■■■<^vrr 



Ti^- y 



JuN^ 28, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



343 



effect of the mass of color if used to- 

 gether, and barring a very few sorts, if 

 we should get an order for a thousand 

 plants of one variety, I do not know 

 where we could get the order properly 

 filled. Before peonies can be used large- 

 ly aftd effectively in landscape work the 

 nomenclature must be straightened out 

 80 that peonies can be purchased in quan- 

 tity from different firma true to name, 

 color, height and time of blooming. 



As most of you know, this society is 

 making an effort to straighten out and 

 identity peonies in this country by co- 

 operating with Cornell University, at 

 Ithaca, N. Y., in planting a test plot of 

 several thousand varieties from different 

 sources, and we are in hopes that by 

 this means we shall be able to settle on 

 a list of forty to fifty sorts sufficiently 

 distinct and accumulate a sufficient quan- 

 tity of true stock to enable us to do 

 business with each other on a satisfac- 

 tory basis. 



Not Enough Stock. 



There are too many varieties under 

 name and there is not enough stock of 

 the best sorts to supply any great de- 

 mand, and as these better sorts are sold 

 at good prices, there is a great tempta- 

 tion for a certain class of dealers to put 

 in a few of the true sort ordered and 

 then to fill up the box with roots of 

 common kinds. We have found three or 

 four firms in Europe who are making an 

 honest effort to send out reliable stock, 

 true to the originator's name, and who 

 are willing to guarantee their stock. We 

 have adopted the practice of requiring 

 such guarantees and not paying for 

 stock until it has bloomed with us and 

 proved true, and the most reliable firms 

 are willing to guarantee their stock in 

 this way. 



But even with such guarantees we get 

 too great a percentage wrongly labeled, 

 probably due to inefficient systems of 

 keeping stock or carelessness of work- 

 men in handling and packing shipments. 

 As it takes three years to fully identify 

 peonies, this receiving unreliable stock 

 is a most serious detriment and obstacle 

 to the commercial dealer as well as 

 to the amateur, who is often keenly 

 disappointed in getting something en- 

 tirely different from what was expected 

 from the catalogue description or from 

 what was seen and noted on the exhibi- 

 tion table. 



STORAGE OF PEONIES. 



[In his annual address as president of the 

 American Peony Society, C. W. Ward spoke a* 

 follows on the subject of the storage of peonies] 



At the Chicago exhibition we secured 

 considerable knowledge and experience in 

 the shipping and staging of flowers, and 

 this knowledge has been substantially 

 added to by the experience gained in 

 staging this year's exhibit in Boston. 



In order to secure a large display of 

 flowers from different sections of the 

 country, it is necessary that growers in 

 those sections where the peony blooms 

 early in the season, ship their flowers 

 in the bud form for cold storage, as in 

 the more southern sections of the coun- 

 try the peonies are out of bloom before 

 any flowers can be had in the latitude 

 of Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Chi- 

 cago. 



My own experience in attempting to 

 store peonies in an ice-box for exhibition 

 purposes has proved a signal failure this 

 year and of several hundred blooms so 

 held, I have been able to stage but a 

 hundred or so in passable condition. 



Removable Concrete Bench Built by Frank Garland, Dei^laines, III. 



At the Chicago exhibition some 2,000 

 blooms were shipped and held in a cold- 

 storage plant some six to fourteen days, 

 and many of them came out in good 

 condition and made a passable display. 

 But at Boston no cold-storage plant 

 could be found which would receive the 

 peonies, and I was compelled to accept 

 the kind offer of one of Boston 's repre- 

 sentative firms, who tendered the use of 

 a large florist's ice-box and took excel- 

 lent care of the blooms while in storage, 

 but the blooms come out in bad shape, 

 having been rotted at the base of the 

 petals because of excess of moisture in 

 the ice-box. 



When placed in a regular cold-storage 

 plant, an even temperature and a dry 

 atmosphere can be maintained and better 

 results will be obtained, but my expe- 

 rience with ice-box storage indicates that 

 peonies cannot be successfully carried 

 any great length of time in florists' ice- 

 boxes and make a creditable showing on 

 the exhibition table. 



When placed in cold storage the blooms 

 should be tied six to twelve in a bundle 

 and the buds wrapped in waxed or oiled 

 paper extending six inches beyond the 

 buds but open at the ends, and the 

 stems plunged in water one-half to two- 

 thirds of their length. This uncertainty 

 in storing and keeping peony blooms ren- 

 ders the gathering together of a repre- 

 sentative exhibition from different points 

 of the country at one- time an exception- 

 ally difficult task and it is a foregone 

 conclusion that our peony displays must 

 depend very largely upon those growers 

 in the immediate vicinity of the locality 

 where the annual exhibition is held. 



THE GLASS MARKET. 



The manufacture of glass has gener- 

 ally ceased throughout the United States 

 and prices are steadily stiffening be- 

 cause a large number of factories have 

 little stock on hand, and jobbers' stocks 

 also are low. This applies especially 

 to greenhouse sizes. In January the 

 market was low, but there has been a 

 steady stiffening in the last three or 

 four months, and the market on car- 

 load lots is now 45 to 50 cents a box 

 above the January market. On small 

 lots there is, of course, a still greater 

 increase. Conditions are going back to 



the point where Belgian window glass 

 can again be imported at a profit. Last 

 week's receipts at the port of New York 

 were 5,950 boxes at 100 feet each. 

 There was a time when greenhouse build- 

 ers used large quantities of Belgian 

 glass, and they will again use it as soon 

 as the price of the domestic product 

 reaches such an altitude that there will 

 be an economy in importing. 



MOVABLE CONCRETE BENCHES. 



The accompanying illustration is from 

 a photograph taken at the establishment 

 of Frank Garland, at Des Plaines, 111., 

 and shows one of his 20-foot houses 

 equipped with a movable concrete bench 

 of his own invention and manufacture. 

 The house contains two side benches each 

 two feet six inches wide and two center 

 benches each five feet wide. In the illus- 

 tration the two wide benches are shown 

 only half completed, except at the far 

 end of the house, where the workmen are 

 engaged in laying the rows of cement 

 slabs which make the benches the full 

 width. 



This bench is easily built and quickly 

 removable, being held together purely by 

 gravity, except for the side boards, 

 which are clamped on. Legs, stringers 

 and bench bottoms are all moulded on 

 the place. The bench bottoms, as shown, 

 are in reality in the shape of boxes 

 turned upside down for the sake of light- 

 ness and economy of material, strength 

 not being sacrificed. 



One of the first questions asked Mr. 

 Garland by every visitor is as to how 

 the bench is built around the purlin 

 posts, which are shown to go through 

 the slabs of concrete. When one thinks 

 of it, it is a very simple matter to de- 

 termine just where the iron pipe will 

 penetrate the concrete. A chisel is then 

 used to cut a hole, which takes but a 

 few moments. Then the pipe is slipped 

 from its socket, put through the cement 

 slab and the whole replaced. 



This style of bench Mr. Garland finds 

 to possess every desirable attribute. It 

 is not expensive and it is permanent. 

 It affords excellent drainage and a 

 smooth bottom, which greatly facilitates 

 removing old soil. He proposes to equip 

 all his houses with it. 



