7" ■, S7"f''''.-%n ^^ ••'■■ 



♦•. - 



Mabch 3, 1910. 



* 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



15 



adding hovmsi after house, you naturally^ 

 conclude each and every one is making 

 money "a la Rockefeller." Analyze the 

 situation carefully and you wUl find a 

 triumvirate competing hades. 



I am not up in business methods well 

 enough to sugg$^t-a. remedy, but I want 

 to give this as an o^^ion and that is: 

 There are entirely too m&ny commission 

 houses in the larger centers, and the com- 

 petition among them is getting to be a 

 bit hard on the grower. The grower, 

 the retail man, the commission man and 

 the final consumer are all component 

 parts of what is, and ought to be, an 

 immense business. The healthy increase 

 and life of that business needs the en- 

 couragement of each of these sections. 

 Get together. 



CARNATION ALMA VARD. 



The accompanying illustration is repro- 

 duced from an exceedingly fine photo- 

 graph by John F. Johnston. The variety 

 18 Alma Ward, the white carnation which 

 the Cottage Gardens Co., Queens, has 

 grown for some four years and which it 

 has exhibited with such invariable suc- 

 cess during that time. 



CARNATIONS IN ENGLAND. 



American Novelties. 



By force of habit I annually tell the 

 American raisers of carnations how their 

 creations fare and what we think of 

 them, over here in England. As our 

 conditions and system of cultivation are 

 so vastly different from yours in Amer- 

 ica, I feel that I can speak without re- 

 serve or fear of giving offense, because 

 over here the buying of new varieties 

 of carnations from America is looked 

 upon as quite a reckless speculation, sim- 

 ply because conditions are almost re- 

 versed and the raisers cannot in the least 

 be held responsible. Those of us who do 

 speculate are a sort of cat's-paw for the 

 others, who keep their powder dry and 

 grab a share of the winners later, when 

 they know which ones are adapted to our 

 climate. 



Fail Under Qoudy Skies. 



Apple Blossom has failed utterly, and 

 in our dull climate only produces poor 

 blooms of a dull white, instead of de- 

 lightful flowers overlaid with pink, which 

 even its name leads us to expect. 



Alvina, in its habit, is one of the best 

 and freest of all the American novelties 

 we have tried and is almost ideal for cul- 

 tivation in pots, being quite compact, 

 with a reasonably short stem. Its one 

 shortcoming is that the flowers develop 

 poorly and come with an indifferent color 

 in midwinter over here. That is why 

 Alvina has failed. 



In Bay State we all thought we had 

 the perfect fancy carnation, one with 

 gigantic flowers which could easily over- 

 shadow all its contemporaries. It made 

 a fine summer growth, still further rais- 

 ing our hopes, yet dashed them all to the 

 ground by producing, after a long wait, 

 flowers below the average size. In fact, 

 this variety is not as good as M. A. 

 Patten over here. 



Beautiful, but Unprofitable. 



Lucille with us has produced some fine 

 and beautiful flowers, and if we were 

 simply growing carnations for recreation 

 we should be perfectly satisfied with it, 

 but, under the prevailing circumstances, 

 we are compelled to judge a new carna- 

 tion more from the returns it can show 



Carnation Alma Wud. 



than from the beauty of its blooms. That 

 is why we say Lucille will not pay the 

 Britisher to grow for cut flowers. 



Pink Delight has made some friends, 

 even among the purely market growers, 

 and if May Day was not in the field 

 many would take it up on account of the 

 shade of color, which is always popular 

 in London. Its long and somewhat shy 

 habit of growth is not at all suited to 

 the British method of cultivation. The 

 flowers are also not up to exhibition 

 standard over here. In two years' time 

 Pink Delight wiU be entirely blotted out. 



Two That Succeeded. . 



May Day is quite good all the way, 

 and, in our eyes, the best novelty sent 

 out in America' last year. We like that 

 class of growth — not too strong. This 

 variety also produces a moderate stem, 

 not going to excess, while the flowers are 

 refined in appearance. 



Mrs. Chas. Knopf has also done well 

 with us, and we shall get all we can for 

 next season. We grew it very cool and 

 obtained much better blooms than from 

 Enchantress, as well as a better color. 



O. P. Bassett gave us great promise 

 in the autumn and early winter, produc- 

 ing some excellent blooms, but the first 

 fog completely knocked it over, the 

 growth being slow and the flowers off 

 color. We shall try it another season. 



Would Need to Import the Climate. 



Ruby reminds us of the old variety, 

 Harry Fenn, and has the same weakness 

 in midwinter over here, that of failing 

 to develop its flowers. What few we 



have seen well developed were full and 

 large, but we should have to import cli- 

 mate to grow Ruby and make it pay, 



Wanoka, I am told, is Indian for "One 

 of a kind," and in the case of this va- 

 riety it is a relief to think so 



As to W. H. Taft, I am afraid the 

 President would not feel complimented 

 if he knew what we thought of his name- 

 sake. 



Mrs. J. C. Vaughan has faUed utterly. 

 It 18 diflicult to find one redeeming 

 feature in it. Montagu C. Allwood. 



RUST AND FAIRY RING. 



Under separate cover I have sent two 

 carnation pl^^nts that are affected with 

 some disease. It started among my 

 plants some time ago and seems to be be- 

 coming general, although the plants are 

 m two different houses. I have grown 

 carnations for several years and gave 

 them about the same care this season as 

 usual, but never before had any such 

 trouble. The leaves turn dry and look 

 as if they had been burnt. Please give 

 me the name of the disease and state 

 what remedy to apply. W. D. 



The specimens forwarded were badly 

 affected with fairy ring and also showed 

 some rust, and any plants which are as 

 bad as the ones forwarded might as well 

 be pulled up and burnt at once. It is 

 now getting too late to expect to doctor 

 up such plants and get any profitable re- 

 turns from them by the end of the pres- 

 ent season. It will be better to destroy 

 them and use the room for some other 

 spring crop. a. F. J. B 



