AUGVBT 6, 1914. 



The Florists' Review 



19 



to be interested in his version of the 

 story. He says: 



' ' The first sweet peas of which I have 

 any recollection were in the public 

 school garden of my native town, 

 Krucemburg, Bohemia. I attended this 

 school between the years 1870 and 1876. 

 The principal of the school was a great 

 student of horticulture, and was noted 

 far and wide as a collector of anything 

 new or rare in the plant line. The sweet 

 pea at that time wias rare, but there 

 were already about ten or twelve dis- 

 tinct varieties in this garden, and all 

 occupied a prominent place. 



"This was where I learned to love 

 this noble flower; and in any spare 

 time after school hours I used to go 

 with my teacher to help him work 

 among the flowers. 



First Attempts in Winter Culture. 



"After leaving the public school, in 

 1876, I became a j^orist in Vienna. Car- 

 rying some of the seed of each variety 

 with me to my new place, I asked the 

 manager of the greenhouse where I 

 worked whether there was any possi- 

 bility of growing sweet peas in the 

 greenhouse during the winter. He 

 agreed to try the plan with me. Part 

 of the seeds we planted in pots and 

 transplanted into the greenhouse in 

 October; the rest were planted in cool 

 frames. Notwithstanding the special 

 care given them, the plants grew during 

 the winter to be over thirty feet high, 

 but not a single blossom appeared until 

 late in April. The only ones with which 

 we had any success were those planted 

 in cool frames during December. These 

 blossomed sooner than those in the 

 greenhouse, and as the flowers sold well, 

 the experiment was successful to a cer- 

 tain extent. 



"However, I was not yet satisfied. 

 My idea was to get the flowers to bloom 

 earlier. To accomplish this, I realized 

 that I must pollinate the sweet pea with 

 some other flower which bloomed early 

 in winter; so I began to work along this 

 plan. 



First Work in Hybridizing. 



"After several years of experiment- 

 ing, I found a common table pea, and a 

 common vetch, which is largely grown 

 for fodder purposes in Europe, among 

 the sweet pea rows, which had begun to 

 bloom in winter. I at once began to 

 pollinate' these with the sweet peas. 

 These crosses were carefully labeled and 

 kept separate from the other seed. After 

 sowing this seed I noticed, to my disap- 

 pointment, that these plants bloomed 

 no earlier than any others. Several new 

 colors and new hybrids were all I found. 

 I selected the best seed to sow the next 

 year. Sowing this seed the next year, I 

 noticed that, notwithstanding the fact 

 that only sweet pea seed had been sown, 

 there were several vetches among the 

 plants of this second generation. This 

 led me to the discovery that the sweet 

 pea may go back to the vetch after sev- 

 eral generations. As the vetch hybrids 

 were slightly different from the original 

 vetch in color and foliage, I carefully 

 [Conticued on pasre 72.] 



BALTIMORE. 



The Market. 



There has been little change in the 

 cut flower market since the last report. 

 Asters of poor quality are in evidence 

 by the thousand and are sold for low 



J. K. Allen, of New York, and Friends Motoring to Washington. 



prices. Up to the present, only a few 

 good asters have found their way to the 

 local market. Roses continue poor in 

 quality and are not especially plentiful; 

 white ones are in greatest demand. 

 There is a shortage of good gladioli in 

 the better grades of America and light 

 colors, but reds and low-grade stock can 

 be had at almost any price. Valley 

 continues low in price, owing to the 

 poor demand, but a good supply is on 

 hand. Carnations are about over for 

 the season and only a few poor ones 

 are coming in. There is a sufficient de- 

 mand for lilies to take up the entire 

 supply at good prices. A few early 

 dahlias arrived in the market, but the 

 stems were short and only low prices 

 were realized. Green goods sold well 

 and the wholesale houses were cleaned 

 out, but are assured of a good supply 

 from local growers for some time to 

 come. 



During the last week the weather 

 has been exceptionally cool for this sea- 

 son of the year; on some nights during 

 the week the temperature fell to 50 de- 

 grees, something unusual for this lo- 

 cality. 



Various Notes. 



Mrs. Harry J. Quick was operated on 

 for appendicitis at St. Joseph 's hospital, 

 .July 29, and at this writing is doing as 

 well as can be expected. 



F. A. Seidlich, of Woodlawn, had some 

 of the first cosmos seen this season at 

 his stall in Lexington market August 1. 



A large amount of funeral work for 

 the A. S. Ahell funeral kept a number 

 of florists busy last week. John Cook 

 and William J. Halliday both furnished 

 a number of floral tokens. 



The next regular meeting of the Gar- 

 deners' and Florists' Club will be held 

 at the club rooms August 10. As this is 

 the last meeting before the S. A. F. 

 convention, it is hoped a large crowd of 

 members will turn out. 



William McKissick, manager of the 

 local branch of the Leo Niessen Co., left 

 August 1, accompanied by Mrs. McKis- 

 sick, for a two weeks' stay at Wild- 



wood, N. J., after a few days' stop in 

 Philadelphia. During Mr. McKissick 's 

 absence, Louis Click will be in charge 

 of the business. 



James Glass has a fine lot of ferns, 

 mostly Bostons, of which some good 

 specimens were seen on his stall in Lex- 

 ington market on Saturday, August 1. 



Richard Vincent states that all ar- 

 rangements for the Baltimore-to-Boston 

 trip by boat are practically complete 

 and that the number of members going 

 from this city will exceed expectations. 

 A most enjoyable time will be spent, as 

 almost the entire boat will be occupied 

 by the florists from this and other cities. 

 A stop-over in Norfolk, Va., is planned 

 for August 15. The boat leaves this 

 city August 14, at 6 p. m., and will stop 

 one day in Norfolk, leaving there at 

 () p. m. on Saturday and arriving in 

 Boston on Monday, August 17, at 10 

 a. m. There are a few berths left and 

 anyone contemplating going by this 

 route would do well to secure one at 

 once. The fare from this city is $15 

 one way and $25 for the round trip. 

 This includes berths and meals for the 

 entire trip. The majority are going by 

 this route, but will return by different 

 routes. Some will come directly back 

 by rail; others are planning side trips 

 and stop-overs at points of interest on 

 the way. W. F. E. 



NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 



The week 's automobile trip from New 

 York to Washington, D. C, and return 

 made recently by J. K. Allen, the New 

 York wholesaler, and his friends, Will- 

 iam Thurston and A. B. D. Snyder, was 

 pronounced a most enjoyable one by all 

 three, and they point to the accompany- 

 ing illustration to prove it. This view 

 does not show them as at all hilarious, 

 but perhaps that is because they were 

 on the public streets of Wilmington, 

 Del., at the time. At any rate, they paid 

 no fines and did not get stuck iu the 

 mud. The sights on the road and near 

 Washington were worth seeing, and the 

 ride delightful, reports Mr. Allen. 



