July 12, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



463 



here takes only a slightly diflferent form : 

 ' • The practice of growers ' turning 

 their surplus stock over to butcher shops 

 is to be condemned," says J. H. Dun- 

 lop, Toronto, in the Canadian Florist. 

 "The temporary pecuniary benefit to 

 the growers' is not worth the ultimate 

 injury both to themselves and the trade. 

 Gather than do this kind of business it 

 is better to let the surplus go to waste 

 or, better still, donate iito some hospi- 



tal or other institution where it will do 

 some good." 



"Selling to butchers has so slight an 

 effect on the regular trade, ' ' writes 

 Wm. Gammage, London, "that the 

 beautifying of their stores, and the sell- 

 ing to and notice taken of flowers by 

 those who would not in any other way 

 be brought in contact with or buy them, 

 will amply offset any trade that might 

 be diverted. ' ' 



DICKSON'S IRISH ROSES. 



[The response to a toast, by Alexander B. 



Scott, delivered at Philadelphia Florists' Club 



dinner In honor of Hugh Dickson, of Belfast, 

 Ireland, June 6.] 



1 have taken the liberty of changing 

 the subject assigned to me this evening 

 from ' ' Ireland — The gem of the ocean ' ' 

 to ' ' Newtownards — The gem of Ire- 

 land, ' ' for from this little garden spot 

 have been raised and sent out all of 

 Alexander Dickson & Sons' Irish roses. 



Many of the members of our Florists' 

 Club who are present this evening will 

 recollect Hugh Dickson's last visit ten 

 years ago, and you will remember with 

 how much force and spirit he introduced 

 Alexander Dickson & Sons' Irish roses 

 to American florists, and how well they 

 were received. Most of the roses at that 

 time were hybrid perpetuals, and the de- 

 mand was largely for Ulrich Brunner, 

 Rodocanachi, Magna Charta, and other 

 hybrid perpetuals that could be forced 

 for winter blooming. 



1 think it would be well to note at 

 this time the great advance in the rais- 

 ing of new roses that Alexander Dick- 

 son & Sons have made in the last ten 

 years. The hybridizers of the firm — 

 Alexander Dickson and George Dickson, 

 Jr., were among the first to realize that 

 the hybrid tea rose was the rose of the 

 future, and that the great rose loving 

 1 uolic wanted haray everblooming roses, 

 rather than hybrid perpetuals that 

 flower but once, with an occasional 

 flower in the autumn. During the past 

 ten years, of sixty-six new roses intro- 

 duced by them, forty-three have been 

 of this class, and nineteen have received 

 gold medals from the National Rose So- 

 ciety. Of this number, we in Amer- 

 ica are very thankful for two, Killarney, 

 introduced in 1898, and Liberty, in 1900. 



Last summer I visited Newtownards, 

 and spent two weeks among 7,000 seed- 

 ling hybrid tea roses. I do not "think 

 there is a man here tonight who would 

 not agree with me that this little patch 

 of four or five acres, during the month 

 of July, is the most interesting spot in 



the world to rose growers; in fact it is a 

 Mecca for rose growers, both amateur 

 un<l professional. 



Two things I was impressed with very 

 forcibly; one was the vast amount of 

 l/abor and care in the production of these 

 seedlings; not one of these 7,000 varie- 

 ties were chance seedlings, and I found 

 out that for the past twenty-five years 

 these men have been keeping a record 

 of every cross they have made, with notes 

 of the result of that cross. Since they 

 have raised so many good things them- 

 selves they have for the past few years 

 confined their crossing and hybridization 

 to roses of their own raising, and the 

 result is shown in the varieties I in- 

 spected last summer. 



The other thing that impressed me is 

 the care with which they select their 

 eyes for budding. I had often wondered 

 why it was that the Dickson roses had 

 such a remarkable vitality, and while 

 they do not appear to be stronger in 

 growth than selected stock from other 

 sources, they invariably give larger and 

 finer flowers a year or two after plant- 

 ing, I found last summer that the eyes 

 put on in their vast establishment were 

 selected by members of the firm; a boy 

 generally waited on them while they 

 were cutting the flowering wood of the 

 plant; with their knives they cut out all 

 the flat or poorer eyes, and only the 

 sound, plump eyes went to the budders. 

 They believe in the survival of the 

 fittest, and they have found by ex- 

 perience that a constant selection of the 

 best and plumpest eyes from flowering 

 wood only will keep up their standard 

 to its present high mark. 



In their seedling roses, I was of 

 course very much interested in the varie- 

 ties that would probably do in America; 

 it was very fascinating, and at the same 

 time very disappointing work; almost 

 every morning I would see varieties in 

 bloom that I was absolutely sure would 

 be winners for winter forcing in Amer- 

 ica; I would cut a bloom and take it to 

 my room for its keeping qualities; I 

 would then examine it in the field the 

 following day, and would find that it 

 had developed something that would not 

 suit, and would have to be discarded. 

 One variety that I was particularly im- 

 pressed with, was a strong-growing va- 

 riety which flowered in the open ground 



with 3-foot stems, and the flowers were 

 even brighter and more velvety than 

 Liberty; I thought that if this acted in 

 America as it did in Ireland, we would 

 have a crimson American Beauty. I 

 received four plants in October, and they 

 all grew; they grew so well that by 

 March 1 they had attained a height of 

 seventeen feet without a flower, and 

 they have not flowered yet. I brought 

 over with me thirty varieties, and have 

 them now growing at my nurseries; sev- 

 eral of these are very promising, but 

 my faith is in two sterling varieties; 

 one is a yellow with petals larger than 

 Killarney, and the other is a light pink 

 with a rosy center. I hope I may have 

 these two varieties in good shape for 

 exhibition next year. 



In hardy everblooming roses for out- 

 side culture they have the grandest col- 

 lection I have ever seen; they have al- 

 most every shade of color, many of them 

 having the Killarney type of growth. 

 I only hope the time will come very 

 shortly when they will get stock enough 

 to introduce them to general cultiva- 

 tion. 



MAMAN COCHET ROSES. 



I would like to know the best place 

 for storing Maman Cochet roses during 

 winter. I have 500 plants. A. G. 



We have no experience in lifting and 

 storing this grand rose, and think the 

 process would not be satisfactory. It 

 would be better to go to some trouble 

 to protect the plants from being killed 

 back, and to that end I would recom- 

 mend that six inches of long stable lit- 

 ter or leaves be spread over the entire 

 surface of the bed, between the growths, 

 and over the top place a thick cover- 

 ing of evergreen boughs. 



A still better plan and better protec- 

 tion would be to excavate the ground 

 three or four inches on tbe side of the 

 roses, then peg them down, covering 

 again with three or four inches of soil, 

 and further covering the soil with a few 

 inches of long stable manure. This 

 should not be done too early in the fall; 

 just before a hard freeze is the time. 

 This grand rose is surely worth some 

 labor and watchfulness. As a summer- 

 flowering tea rose it has no equal. Presi- 

 dent Carnot is also very valuable for 

 summer, but wants the same protection 

 from our northern frosts and blizzards. 



W. S. 



DICKSON, OF NEWTOWNARDS. 



Hugh Dickson, of the firm of Alex- 

 ander Dickson & Sons, of Newtownards, 

 Ireland, known all over the world as 

 hybridizers and introducers of new roses 

 of merit, has been enjoying a short 

 holiday in Philadelphia as the guest of 

 Alexander B. Scott, of Sharon Hill, 

 after his busy season just over. 



Mr. Dickson, who is associated with 

 his father and his three brathers in the 

 far-famed Irish firm, is manager of 

 the seed and bulb department, with 

 large warehouses and salesroom in Bel- 

 fast. When asked by a representative 

 of the Review to say a few words to 

 his American cousins, Mr. Dickson kind- 

 ly consented, expressing his belief that 

 a chat about the growing part of the 

 business would be of more general in- 

 terest than about his own particular 

 branch. 



The firm of Alexander Dickson & 

 Sons has three large farms. The first, 

 embracing about 1.50 acres, is at New- 



