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The Weekly Florists' Review. 



NOVBMBEK 22, 1906. 



C. H. RONEY. 



C. H. Eoney, superintendent of the 

 Lakeview Eose Gardens, Jamestown, N. 

 Y., has been in the trade since he was 

 a boy. He is a native of England, hav- 

 ing been born in the village of Bigrigg, 

 near Whitehaven, April 2, 1865. At the 

 age of 14 years he began his career as 

 a florist, being an apprentice for three 

 years on the estate of David Ainsworth, 

 M. P., under the tutelage of William 

 Fox, gardener. After going to the es- 

 tate of Lord Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, 

 Whitehaven, and remaining for some 

 time, he went to James Dickson & Sons, 

 Newton Nurseries, Chester, England, and 

 worked through all the departments of 

 their business, both, inside and outside 

 the greenhouses. 



Coming to the United States in 1885, 

 Mr. Eoney 's first position was with Al- 

 burger Bros., of Philadelphia. He was 

 also with Bobert Craig & Son for 

 some time. From Philadelphia he went 

 to Wilkesbarre, Pa., and was manager 

 of "the Wilkesbarre Floral Co. He 

 stayed with this firm until real estate 

 became too valuable for greenhouse pur- 

 poses in that part of town, and the 

 place was torn down. After four years 

 spent with Benjamin Dorrance, of Dor- 

 rance. Pa., he accepted the office of head 

 gardener to James Boyd, of Harrisburg, 

 Pa., and for five years had charge of one 

 of the finest and best equipped private 

 greenhouses in southeastern .. Pennsylva- 

 nia. While in this position, Mr. Eoney 

 did considerable work in landscaping, 

 laying out new grounds, drives, golf 

 links and artificial lakes. 



In 1898 Mr. Eoney went to James- 

 town, N. Y., as manager of the Lake- 

 view Eose Gardens, where he has con- 

 tinued until the present time. He has 

 developed the business of this firm until 

 the houses now cover eight acres, solidly 

 built up in greenhouse glass. He has 

 developed a trade that compasses a 

 radius of 500 miles from Jamestown. 

 The Lakeview Eose Gardens has become 

 one of the leading eastern establish- 

 ments. 



UTICA, N. Y. 



New Seedling Raisers. 



This city has become quite a rose cen- 

 ter, following in the footsteps of Peter 

 Crowe; but our special journey to Utica 

 was to visit the carnation specialists, 

 H. H. Nicholson and A. O. Grassl, at the 

 Wa-no-ka Greenhouses. This Indian 

 name must be pronounced with the om- 

 phasis on the "no," and means, in In- 

 dian lingo, wigwam or tepee alone o? iso- 

 lated. As the elder Mr. Nicholson was 

 the first of the Utica citizens to build a 

 beautiful summer residence in the vil- 

 lage of Barneveld he thought the name 

 appropriate, and when he built his first 

 three carnation houses the same euphoni- 

 ous Pawnee designation was given them. 

 This village formerly was known as 

 Trenton, but is now known as Barneveld, 

 and is a pretty village nestling in the 

 foothills of the Adirondack mountains 

 and thirty minutes by rail north of 

 Utica. There is no Mohawk or Seneca 

 Indian left to scalp the white man, but 

 there is black bear and deer in abun- 

 dance, within a few miles. 



Mr. Nicholson for two years had no 

 expert grower, and then secured the serv- 

 ices of A. O. Grassl, who now is an equal 

 partner. Mr. Grassl, it will be remem- 

 bered^ was the carnation specialist for. 

 several years with L. E. Marquisee, of 



Syracuse, and to him must be given the 

 credit of raising that fine old pink, so 

 happily named The Marquis, and later 

 the fine scarlet. Flamingo, and several 

 others less widely grown. 



If ever the prospects of a firm looked 

 rosy it is this one. I had the pleasure 

 of visiting these houses three years ago, 

 and I then said, as can be repeated, that 

 for health, vigor and quantity of bloom 

 and buds I never had seen their carna- 

 tions equaled, and I have seen some in 

 my travels. At that time the houses 

 were filled with the standard varieties, 

 and Mr. Grassl had too recently taken 

 hold to show any result in crossing varie- 

 ties, but now it is a different story. 

 Well-grown benches of Lawson, Enchan- 

 tress and The Queen are passed without 



C. H, Roney. 



comment because Mr. Grassl has seed- 

 lings of his own that make these good 

 varieties look small and commonpTax:e. 

 There are a few of these seedlings that 

 will cause a sensation in the carnation 

 world. It is a common failing to be too 

 much enamored with one 's own off- 

 spring, to be blind to their faults, but 

 both members of the firm reiterated the 

 statement that no seedlings of theirs 

 ever will be sent out that they have not 

 proved to be superior in habit, stem, 

 size and color to any existing variety, 

 and they mean to keep to this laudable 

 policy. We could not remember the 

 many good things, so made notes on the 

 spot, and here they are: 



No. 32, Apple Blossom, seedling 1904. 

 They now have a large stock extremely 

 free, fifteen to twenty Christmas buds 

 now showing, last year yielded thirty-six 

 flowers to the plant, largest size and 

 perfect form, in bright weather almost 

 pure white, in cloudy weather lightly 

 splashed with pink. Never have we seen 

 such a mass of flowers and buds. 



No. 5 — Lawson type, but a great im- 

 provement on that famous variety, both 

 in form and color. Does not show the 

 blue shade as in Lawson. 



No. 110 — This wonderful seedling will 

 easily displace Enchantress. It is a sal- 

 mon pink, will average three and one- 

 half inches, and twice as heavy, and a 

 great stem. 



No. 25 — Large and free white, an im- 



provement over Lady Bountiful and 

 much freer. 



No. 103 — Another large, pure white of 

 great freedom. 



No. 8 — Medium sized white of Law- 

 son habit. This is extremely free, and 

 although we call it medium size it will 

 make The Queen and Market look small. 



No. 11 — ^Large and prolific crimson. 



There is one seedling grown here, 

 named Snowball, phenomenal for size 

 and freedom. The flowers will average 

 four inches and resemble a small flower 

 of Ivory chrysanthemum. 



There are a number of other seedlings 

 growing here, crimson, light and dark 

 pink, variegated, etc., but the above are 

 the pick. Although Mr. Grassl believes 

 truly that he has a phenomenal flower in 

 Snowball and the improvement on En- 

 chantress, No. 110, yet I was greatly 

 impressed with the beautiful Apple Blos- 

 som. Mr. Grassl is such an expert in 

 the art of crossing and selecting varie- 

 ties that I soberly say from this seques- 

 tered village is likely to emanate for 

 many years successive wonders of the 

 .dianthus family. I hope you will all 

 see Apple Blossom at Toronto, and oth- 

 ers from this young firm. 



Crowe and Brant Bros. 



We took advantage of the hospitality 

 of our old friend Peter Crowe, at the 

 home of Adiantum Croweanum. At his 

 fern-houses there are 25,000 feet of glass 

 devoted to the adiantum which bears his 

 name, and yet he tells me he cannot fill 

 his orders. 



The Brant Bros, have rented fifteen 

 large modern rose houses of Mr. Crowe's 

 and have been so successful that last 

 spring they purchased two acrea.x)f land 

 and built a range of six houses, each 

 22x150. Both this range and the houses 

 rented are in fine order. We had a 

 pleasant visit with Harry Brant, who 

 later in the day started on a visit to his 

 brother in Madison, N. J. W. S. 



MILWAUKEE, 



Fred W. Mueller, who has been in the 

 newspaper business at Watertown, Wis., 

 will put up a range of 15,000 feet of 

 glass close to Milwaukee in the spring, 

 to grow carnations for the wholesale 

 market. 



Mr. Mueller came to this country from 

 Germany when 19 years of age, with 

 but 35 cents in his pocket. He could not 

 speak a word of English, and went to 

 work in a brickyard and in the timber 

 camps of Michigan. ^During his spare 

 hours he educated himself in English. 

 Subsequently he came to Milwaukee and 

 worked at whatever honorable employ- 

 ment he could obtain, until he became a 

 reporter on a German newspaper in Mil- 

 waukee, in time becoming the editor of 

 a daily paper. After a while the paper 

 upon which he was employed was con- 

 solidated with another, and he became 

 manager. Afterwards he became adver- 

 tising agent of the Milwaukee Herald. 



OSAGE, lA. 



The annual chrysanthemum show and 

 floral exhibit at Walter Hall's green- 

 houses, NovemDer 12-14, was quite a suc- 

 cess, with a good attendance each even- 

 ing. The chrysanthemums made a gor- 

 geous display, and the houses were deco- 

 rated with Japanese lanterns, flags and 

 festoons. On Thursday evening a recep- 

 tion was given by Mr. and Mrs. Walter 

 S. Hall to 250 invited guests. The office 



