42 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



•AuocBT 17, 1911. 



OBITUAEY. 



John Bimle. 



John Birnie, of West Hoboken, N. J., 

 one of the most widely known of the 

 growers for the New York market, died 

 without warning Tuesday, August 15, 

 in the Hotel Belvedere, at Baltimore. 

 Mr. Birnie had gone, with Mrs. Birnie 

 and many friends in the New York 

 Florists' Club, to attend the S. A. F. 

 convention. After the first business 

 session he stood with several of the 

 leading members for a group photo- 

 graph for one of the Baltimore daily 

 papers, after which he walked back to 

 the hotel and entered the dining-room, 

 where he was seized with sudden ill- 

 ness. He was assisted to his room, 

 where he died in a few minutes. The 

 coroner's inquest gave a verdict of 

 death by apoplexy. In the evening a 

 special meeting of the New York Flo- 

 rists' Club was held, at which arrange- 

 ments were made for escorting the 

 body home and a committee consisting 

 of C. H. Totty, H. A. Bunyard and 

 W. F. Sheridan appointed to draft reso- 

 lutions to be spread on the minutes of 

 the next regular meeting. 



A native of Scotland, who came in 

 youth to New York, John Birnie was 

 one of the oldest active florists in his 

 section or, indeed, in the country. His 

 start in the trade was almost coincident 

 with the beginning of the real develop- 

 ment of commercial floriculture in the 

 vicinity of New York. He was one of 

 the first men to grow the carnation for 

 cut flowers and his reminiscences of 

 those early days always were full of in- 

 terest to the younger generation. Of 

 late years he had specialized on gerani- 

 ums. He was of progressive disposition 

 and kept fully abreast of the times. 

 For years he had been a regular at- 

 tendant at the S. A. F. conventions and 

 an active participant in the business 

 meetings. He also had attended the 

 Carnation Society's meetings with reg- 

 ularity. The recent hot weather had 

 told on him severely, but he was of that 

 sturdy constitution that refused to give 

 up. At luncheon with friends on the 

 day of his death he had complained of 

 feeling unwell, but had expressed the 

 belief that he would soon be all right 

 again, "but when I break down, I'll 

 go all at once," he said as the group 

 left the table. 



Mr. Birnie was 58 years of age. Be- 

 sides the widow, there are left two 

 sons and three daughters, one of the 

 sons being engaged in the plant-grow- 

 ing business with his father. 



James Joseph O'LeaiT' 



James Joseph O'Leary, son of Mr. 

 and Mrs. James F. O'Leary, of Lowell, 

 Mass., died August 5 at the home of 

 his parents, 40 Fanning street, at the 

 age of 21 years. He had been ill for 

 several weeks. He had resided in 

 Lowell since early childhood. He was 

 in the florists' business with his father 

 and was a former member of Company 

 G, Sixth regiment, M. V. M. He is 

 survived by his parents and one sister, 

 Miss Mary G. O 'Leary. 



Baraboo, Wis. — E. T. Eoss, who has 

 been identified with the florists* trade 

 for the last twelve years, is now start- 

 ing in business for himself here, with a 

 greenhouse 20x100, and expects to build 

 more next spring. He will grow potted 

 plants of all kinds and carnations for 

 cut flowers. 



John Bimie. 



GLOVE COVE, N. Y. 



The regular monthly meeting of the 

 Nassau County Horticultural Society was 

 held in Pembroke hall, August 9. Presi- 

 dent Trepess occupied the chair and 

 there was a good attendance. 



Messrs. Ashworth, McNenery and 

 Walker were appointed as judges and 

 their decisions were as follows: 



Society prizes — Twelve asters, any 

 color, first, George Barton; twelve 

 gladioli, first, Paul Beul; six lilies, first, 

 George Barton. 



J. Ingram, special prize for four vases 

 of asters, first, George Barton. A cer- 

 tificate of culture was awarded to 

 James Emslie for a dish of peaches. 



The outing committee reported all ar- 

 rangements satisfactory for the annual 

 outing to be held at Karatsonyi's ho- 

 tel, Glenwood, August 17. 



A letter was read from the Stumpp & 

 Walter Co., offering a silver cup for the 

 fall exhibition; also from Hitchings & 

 Co., offering a prize for the same exhibi- 

 tion. 



Mr. HoUoway, of the executive com- 

 mittee, read the schedule prepared for 

 the dahlia show, to be held September 

 27, and it was adopted. 



The society has just received a pre- 

 sentation of 500 vases. The donors were 

 Mrs. C. L. Bucknall, Mrs. Wm. Beard, 

 Mrs. Arthur Gibbs, Mrs. H. L. Pratt and 

 Mrs. F. S. Smithers. 



A list of the special prizes and their 

 donors was readj also the preliminary 

 schedule for the fall show. 



The Rev. J. W. Gammick was unani- 

 mously elected a life member of the 

 society, exempt from dues. 



The society's prizes in September will 

 be for the best muskmelon, twelve pota- 

 toes and six ears of corn. E. H. W. 



PITTSBUBa'S PICNIO. 



The two illustrations shown herewith 

 were reproduced from photographs tak- 

 en at the annual picnic of the Pitts- 

 burg Florists' and Gardeners' Club at 

 Keystone Park, August 8. Albert 

 Lorch, one of the club members, was 

 the man with the camera. Further 

 notes of the outing will be found in 

 the Pittsburg notes on another page of 

 this issue. 



BOSTON. 



The Market. 



Outdoor flowers continue to dominate 

 the markets, asters, gladioli and sweet 

 peas being the three leaders at present. 

 Business has been somewhat quiet since 

 the last report. Good quality flowers, 

 of course, clean up well, but a great 

 many seen are of the inferior grades 

 and are either sold cheaply or thrown 

 into the rubbish barrels. Asters are 

 abundant, but only a small proportion 

 are of first grade quality. A great many 

 are short-stemmed, show open centers, 

 or are in other ways deformed. Prices 

 are much lower. Gladioli are in heavy 

 oversupply. The quality of the home- 

 grown stock is excellent, but large 

 quantities of New York state flowers 

 are being dumped here at an average of 

 $5 per thousand. These are short- 

 stemmed and of inferior quality, but 

 they hurt the sale of the better grades. 

 Sweet peas are not equal to previous 

 years in quality, but are holding out 

 well and seem to be rather more abun- 

 dant. 



Eoses are in good supply. Many are 

 small, puny flowers and difficult to 

 move. Beauties sell well, also Carnot, 

 Prince de Bulgarie and Maryland, the 



