] 542 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



November 1, 1906. 



THE READERS' CORNER. 



Gladioli From Seeds. 



The article in the Review for October 

 18 entitled "Gladioli from Seeds" in- 

 duces me to offer a few notes of my ex- 

 perimental work in California, in the last 

 two seasons. 



In April, 1904, I planted a lot of small 

 seedling corms of gladioli, some of which 



J. L. Dillon. 



were no larger than a plump grain of 

 wheat. Nearly every one bloomed, made 

 fine corms. Taking them up eastern 

 fashion after maturity, there was un- 

 avoidably left in the earth the smallest 

 corms. This past spring, they came up 

 thick, have bloomed, developed seed, are 

 mature, and ready to plant again, and 

 bloom in early April. The large corms 

 that have not been taken up, have 

 bloomed twice each year, April and Octo- 

 ber. 



Seed from the seedlings and normal 

 varieties, all Crawford's strain of gladi- 

 oli, I sowed April 13 of the present 

 year, in the open ground, and did not 

 transplant. They commenced to bloom 

 in early September, and some are in 

 bloom at this date. The last named have 

 reached a height of four feet, a few 

 have twenty-inch spikes, and much of 

 the seed is mature. 



This coast country seems eminently 

 adapted, not only to gladioli, but other 

 tender bulbous plants seem at home. 

 Callas in bloom, grown from seed, in 

 less than one year. Hollyhocks, sown in 

 April, have long been in bloom, and 

 platycodon has done as well. The sur- 

 prises for an eastern man who takes up 

 experimental work here are many. 



It is my first year taking the Review. 

 The florists' journals all are good, but 

 you easily lead them all. 



Geo. J. Streator. 



THE MEXICAN POPPY. 



Hunnemannia fumarisefolia, better 

 known aa the Mexican poppy, is not so 

 much grown as its merits would warrant. 

 Unlike most members of the papavera- 

 csea family, the flowers have excellent 

 keeping qualities when cut, lasting for 

 four or five days in good condition. The 

 flowers are not unlike those of Esch- 

 scholtzia Californica, the Californian 

 poppy, in appearance, but the plant is of 



more erect habit, the stems are harder 

 and it withstands considerable cold. For 

 cutting from August 1 until sharp frost 

 it is one of our most desirable flowers. 

 A large bunch makes a fine dining-table 

 center-piece, and arranged in wide- 

 mouthed bowls it is especially effective. 

 It ought to prot^ a desirable flower com- 

 mercially, owing to its good keeping and 

 shipping qualities, but it appears to be 

 little grown by florists. 



While the plant in its native country 

 (Mexico) is a perennial, it requires to 

 be treated here as an annual. Seed sown 

 thinly about May 1 in shallow drills two 

 feet apart gives excellent results. The 

 ground should be well manured. The 

 flowers are solitary and the leaves glau- 

 cous, i^^ing a pleasing contrast. 



W. N. C. 



OBITUARY. » 



;, John Summerfield. 



John Summerfield, 71 years of age, 

 died suddenly near his place of business. 

 Darby, Pa., October 18. Mr. Summer- 

 ueid was apparently quite vigorous for 

 his age, and had not complained of ill- 

 ness. He was engaged in his work, push- 

 ing a wheelbarrow, when he fell to the 

 pavement. Heart disease is attWbuted as 

 the cause of death. 



J. L. Dillon. 



J. L. Dillon, of BloomsDurg, Pa., met 

 an accidental death at 9:30 a. m. on 

 Tuesday, October 30. Mr. Dillon went, 

 with his men, to the Pennsylvania rail- 

 road station at East Bloomsburg to di- 

 rect the unloading of a car of coal. 

 The car not being in position, Mr. Dillon 

 directed his employees to start the car. 

 The track being on a down grade caused 

 the car to move off at a lively pace. Mr. 

 Dillon stepped in front and he was 

 struck, thrown to the ground, and his 

 legs crushed. A bolt in the car caugnt 

 in his. coat collar, dragging him on his 

 face for a number of feet. It required 

 fifteen minutes to remove him frttii this' 

 position and before the body was freed 

 life was extinct. 



Mr. Dillon was 55 years of age. He 

 leaves a widow, three sons and one 

 daughter. Mr. Dillon's death is doubly 

 sad for Mrs. Dillon, as her father, Mr. 

 Hutchings, of Kingston, Pa., was lying 

 dead at the time, awaiting burial on 

 Wednesday. 



J. L. Dillon was widely known in the 

 trade. He was a man of large energy 

 and had made a conspicuous success with 

 a number of specialties. Verbenas were 

 one of his leading items, of which he 

 shipped many thousands all over the 

 United States. Grafted rpses also 

 seemed especially to respond to his treat- 

 ment. Carnations were largely and suc- 

 cessfully grown. Mr. Dillon acquired a 

 competence from his greenhouses, which 

 led him into many outside ventures, in 

 which he met with varying success. He 

 had western mining interests to which he 

 paid a visit each year, the last time most 

 of the trade saw him being at Dayton 

 while he was en route home from one of 

 his periodical trips to the west. Some 

 years ago Mr. Dillon became interested 

 in the possibilities afforded by the rapid 

 expansion of the trade and with H. W. 

 Gibbons formed a partnership for the 

 manufacture of greennouse material. 

 This was an ill fated venture. Mr. Dil- 

 lon settled the obligations of the partner- 

 ship and formed the Dillon Greenhouse 

 Mfg. Co., which since has been directly 



under his management and has manufac- 

 tured not only the < rdinary items of 

 greenhouse material, but a number of 

 specialties, such as composition gutters 

 and posts. He was a maii of irreproach- 

 able character and bis deatu in ' such a 

 manner awakens the sympathy of every- 

 one who knew him, either personally or 

 by reputation. 



John Nelson. 



The trade in St. Paul was surprised 

 and grieved to hear of the death 6f John 

 Nelson. The news reached them through 

 last week's Review, and the peculiar 

 part of it was that none of his friends 

 in St. Paul knew anything whatever of 

 ills illness. Mr. Nelson was bom in Nor- 

 way. He was a florist of the old school, 

 being very thorough, and anything grown 

 by him was grown well. He had worked 

 in the Royal Gardens, in Sans-Souci, 

 near Berlin, also for Waters & Sons, Lon- 

 don, England. He came to this country 

 in 1888 and started with John A. Salzer, 

 of LaCrosse, Wis., along with C. F. 

 Vogt, of St. Paul. Afterwards he lo- 

 cated in St. Paul. The last few year^ 

 he had charge of the greenhouses in con- 

 nection with the Minnesota State Reform 

 school. Felix. 



Lewis Ullrich. 



The death of jLewis Ullrich at fiffin, 

 O., October 29, was without previous no- 

 tice of his illness and comes as a shock 

 to the trade, for he was well and widely 

 known. 



Mr. Ullrich was born at Kerweiler, in 

 Bavaria, in 1848, but was brought to 

 America by his parents when he was in 

 only his second year. The family resided 

 at Monroeville, N. Y., for a time, but 

 removed to Tiffin, O., in 1862, and there 

 Mr. Ullrich has made his home for forty- 

 four years. He completed the public 

 school course in 1866 and then went to 



John Nelson. 



Heidelberg, in Baden, to complete his 

 education in the university founded in 

 1386 and restored in 1803, which is the 

 oldest in Germany and one of the most 

 famous in the world. Graduating there, 

 he returned to Tiffin and devoted sixteen 

 years to pharmacy. 



In 1874 he built his first greenhouse, a 



