1 ■vip-y. :'• 



JcNK 15. 1905. 



■--*■■ ■■ 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



m 



Btructed and as reasonable as are the 

 prices considering the class of planting 

 material used, they are above the means 

 of the poorer classes of people living m 

 the crowded tenement districts. Just as 

 well however, as boxes can be made more 

 elalwrate both in construction and in 

 planting for people of larger means, so 

 can also much cheaper boxes be made and 

 planted, bringing them within the means 

 of even the very poor. Where there is a 

 will there is a way. The man and woman 

 proud of their home can nail a box to- 

 gether of almost any kind of lumber, 

 fill it with loam from a garden or the 

 fields and fill same with annuals by 

 planting seeds. Not counting the cost 

 of self-provided labor, such a box can 

 be made and filled with soil for 25 cents 

 or less and the seed itself will be still 

 less expensive. 



Such seed boxes can be sown outdoors, 

 beginning the first week in April, and the 

 following seeds can be used: Petunias, 

 nasturtiums, zinnias,- Phlox Drummondii, 

 balsams, portulaca, scabiosa, marigolds, 

 morning glory, asters, candytuft, cox- 

 combs, godetias, poppies, snapdragons, 

 violas, etc. 



Each seed package gives information 

 as to height of plant, color of flowers, time 

 of blooming and instructions for sow- 

 ing, so that it will be an easy matter for 

 anyone to form proper combinations of 

 plants. A box can be planted with one 

 showy variety alone or with a combina- 

 tion of suitable varieties, and the cost 

 of seeds for one box of one variety will 

 be five cents and for five varieties 

 twenty-five cents, but the five packages 

 in the latter case will furnish enough 

 seeds for five boxes. Therefore window- 

 gardening is within the reach of all. 



A Word to the Trade. 



To our brother florists and gardeners, 

 especially the commercial men, we 

 would earnestly make the following rec- 

 ommendations : 



First: Keep up to the times by grow- 

 ing and introducing such plants as are 

 well adapted for such work, giving due 

 recognition to all deserving varieties and 

 novelties. 



Second: — Encourage this line of gar- 

 dening by having some window boxes 

 tastefully planted on exhibition in front 

 of your stores, ready for sale. 



Third: — Set the price for those plants 

 at as low a basis as possible, so as to 

 bring them within the reach oif all. 



Combined efforts along those lines 

 will, we believe, result in a general 

 adoption of window gardening, will 

 bring happiness to numberless homes, and 

 help to beautify our city in no small 

 degree and all will be to the ultimate 

 benefit and satisfaction of the florists' 

 business. 

 The whole respectfully submitted. 

 Theodore Wirth, 

 Peter A. Zuger, 

 Carl Peterson, 

 Joseph F. Coombs, 

 Frank Koulier. 



YORKVILLE, N. Y.— Geo. H. Benedict 

 has done a large business in pansy plants 

 thJH season. One of his customers bought 

 6,000 plants to give away as souvenirs 

 at a store opening. 



Waterloo, Ia.— H. D. Williams has 

 sold his interest in the greenhouses and 

 hiisiness of Williams & Crittenden to 

 Warry Daniels. The firm name is now 

 '-rittenden & Daniels. 



Peony M. BarraL 



AMERICAN PEONY SOCIETY. 



There is every prospect that the sec- 

 ond annual exhibition of the American 

 Peony Society, to be held in Chicago 

 this week, -will be a most successful 

 affair. The extremely warm weather 

 during the first week of June hastened 

 the blooming period very materially, 

 and it was necessary that a large part 

 of the stock which will be on exhibi- 

 tion be placed in cold storage for from" 

 one to two weeks. Large quantities of 

 stock were shipped from eastern grow- 

 ers and placed in cold storage in Chi- 

 cago between June 6 and 9. There is, 

 of course, more or less loss in handling 

 stock in this manner, but such large 

 quantities are in sight that a good 

 showing can hardly fail to result, add- 

 ing to the cold storage stock such late 

 blooming varieties and such exhibits as 

 are coming from northern growers 

 where the blooming period is just at 

 hand. In fact at Chicago the height 

 of the peony season is just passing. 



The number of entries has been very 

 gratifying to the officers of the so- 

 ciety, and their judgment in holding 

 the exhibition at Chicago has already 

 been demonstrated to have been good. 

 There will be many more exhibitors 

 than last year at New York and a 

 much wider territory will be repre- 

 sented. It was a distinct disadvantage, 

 particularly to western growers, to be 

 compelled to have their entries in the 

 hands of the secretary at Newton High- 

 lands, Mass., on June 10. They could 

 only make their best guesses as to what 

 they would have in exhibition shape a 

 week later. 



The exhibition will be open to the 

 public by ticket, the cards of admission 

 being distributed through the retail 

 florists. The first lot of tickets issued 

 read that the exhibition is to be held 



June 17 and 18. This was an error. 

 The dsttes are June 16 and 17. 



WESTERN PEONIES. 



And now we have the glorious pe- 

 onies, which, in all the west and north- 

 west, lead all the other flowers. Roses 

 are tender and very disappointing, but 

 the peonies are hardy. I found them 

 at their best in Manitoba, sixty 

 fine blooms on a single clump. You 

 can always depend on them. Here 

 they are massed, 30,000 in one field, 

 20,000 in another. A little way off the 

 flowers seem blended into a carpet of 

 dazzling beauty fit for the touch of 

 angels' feet. There the deep crimson 

 and the glistening red. Some are of 

 purest white, some are white and yel- 

 low. How well they stood the changes 

 of our peculiar spring! 



A close inspection shows why many 

 peonies do not bloom. They were 

 nipped in the bud by the severe late 

 frosts. That is the trouble with the 

 tree peony, which seldom blooms in the 

 west. The frosts do the mischief. 



I have had Richardson's, Terry's 

 and Rosenfield *s new sorts growing 

 side by side with Kelway's and they 

 beat them almost every time. I have 

 had Agnes Mary Kelway for years and 

 it has no comparison with Terry's Cyn- 

 thia or Sada Evans and many others. 

 We have picked them off and compared 

 them often. Rosenfield never sent out 

 one which was such a puny one as I 

 got from England for $5 a root. 



As an all-round peony it is hard to 

 beat Golden Harvest. It will bloom 

 on the least provocation. It has a 

 large, fragrant, beautiful flower. It is 

 wonderfully prolific as a bloomer. It 

 glories in tribulation. Nothing can dis- 

 courage it. When eighteen inches high 



