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SOFTEMBEB 30, 1015. 



The Florists^ Rcvic\v 



18 



View In the First Aonual Exhibition of the American DahUa Society^ at New York, September 24 to 26. 



<Kottmlller'8 table decoration and basket, also a large basket from Young & Nugent In the foreground. President Vincent stands at the right.) 



F. E. Austin, Tuckerton, N. J., pre- 

 sented the treasurer's report, which 

 was in every way satisfactory. Ad- 

 dresses were made by George L. Still- 

 man, of Westerly, R. L, and Prof. F. H. 

 Hall, of Geneva, N. Y, A bulletin con- 

 taining a full report of the society's 

 meeting was ordered printed and dis- 

 tributed immediately. 



Officers and Committees. 



Officers and committees were elected 

 as follows: 



President — R. Vincent, Jr., White 

 ^farsh, Md., reelected. 



Secretary — Joseph J. Lane, New York 

 city, reelected. 



Treasurer — F. E. Austin, Tuckerton, 

 N. J,, reelected. 



Vice-presidents — For the west, W. W. 

 Wilmore, Denver, reelected; for the 

 south, Prof. Norton, College Park, Md.; 

 for the north, George iL. Stillman, 

 Westerly, R. I., reelected; for the east, 

 E. Stanley Brown, East Moriches, N. 

 Y., reelected. 



Executive committee — George W. 

 Kerr, Doylestown, Pa., reelected; James 

 Duthie, Oyster Bay, N. Y., reelected; 

 I. S. Hendrickson, Floral Park, N. Y., 

 reelected; P. W. Popp, Greenwich, 

 €onn.; J. H. Dick, New York. 



Nomenclature committee — Prof. F. H. 

 Hall, Geneva, N. Y., reelected; James 

 Kirby, Huntington, N. Y., reelected; L. 

 P. Peacock, Berlin, N. J., reelected; 

 Leonard Barron, Garden City, L. L, re- 

 ■elected; Prof. George Eraser. 



Prof. Hall spoke of the great work 

 before the nomenclature committee. He 

 said he has listed in alphabetical order 

 over 4,500 names of dahlias, all grown 

 in America. 



The society's greetings were ordered 

 sent to W, W. Wilmore, of Denver, 



The choice of the city for the 1916 

 exhibition was left to the discretion 

 of the executive committee. 



PEESIDENT VINCENT'S ADDEESS. 



[The remarks with which R. Vincent, Jr., 

 opened the first annual meeting of the American 

 Dahlia Society, at New York, September 24, 

 1015.] 



We meet today for the first time be- 

 fore the public and have put forth our 

 first efforts to give them an idea of the 

 immensity of the dahlia-loving public 

 and of the growing love of this beauti- 

 ful flower that can be grown and flow- 

 ered by the humble cottager as well as 

 by the prince or king. 



Surely a man having a garden of 

 beautiful, well-grown dahlias, no matter 

 how humble his position in life, feels 

 rich and happy in being th« owner of 

 so much that makes the garden and 

 home beautiful. 



Of course, as with everything else, 

 there are apt to be failures in dahlias 

 as in other varieties of flowers. Even 

 the large growers have their ups and 

 downs to contend with, but taking one 

 year with another, the dahlia cannot be 

 beaten for producing a good crop of 

 blooms. Sometimes, from slight circum- 

 stances, the amount of bloom, size, etc., 

 is materially reduced and, again, the 

 insect pests which gather, not generally 

 on the dahlia but on other things plant- 

 ed near them, when short of other food 

 will attack the dahlia. To avoid these 

 ills, we would advise that separate 

 plantings be made at intervals of two 

 to three weeks, the late planting often 

 doing the best, as it has the cooler 

 weather and longer nights, and makes 

 a more sturdy and insect-resisting 

 growth and generally produces the best 

 and.^nest flowers. Those early plant- 

 ed often get woody, but cutting 



the flowers with long stems, or cutting 

 the plants back, if done early in the 

 season, will renew the growth and pro- 

 duce nearly as good flowers as the later 

 planted ones. 



The main thing is, do not be afraid 

 to use the knife on them. This is often 

 required in thinning out, some varieties 

 growing too thickly to produce fine 

 flowers. Again, if extra large flowers 

 are wanted, this is obtained by what 

 is termed disbudding; that is, as soon 

 as the buds can be seen, pick put ,all 

 the buds but the main one. "Thus the 

 entire strength goes into the one flower. 

 This can only be done in the large- 

 flowering type. The smaller-flowered 

 varieties do not justify this amount of 

 trouble. 



One point where many people fail and 

 complain is in the wintering over of 

 their roots. The varieties that form 

 large clumps with big tubers are not so 

 hard to keep, for they will keep where 

 potatoes keep well, but some of the 

 finer varieties do not make much more 

 than a mass of fine rootlets, which are 

 hard to keep. In this case they want 

 bedding in dry sand, earth or some 

 material that will keep them from dry- 

 ing up. 



My own experience with the dahlia 

 goes back a goodly number of years, 

 when as a boy my father had a dozen 

 or so of double ones in the garden. I 

 was so struck with them that I thought 

 nothing c6uld equal them and I offered 

 my father a sixpence that I had saved 

 up for something else to allow me to 

 call one dahlia plant mine. My next 

 experieface was in Maryland durinrj the 

 Civil war. As a young man I had 

 charge of the dahlia patch on the place 

 my father was managing and I had the 

 privilege of putting ft lot of them on 



