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October 6, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



949 



finely screened air-slaked lime and add 

 as much water as will bring it to tie 

 consistency of thick paint. Mix well 

 and apply to the pipes witli a brush at 

 spaces a yard or so apart. Close the 

 ventilators tightly for a couple of 

 hours during the coldest part of the 

 night, when the pipes are hottest. When 

 the pipes exceed 90 degrees tempera- 

 ture suflBlcient fumes will be released to 

 effect the purpose. This ought to be 

 repeated at least once a week till the 

 pest disappears. Eibes. 



ETOmE DE FRANCE, 



The popularity which has come to 

 Mme. Chatenay is having an appreciable 

 effect in the interest taken in the new 

 French rose, Etoile de France, which is 

 to be distributed this fall by J. Pernet- 

 Ducher. It is a seedling of Chatenay and 

 Fisher Holmes, a fine red in color and 

 said to be a very free bloomer and easy 

 to handle under glass. As the idiosyn- 

 cracies of Liberty have not yet become 

 generally mastered, many American rose 

 growers hope to find in this now candi- 

 date a successful rival of that variety 

 and one which all can grow. The accom- 

 panying illustration is from a photo- 

 graph supplied by the originator. 



WITH BOSTON GROWERS. 



Waban Rose Conservatories, Natick, Mass. 



The largest producers of the queen of 

 flowers in New England are the Waban 

 Rose Conservatories in South Natick, 

 Mass., and it is needless to add that if 

 the quantity is great, the quality is of 

 the highest. The Boston market is a 

 critical one; it demands high grade 

 flowers and the growers who produce 

 such are the most prosperous. The qual- 

 ity of roses raised at the Waban factory 

 is second to none in America. This is 

 not at all surprising, seeing that the 

 manager for many years of this big 

 plant is Alexander Montgomery, the 

 highly respected president of the Amer- 

 ican Rose Society, a genial, unassuming 

 man, but without a peer as a rose grow- 

 er on this continent. 



While the latter part of September is 

 hardly so interesting a time to visit this 

 establishment as later in the season, 

 when the quality of rose blooms is high- 

 er, there is plenty to profitably oc- 

 cupy one 's attention at any season of 

 the year. We were very favorably im- 

 pressed with the latest and largest house 

 erected. This is an even span, 40x700, 

 twenty-four feet to the ridge. It con- 

 tains 13,000 plants of American Beauty, 

 all in superb health. After visiting 

 numerous other houses of varying dimen- 

 sions we had to confess that the big 

 Beauty house was our favorite. The tem- 

 ])erature was very even and the ridge 

 sufficiently high to cast no shade. We 

 asked Mr. Montgomery if they had any 

 trouble in maintaining a proper tem- 

 perature during the late severe Avinter. 

 He stated that on visiting the house 

 after midnight on the coldest night of 

 the winter, with an outside tempera- 

 ture of 30 degrees below zero, four 

 thermometers in the house gave the same 

 reading; viz., 59 degrees. At six feet 

 from the ridge there was not even a dif- 

 ference of half a degree, wliich would 

 seem to explode a popular fallacy about 

 houses being made warmer nearer the 

 lidge. On the coldest nights eighteen 

 lines of fteam pipes were used. In each 



The New Red Forcing Rose, Etoile de France. 



of two nearby houses 20x700 it was nec- 

 essary to use twelve lines of pipe to 

 maintain a night temperature of 56 de- 

 grees. In addition to the saving in fuel, 

 the larger house contains 7,000 less 

 square feet of glass surface which makes 

 it evident that large houses are more 

 economical to build and maintain than 

 an equal area in smaller ones. 



The other two 700-foot houses are 

 planted with Brides and Bridesmaids. 

 Of these 50,000 are grown. Both in 

 these houses and in a number of others 

 they were in first-class condition. Mrs. 

 Pierpont Morgan fills many of the front 

 benches in the various houses. Plants 

 seven years old were just as vigorous as 

 younger ones. A smaller stock of Mrs. 

 Oliver Ames is grown. Liberty fills sev- 

 eral houses and in its color is considered 

 far the best, always selling well. One 

 house is devoted to Golden Gate and 

 Ivory. Mr. Montgomery stated that 

 there was a very limited sale for these 

 in the Boston market. A house 300 feet 

 in length is planted with a Waban seed- 

 ling, in the way of La Detroit, but 

 thought to be a better thing, for a small 

 portion of a bench containing La De- 

 troit was far outclassed by the new 

 seedling, which is not yet named. It 

 sells well in the Boston market, will be 

 shown at the coming chrysanthemum 

 show and will be introduced if the pub- 

 lic demands it. 



A number of the oldest houses are 

 planted with Kaiserin and Carnot, which 

 were yielding a magnificent out of 

 bloom. What a contrast between these 

 houses, which were the finest in their 

 day and the modern giants near by! 



Mr. Montgomery, Jr., has a good 

 many seedling roses under trial of his 

 own raising. He is ja«t as keen a 

 rosarian aa his father, so the future of 



the Waban greenhouses seems to be as- 

 sured. 



While roses are the principal feature 

 here, one or two other crops are grown. 

 Asparagus plumosus nanus fills two 

 large houses and looks particularly well. 

 Chrysanthemums are still grown to 

 some extent, about 7,000 single stems be- 

 ing planted this season. These are not 

 to be confounded with the average 

 florist's stock, but are carrying stems 

 like walking sticks, with heavy, leathery 

 foliage and buds denoting some mam- 

 moth blooms later. Flowers from Waban 

 always command the highest prices in 

 Boston and for many years swept the 

 decks at the exhibitions. We doubt not 

 but that they will be to the fore at the 

 coming meeting of the C. S. A. Some of 

 the popular varieties grown here are 

 Duckham, Appleton, Shrimpton, Eaton, 

 Bonnaffon, Maud Dean, Merza and Mrs. 

 .Jerome Jones. The last named is con- 

 sidered the best money-maker of the lot. 

 In regard to Merza, Mr. Montgomery 

 stated that it should be cut, the bot- 

 tom of the stems split and kept in cold 

 water at least forty-eight hours before 

 shipping and there would then be no 

 complaint about its not keeping well. 



One house is devoted to lily of the 

 valley. Of this 600,000 are an- 

 nually forced. A model cold storage 

 house holds that number of pips, a 

 uniform temperature of 24 degrees being 

 maintained. It can be kept much cooler 

 if necessary, 13 degrees below zero hav- 

 ing been secured on a trial test. 



The annual consumption of coal for 

 the Waban plant of some 300,000 feet of 

 glass is about 2,000 tons. This season, 

 instead of using soft coal exclusively, 

 additional strong draughts have proved 

 that a mixture of five-sixths pea coal and 

 one-sixth soft coal gives very gratifying 



