Apbil 23, 1008. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



How W. C. Scovell Prunes Hydrangea Paniculata. 



and were pulled down several times. It 

 was then deemed advisable to clear the 

 house out and consigii the vines to the 

 rubbish heap. This was done after keep- 

 ing the house, which was 36x360, at a 

 temperature of 50 degrees all winter 

 long, 



I was out by this deal $6,000, this 

 being based on the product sold from a 

 house of similar size the year before. I 

 mention this to show the seedsmfen what 

 a great injury can be done by selling 

 something that is not true to name, and 

 to warn the grower to be doubly sure 

 before he risks too much space in some- 

 thing he is in doubt about. 



The safest way is to procure your seed 

 in advance and test it yourself. Sow 

 some of it, and if the plants grow 

 strong and stocky and bush around 

 the base you have the wrong sort for 

 winter flowering, but if the plant runs 

 up to a single stem and does not bush 

 you have the right kind. The early type 

 seldom break near the ground. The one 

 shoot forms practically the whole plant. 

 Some side shoots are made, but these 

 never attain the strength of the main 

 shoot. 



PRUNING HYDRANGEAS. 



The accompanying illustrations show 

 a plant of Hydrangea paniculata grandi- 

 flora growing on the grounds of W. C. 

 Scovell, a well-known florist at Malta, 

 O. One of the pictures shows the plant 

 in bloom, carrying 175 panicles of flow- 

 ers. The other picture illustrates Mr. 

 Scovell 's method of pruning. The plant 

 is eight years old, but only a little over 

 three feet high after pruning and 

 three feet six inches across. The main 

 stem is four and a half inches in diameter 

 at the base. • He cuts back to but one 

 bud each year. 



Gardeners all know that this hydrangea 

 should be cut back rather heavily, but 

 not many prune as closely as does Mr. 

 Scovell. On the subject, Bai^y says: 

 "This and also most of the other species 

 should be pruned in fall or early spring 

 and the branches of the previous year cut 

 back to one to three pairs of buds, ac- 



cording to the growth of the branches 

 and the desired size of the panicles; 

 if only slightly pruned the panicles will 

 be many but small. Sometimes they are 

 cut back every year almost to the ground 

 and produce then enormous panicles, 

 which, however, usually need artificial 

 support and lack the gracefulness of 

 less severely pruned plants." 



THE DEATH ROLL. 



Charlej W, Kaber. 

 The death of Charles W. Kaber, of La 

 Porte, Ind., which was briefly mentioned 

 in last week 's Review, was due to paraly- 



sis. He was stricken with this malady 

 Sunday evening, April 5, and passed 

 away early in the following morning. 

 For more than a year, following an 

 operation for appendicitis, he had not 

 been in good health, but he had been 

 able to be up and around and had de- 

 voted time and energy to assisting his 

 son and daughters at the greenhouses. 



Mr. Kaber was born in a village near 

 Leipzig, Germany, April 5, 1833. In 

 1853 he came to America, with his par- 

 ents. The family lived in Chicago a year 

 and then moved to La Porte. The young 

 man became a clerk in the large mer- 

 cantile house of P. King, with whom he 

 was associated for twenty-five years as a 

 clerk and Jiead of the merchant tailor- 

 ing department. Afterward he entered 

 into a partnership with Charles N. Dolk, 

 now of South Bend, in the merchant 

 tailoring business, the firm being located 

 in the basement under the Red Cross 

 pharmacy. Upon the dissolution of the 

 partnership, Mr. Kaber became asso- 

 ciated with Louis Smith, the two having 

 a store and merchant tailoring establish- 

 ment in the room now occupied by Hi- 

 ley's cafe. In 1894 Mr. Kaber retired 

 from this business and had since been 

 associated with his children in the flo- 

 rists ' trade, in which the family has been 

 very successful. Mr. Kaber was married 

 December 24, 1856, to Christine Mar- 

 garet Niemier, who, with five children, 

 Mrs. r. J. La Hayn of Crocker, Ind., 

 Misses Bertha and Ella Kaber and "Wil- 

 liam and Charles Kaber of La Porte, 

 survives him. The deceased also leaves 

 eight grandchildren and one brother, 

 Henry Kaber, of East La Porte. Mr. 

 Kaber was a member of the La Porte 

 lodge of Odd Follows and Union En- 

 campment. 



Mrs. Rose Bendt. 



As reported in last week 's obituary 

 column, Ferdinand Bendt, of Newark, 

 N. J., died Saturday, April 11, of typhoid 

 fever. On the following Monday, April 



Hydrangea Paniculata on Grounds of W. C. Scovell, Malta, O. 



