August 22. 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



31 



Yost, C. C, Lebanon, Pa. 

 Young, .Tolni, New York. 

 Young:, Wm. C, St. Louis, Mo. 

 Zangeu, O. V., Hoboken, N. J. 

 Zeller, Alfred, Klatbush, N. Y. 

 Zuger, Peter, Hartford. Conn. 

 Zumerl, Chas., Louisville, Ky. 



Miss Amy K. Luffman, who has for 



a number of years served as assistant in 



charge of the secretary's office at 8. A. 



F. conventions, was injured in a runaway 



a fortnight ago and was unable to leave 



lier bed on the date she bad planned to 



start for Philadelphia. 



HARDY BULBS AND ROOTS. 



By E. V. Haijxx'k, of Qibens, N. Y. 



[Read before the Society of American Flo- 

 rists, In convention at Philadelphia, August 21, 

 1007.] 



The most interesting, the least known, 

 and the most misunderstood of flowering 

 plants are bulbs. In the form of a bulb 

 the latent flower is cared for more easily 

 and longer than in any other form. Bulbs 

 have been used as sustenance for armies, 

 and the caladiums are now used to some 

 extent by Spanish-speaking people, and 

 through the south, as an article of diet. 



This paper will not touch on what are 

 known as Holland bulbs, but will em- 

 brace summer-flowering and winter-flow- 

 ering bulbs that are used by the amateur 

 and the professional. The profession of 

 raising bulbs for market and for the 

 amateur is vastly different from the pro- 

 fession of raising flowers for market. 

 The person wlio raises the bulbs seldom 

 sees the flower in so great perfection as 

 the man who flowers the bulb. 



Amateur Bulb Growers. 



There are many skillful raisers of 

 bulbs among the amateur cultivators, and 

 in fact I think many amateurs have come 

 to a better understanding of the wants 

 of many kinds of bulbs, and raise them 

 in greater perfection, than any profes- 



sion^il. These amateurs, hoAvever, do not 

 cover a very wide range of bulbs. 



Unless a person has seen the late Peter 

 Hanson holding a bulb ii his hand, rapt 

 in blissful contemplation, slowly telling 

 the wants of the bulb in cultivation, 

 describing its habit and its flower mi- 

 nutely, he has no idea of what a hold 

 on the affections a bulb could exert. Mr. 

 Hanson's time and devotion were ex- 

 pended on the lily. He overestimated its 

 necessities. As I have always found, if 

 you can get a bulb growing you can dis- 

 pense with many of the directions for 

 growing, but Mr. Hanson, no doubt, took 

 as much pleasure in catering to the 

 growth of bulbs as he did in seeing 

 their flowers, 



Mr. Huftelen is the most skillful and 

 successful raiser of Lilium tenuifolium 

 from the seed I have ever seen. I think 

 his product exceeded for many years 30,- 

 000 bulbs, of which we bought yearly, 

 during that time, at least 20,000 bulbs 

 at $15 a hundred — rather good pin-mon- 

 ey for an amateur on so little known a 

 variety, 



I think it is now about time I got 

 down to the subject of bulbs and bulb- 

 ous plants. I well know that a paper of 

 this kind, to a man who does not raise 

 bulbous plants, either in a commercial 

 way or as an amateur, is positively 

 without interest. Of course, any one 

 knows that a person, could talk all day 

 on one class of bulbs, but I propose to 

 skim the subject very lightly. 



Most Valuable Classes. 



The most useful, valuable, and gener- 

 ally raised classes of bulbs, to my mind, 

 are as follows, their relative proportion 

 of value being indicated by the order in 

 which they are named: Gladioli; lilies; 

 freesias ; peonies, at present a highly 

 worked fad; tuberoses, for garden and 



export; and irises, the Japanese and 

 German, the forcing irises, and many 

 beautiful species. 



Professionally speaking, the introduc- 

 tion of so important a plant as the f reesia 

 — useful and beautiful as it is, so easily 

 kept and readily flowered by both the 

 amateur and the professional — was a 

 fiasco, in the sense that no particular 

 person or firm was responsible for its 

 introduction, and no considerable amount 

 was made by any one with this plant 

 that is so generally used. 



The amaryllis, to me, has always been 

 an important family. The habits of 

 most varieties can be so changed that 

 they will flower outside in summer or 

 inside in winter. I much regret that 

 this plant is not more largely grown in 

 this country, 



Tlie tuberous-rooted begonias have tak- 

 en their place as summer-flowering bulbs, 

 as well as winter-flowering. 



Caladium esculentum is rather largely 

 used as a summer foliage plant, 



Cannas are the most important rhizo- 

 matous class of plants. Everyone knows 

 a good deal about this class of plants, 

 A canna society has even been sug- 

 gested. 



The cinnamon vine (Dioscorea Bata- 

 tas) has some value, particularly to the 

 person who sells the bulbs. It is a clean, 

 hardy vine, and one peculiarity is that 

 the root grows deeper and deeper in the 

 ground the older it gets. 



Gloxinias are being raised largely and 

 sold very cheap. 



Hyacinthus candicans first attracted 

 attention in this country at the Phila- 

 delphia centennial, 



A Plant With a Future. 



Incarvillea is a coming plant, particu- 

 larly as a garden flower, and undoubted- 

 ly can be forced. It has a large, fleshy, 



A Field of Phloxes at the Henry A. Dreer Establishment, Rtvcrton, N. J. 



b^^.^j-i 



