August 27, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



J3 



Peter Crowe and Family at Their Home at Utica, N. Y. 



tailer, for the wise grower knows that 

 his output and income depend upon his 

 being fair and honest in his dealings 

 with the retailer. 



PETER CROVE. 



Peter Crowe, of Utica, N. Y., is in the 

 height of fashion this year, for the re- 

 publican newspapers insist this is the day 

 of the men of ample girth. Mr. Crowe 

 casts fully as broad a shadow as "Big 

 Bill" Taft. 



It was forty-two years ago that Mr. 

 Crowe made his start in the florists' busi- 

 ness, being employed by Richard Perdue, 

 at Orange, N. J. He remained at this 

 place only about a year, securing a po- 

 sition on the private establishment of 

 O. 8. Carter, also at Orange. After he 

 had spent about three years in charge of 

 Mr. Carter's garden he removed to Utica, 

 N. Y., in September of 1870, and started 

 in the business for himself. His begin- 

 ning, like that of most of the old hands 

 at the trade, was on a small scale, but 

 the love of flowers was spreading 

 throughout the land and his business 

 grew, with the popular appreciation of 

 his product, until he became one of the 

 noted growers of roses in New York 

 state. Mr, Crowe's roses were mostly con- 

 signed to the New York market and he 

 did so well at the business that in 1902 

 he had 90,000 feet of glass devoted to 

 roses, with the exception of some space 

 given to adiantum. Along in 1900 to 

 1904 Mr. Crowe was a leading prize win- 

 ner at the exhibitions, his Maids and 

 Brides being the best exhibited at the 

 eastern shows. In 1900 and 1901 at the 

 Eden Musee, New York, and the follow- 

 ing year at the Waldorf-Astoria exhibi- 

 tion, he took the leading prizes for these 

 varieties, and the next year scored at 

 Philadelphia. 



It was in 1902 that Mr. Crowe's son 



died. This was the only child and the 

 blow was a heavy one. It resulted in the 

 leasing of the larger part of Mr. Crowe's 

 glass to the firm of Brant Bros., who 

 came from Madison, N. J., to take charge. 



For several years, therefore, Mr. Crowe 

 has been out of rose growing, but none 

 the less interested in that subject, and 

 this season he is resuming his old occu- 

 pation, growing mostly the newer varie- 

 ties, such as Richmond, Killarney, Rhea 

 Reid, Mrs. Jardine, My Maryland and 

 Queen Beatrice. He has taken hold of 

 the work with much pleasure and the 

 start has been so satisfactory that he 

 has nothing but good words to speak of 

 the untried varieties on his list. 



Mr. Crowe's name will be associated 

 with the market for greens after he has 

 ceased to figure in the rose market, for 

 it is due to him that we have Adiantum 

 Croweanum. This variety originated on 

 Mr. Crowe's place at Utica, where a 

 large stock was worked up and sold to 

 W. F. Kasting, of Buffalo, for dissemi- 

 nation. 



In speaking the other day of his years 

 in the business, Mr. Crowe said : "I be- 

 lieve that I am one of the two oldest 

 rose growers in the United States. Forty- 

 two years is a long time in the business, 

 and I know only one who has been at it 

 that long. John N. May started in busi- 

 ness about the same time, I think, and 

 Alexander Montgomery comes next." 



BAR HARBOR JOTTINGS. 



The Mount Desert Nurseries, owned 

 by George B. Dorr, and managed for 

 nearly twenty years by William Miller, 

 have a large area devoted to phlox, peo- 

 nies, lilies, delphiniums and general col- 

 lections of popular and rare perennials 

 and bulbous plants. They also grow a 

 splendid " assortment of evergreens, in- 

 cluding many of specimen size, and a 



general collection of deciduous trees and 

 shrubs. The greenhouses are devoted to 

 the culture of gardenias, ferns, palms 

 and other decorative plants, also to rais- 

 ing of bedding and general nursery 

 stock. A splendid store for the sale of 

 cut flowers and plants is located on the 

 main street of the town. The nursery 

 is one of the most interesting to be met 

 with in the east. 



At Joseph T. Bowen 's, A. E. Chilman 

 gardener, were noted some splendid beds 

 of pentstemons, which at Bar Harbor 

 flower as well as in Scotland. Lilium 

 superbum, naturalized, was unusually 

 fine. Shasta daisies, tuberous begonias, 

 beds of Geranium Alphonse Ricard, 

 gladioli, sweet peas eight feet in height 

 and smothered with magnificent flowers, 

 impatiens, salpiglossis and dahlias were 

 all flowering in a way difficult to ap- 

 proach on the mainland. In the green- 

 houses were noted good collections of 

 begonias, achimines, gloxinias and ivy 

 geraniums, and a fine house of Winter 

 Beauty tomatoes. 



Mr. Shand, at A. C. Gurnee's, has a 

 fine estate, interestingly planted. A 

 wide perennial border, 525 feet long, 

 was gay with delphiniums, aconi turns (a 

 great feature at Bar Harbor, growing 

 six to eight feet high), rudbeckias and 

 phlox, with a bordering of candytuft. 

 Beds of Swaiusona galegifolia alba, Cal- 

 ceolaria Golden Gem, carnations such as 

 Enchantress, White Perfection and Bea- 

 con, and dahlias were in fine flower. A 

 new deep scarlet decorative dahlia, of 

 compact habit and with free blooming 

 qualities, will be heard from later. Green- 

 houses are devoted to palms, furnishing 

 plants, tomatoes and melons. Several 

 divisions of the latter, including Ring- 

 leader, Superlative and other favorite 

 English sorts, were unusually good. 



At George W. Vanderbilt 's, where Ed- 

 ward Kirk presides, we noted a fine 



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