22 



The Florists^ Review 



OCTOBBU 6, l!t21 



a cardboard background tor the photog- 

 rapher, BO that each would appear in 

 the illustration and the number might 

 be counted by the reader. These heads 

 were taken from 2-year-old plants grow- 

 ing in the field and were chosen as aver- 

 age-sized heads, not extraordinarily 

 large specimens. At the beginning of 

 the season each of these plants had been 

 cut back to within four inches of the 

 ground. By early April the plants stood 

 about two feet in height and in thick 

 bush form. 



The truss of buds at the left is Graf 

 Zeppelin. Sixty-four buds can be 

 counted on it. On the bush from which 

 this was taken were twenty-four such 

 heads, approximately the same size. The 

 head next to it, in the center, is Climb- 

 ing Orleans. This variety is darker 

 than Orleans, being a geranium red that 

 is of the desired brightness at Plaster. 

 The foliage is somewhat darker, setting 

 off the blooms well. The bright yellow 

 stamens add to the plant's attractive- 

 ness. On Climbing Orleans the growth 

 is not quite so even as on Graf Zeppelin, 

 some trusses carrjnng fewer buds and 

 some a greater number. The number of 

 bloom heads is smaller than in the case 

 of Graf Zeppelin. This specimen con- 

 tains ninety-six buds and came from a 

 plant which bore fifteen bloom heads, a 



plant of medium size as they ran in 

 the field at Scottsville at the time. 



At the right is a bloom head 

 from a variety in which the Ver- 

 halens have taken especial inter- 

 est. It came with some varieties of 

 French origin about ten years ago, evi- 

 dently having been mixed by a mistake 

 of the packer. S. J. Verhalen calls it, 

 just to supply it with a handle when he 

 talks about it, "Thousand-and-One." 

 lie uses the term to recall the immense 

 number of buds borne on each bloom 

 head. The one shown is not the largest 

 to be found, though it is, perhaps, above 

 the general average. The truss shown 

 contains 228 buds, and on the same 

 plant were, in all, twenty-one heads. An 

 easy multiplication will show that the 

 name applied by Mr. Verhalen is a con- 

 servative sobriquet, for the number of 

 individual blooms on a plant runs from 

 2,000 to 4,000 and is rarely below 

 the smaller figure on the 2-year-old 

 ])lants in the field. Individual trusses 

 iiave been found by careful count to 

 contain over 300 blooms. The average 

 number is in the vicinity of 100. A 

 2-year-old bush in the field, it was as- 

 certained from examination of an entire 

 row, carried from twenty to forty bloom 

 heads. A bush with the smaller num- 

 ber was likely to average a higher num- 



ber of blooms per truss than a bush with 

 a larger number of trusses. In either 

 case the plant, when in bloom, was liter- 

 ally covered with bloom, so that scarce- 

 ly any foliage was visible. The color 

 is similar to Magna Charta, which is 

 also used for pot forcing. The variety 

 has been found at Scottsville to be 

 strong and rugged and an "easy doer." 

 If it acted under glass as it does in the 

 field at Scottsville, it would be a decid- 

 edly valuable acquisition for the florist 

 for Easter sales. A photograph of a 

 plant of this variety is reproduced here- 

 with — not a good one, for it was taken 

 under difficult conditions. It serves to 

 show the type of its bloom, however, and 

 possibly some reader of The Review 

 may be able to identify the variety. 



Such plants as these three varieties 

 produce when pruned severely at Scotts- 

 ville suggest that they might be forced 

 as bush specimens, without being 

 trained in elaborate forms, and so, with- 

 out the extra labor cost that such train- 

 ing involves, make just such moderately 

 priced stock as is desired at Easter. Mr. 

 Verhalen contributes the suggestion 

 without self-interest, for only 1-year-old 

 roses are grown at Scottsville and these 

 are not sold in small quantities, but are 

 shipped ungraded in carload lots to 

 nurserymen in various parts of the 

 country who have the warehouse facil- 

 ities to handle the stock. 



Do You Know the Name of this Rambler Rose? 



MEETING THE POPXJIiAK DEMAND. 



(Concluded from paee 20.) 

 found exceedingly popular. Still others, 

 though not large numbers, are brought 

 into flower for day-to-day sales. Last 

 spring Mr. Oechslin had not enough to 

 respond to the insistent telephone calls 

 of the retailers. This coming season he 

 expects to have still more, but he be- 

 lieves that even then he will not have 

 enough. Mr. Oechslin 's ability to cal- 

 culate the needs of his market leads 

 one to agree in this prognostication, 

 jiarticularly as concerns rose plants of 

 the quality he produces. 



The baby ramblers propagated and 

 forced as 1-year-old plants are Jessie, 

 Echo, Baby Tausendschoen, Greta Kluis, 

 Baby Rambler and Teschendorff. The 

 climbers include Dorothy Perkins, Tau- 

 sendschoen, Lady Gay and Excelsa. 



The plants are potted in the heaviest 

 soil available at the Forest Park range, 

 where all the roses are grown. A small 

 amount of bone meal is added to the 

 compost at the time of potting. Nour- 

 ishment is provided by feedings of blood 

 and bone meal, as well as a small 

 amount of cattle manure. 



By this method are produced rose 

 l)lants that may be sold at retail for 

 .t3 or so, to the profit of the florist and 

 the i)lea8ure of the customer. So marked 

 is the latter that sales of these plants 

 have been easy and numerous, and, as 

 before remarked, the satisfaction of 

 the demand is not in sight. Of course, 

 Frank Oechslin grows as many roses in 

 larger sizes as he does of these 1-year- 

 oJd plants, and he sells the former with 

 ease and celerity each spring. The 

 smaller-sized plants have just been ad- 

 ditional business for Mr. Oechslin. He 

 forces some 2-year-old stock received 

 from the nurserymen in the autumn, and 

 some received in the spring and grown 

 outside a season. The latter make his 

 largest and finest specimen jdants, sell- 

 ing for several times the price of the 

 small stock which has recently become 

 so important an item. 



