1496 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



Apkil 12, 190G. 



the popular heart only to bo broken by 

 a more wonflerful rose yet to be pro- 

 duced. Whether a hybrid or a hybrid 

 tea, found by accident or purpose, the 

 fact remains that it was the first of the 

 hybrid class that proved to be ever- 

 blooming under glass. May we not learn 

 from this accident that there may be 

 others among the hybrid perpetuals 

 which under skilful treatment could be 

 induced to give us as freely of their 

 bloom and of their brilliant coloring. 



Testout for Home Trade. 



Bride and Bridesmaid, offspring of 

 good old Mermet, must remain long the 

 leaders in their race of tall-growing 

 teas. 



Testout Avas a revelation in the clear 

 pink class and, while never a great 

 favorite, was, 1 think, among the very 

 best of summer roses under glass. It 

 still remains a most prolific bearer. To 

 me it has been a source of wonderment 

 that the retail florist, who grows flowers 

 for his own use, has not made more of 

 this rose. It responds to a generous 

 treatment as gratefully as any rose I 

 know of. Do you remember it as staged 

 by E. G. Asmus at the shows of say ten 

 years ago? Was it not fine? 



Mrs. Pierpont Morgan, with Canadian 

 Queen and Mrs. Oliver Ames, followed 

 Mme. Cusin, both sports from it, and 

 except for the size of Mrs. Morgan, no 

 great improvement over their parent. For 

 delicacy of flower when great length of 

 stem is not required, to me there can 

 be no more pleasing bloom and certainly 

 the production is not stinted. 



The Rival Reds. 



Meteor was the first continuous bloom- 

 ing red rose of size and merit suffi- 



canie there was great rejoicing. But 

 this is not a rose that grows for every- 

 one, and murmurs of dissatisfaction 

 were heard from many quarters. Now 

 that there is Richmond to fall back upon 

 it is to be hoped that for every one 

 an abundance of red rojcs may be had. 

 The choice between is a matter for the 

 individual. and no opinion of one will in- 

 fluence the other. 



These !>eem to be the bulk of roses 

 grown for market in the large centers 

 and, while the demand for them con- 

 tinues, they must of necessity be the 

 ones to which the grower will give the 

 closest attention. 



Other Claimants. 



F have omitted any mention of the 

 lesser lights and will content myself with 

 simply mentioning some that appear in 

 the markets with more or less regular- 

 ity, saying that in roses as in other 

 things, variety is the space of life. La 

 France, once so popular, seemed to die 

 when Nyack soil refused to longer per- 

 form its wonders. There have been and 

 still are others in the line, that, while 

 candidates for favor, have gradually dis- 

 appeared. 



Today Wellesley, on the same line, is 

 a candidate. May it live long and pros- 

 per. Franz Deegen, a yellow w4th orange 

 tint, old Mme. Hoste, yellowish white, 

 now and then Bon Silene, forerunner 

 of them all, still has her admirers. 

 Madame Chatenay is fine when we'll 

 grown. Then there is Golden Gate, ugly 

 when large, droopy when medium, ragged 

 when small. Sunrise, essence of light 

 in color, rather small and yet beautiful, 

 can still be seen, while Sunset went 

 the way of all the earth. 



Killarney is a candi<late for favor 



Boltonia Latisquamaea Nana. ^ 



cient to warrant growing it in number, 

 and the finest blooms were doughty 

 rivals of Jacqueminot, but its bad habit 

 of throwing faulty blooms on the best 

 growths set all the world agog trying 

 for an improvement, and when Liberty 



among the pinks. What success it may 

 have still remains to be seen. Resur- 

 rected from the forgotten, it may be 

 there are others that, if handled dif- 

 ferently, might prove at least worthy of 

 a trial. 



, There are still others that, beautiful 

 in and by themselves, when brought un- 

 der the fire of close examination, do not 

 stand the test and have been relegated, 

 most of them, to the scrap pile. 



You will notice I have made no men- 

 tion of any hybrid perpetuals, chiefly 

 because I know nothing of them. As 

 market men they concern us little, since 

 they are of little moment for cut bloom 

 and it was only about roses for market 

 that I understood I was expected to talk 

 tonight. 



Some Serious Questions. 



As a grower for market, while think- 

 ing of what I should say to you, there 

 have come to me several questions that 

 perhaps may have come to you and this 

 may be a good opportunity to ventilate 

 them in a degree. There seems to be 

 one question, unanswered, yet ever com- 

 ing up, that since each year there are 

 new roses brought forward, is it good 

 business to keep planting old kinds to 

 the exclusion of the new! Do we ad-, 

 vance as rapidly as we might? Do we 

 give the new roses a fair show? Is it 

 possible that the old are so good that 

 we do not need the new? 



Knowing the state of the market gen- 

 erally, what is the encouragement for 

 growers to make any increase in the area 

 of ground under glass? Is there any 

 inducement or business opening for new 

 men to embark in growing and if yes, 

 how should the beginning be made, with 

 a small or a large plant? 



What influence has it had on the mar- 

 ket to have erected such large plants as 

 have been built in the west? 



What improvements have been made 

 in growing methods in the past year? 



Which class of roses is best for the 

 general market, tea or hybrid tea? 



What is the general market and what 

 are its demands? By the general mar- 

 ket I mean the market as made up of all 

 classes of people as buyers, and by de- 

 mands I mean quality, quantity and va- 

 riety. 



But What Is QuaUty? 



It goes without saying that quality is 

 always a first requisite and that a good 

 rose is always more desirable than a 

 poor one, but the word quality as gen- 

 erally understood in this market means 

 that as a rose, no matter how good the 

 bloom itself may be, if stem is not an 

 element it must go in a low class, while 

 many roses the blooms of which would 

 attract little attention otherwise, if with 

 long, stiff stems, seem to rank high. 



Naturally it must seem that the body 

 of buyers be composed of a fe\t high 

 priced, a large number of medium priced 

 and a very large number of low priced 

 individuals. What proportions do these 

 bear to each other? What do they de- 

 mand in variety? Are they entirely con- 

 tent with what we are now giving them, 

 or do they want others, old or new? 



I am well aware that New York is 

 said to be the best market for the best 

 and the poorest market for the poor. 

 If this be so, why is it? 



This naturally leads to another ques- 

 tion: What constitutes a valuable rose 

 and which characteristic is the most 

 valuable? What constitutes a good or 

 perfect rose, viewed from a retail stand- 

 point and what from the grower's view? 



Does specialization in growing lead to 

 the production of better flowers? Has it 

 been noticed whether, since the tend- 

 ency has been to confine efforts to sepa- 

 rate classes, any appreciable increase has 



