12 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Aphil 11, 1912. 



done in 1911 by the retail florists who 

 used display space in the daily papers. 

 The figures are surprising. Here they 

 are: 



In The TiU.uno 



In the second pupt-i' 

 In the third paper . . 

 In the fourth paper . 

 In the fifth paper . . 

 In the sixth paper . . . 

 In the seventh paper 

 In the eighth paper 



Agate lines 



36,268 



6,049 



6,023 



4,989 



4,297 



1,955 



779 



663 



Total 



63,023 



That is a remarkable showing. It in- 

 dicates that the few retailers who used 

 newspaper space spent in the aggre- 

 gate at least $20,000 in adding to the 

 number of flower buyers and increasing 

 the consumption of flowers. 



BERMUDA LILY BUDS. 



The Bermuda bulb growers do not, as 



-*■>- 



-t-rr- 



a rule, cut their lily budis to abi^ .toj^the 

 Easter flower buyers and the. imjpOrts 

 of the buds have fallen much below 

 what they were a few years ago, being 

 confined to shipments from the smaller 

 and least careful growers. Tew of the 

 shipments go into the trade — practi- 

 cally all go direct to the public on 

 orders booked by the customs brokers. 

 The imports this year were only 790 

 cases, consigned as follows: 



Consignee. Cases. 



Adams Express Col , 360 



Grossman. L. D. & Co 7 



Davenport, W. J. & S. H 3 



Frost, S. H. & G. H 1 



Garglulo, P. & Bro , 2 



Hills Bros. & Co I 



Lippman, J 15 



MaltUB & Ware 43 



Richey, D. R 6 



Vandegrlft, F. B. & Co..., 163 



Wallace, T. P 4 



To Order j . 179 



Total 790 



BOSES AND ROSE GROWING. 



[A paiK>r by Wallace R. I'ierson, read before 

 the Baltimore I'loris'ts' and (iardeners' Clul) April 

 S, 1912.] 



I am reminded of the fact that I have 

 crossed the Mason and Dixon line in 

 coming to Baltimore to speak to you 

 this evening, and that fact has a great 

 deal of significance to me. In the north 

 an invitation may be one prompted by 

 courtesy pure and simple, but in the 

 south an invitation is extended because 

 of inherent hospitality and I feel that 

 you really wanted to have me accept 

 your hospitality and tell you a few of 

 the points which I believe may aid some 

 in the upbuilding of business, and which 

 will tend to improve conditions in the 

 flower world in which our lives are be- 

 ing spent. We are reminded that the 

 business is not all flowers, for our sub- 

 ject tonight is roses, and they all have 

 thorns, but with the hope of relieving 

 the rose growing industry of some of its 

 thorns I will attempt to give you in 

 brief an outline of a jtath that leads to 

 success in the rose growing business. 



Educating the Public. 



I realize the subject is broad, for the 

 rose growing industry extends not from 

 sea to sea but encircles the globe. We 

 cannot all become familiar with condi- 

 tions in Europe, nor see the wonders of 

 the Pacific coast when the roses are in 

 bloom, but we read of the cities of the 

 western coast buying roses for street 

 planting by the 25,000 lots and we know 

 that means the making of hundreds of 

 thousands of rose lovers, and these 

 cities are famous more on account of 

 their wonderful display of roses than 

 for the great industrial establishments 



which are the backbone of their pros- 

 perity. We have not the climate here 

 in the east which will permit such ex- 

 tensive operations, but we have, never- 

 theless, wonderful opportunities which, 

 if taken advantage of, would accom- 

 plish much that is to be desired and, 

 allowing for unfavorable climatic con- 

 ditions, if we had some of the western 

 spirit which is behind those wonderful 

 displays on the western coast we might 

 be at least close competitors and at 

 least receive honorable mention in the 

 awards, and a vote of thanks, although 

 perhaps unspoken, from every man, 

 woman or child who is fortunate enough 

 to behold a well kept rose garden in its 

 prime. 



We have a few such samples in our 

 state, of which Elizabeth park, in Hart- 

 ford, is a striking example. Eamblers, 

 hybrid perpetuals, hybrid teas and the 

 polyantha type are gathered together in 

 a rose garden some acres in extent, and 

 to those who have never seen this park 

 in the middle of June I can only say 

 that you have one of the good things of 

 life in store for you. If you are fortu- 

 nate enough to visit it, the memory will 

 linger long. 



And the result of such a rose garden 

 is the education of the public. I have 

 heard a rumor that the public is not in- 

 terested except in a few flowers to make 

 a wedding scene like an event of joy, 

 and a few flowers to make a burial seem 

 proper, but don't you believe it. But 

 I do ask you to believe that the public 

 needs educating to discriminate between 

 roses in other ways than by colors and 

 that the public wants and needs as much 

 variety in the flowers it buys as in the 

 neckties it wears or the food it eats. I 

 have seen the Elizabeth park rose gar- 

 den crowded so that it was a case of 

 follow the crowd to get through, and 

 these people were using the notebook 

 and pencil to such an extent that they 



moved slowly indeed. That, gentlemen, 

 is educating the public in the best pos-, 

 sible manner and the results come back 

 to us all who are growers of plants and 

 flowers, for a discriminating flower 

 buyer is the best possible customer and 

 often becomes so much of a crank on 

 the subject as to be able to give us 

 commercial men many a lesson in roses. 



Growers Full of Hope. 



Men who plant seeds and who work 

 the soil are hopeful men. Their en- 

 thusiasm is somewhat in keeping with 

 the man who sets a hen and counts his 

 chickens before they are hatched. This, 

 I believe, is a factor in the growth of 

 the flower industry in this country and 

 in the world. There is a feeling of sat- 

 isfaction which comes with the con^ 

 struction of a new house and the plant- 

 ing of a crop, and that feeling is gen- 

 eral with the florists of the country. 

 They are building, and this year, in 

 spite of the fact that business as a 

 whole has been unsettled and in many 

 branches of industry extremely dull. As 

 a rule a greenhouse man counts his 

 profits by counting his glass area. A 

 little more glass than last year is the 

 general report so far as profit and loss 

 statements go. I believe there are less 

 failures among greenhouse men than in 

 any other line of business, in spite of 

 the fact that practically everything 

 which is handled is of a perishable na- 

 ture. What does that prove? First, 

 that they are honest, for honesty is of 

 the soil, and they are toilers who live 

 from the products of the soil, and, sec- 

 ond, that they are hopeful and not eas- 

 ily discouraged, and, last and more than 

 all, that the public wants and is willing 

 to buy what has been produced by the 

 sweat from the brows of honest men. 



Essentials in Rose Growing. 



Eose growing and the rose business is 

 at least sixty per cent of the total 

 flower business of the country, which 

 fact places roses as a matter of first 

 importance and consideration, and I 

 might venture to say that at least two- 

 thirds of this is the product of roses 

 grown under glass. Now let us for a 

 moment consider the proper conditions 

 which give us the best roses under glass. 

 I want to name a few conditions which 

 I consider ideal, and first of all I should 

 place soil: A heavy turf from lowlands 

 that have been saving up the silt and 

 richness from the hillsides for centuries; 

 one that has an abundance of root fiber 

 in it, and one that has not been com- 

 posted so long that it has lost that fiber 

 which gives it life. It should have a 

 clay body, for roses delight in a clay 

 soil, but it should be porous enough to 

 admit water and air freely. Air in soil 

 is essential. The largest root is the 

 root in the ashes on which plants in 

 pots have been standing for some time, 

 and air which encourages root action is 

 the only plausible explanation of this 

 fact which I have ever heard. Cow ma- 

 nure for roses is the best fertilizer 

 which we know of, and in many soils 

 a bone tankage running from four to 

 five per cent nitrogefl and not necessar- 

 ily high in phosphoric acid will give 

 strength and vitality to the plants. 

 Good stock to start with is needed and 

 the best is none too good. Consider 

 that roses are often kept in the houses 

 for two or three years and the propor- 

 tionate cost of good above poor stock 

 is too trifling to mention. 



Steam heat is essential to roses and, 

 although I know some growers make a 



