August 29, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



\s 



moving;, cut it off on sight, regardless of 

 time of year or other conditions, and 

 when you don't see anything that needs 

 removal, don't prune it, regardless of 

 rule or custom. And take this as a 

 negative rule: "Never shear a shrub 

 with a hedge shears. ' ' The shearing of 

 lawn shrubs into bal(J pates, suggestive 

 of convicts or sheared sheep, displays 

 ignorance of plants and depravity of 

 taste. To the last general rule I make 

 exception for topiary gardening, but the 

 creation and care of topiary gardens and 

 of formal specimens is a special art, for 

 which all of the above suggestions would 

 have to be modified. 



If my feeble sentences may be sug- 

 gestive of useful after-thoughts in your 

 minds and in mine, they will have ac- 

 complished all that I can hope for them. 



HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Hy John K. L. M. FAByiiHAE, ok Boston, Mass. 



[Read before the Society of American Flo- 

 rists, in convention at Philadelphia, August 22, 

 1907.] 



It is undoubtedly true that all Ameri- 

 can horticultural societies and clubs have 



have explored, it seems all the more re- 

 grettable that our efforts have not been 

 more distributed. 



The keen watchfulness, zealous appli- 

 cation and enterprise of the American 

 florist have given him, in a single gen- 

 eration, first rank in the world in the 

 production of roses, carnations, chrysan- 

 themums, violets, sweet peas, asparagus 

 and other plants in which he has special- 

 ized, and his intimate knowledge of the 

 requirements of his subjects, gained by 

 the close personal observation to which 

 his accomplishments are chiefly due, has 

 rarely been equaled by his fellow crafts- 

 men abroad. This aptitude and past suc- 

 cess make it quite obvious that he can 

 achieve similar progress in new lines. 



The florists have not hesitated to im- 

 part freely through talks and essays at 

 horticultural meetings the knowledge 

 they have gained of their specialties. 

 The nurserymen, too, have occasionally 

 given valuable information on trees and 

 shrubs and how to use them. Likewise 

 the fruit and vegetable growers have 

 most freely imparted the knowledge they 

 have acquired. Again, the members of 



South Side of the Main Hall of the Philadelphia Trades Display. 



oiuleavored to promote interest in, and 



knowledge of, horticulture.^ Jt is also 



true that the efforts of these organiza- 

 tions have resulted in great advancement 

 along the lines in which they have 

 worked. If, for the sake oi^ illustration, 

 we regard the field of horticulture as a 

 complete circle, we find well defined lines 

 running from its center to the circum- 

 ference in many directions, but, unfortu- 

 nately, we also find too many of the 

 H60 degrees of its circumference to which 

 as yet there appear no lines, vast fields 

 of horticultural science which have hard- 

 ly been trodden upon in this country. 

 Considering the phenomenal successes we 

 have developed along the lines which we 



every horticultural society in the land 

 have listened to predictions of despoli- 

 ation by blight and insect until, in dread 

 of calamity, their faces have become 

 white and their lips blue, like the trees 

 and crops whitened with arsenate of lead 

 or blued with copper sulphate in the ef- 

 forts to e.scape the devastation. 



Untrodden Fields. 



But you will ask me, "What about 

 the untrodden fields!" In the flower 

 line there are many things yet untried 

 which may and will be used, both in 

 commercial and private establishments. 

 We have seen larkspurs, lupines, scabi- 

 ous, cornflowers, schizanthus, leptosyne, 



etc., grown for winter cutting as success- 

 fully as roses and carnations. 



We force a few perennial plants, like 

 dielytra and spiraea, but how seldom do 

 we hear of the campanulas, foxgloves, 

 sweet Williams, trollius, Daphne Cfieorum, 

 the Christmas rose and many other suit- 

 able biennials and perennials being 

 forced, notwithstanding an existing and 

 growing demand for greater variety ftnd 

 novelty in winter flowers! 



I have alluded to talks on fruits and 

 vegetables and their culture. Who has 

 ever suggested the prolific and delicious 

 lichee of southern China or the delicate 

 naseberry of the West Indies as sub- 

 jects for culture under glass, like the 

 peach and nectarine? Or, which of our 

 vegetable experts has taken pains to ad- 

 vance our knowledge of salad plants or 

 of herbs for seasoning, in both of which 

 subjects we know much less than did 

 the Eomans when they occupied the 

 northern shores of the Mediterranean 

 2,000 years ago? 



This is the day of progress, and hor- 

 ticulture must and will advance in many 

 lieretofore neglected lines. 



The Achievement of Gardeners. 



Generally speaking, it can best be ad- 

 vanced through the instrumentality of 

 the all-round trained gardener. How- 

 many of our foremost florists have risen 

 from the ranks of the private gardeners! 

 Peter Fisher, of carnation fame; M. H. 

 Walsh and Alexander Montgomery, whose 

 names are garlanded with roses, are no- 

 table examples, and there are others too . 

 numerous to be referred to individually 

 now. I am satisfied that this is the day 

 to stir the gardener to new activities. 

 His opportunities for advancing both 

 himself and his profession wer# never so 

 good. Besides, he must look to his po- 

 sition ; a certain kind of landscape ar- 

 chitect seeks to outstrip him and wrest 

 from him the laurels and emoluments of 

 his art. That which the gardener, from 

 his long practice and intimate acquaint- 

 ance with his material, knows almost in- 

 tuitively, this kind of landscape archi- 

 tect gathers a superficial, talking knowl- 

 edge of from his books, and immediate- 

 ly begins to practice theoretically. His 

 clients and the gardeners are usually the 

 sufferers. Never has there been such an 

 effort on the part of these impractical, 

 book-made, self-styled experts to subor- 

 dinate the practical gardener as at the 

 present time. 



We have many progressive, trained 

 gardeners, who are much more competent 

 to lay out and plant a place than the 

 mere graduate of a college landscape 

 school. The gardener may not be able to 

 make so attractive a plan, or to talk 

 so fluently of harmony of color, contrast 

 of form, of light and shadow, as the 

 college man, but he knows how the grade 

 should be, how to prepare the soil, how 

 to plant the trees and shrubs, and he has 

 genius to plant a picture of such beauty, 

 of such harmony, of such strength, so ex- 

 actly the complement of its setting, that 

 beside it the labored composition of the 

 college stripling is a helpless misfit. Do 

 not imagine, however, that I underesti- 

 mate the value and advantage of the hor- 

 ticultural school course, provided it is 

 a practical one and supplemented by act- 

 ual garden work, but I would rather 

 trust with the arranging of a garden a 

 man who has been taught, to use the 

 spade properly, and who has a natural 

 love of nature, than the horticultural 

 school graduate who has learned to pot 

 plants with gloves on. 



&<t^.UVJL A^'.,.m^ . 



