14 



The Florists' Review 



Fkbruaby 26, 1914. 



HERE'S HELPFUI, HINTS. 



Tf one cannot attend a big meeting 

 of growers, the next best thing is to 

 hear a man like Albert M. Herr tell 

 about it. In addressing the Lancaster 

 County Florists' Club, a few nights 

 ago, Mr. Herr said in part: 



"I want to say right here that you 

 men who make your living from carna- 

 tions could not have expended $50 to 

 any better advantage than in attend- 

 ing the Cleveland meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Carnation Society. You may think 

 that you get the benefit without the 

 expense, through the trade papers. 

 They do their part nobly, but let me 

 tell you that for your own welfare you 

 had better loosen up a bit, join the 

 society that represents the flower you 

 grow and attend its meetings. It is 

 being there, going over and over the 

 show, mingling with the men who grow 

 these show flowers, that fills your sub- 

 conscious mind with carnation knowl- 

 edge, a knowledge it is impossible to 

 obtain in any second-hand manner. 



"Next year the meeting is at Buf- 

 falo and an economical man can go 

 from here and have everything for 

 $35. Make up your mind right now to 

 go and then, for your own sake, don't 

 say at the last minute, 'I can't go; I 

 have too much to do. ' If you do not 

 stop this habit of having so much to 

 do that you can never go anywhere 

 you will turn into a perpetual grind 

 until you lie down to die, and then 

 you will worry as to how the work 

 will get done without you, and have 

 no rest even on your deathbed. 



"President Brown, like those who 

 preceded him, spent a great deal of 

 time and gray matter to bring before 

 the society, through his address, some 

 suggestions for improvement both of 

 the society and the flower it represents. 

 And, like all of his predecessors, his 

 suggestions were reported good and 

 at some time and some day they will 

 be acted on and worked out. There is 

 this consolation for our presidents, past 

 and future, that ' a good thought never 

 dies'; it may lif- dormant for a number 

 of years, but eventually it will bear 

 fruit. Take our own club for an exam- 

 pie: we have always been good florists, 

 Dut we lay dormant until we organized, 

 and now we are up and doing. 



"Mr. Brown's remarks on packing 

 carnations are right up to date and it 

 is up to us growers to produce blooms 

 that will warrant this extra care and 

 expense in packing. Then it will be 

 only a matter cf time until the carna- 

 tion is pushed forward as a cut flower 

 in a manner that we scarcely dream of 

 today. Having good flowers to pack, 

 handle them tie same as roses, laying 

 them in the box individually, so that 

 they do not crush or bruise. Pack fifty 

 or 100 to a box. Eighty per cent of 

 the cut of the Cottage Gardens is han- 

 dled in this way. The name of the 

 variety is placed on the box, the num- 

 ber the box contains, and the name of 



the firm. These boxes are sent into the 

 wholesale house, the retailer comes in, 

 selects what he wants from the label 

 on the box, and takes them direct to 

 his store, where the flowers are un- 

 packed with the care a good flower 

 deserves. The consequence is that the 

 flowers reach the consumer in first-class 

 condition and give value for value re- 

 ceived, a thing impossible where the 

 flowers are consigned in bunches and 

 thrown around like old shoes, as they 

 often are, both in the wholesale and 

 retail establishments. Of course, when 

 the grqwer gets $2 per thousand for 

 them and the consumer gets a bunch of 

 twenty-five for a quarter of a dollar, it 

 is giving value for value received, but 

 who of us wants this condition to rep- 

 resent the carnation trade? 



"Joe Hill's paper, boiled down, 

 gives us as an average cut fifteen flow- 

 ers to a plant and the cost of produc- 

 ing those fifteen flowers, from the cut- 

 ting to the plant thrown out in the 

 following summer, as 23 cents per 

 plant; the space occupied by that plant 

 as three-fourths of a square foot, this 

 space allowing for walks and all un- 

 used room in the house. These figures 

 are valuable lor comparison on your 

 own place, but you must remember that 

 the Hill establishment is right up-to- 

 date in every respect. Some of us 

 might cut the cost per plant in two 

 and most of us can cut the number of 

 blooms produced per plant in two and 

 the quality of bloom in three, when 

 compared with the Hill establishment. 



"Mr. Pyfer's paper on carrying car- 

 nations over into the second year does 

 not apply to this neck of woods; it 

 applies to some sections fairly well, 

 but, taking a series of five years, the 

 man who tries it here is going to lose 

 out. 



"President Brown brought out an- 

 other point: that the average price for 



carnations for a period of seven years 

 for the Cottage Gardens was 3% cents 

 per flower, which certainly is not a 

 high figure when we consider the kind 

 of flowers they produce. In England 

 the varieties we grow for forcing do 

 not go below 6 cents and often reach 

 15 cents. There is no reason why we 

 should not do as well. 



' ' Among the reds or scarlets in the 

 Cleveland show there was nothing to 

 anywhere near touch Beacon. In the 

 light pink shade, Alice seemed the one 

 to watch, although the others aver- 

 aged up good. In the Gloriosa type, 

 Alice Coombes looked a winner. In 

 the dark pink, Gorgeous overtopped 

 them all. In white there was, of course, 

 nothing but Matchless; in crimson. 

 Princess Dagmar, and in yellow, Yel- 

 low Prince. 



"Two pinks deserve a little more 

 mention, as they are badly needed. 

 Philadelphia took all the laurels, and 

 deservedly so. Mr. Browne, the orig- 

 inator, and Mr. Breitmeyer, the 

 grower of this variety, both are enthu- 

 siastic over it, and Mr. Breitmeyer is 

 the last man to get enthusiastic over 

 anything that is not up to the mark, 



' ' Mrs. C. E. Akehurst I happen to 

 have known from its babyhood up to 

 its present debutante age, and I feel 

 safe in predicting that it is going to be 

 the commercial pink in its class, which 

 is enough different in color from Phil- 

 adelphia so that the two do not con- 

 flict a great deal. Another thing I am 

 going to predict for Mrs. Akehurst is 

 that it will pretty nearly double the 

 Hill estimate of blooms per plant in 

 the hands of any ordinarily good 

 grower. ' ' 



A MISSOURI CARNATION RAlfGE. 



The finest carnations in the country 

 may not all come from the southwest, 

 but the fact that they can be grown to 

 a high standard of excellence in this 

 section is fully demonstrated by the 

 products of the Stuppy Floral Co., of 

 St. Joseph, Mo. The Enchantress family 

 takes precedence in both quality and 

 quantity here. White Enchantress is 

 the first in rank; 15,000 plants of this 

 variety are grown. Of Enchantress, 10,- 

 000, and of Rose-pink Enchantress, 3,000 



View in the Girnation Range of the Stuppy Floral Co., St. Joseph, Mo. 



