JAKDABT 18, 1912. 



TheWeekly Florists' Review. 



18 



Foliage, Stem and Oalyx. 



In regard to foliage, he always made 

 it a rule never to use together two 

 plants with heavy, coarse foliage and 

 heavy stems. He preferred using a 

 variety with fine foliage with these 

 coarse foliaged ones. While it is true 

 that the coarse growing varieties give 

 the largest flowers, they do not produce 

 enough of them to make them good 

 commercial varieties. The plant with 

 the intermediate foliage is usually the 

 best, giving more flowers of a good, 

 average size. 



He always made it a rule not to use, 

 if possible, two short-stemmed varieties, 

 but to use a long and a short stem to- 

 gether, or two long-stemmed varieties. 

 The union of two long-stemmed varie- 

 ties in many cases gave short-stemmed 

 ones in the first generation, but they 

 also gave long-stemmed ones again in 

 the second or third generation. 



"Where varieties having large flow- 

 ers or an overabundance of petals were 

 used, the pollen was secured from flow- 

 e?rs inclined to be semi-double. This 

 was, in a way, to prevent the bursting 

 of the calyx. However, it is not al- 

 ways the number of petals, but the way 

 in which they emerge from the calyx, 

 that causes the calyx to split. Where 

 the petals push out from the calyx and 

 continue to develop afterward, there 

 is little trouble from splitting. But 

 where they start to expand before is- 

 suing from the calyx the calyx is sure 

 to split. This he always kept in mind. 



Before closing I should like to call 

 attention to a race of carnations, if I 

 may call it such, which are direct de- 

 scendants of the Daybreak, which has 

 played such an important role in car- 

 nation breeding. Among the seedlings 

 raised from Daybreak was White Cloud. 

 Lorna, the next of the series, is a seed- 

 ling of White Cloud. From Lixna 

 came The Belle and from The Belle 

 came White Perfection. White Won- 

 der, the latest of the series, is a seed- 

 ling of White Perfection. This series 

 is the only one that has ever occurred 

 among the new varieties sent out. 



In closing I should say that Fred 

 Dorner's greatest pleasure was to have 

 his florist friends visit him and spend 

 a few hours " among his favorite flow- 

 ers. The work to him was ever fascin- 

 ating and never lost its charm. 



AMONG THE BOSES IN EUSOPE. 



[A synopsla of a paper by Robert Pyle, 

 of West Grove, Pa., read before the Ameri- 

 can Rose Society, In convention at Detroit, 

 January 10 to 12, 1912.] 



It is a real pleasure to live over 

 again in thought the experience of last 

 summer among the rose growers and- 

 in the rose gardens of western Europe. 

 I shall try tonight to tell you what I 

 saw of roses and rose growing among 

 the people, in the public parks and 

 among the rose growers themselves in 

 the countries of France, Germany, the 

 Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, England 

 and Ireland, and to tell you, so far as 

 I can, what they told me. If, in pass- 

 ing, we should take a look at some 

 other phase of horticulture as produced 

 by the Europerms, I trust you will not 

 feel it departiug too far from the sub- 

 ject in hand, and possibly a glimpse of 

 the life among the people who do or 

 who do not have roses of their own will 

 serve as a setting of this description 

 of our co-workers on the other side of 

 the water. 



Furthermore, may I ask you not to be 



Pernet-Ducher, Originator of Sunburst, and His Glass. 



disappointed if what you hear has to do 

 mainly with roses as produced from 

 open-ground culture? Although I think 

 I came in contact with the leading rosa- 

 rians in each of the countries before 

 mentioned, I saw comparatively little 

 of the roses being forced for the cut 

 flower market. 



In tbe Long English Summers. 



To be sure, the summer climate in 

 some of these countries permits such 

 perfect blooms that in England^ for 

 example, I recall having visited one 

 prominent grower who was just making 

 a shipment of some thousands, I think, 

 all red blooms, for a fete day at the 

 University of either Oxford or Cam- 

 bridge. AH these were being cut from 

 the open ground early in July. But I 

 hope you will be interested in hearing 

 somewhat of the conditions that obtain 

 with those men abroad who are enthu- 

 siastically devoting the best of their 

 lives to producing such roses as will 

 meet the demand of our cut flower 

 trade. For example, I just missed meet- 

 ing one enterprising American rose 

 grower, who has been accustomed, 

 every other year at least, to spend six 

 weeks in the homes and gardens of 

 these particular hybridizers, in watch- 

 ing, comparing, discarding and selecting 

 a rose or roses that he hopes will be 

 a reputation maker in America. And 

 right here comes in another point, 

 which those getting roses from abroad 

 must bear in mind, that roses which 

 thrive splendidly in Ireland, for exam- 

 ple, may fail in America, and vice 

 versa. One of the most prominent 

 members' of the American Eose Society 

 was suprised to find in Europe one of 

 his own pet introductions far surpass- 

 ing anything he had ever seen it do at 

 home. 



Last summer in England was an un- 

 usually dry one; vegetation suffered, 

 and the roses tpo, until late in the sea- 

 son, for I understand the fall shows 

 were a great success. 



Among the Colchester Growers. 



Let us gQ first to Colchester. We 

 arrive at 7 in the morning. Nearest 

 the station is D. Prior & Son, the old 

 gentleman having retired, leaving af- 

 fairs in charge of his son, who is man- 

 ager, with Mr. Heath, the foreman of 

 sixty men. 



A half mile away are Benj. ft. Cant 



& Sons, among the largest of the grow- 

 ers, I think, in England. They report 

 200,000 tree roses in 200 different varie- 

 ties; they had sixty men at work on 

 fifty acres, with a most interesting trial 

 garden, showing not less than 400 or 

 500 varieties, the most of them bloom- 

 ing luxuriantly. They were also grow- 

 ing climbing roses under glass even in 

 July. And another item of interest 

 came to my attention as I approached 

 their office through the fields, when I 

 found the men had just left for break- 

 fast after an hour and a half, or more, 

 at work; and one old gentleman laborer, 

 too lame to walk far with the rest, was 

 eating his breakfast from a pail. He 

 outlined their day's work, which is 

 quite as long as ours, with this differ- 

 ence, that the men left home and 

 started work earlier, but stopped 

 oftener through the day, with a lower 

 wage than is customary on our side. 



Furthermore, rose growing seems to 

 run in families. We cross the road and 

 two fields and come immediately to the 

 establishment of Frank Cant & Co., 

 another many times winner of the cov- 

 eted trophy awarded by the National 

 Rose Society for the champion rose 

 grower of the year. Mr. Cant is mayor 

 of Colchester at present, and as such 

 had recently taken part in the many 

 processions held in honor of the corona- 

 tion. Mr. Nevard and his men referred 

 to Mr. Cant as "The Governor," but 

 this is the customary way of designat- 

 ing the proprietor of all the establish- 

 ments there. 



In the Outskirts of London. 



London is the most convenient center 

 from which to visit Colchester; also 

 Canterbury, the home of George Mount 

 & Sons, and Farnham in Surrey, where 

 are S. Bide & Son, specialists in sweet 

 peas and other horticultural lines, as 

 well as an extensive rose business; and 

 most interesting and quite as important 

 as any is Waltham Cross, the century- 

 old place of Wm. Paul & Son, now in 

 charge of Arthur William Paul. Dur- 

 ing my visit he was interrupted once or 

 twice by his foreman, to inquire espe- 

 cially regarding an order being made 

 ready for the gardens of the royal pal- 

 ace, which constituted one of their best 

 customers. 



Two stations beyond, at Cheshunt, is 

 another firm, Paul & Son, George Paul, 

 proprietor. Among all these growers 



