v'^r-h?;. 



1222 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Apbil 18, 1905. 



hand to the old varieties and reaches 

 with the other for the new ones, with 

 the result that the prospective purchaser 

 is bewildered with a possible selection 

 of 1,500 varieties, all claimed to be 

 good. One European grower who sends 

 me his 1905 list, names 697 varieties; 

 another 676. In the latter list I find 

 326 cactus varieties, and of these 135 

 are some shade of red. Surely it cannot 

 be claimed that all these varieties are 

 necessary. Surely among the 135 reds 

 there must be some that are very in- 

 ferior to others; and if inferior, why 

 not discard them and shorten the listf 

 I venture the opinion that if thirty-five 

 of the best reds were taken out, the 

 remaining 100 would be a rather in- 

 ferior looking lot. Years ago I rec- 

 ommended, through the trade press, cut- 

 ting down the list, but without result. 

 In the past twenty years I have tested 

 fully 1,000 named varieties, but now 

 have less than 200 and my list is still 

 too long and I am ready to shorten it 

 just as soon as the public quits calling 

 for back numbers. A very large pro- 

 portion of the commercial dahlias of to- 



day are to the up-to-date grower just 

 what the Lizzie McGowan and Portia 

 carnations would be to the up-to-date 

 carnation grower. 



As a rule I think the purchaser, unless 

 he is fjimiliar with the varieties, will do 

 well to , leave the selection to the grow- 

 er, simply naming the colors wanted and 

 stating the use to which they are to be 

 put. If the grower or dealer is honest 

 and all dahlia growers are supposed 

 to be, he will do his best to please. 



The dahlia has always been notorious 

 for sportive habits, and many and cu- 

 rious are the freaks to be seen. This 

 is not only true of variegated varieties, 

 but often appearing among varieties 

 supposed to be quite staid and fixed in 

 their colors. Some of the fancy varie- 

 ties are very popular because of this 

 wide variance in color, which keeps the 

 grower guessing what is coming next. 

 But while sports are common as stated 

 above, yet all attempts to fix a sport 

 into a new variety have been fruitless, 

 for sooner or later they return to the 

 parent color. 



IS OUR TRADE 



NOT AHRACTIVE ? 



GOOD FLORISTS ARE SCARCE. 



It is evident to any observer that 

 boys who might make valuable green- 

 house help are more and more shunning 

 the business, and young men who have 

 a general knowledge and experience 

 with the stock usually found in a place 

 of from 20,000 to 50,000 square feet 

 of glass are very scarce. The business 

 having largely evolved into the hands 

 of specialists is partly accountable for 

 this, but not entirely. Write to a large 

 rose or carnation or perhaps palm 

 grower for a man well up in these spe- 

 cialties and you will most likely be ac- 

 commodated, but look for a young man 

 to take charge of 30,000 feet of glass 

 and direct all departments of a general 

 plant and cut flower trade, and you will 

 look a long while in vain. 



Division of labor we know is the 

 order of the day, and it is the most up- 

 to-date and economical method of pro- 

 duction, but I dislike to think of our 

 business as a mechanical one. In the 

 growing the mechanical is a small part 

 compared to the mental. The vast ma- 

 jority of the men who are employed 

 making up designs, such as wreaths, 

 crosses and pillows, are simply mechan- 

 ics. Ninety-nine out of every hundred 

 are merely copyists, and their handi- 

 work, when finished, has a very mechan- 

 ical look* Not so with the good grower, 

 the lover of his plants and their wel- 

 fare. Think what little mechanical 

 labor enters into the life of our plants, 

 no matter whether it is a lily, a rose or 

 a house of forcing grapes. The lily 

 bulb is put into the soil in a very few 

 seconds. That is truly a mechanical 

 operation. Then come six months of care, 

 ventilation, temperature, water, fight- 

 ing insects, condition of plant relative 

 to prospective market, and other points. 



These are all mental, and make the real 

 gardener's calling a profession. 



Decline of Specialization. 



The medical profession has run to 

 special lines of practice very much of 

 late until it is overdone, and young 

 "M. D. 's, " for fear of starving, are 

 going back to general practice, and pro- 

 fess to be specialists on anything, from 

 curing "housemaid's knee" (a specific 

 disease in Europe) to putting in metal- 

 lic windpipes. 



It is doubtless true that with contin- 

 ual practice and undivided care a man 

 must become very proficient at his spe- 

 cialty, but you have all noticed in our 

 business that when a man was very suc- 



cessful with any one plant, if he turned 

 his attention to another, he met with 

 the same success. Call to mind some of 

 the growers who supply the markets of 

 Philadelphia, New York and Boston. It 

 is not one species of plant they turn 

 out so perfect, but all they handle are 

 near perfection, and all guided by one 

 brain. Gardeners, not merely special- 

 ists, reign over these establishments. 



In Europe the ambition of the young 

 gardener who travels from place to place 

 in search of knowledge and experience 

 is to obtain the position of head gar- 

 dener at some extensive private estab- 

 lishment, a good restful life; but un- 

 less you could look for advancement or 

 free scope to improve the garden, build 

 modern houses or experiment with lat- 

 est introductions, it would be a life of 

 sameness, and some minds would as 

 likely decay as advance in such a posi- 

 tion. 



It is worth mentioning that these po- 

 sitions are very much more numerous 

 in this country than they were thirty 

 years ago, and are daily coming into 

 existence. A marvelous change has 

 come over the country in a few short 

 years, especially in the east. Our mil- 

 lionaires must have fine country seats. 

 It is the proper thing to do, and if they 

 do not inherit a taste for fine garden- 

 ing, they are not fools by a very large 

 majority, and they know that ability 

 for any purpose demands good pay. 



Then, again, the numberless parks, 

 large and small, that are being formed 

 in our cities of all sizes call for men 

 of liberal gardening education. So it 

 seems for a long future that the de- 

 mand for good all-round gardeners will 

 be, far in excess of the supply. This is 

 optimistic, yet I feel sure will be true. 



Let us return to our theme. It is 

 the commercial business that affords the 

 brightest opening to our young men. 

 When employed by another, they should 

 look forward to the time when they will 

 have a place of their own, and when 

 they are possessors of a few houses they 

 will be dreanung of building more 

 houses, improving and branching out to 

 an unknown end. This dreaming is es- 

 sentially right. It is the most pleasant 

 part of life. Dreaming is followed by 

 ambition, and what would the world 

 be without ambition? 



Hope sprlnsH eternal In the liiiman breast. 

 Man never Is. but always to be. blessed. 



Twi£ Basket Filled with Primula, Adiantum, Valley, etc 



