March 1, 49O6. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



987 



probably has some speciosum blood in 

 it), Hansoni, Batemanniae, tigrinum, 

 tigrinum flore pleno, elegans, specio- 

 sum, album and Melpomene, Canadense, 

 Henryi and superbvim. He knows a 

 grower who puts some 2,000 L. Harrisii 

 outdoors each spring and has a grand 

 show of them. It is necessary to dig 

 the bulbs each fall, as they start to 

 grow too early. None of the Califor- 

 nian lilies, pretty as they are, may be 

 relied upon. 



Owing to the attacks by field mice, 

 he has been unable to keep digitalis, 

 or Canterbury bell, outdoors during win- 

 ter, and while many people grow Anem- 

 one Japonica grandly, he has to depend 

 on pots for his flowers of each, as the 

 plants do not do well in the open, al- 

 ways being cut down by an early frost 

 ere blooming. 



Among plants introduced in re- 

 cent years some of the best are Cam- 

 panula Moerheimi, Astilbe Davidi, In- 

 carvillea Delavayi and Eehmannia an- 

 gulata. Many of the numerous recent 

 introductions by Veitch through E. H. 

 Wilson from western China promise to 

 be valuable. The present day demand 

 is for planting in masses to secure tell- 

 ing effects. This method has its disad- 

 vantages, for it causes many gaps which 

 are hard to fill with annuals. Person- 

 ally he prefers mixed hardy borders. 



In the discussion which followed, 

 James H. Bowditch said if mass plant- 

 ing were well dovetailed no striking 

 gaps would show when the various per- 

 ennials are done flowering. Both mixed 

 borders and massed planting are desir- 

 able. All depends upon the size of the 

 beds and borders and effects neecfed. 

 Duncan Finlayson said a good way to 

 grow Anemone Japonica is to lift and 

 store the roots each fall. In planting 

 he dots Canterbury bells among them. 

 When the latter are done blooming the 

 anemones cover the ground nicely. 

 Other beds may be treated in a similar 

 way to secure a continuous mass dis- 

 play. 



J. W. Manning spoke of Polygonum 

 Baldschuanicum, saying it is hardy, 

 really a shrub and attains a height of 

 eighteen feet. Lycoris squamigera, also 

 called Amaryllis Halleana, is hardy and 

 a beautiful plant, with pink flowers re- 

 sembling Belladonna lilies. Bulbs se- 

 cured from Japan have not proved 

 hardy, however. Even the rankest 

 growing and quickest spreading sorts, 

 such as Monarda didyma, Boltonia as- 

 teroides, Helianthus rigidus and Boc- 

 conia cordata, have their places, but 

 they must not be planted where they 

 might smother weaker growing sub- 

 jects. He said £he number of varieties 

 of perennials is perplexing. There are 

 now 1,500 peonies listed, over 800 del- 

 phiniums, 700 irises and 1,000 phlox. 



W. N. Craig spoke of the culture of 

 eremurus, Anemone Japonica and other 

 sorts. He recommends Lilium excelsnm 

 and L. Brownii as desirable kinds to 

 grow. Papaver orientale in masses 

 dotted quite thickly with Galtonia can- 

 dicans make an effective continuous 

 display. J. W. Duncan thought it a mis- 

 take to leave Lilium candidum out of 

 any list of reliable hardy lilies. He 

 also thinks L. tenuifolium a good sort 

 to grow. He has had trouble with 

 Anemone Japonica in southern Connecti- 

 cut, owing to hot summers, but has 

 found no difficulty with it near Bos- 

 ton. The grandest display of it he has 

 ever seen, near Manchester, Mass., was 

 undisturbed for years and merely se- 



House of Uncle John Rose at Peter Reinberg^s, Chicago. 



cured a coating of leaves each fall. He 

 read a list of bulbous plants recently 

 recommended by a New Jersey writer 

 for flowering outdoors from November 

 to February, and said his experience 

 has been that such sorts do not flower 

 before April and May. W. N. C. 



PRICE COMPETITION, 



In a small town in Ohio there are two 

 florists. One is the old established deal- 

 er, and the other a firm of young men 

 just starting in business. There are sev- 

 eral near-by towns connected by trolley 

 and competition is keen. Several com- 

 munications have reached the Beview 

 commenting on the fact that the older 

 florist is defending himself from com- 

 petition only by cutting prices. From 

 several sources his Christmas advertise- 

 ment has been received. It read as fol- 

 lows: 



"For Christmas give your wife, sweetheart or 

 friend a bunch of our exquisite cut flowers or 

 one of our extraordinary fine potted plants. 

 You could not get her any more acceptable gift. 

 Our flowers are all fresh, home-grown. Roses, 

 $1 per dozen. Carnations, 5() cents per dozen." 



One of the new firm writes as follows: 

 "No doubt your attention is at once 

 attracted to the sure enough slaughter 

 of prices. I am a young man just 

 starting in business, having had about 

 nine years' experience, gained by hard 

 work with some of the best wholesale 

 growers near Chicago before coming 

 here. I saved a little money from my 

 wages and, with a partner who had also 

 saved his money, we built two small 

 greenhouses. The last year before build- 

 ing I was with the man who is now 

 fighting us by cutting prices. , His busi- 

 ness was begun a few years ago with a 

 house 20x50 and now he has 10,000 feet 

 of glass. At the time we began building 

 he was retailing carnations at 85 cents 

 a dozen and roses from $1 per dozen up 

 and doing a nice business. When we 



were ready to begin, of course having to 

 buy most of our flowers in wholesale 

 markets, he cut prices down to one-third, 

 selling carnations at 30 cents and roses 

 at the same price. He is cutting the life 

 out of the business here to put us out 

 of business. So far we have not gone 

 below 50 cents per dozen for carnations 

 and $1 for roses, but the price cutting 

 is beginning to tell on us. We have lit- 

 tle capital and our opponent has con- 

 siderable. ' ' 



From a neighboring town comes a 

 flipping of the Christmas advertisement 

 quoted above and the following: 



"Let me explain the situation: This 

 town is our county seat; practically both 

 towns are one; cars every fifteen min- 

 utes; nickel fare. One of my 'boys' 

 that lives in that town, after working 

 at a number of big places, came back 

 home and worked with this man until 

 the boy concluded he would start in for 

 himself. He took a big slice of the busi- 

 ness with him in a short time, doing his 

 utmost to hold prices to a reasonably 

 profitable basis, the other selling carna- 

 tions at 25 cents, geraniums at $1 for 

 sixteen fine, well-grown plants with three 

 to six big growths and well bloomed, 

 worth $2 ot anyone's money; making 

 the threat at the time that he would 

 break up his competitors if it required 

 a year or two to do it. The funny thing 

 is that the other fellows got all their 

 friends that rarely buy flowers to go 

 and get the cheap stock for them. This 

 has hurt all of us but as most of our 

 work is wholesale we do not feel it much, 

 only I do not like to see it, but as a 

 close student of economics I smile 

 through it all, knowing the ultimate out- 

 come. " 



The same matter has come to the at- 

 tention of Wm. Scott, who writes as fol- 

 lows: 



' ' An enterprising young florist, but of 

 years of experience l^otc a small town 



