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410 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Januabt 12. 1905. 



it Etna then) he had sixty plants. Now 

 he has 5,000. The way they cut up those 

 sixty plants was a caution, but they are 

 still there and as healthy and vigorous as 

 you could ask. So is the new stock. Some 

 of the cuttings were put in the sand 

 as late as May 6, and are fine, strong 

 plants. A part of a bench planted from 

 thumb pots in October is now giving a 

 cut. 



Since it was learned to cut the buds 

 tight shipments have been made to exhi- 

 bitions and club meetings all over the 

 country. The flowers traveled perfectly 

 and kept for days. Many retailers, like 

 Small & Son, at Washington, have asked 

 for regular shipments, but these, in view 

 of the necessity for propagating over 

 125,000 plants, could not be supplied. 

 The flowers Mr. Hill took to Washing- 

 ton on a recent trip, after they had 

 served his purpose, were sent by Smalls 

 to Mrs. Hay, wife of the Secretary of 

 State, and there is already an established 

 demand for Richmond at the capital. 



Some of the blooms sent to the Boston 

 Gardeners' and Florists' Club meeting 

 December 20, graced Wm. Nicholson's 

 table at his Christmas dinner. 



Other New Sorts. 



To pass on to other varieties, a house 

 of Rosalind Orr English, a pink seedling 

 of Chatenay, raised on the place, is a 

 splendid sight. The growth is wonderful 

 and the cut large and continuous. This 

 rose will never displace any other, but 

 it will be popular in the way its parent 

 is. The cut of this house all goes to 

 Bertermann Bros., Indianapolis, and they 

 think highly of it. There are two other 

 red seedlings which are being tried, 

 Joe Hill and Robin Hood, which prom- 

 ise interesting developments. A cross 

 between White Lady and Kaiserin is 

 closely watched. But most interesting of 

 all is a first break from Beauty. 



Among the scores of imported varie- 

 ties is one of Dickson's which is well 

 liked. It is Mildred Grant, winner of 

 the gold medal in ITngland for three suc- 

 cessive years. It is cream white, with 

 pink shading. Some who have tried it 

 under glass say it is very susceptible to 

 mildew, but it is not so here. Muriel 



Graham is a beautiful thing, a light sport 

 from Catherine Menuiet, and poesessing 

 all the characteristics of its parent. Buds 

 of these two are but indifferently shown 

 in one of the accompanying illustrations. 

 Mrs. David McKee is one which Dickson 

 introduced as yellow, but here it is cream 

 white. There is an American variety, 

 Shellem's Pink, raised by John A. Shel- 

 lem, Philadelphia, of which great things 

 were expected, but which has proved a 

 disappointment as a forcing rose. It is 

 a cross of Maman Cochet and Kaiserin, 

 and, while it will not do in winter, Mr. 

 Hill thinks it a decided acquisition for 

 spring and summer. 



In one house there are thousands upon 

 thousands of Manetti stocks potted up. 

 Each year 75,000 grafts are made. Fred 

 Lemon has immediate charge of this work. 

 He says that such a number rolls off 

 one's tongue very easily, but that the 

 operation itself is no inconsiderable task. 

 He prefers English to French Manetti, 

 and does not feel the need of the elab- 

 orate grafting case used in some places. 

 He takes a tight bench, builds sides of 

 matched lumber to the requisite heights, 

 partitions as wanted, covers with hot-bed 

 sash and loses only one or two per cent 

 of his grafts. When the sash do not fit 

 just as they should he stuffs the cracks 

 with damp moss to make the case tight. 

 He runs his case about 85 degrees. 



In one house there is a nice lot of 

 the new French rose, Mme. Norbert Le- 

 vavaaseur popularly known in this coun- 

 try as the Baby Rambler. Mr. Hill says 

 it will be a gem for a bedder and as an 

 Easter pot plant. It is everblooming; 

 in fact, it blooms itself to death. In 

 connection with the circumstance that a 

 firm bought the American monopoly of 

 this rose only to find that it had reached 

 the trade here in large numbers through 

 prior dissemination in England, it is of 

 interest to know that Mr. Hill thinks he 

 had the first plants to reach this country. 

 An English friend, seeing the novelty, 

 sent him a dozen plants with his compli- 

 ments. A list from England recently 

 quoted this rose and Mr. Hill straight- 

 way cabled ; he got only 500 plants, but 

 they cost 8 cents apiece. Quotations 

 here are $35 per hundred and selling fast. 



A big lot of hybrid roses are sold every 

 season and thousands of hardwood cut- 

 tings are now in the sand. One bench 

 contained over 40,000 cuttings of Rich- 

 mond, cool and rooting nicely. All the 

 young stock is grown cool here. They 

 don't believe in hurrying the rooting,, 

 even if they have one order for 100,000' 

 carnation cuttings, and each year need 

 more rose, carnation, chrysanthemum and 

 geranium stock than they can produce.. 

 That's the result of not chasing the Al- 

 mighty Dollar too hard. 



In Other Houses. 



Speaking of carnations, several houses- 

 are grown and in fine shape. Mr. Hill 

 is thinking better of Flamingo as the- 

 season advances. He is going to plant 

 Prosperity more largely next year. Lady 

 Bountiful is a gem here. There is a fine 

 pink sport of Enchantress that will be 

 worked up. The sales on Cardinal are 

 very satisfactory. There are many seed- 

 lings under trial, too numerous to men- 

 tion, save one, a very large white, 

 which Mr. Hill thinks will just suit the- 

 growers in England, in whom he is in- 

 terested from the fact that each season 

 he sends many thousand cuttings across, 

 the water. American carnations are rap- 

 idly gaining in popularity there. They 

 are stUl generally grown in pots, but 

 some are applying American methods^ of 

 culture in growing for market. 



The grower of miscellaneous stock 

 will find much to interest him at Hill's, 

 particularly in geraniums. All the Euro- 

 pean novelties are tried, and most of 

 them promptly discarded. But a liouse 

 given to plants for stock at all times con- 

 tains the cream of the varieties. Still 

 Mr. Hill says that nothing sells so well' 

 as the old S. A. Nutt. 



Mr. Hill's Associates. 



Mr. Hill has associated with him in 

 the company his son-in-law, Fred H. 

 Lemon, his son, Joseph Hill, and his^ 

 sister, Sarah A. Hill, the latter in charge 

 of the office. It is an aggrega- 

 tion of talent rather beyond the 

 needs of the present range of 

 glass, and plans are being made to 

 enlarge the business to afford full scope- 



Mildred Orant, Muriel Graham. 



Bods of Two New Roses Well Liked by the E. G. Hill Company, Richmond, Ind. 



