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October 6, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



953 



E. J. Vawter and His Twenty-Acre Carnation Field at Ocean Park, Cal. 



florist change bis ideas to suit his houses 

 than be too ready to change his style 

 of house to suit his ideas. I have told 

 you before about the man who had tried 

 every style of greenhouse extant and 

 found he could grow j^rize stuff in them 

 all. 



THE VAWTER CARNATIONS. 



To the followers of our craft who 

 visit California there are few more in- 

 teresting sights than E. J. Vawter 'a car- 

 nation fields at Ocean Park, not far 

 from Los Angeles and less than a mile 

 from the ocean. Here are twenty acres 

 in carnations, aggregating 100,000 

 plants from which from 8,000 to 10,000 

 flowers are cut each day in winter and in 

 the spring from 12,000 to 20,000 daily. 

 There are also five acres of violets which 

 will yield from 1,000 to 1,500 bunches 

 daily from November to May, each bunch 

 containing fifty flowers. Two acres are 

 in roses and three acres in bulbous stock, 

 all grown outdoors summer and winter, 

 although lath houses are in use on the 

 place. 



The following story of how these fields 

 came into being will be of interest: 



Five years ago Mr. Vawter was ap- 

 proached with a proposition to rent a 

 part of his place that was then being 

 farmed. An outdoor florist contracted for 

 the place, making all his arrangements 

 to start there a carnation field. At the 

 last minute, grown fearful, he refused to 

 sign the contract, and one man 's conserva- 

 tism was again another man 's oppor- 

 tunity. Mr. Vawter, who had never had 

 more than an aisthetic interest in flowers, 

 liad become interested in the scheme for 

 a garden on his place and determined to 

 carry out the plans himself. Consequently 

 5,000 cuttings were bought, which, after 

 Mr. Vawter had returned to his farm 

 and harvested a crop of barley from the 

 prospective carnation fields, were duly 

 planted. Todav he is selling from 5,000 

 to 10,000 blooms daily, his principal mar- 

 ket being Los Angeles. Mr. Vawter could 

 say with Kipling: 



And I took the chances they wouldn't, and now 

 they are calling It luck I 



Ocean Park affords an ideal situation 

 for carnation culture. The ground rises 

 gently from the ocean, and on the eastern 

 and the southern slope, protected from 

 the winds, the grade insuring at all times 

 perfect drainage. In the flats beyond are 



grown lilies, roses and violets, but the 

 carnations are the specialty, the hardiest 

 as the most gratifying, so sure are the 

 returns. 



There is a pumping plant at the foot 

 of the hill whence the water is sent up 

 to a tank of 100,000 gallons capacity, 

 then piped over the field. 



The plants are all raised from cuttings, 

 are started on the bench, and, as soon as 

 they are rooted, are put in pots and later 

 set out in the ground. After their sec- 

 ond season they are thrown away and 

 their place filled by new plants. 



A CALL ON JOHN DUNLOP. 



Though in these days of mammoth 

 greenhouses Mr. Dunlop 's glass at To- 

 ronto, Ont., may not cover more than 

 three acres, it has since its beginning 

 been famous for perfect order, cleanli- 

 ness and neatness, as well as the high 

 quality of its product, more especially 

 roses. The writer recalls the time Avhen 

 the executive committee of the S. A. F. 

 held its meeting at Toronto in February, 

 1891, not so remote a period, and yet 

 the man who owned 100,000 feet of glass 

 was a big man and there were only a few 

 of him. The committee journeyed out 

 westward to see John 's wonderful roses. 

 The street cars took you to within a mile 

 and a half of his houses and then you 

 had to walk through or over brick yards, 

 sand pits, goose commons and other pic- 

 turesque scenery. Nowadays all this ter- 

 ritory is built up with pleasant residences 

 and a speedy trolley car lands you at the 

 front door of Mr. Dunlop 's substantial 

 residence. 



Here can be seen a dozen houses of 

 carnations planted at various dates, some 

 as early as April, some lifted from the 

 field early in July and others planted as 

 late as the middle of August. Those pur 

 on the bench the middle of April, of 

 which there were Lawson. Enchantress 

 and others, looked large, bushy and in 

 the best of health. Yet Mr. Dunlop says 

 this means a sacrifice of at least two 

 months of most profitable cutting and 

 unless you can plant as early as that and 

 get the plants established before very 

 warm weather, he prefers growing therii 

 six to seven weeks in the field and lift- 

 ing early in July. To all of which I 

 most devoutly say amen. Mr. Dunlop be- 



lieves in giving nearly all the new va- 

 rieties a trial and then goes heavily into 

 what suits his soil and culture. 



Among others he says he has discarded 

 all crimsons but Harlowarden and in 

 scarlet he grows Elstelle grandly. Nearly 

 all the carnations are grown in houses 

 which are now his oldest range, built 

 when the short span to the south was 

 the fad. On remarking that I supposed 

 he would build no more like that, he re- 

 plied, "No, I guess not, but they grow 

 good flowers," and that is verily true, 

 as the writer can testify from frequent 

 visits, seeing both roses and carnations 

 as well done as the best, which all goes 

 to show that the man and his methods 

 have more to do with success than costly 

 structures or up-to-date architecture. Yet 

 that's no reason why the most thorough 

 man should not have the most up-to-date 

 houses, and Mr. Dunlop has them, many 

 of them. There is one style he has not, 

 a remnant of an old style, to be seen in 

 many places yet but considered a relic 

 of the past with nearly all the very large 

 growers, viz., the long span to the south, 

 with all its waste of ground, expensive 

 structure and awkwardness of manipula- 

 tion. 



We were mostly interested in the large 

 blocks of rose houses with the gutters 

 up some seven feet and, of course, no 

 partitions. The pipe (the whole place 

 is steam) runs along the edge of the 

 benches, or rather beds, for there were 

 no raised benches in these rose houses. 

 The walls of the beds were mostly con- 

 irete and some seventeen or eighteen 

 inches high. These are not solid beds by 

 any means, as all had ample drainage. I 

 can 't see but what this style of range 

 is about as light as outdoors and if you 

 can't grow roses and carnations in them 

 to as near perfection as they can be 

 grown, you must lay the failure to some 

 other cause, not the style of house. 



All the roses without exception looked 

 well, not a particle of mildew, and the 

 early planted promising an early and 

 vigorous crop. As with carnations, Mr. 

 Dunlop believes in testing the new va- 

 rieties. He believes strongly in Mme. 

 Chatenay. Though small plants, he says, 

 when received in mid-summer, they are 

 now making strong two-foot flowering 

 growths. 



Mr. Dunlop is a strong and consist- 



