854 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Sh^>teubeb 22, ia04. 



necessary to insuie the sweetening of 

 the con^post by freer admission of air. 

 Besides, the soil will often become «o 

 hard as to render i* impenetrable by 

 rains and becomes too dry, in which con- 

 dition some of the essential chemical 

 properties may be eliminated to a hurt- 

 ful degree. Of course, there is always a 

 possibility of having too much of a good 

 thing and, in the case of frequent heavy 

 lains just previous to filling the benches, 

 some means should be provided for pro- 

 tecting the pile so that the soil will not 

 become too sodden. The best condition 

 in which the soil can be filled into the 

 t>enches is a sort of happy medium, 

 neither too wet nor too dry. 



W. S. Croydon. 



BOSTON. 



The Market. 



Generally speaking, the past week has 

 been a satisfactory one, stock clearing 

 out well in nearly every case. Hoses are 

 coming of better quality. For the best 

 grades prices have stiffened a little, 

 otherwise there is no change. Carnations 

 have sold at from $1 to $3 per 100. 

 Some very good blooms are now coming 

 inj Enchantress, Fair Maid, Queen, Law- 

 son and other popular sorts. The se- 

 vere storm of September 15 spoiled 

 many outdoor flowers and the output of 

 these has shortened appreciably, particu- 

 larly in the case of feverfew, stocks and 

 asters. The latter, where of decent qual- 

 ity, sell readily at from 75 cents to $1.50 

 per 100. Dahlias also suffered severely 

 from the wind and rain but will soon re- 

 cover. Chrysanthemums will appear this 

 week. Lily of the valley sells at an aver- 

 age of $4. Other flowers noted include 

 cosmos, purple gentian, white boltonia 

 and hunnemannia, Mexican poppy. The 

 latter is a fijie keeper, lasting four or 

 five days in water. It should be grown 

 more by florists. Some good gladioli 

 are still coming in. These have been ex- 

 tra good this year. Asparagus and ad- 

 iantum show no particuar change. Pros- 

 pects for fall trade are much better than 

 a year ago. 



Various Notes. 



A call at the old Park street market 

 the past week found a force of men 

 busy giving it a thorough overhauling. 

 The walls, ceilings and pillars are 

 whitened, which takes away some of the 

 gloom. When completed, in a few days, 

 it will present a clean and cozy appear- 

 ance. Some eighty growers, including 

 many large ones, will use this market 

 and we understand additional space can 

 be had when needed. 



Along with the other eastern cities, 

 Boston got the heaviest rainfall on Sep- 

 tember 15 experienced for years. The 

 local fall was three and a half inches, 

 although four inches were recorded in 

 some parts of the state, all within a 

 space of eight hours, about two inches 

 falling from 7 to 8:30 a. m. Flowers 

 were badly dashed, limbs torn from trees 

 by the force of the wind and fruits se- 

 verely thinned. 



James Rough, better known as Jim, of 

 the firm of J. Rough & Son, on Hunt- 

 iugton avenue, has been appointed man- 

 ager of the new Music Hall flower mar- 

 ket. 



P. W. Moen, the millionaire wire man- 

 ufacturer, who died at Shrewsbury, 

 Mass., on September 14, aged 47, was a 

 very successful chrysanthemum exhibitor 

 at the Boston show last year and his 

 gardener had a splendid lot of plants for 



this year's exhibition which will be 

 much missed. 



Schlegel & Fottler Co. is making ex- 

 tensive changes in the seed store on 

 South Market street. They have acquired 

 the street floor and will in future use 

 that exclusively for counter trade. In 

 the basement they will have a large cold 

 storage plant for retarding liliums, lily 

 of the valley, etc. They report a big 

 demand for their pure culture American 

 mushroom spawn. 



Samuel Neil, of Dorchester, has his 

 carnation houses planted chiefly with 

 Fair Maid, Boston Market, The Queen, 

 Maceo and some seedlings. He medi- 

 tates taking out several hot water boil- 

 ci-s and substituting steam. 



James Wheeler was the speaker at the 

 Gardeners' and Florists' Club meeting 

 on September 20, taking as his topic 

 * ' Some Pertinent Questions, ' ' which he 

 discussed interestingly and ably. 



The fall show opening on September 

 22 and closing September 25 will be one 

 of the largest ever held by the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society. The 

 main exhibition hall is reserved for 

 plants, the lecture hall for fruit, the 

 loggia, sides of lecture hall and hallways 

 to vegetables and the main- portion of 

 the lecture hall to cut flowers. Some of 

 the leading exhibitors in the plant and 

 cut flower classes are J. S. Bailey, A. F. 

 Estabrook, Lager & Hurrell, Henry A. 

 Dreer, Bayard Thayer, Harvard Botanic 

 Gardens, Farquhar & Co., Julius Roehrs 

 and Mrs. J. S. Gardner. A full report 

 will appear in next week's Review. 



H. A. Stevens & Co. have five houses 

 devoted to carnations at East Dedham, 

 growing 12,000 in all. Mrs. Patten, 

 Fair Maid and Boston Market each fill 

 one house. Other sorts grown are En- 

 chantress, Wolcott, Lawson, Harry 

 Fenn, J. H. Manley and Harlowarden. 

 Some good seedlings are also being tried. 

 Plants all look first class and are now 

 giving a fine lot of bloom. A roomy 

 cellar is devoted to mushroom culture, 

 the pure culture spawn being used. Splen- 

 did crops were secured last year. Collec- 

 tions of phloxes and peonies are also be- 

 ing worked up. 



The annual fair at Clinton is noted for 

 its fine displays of plants and cut flow- 

 ers. This year's exhibition was no ex- 

 ception to the rule. Very fine groups of 

 plants were arranged by E. V. R. Thay- 

 er, E. O. Orpet, gardener; N. Thayer, 

 A. P. Meredith, gardener, and J. E. 

 Thayer, J. F. Clarke, gardener. The 

 principal flowering plants used were La- 

 gerstroemia Indica, Campanula isophyl- 

 la, orchids, begonias, gesnerias and glox- 

 inias. F. P. Sawyer had the best flor- 

 ists' group, E. W. Breed being second. 

 The latter had the winning floral de- 

 sign, being closely followed by Mr. Saw- 

 yer. Messrs. F. A, Blake, W. S. Wind- 

 sor, E. W. Breed and F. P. Sawyer were 

 among the leading exhibitors of cut flow- 

 ers. Worcester Conservatories showed 

 fine Beauty roses. Bayard Thayer, Wm. 

 Anderson, gardener, had a beautifully 

 arranged large circular tank of aquatics. 

 E'. O. Orpet showed a number of seed- 

 ling cattleyas and an Odontoglossum Pes- 

 catorei carrying a spike with sixty flow- 

 ers, the latter grown in fine fern fibre. 

 James Wheeler, of Brookline. judged the 

 floral part of the fair. 



The house of Superintendent Doogue, 

 of the Public Gardens, was brpken into 

 September 12. The thieves had a large 

 quantity of plate packed for removal, 



but were scared away by a dog. A gold 

 watch valued at $150, gold fob worth $35 

 and some diamonds were taken. 



Cattleya labiata and other seasonable 

 orchid flowers are making their appear- 

 ance in some of the store windows, as 

 are cyclamens, ardisias and Erica hye- 

 malis. Pot plant trade is dull as yet. 

 Cooler conditions will enliven it. 



J. Horace McFarland, of Harrisburg, 

 Pa., has been making a short viait to 

 Boston friends. 



Houghton & Dutton, the well known 

 Tremont Row dry goods dealers, held a 

 flower day September 17 and claim to 

 have distributed 100,000 roses among 

 visitors to their store. 



The saloon of the S. S. Romanic, 

 which sailed from Boston for the Med- 

 iterranean on September 17, was a ver- 

 itable conservatory. More flowers were 

 sent to outgoing passengers than on any 

 steamer leaving Boston this year. 



The many Boston friends of Jacob 

 W. Manning, the well known nursery- 

 man, were pained to hear of his death 

 September 16. A note on his life appears 

 in this issue. W. N. Craig. 



NEWPORT, E. L 



The Market. 



The horse and dog shows being over, 

 the summer people have begun to leave 

 us, and business has slacked quite a 

 little. American Beauty roses lead the 

 market and the best retail for from $5 

 to $6 a dozen. Some very nice Kaiserins 

 have been offered on the avenue this 

 week at $3.50 to $4 a dozen. Orchids 

 bring from 75 cents to $1.50 each, ac- 

 cording to variety and quality. Valley 

 is always in demand. Dahlias and glad- 

 ioli find a fair sale at $1 to $2 per 

 dozen, if they are of first quality. 

 There is no sale for outdoor stuff that is 

 not the best. 



Various Notes. 



The storm of last Thursday morning 

 was the most terrific that Newport has 

 experienced for years. Hundreds of 

 trees are down all over the city. The 

 flower gardens were badly torn and 

 many beautiful vases containing val- 

 uable decorative plants were wrecked. 



The September meeting of the New- 

 port Horticultural Society took place 

 last Wednesday evening and wag espe- 

 cially well attended. Final arrange- 

 ments for this week's show were made. 



Siebrecht & Son have been doing some 

 very attractive dinner decorations late- 

 ly. For one large party they used bas- 

 kets of Kaiserin roses and lily of the val- 

 ley. 



William S. Nichol, gardener to Dr. 

 Alexander S. Clarke, was drowned while 

 bathing off the shore near the Clarke 

 estate. Mr. Nichol was one of the best 

 known gardeners in the city. He leaves 

 a widow and two children," 



Hodgson arranged for Mr. and Mrs. 

 T. Shaw-Safe on Wednesday last a very 

 handsome dinner decoration of gardenias, 



Stewart Ritchie is busy painting his 

 houses and otherwise getting ready for 

 the coming winter season. His late 

 planted sweet peas have done finely this 

 year and found a ready market at the 

 satisfactory price of 50 cents per hun- 

 dred. 



John T. Allan, head gardener to John 

 R. Drexel, is having many inquiries from 

 seedsmen and others who wish to pur- 

 chase his new seedling begonia. This was 



