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August 26, 1009. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



for any variety in your list. You would 

 get weak stems and small flowers all 

 through the season. At 45 degrees your 

 plants would not bloom enough to be 

 profitable and a large percentage would 

 come with split calyxes. 



After you rearrange your heating sys- 

 tem, there wiU be Uttle to trouble you 

 if the solid beds have good drainage. 



Plant the Winsor where it will be 

 the warmest, and also where the light 

 will be subdued in bright weather, as it 

 bleaches in the strong sunlight. En- 

 chantress, too, will bleach as hot weather 

 approaches, but it wants a fairly cool 

 place, the coolest of the lot, about 50 

 degrees. All the others enjoy 52 de- 

 grees best. Plant the white varieties in 

 the east and west house, as the light is 

 strongest there and the color will come 

 purest. You will find little or no differ- 

 ence between the results from solid beds 

 and raised benches, except that the stock 

 in the former will hold out better in 

 quality as summer approaches. So plant 

 accordingly. A. F. J. B. 



A VELL KNOVN CHICAGOAN. 



Louis Wittbold is the third son of ven- 

 erable George Wittbold, and is the secre- 

 tary and treasurer of the "Wittbold cor- 

 poration, organized a few years ago for 

 the purpose of carrying on the business 

 established by the pioneer on the north 

 side of Chicago in 1857. The establish- 

 ment has a record equaled by few horti- 

 cultural concerns in this country; a rec- 

 ord of fifty-two years of uninterrupted 

 progress. 



Louis Wittbold believes the business 

 rests on twin foundations: satisfactory 

 service to the customer, and advertising. 

 He applies the advertising principle as 

 much to the retail end of the business as 

 to the wholesale end, making liberal use 

 of the space of the Chicago daily papers, 

 employing street car cards, billboards 

 and every other recognized means of tell- 

 ing his story to the public. The Witt- 

 bold establishments (there are two retail 

 stores) are both on the north side of the 

 city, some distance from the business cen- 

 ter, where many retailers would think 

 they could not draw anything but local 

 trade. Louis Wittbold knows better. 

 His phrase, "We are as near to you as 

 your 'phone," has been so reiterated in 

 his advertising that many a customer 

 who never saw the Wittbold stores calls 

 on them when in need of a florist's serv- 

 ices. The Wittbold salesmen, workmen 

 and wagons penetrate to the farthest 

 limits of the city. 



It was Louis Wittbold who invented 

 the first one-piece concrete bench, and 

 the one now most generally built in com- 

 mercial greenhouse establishments. He 

 also was the inventor of a mechanical 

 watering system which is largely used, 

 and of other devices for simplifying the 

 work of greenhouse and store manage- 

 ment. For a year or two after finding 

 there was a market for the labor-saving 

 inventions, designed primarily for use in 

 their own establishment. Mr. Wittbold 

 acted as his own selling agent, but some- 

 thing over a year ago turned these 

 specialties over to E. H. Hunt, Chicago. 



NEW ENGLAND DAHLIA SOCIETY. 



The New England Dahlia Society will 

 give its second exhibit, at Horticultural 

 Hall, in Boston, Mass., September 10, 

 11 and 12. This year's exhibit is ex- 

 pected to eclipse everything of its kind 

 ever undertaken, for the reason that 

 the outlook for good flowers is splendid. 



Louis Wittbold. 



and that with the enormous increase in 

 the membership of the society, competi- 

 tion in all classes ought to be sharp. 



In connection with this exhibit a spe- 

 cial number of the Dahlia News will be 

 issued, which no doubt will be one of 

 the most interesting papers ever pub- 

 lished on this subject, for it will contain 

 articles by such prominent American 

 writers as E. Stanley Brown, N. Allen 

 Lindsey, Nathan A. Miller, W. C. Egan, 

 Edwin S. Manuel, J. J. Broomall, Alex. 

 MacLellan, Wm. F. Turner and Maurice 

 Fuld. It will also contain articles from 

 English writers, as follows: Mr. Green, 

 of Hobbies, Ltd.; Mr. Fife, of Dobbie 

 & Co., and Mr. Cheal, of Joseph Cheal & 

 Sons. Germany will be represented by 

 an article from the secretary of the Ger- 

 man Dahlia Society, Mr. Curt. Engel- 

 hardt, and France by Mr. Bivoire, of 

 Rivoire Pere et Fils. Some of the arti- 

 cles will be illustrated, our first attempt 

 in this line with the Dahlia News. Any- 

 one may obtain a copy of the September 

 number for the price of 10 cents by ad- 

 dressing the secretary, Maurice Fuld. 

 Maurice Fuld, Sec'y. 



CULTURE AND SALE OF LILIES. 



How are longiflorum, auratum and 

 speciosum lilies increased from scales in 

 Bermuda or other places? Give direc- 

 tions for growing them to blooming size 

 bulbs. How are blooms sold when there 

 are several on a spike and what are 

 counted? Would they be salable if sep- 

 arated from the spike and each bloom out 

 in bud with a short stem? Does the 



Philippine lily promise to be a good 

 market lily? What are its faults? 



C. B. 



I am not acquainted with the Bermuda 

 lily growers' methods, but here in the 

 United States lilies can be raised from 

 scales taken from well ripened bulbs and 

 planted in flats or benches in a warm 

 house and kept moist. The first year 

 they form bulblets,- the second moderate 

 bulbs, and many will bloom the third 

 season if carefully looked after. Except 

 in rare cases and in favored latitudes, 

 I doubt if there would be any profit in 

 raising the varieties named in the way 

 you speak of, especially when they can 

 be purchased of flowering size so cheaply. 

 L. auratum is the most uncertain of the 

 sorts you name, usually running out alto- 

 gether in two or three seasons. 



Lilies are sold on the spike, each bud 

 and bloom being counted as one. Of 

 course, the buds will all open in water, 

 but the whole spiites are often sold or 

 used in design work. In Europe the sin- 

 gle flowers are sold, but this method is 

 rarely adopted here. 



Lilium Philippinense is a beautiful 

 white lily, usually carrying only one or 

 two flowers per stem. For this reason, 

 at its present price, it is not likely to be- 

 come much of a market factor. It is 

 produced on thin, wiry stems, has grassy- 

 like foliage, and if it could be grown and 

 sold profitably at the same prices as L. 

 longiflorum, would largely supersede that 

 variety in a cut state. It is easily raised 

 from seeds under glass and has bloomed 

 in as short a time as six to nine months. 



C. W. 



