfactorily. 



The Oakwood Rose Gardens, Oil City, 

 bad fine crops of roses and carnations 

 for Easter. 



L. J. Bowe, Titusville, Pa., prepared 

 an unusually big stock and had but lit- 

 tle left after the Easter rush. 



W. M. 



UTZINOEE'S UTTERANCES. 



Mr. and Mrs. William Cromack, of 

 Irwin, Pa., celebrated their fortieth 

 wedding anniversary April 12. Mr. Cro- 

 mack thinks he will go into the real 

 estate business instead of growing flow- 

 ers, as he says there is more money 

 in it. 



W. Grant Kintigh, of Irwin, is grow- 

 ing nice snapdragon. He recently in- 

 stalled a light delivery motor, with 

 which he claims the work is a "cinch." 

 Mrs. Koerbel, of Jeannette, Pa., is 

 able to be about again after four weeks 

 in bed with a bad case of the grip. 

 She reports good trade. 



John G. Bohler, of I^atrobe, Pa., is 

 busy getting Idlewild park into shape 

 for the coming picnic season. He says 

 he will have tbt> finest park in this sec- 

 tion of the country. 



Mrs. Edward Leitzman, of Latrobe, 

 reports business as exceptionally brisk, 

 with plenty of funeral work. She had 

 an extra fine showing of hyacinths and 

 tulips this season. 



Mr. Schaflfer, managing the retail 

 store of the Indiana Floral Co., of Indi- 

 ana, Pa., keeps his place looking like 

 the big city stores, with its beautiful 

 windows and a large variety of stock. 

 He reports an exceptionally fine trade 

 of late. 



Mrs. W. S. Smathers, of Indiana, has 

 had a ftoe stock of tulips and hya- 



cinths. Business has been brisk, with 

 a good cut flower trade. 



George Crissman, of the Crissman 

 Greenhouse Co., Punxsutawney, Pa., 

 says that never again will he be afraid 

 of hard times, which means that his 

 Easter business was the best ever. 



W. T. U. 



THE MEXICAN PINE AGAIN. 



The Review of April 1 contained this 

 query from a subscriber: "A cus- 

 tomer asks me what is Mexican Pink, 

 recommended as 'fine for window or 

 porch boxes, and smiling under the 

 fiercest sun.' Information as to the 

 identity of the plant and its botanical 

 name I should appreciate most heart- 

 ily." Three wide-awake and obliging 

 readers at once gave their views on 

 the matter and their replies were pub- 

 lished on page 15 of the issue for April 

 8. The three replies did not agree; 

 each one designated a different plant 

 as the so-called Mexican Pink. Yet 

 each of the three dissimilar answers 

 may have been correct in its own way, 

 for in this land of free and untram- 

 meled speech it would not be surpris- 

 ing if at lea9t three different plants 

 were known as the Mexican Pink. 



Two more readers, Thos. M. Fitz- 

 gerald and J. C. Armstrong, have now 



offered their opinions on the subject. 

 Mr. Fitzgerald says: "I am sending 

 you under separate cover a sample of 

 a plant which I think is the one re- 

 ferred to recently in your paper as the 

 Mexican Pink. Here, in western Penn- 

 sylvania, we call it the Chinese Pink. 

 Can you tell me the botanical name of 

 itf" The sample plant forwarded by 

 Mr. Fitzgerald is a mesembryanthe- 

 mum, but the variety cannot be deter- 

 mined withoiil seeing a flower. 



Mr. Armstrong says: "With refer- 

 ence to the inquiry, 'What is the Mex- 

 ican Pinkf I would say that An- 

 tigonon leptopus is listed in southern 

 catalogues as the Mexican Rose. Here, 

 in western Georgia, we grow it as a 

 climber. It is a pretty climber and 

 stands the hot sun finely, although I 

 have never seen it grown in window 

 boxes. ' ' 



As the case stands now, two read- 

 ers have agreed in the opinion that 

 the Mexican Pink is a mesembryan- 

 themum; two have stated their belief 

 that it is Antigonon leptopus, and one 

 avers that it is Platycodon grandi- 

 florum. That disposition of the case 

 probably is not decisive enough to sat- 

 isfy the subscriber who asked the ques- 

 tion. Does anyone else wish to have 

 voice or vote in the matter? 



S HRAP WEUf 



London, England. — One of the re- 

 sults of the war has been a marked 

 increase in the employment of women 

 in greenhouse work. 



Toulon, France. — The value of the 

 flowers grown in the departments of 

 Var and Alpes Maritimes, which in- 

 clude the French Riviera, is estimated 

 at 50,000,000 francs, or nearly $10,- 

 000,000. Through cutting off foreign 

 markets, withdrawing the fast trains 

 for the use of troops and greatly re- 

 ducing the expenditure of the people 

 for everything save necessities, the war 

 has severely injured this industry, and 

 the blooms lie rotting in the fields. 

 The Chamber of Commerce of Toulon 

 has called' the attention of the Min- 

 ister of Agriculture, Fernand David, to 

 the necessity of aid for those who have 

 hitherto depended upon this industry 

 for their livelihood. 



Brussels, Belgium. — As the days pass, 

 troubles increase for the growers here: 

 The price of coal is advancing; the 

 Germans exact a tax of 1 franc per 

 car per kilometer for the transportation 

 of coal; transportation rates have tri- 

 pled and are now prohibitive; seeds 

 and bulbs are difficult to obtain, and 

 those available are of poor quality, 

 yielding only about half of the normal 

 crop. As a result, the quantity of 

 plants now being forced is about one- 

 twentieth of that under normal condi- 

 tions. The scarcity of locally grown 

 flowers and the complete absence of 

 those from the south have led to bet- 

 terment in prices. In the vicinity of 

 Duffel and Wavre St. Catherine, 500 of 

 the 1,000 greenhouses have been de- 

 stroyed, and many others are damaged. 



London, England.^-Quite the oppo- 

 site of what was expected, the war, by 

 shutting off the supply of French flow- 

 ers, has had the effect of causing an 

 unusual demand for British-grown 

 flowers, especially white, and better 

 prices than usual prevailed during the 

 winter months. 



London, England. — The horticultural 

 papers print many stories from France 

 and Belgium showing that all the 

 armies seem to find the big greenhouses 

 that abound in the war zone pecu- 

 liarly attractive for the shelter of man 

 and beast. When a regiment bivouacs 

 in a nursery, if the men do not occujjy 

 the greenhouses, they stable their 

 horses there and the grower's stock is 

 pretty sure to be dispossessed. 



Paris, France.— The following is a 

 translation of a part of a letter re- 

 ceived from a French gardener at the 

 front: "Since November 5 we have 

 been quartered at Oostdunkerke, Bel- 

 gium, in a greenhouse establishment. 

 The 175th Cavalry are in two large 

 Holland greenhouses, which are dev^- 

 ed to the growing of American violets. 

 Upon our arrival, they were empty and 

 had been partly dismantled by the ex- 

 plosion of shells falling in the vicinity. 

 Our men are in the greenhouses and he 

 under the violets. I have done every- 

 thing possible to prevent damage, and 

 up to the present seven large houses 

 of violets, the fern houses and palm 

 houses have not been touched. The 

 only person left in the establishment 

 is a workman, who dees not understand 

 French; the proprietor, Em. Draps- 

 Boudry, took refuge in London at the 

 beginning of the invaaion." 



