Mat 21, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 





The Wa-no-ka Greenhouses^ Bameveldt N. Y, 



exhibitions last fall the new race of 

 singles were very popular. As many 

 of these make good plants, no commer- 

 cial grower will go far 'wrong in* trying 

 a few. I 



HAHDY CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



The sale of pompon chrysanthemum 

 plants has increased rapidly of late years 

 and this season the demand will be still 

 further stimulated by the article sent 

 out by the press bureau of the National 

 Council of Horticulture for publication 

 in ifs large list of daily and weekly 

 papers. 



Chrysanthemums of the pompon type, 

 of which each plant produces from forty 

 to 100 blooms, an inch or two across, are 

 many of them hardy enough to remain 

 out all winter in central and southern 

 latitudes. The blooms often remain in 

 good condition until Thanksgiving. 



These plants are the most capable of 

 resisting frosts of any flowers. Their 

 peculiar merit is that they bloom long 

 after successive frosts have denuded the 

 landscape. The flowers are not ruined 

 until their petals have been wet and 

 frozen stiff. The plants are necessarily 

 used for mass effects, as great size is not 

 to be expected. Masses of red and 

 brown side by side make a striking com- 

 bination. Crimson and pink varieties 

 should be kept by themselves, because 

 their colors are variable and they make 

 a violent contrast with the yellow. 



The culture of hardy chrysanthemums 

 is simple. They need little care and can 

 be planted in any situation, so that the 

 soil is rich. They are best propagated 

 from cuttings, which should be made at . 

 any time up to May. They should be 

 inserted singly in pots, or in sandy soil, 

 and as soon as they are rooted they may 

 be set outdoors in their permanent loca- 

 tion. 



THE WA-NO-KA GREENHOUSES. 



Western New York is rich in the lore 

 of the Indians and its nomenclature is 

 largely that of the original Americans, 

 who, while driven out by the white men, 

 nevertheless left their impress upon the 

 names of the localities. Wa-no-ka was 

 an Indian maiden and the name means 

 "just one of a kind." As adopted for 

 the "carnation growing establishment at 

 Barneveld, N. Y., it is to be hoped that 

 it is misapplied, for the kind is such an 

 excellent one, and visitors are so favor- 

 ably impressed, that it will be a loss 

 to the trade if more of the kind are not 

 developed. 



The business was established some 

 years ago by C. A. Nicholson and his 

 son, H. H. Nicholson, under the firm 

 name of H. H. Nicholson & Co. From 



the first the establishment was devoted 

 exclusively to carnations. A. O. Grassl 

 was secured as grower and in 1905 was 

 admitted to equal partnership with H. 

 H. Nicholson, C. A. Nicholson retiring, 

 and since then the business has been 

 conducted under the name of Wa-no-ka 

 Greenhouses. The accompanying illus- 

 tration shows the plant as it appeared 

 one January day this year. 



The establishment is kept in apple-pie 

 order and the stock is uniformly good. 

 None but the most up-to-date varieties 

 are grown, but those seen in the average 

 commercial establishment, producing cut 

 blooms, have been largely displaced by 

 seedlings raised since Mr. Grassl 's con- 

 nection with the business. They have a 

 number of seedlings which may shortly 

 be disseminated in the trade. Possibly 

 the best of these is Apple Blossom, of 

 which Willian Scott said, upon the occa- 

 sion of his last visit, that the house 

 reminded him of nothing so much as a 

 field of ripening wheat. The flower is 

 white, with the base of *ach petal shaded 

 with pink. While it is not so large as 

 Enchantress and some other varieties, 

 it is of excellent commercial size. 



THE FOUNDATION OF SUCCESS. 



[A paper by B. T. Galloway, chief of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, read before the Horticultural So- 

 ciety of New York May 13, 1908.] 



There are four special crops growing 

 in this country, which in the order of 

 their commercial importance are: (1) 

 the rose; (2) the carnation; <3) the 

 violet, and (4) the chrysanthemum. Al- 

 though I have been gathering statistical 

 data of one kind and another bearing 

 on these crops for the past fifteen years, 

 I am not sure just at present whether 

 I am justified in naming the rose first, 

 or whether it should not give place to 

 the carnation. However, this is a mat- 

 ter aside from my subject, except as a 

 way of introducing the fact that the vio- 

 let, modest and sweet and without the 

 queenly qualities of h^r competitors, 

 stands third in actual value of cash re- 

 turns for money invested. 



Pectdiarities of the Violet Business. 



The violet business has some rather 

 interesting and peculiar conditions as- 

 sociated with it. Like the growing of 

 certain crops, the production of poultry, 

 etc., there seems to be an idea prevalent 

 among people who have tried many 

 things and failed that the violet is one 

 that they can take up without giving 

 any great study to the conditions in- 

 volved. It is not an unusual thing to 

 find men who have all their lives been 

 engaged in farming, or the trades, or 

 commercial work, getting interested in 

 violet culture, going into the business, 

 and succeeding in an incomprehensible 

 way for the first two or three years. 

 Then, again, I suppose there are more 

 women scattered through the country 

 who have an idea that they can take up 

 this business than almost any other con- 

 nected with the growing of crops under 

 glass. As a matter of fact, schoolmarms, 

 clerks, lawyers, doctors, and various 

 others who have, or think they have, op- 

 portunities of success, start out with a 

 view to coining money in the production 

 of and sale of violets. Doubtless much 

 of this interest in the crop arises from 

 the fact that it does not cost a great 

 deal, comparatively speaking, to start 

 the work. The violet is modest, not only 

 in itself, but in a measure in its require- 

 ments, and although it is amenable to 

 a great extent to good treatment, it will 

 sometimes do remarkably well under in- 

 different conditions. I have pointed out 

 in the course of my work with this crop 

 that there are probably more failures in 

 growing it than are to be found with 

 any other plant produced under glass. 

 This, to my mind, is not so much due to 

 inherent diflSculties in the crop itself as 

 it is to the fact that so many inexperi- 

 enced people undertake to grow it. 



Looking back over the past fifteen 

 years, it is of interest to me to note 

 that of all the men who were success- 

 fully growing the violet, ten, twelve or 

 fifteen years ago, there are few of them 

 left at the present time. Some of these 

 good people have branched out into other 

 lines, but the greater portion of them 

 have quit the business entirely. There 

 are new growers coming on all the time, 

 however, so that the market is not lack- 

 ing for a supply of the flowers. Alto- 

 gether it may be said in this connection 

 that the trade in violets is practically 

 holding its own. There has been no 

 great increase in the demand for the 

 crop, but there has been a wholesome 

 and legitimate growth of the market, 

 largely due to the increasing population 

 of our cities and the demand for a. 



/ 



k-. 



