f. -^^■- 



May 29, 1913. 



The Florists^ Review 



The Latest Imported Paris Fashion, Hats Trimmed with Natural Flowers. 



pletely. Try it in your old, leaky gut- 

 tors, after you have scrubbed them clean. 



B. J. Passaiore. 



AS OTHERS SEE US. 



Notes of a British Traveler. 



I'erhaps what foreign visitors write of 

 us may not be particularly helpful, for it 

 almost always is laudatory insteatl of 

 critical, but it usually is interesting, es- 

 pecially when the notes arc by such a 

 keen observer as W. Wells, who came 

 over from p]ngland for the National 

 Flower Show. Mr. Wells not only sees, 

 but he asks; he gets down to figures. He 

 has paid previous visits to eastern trade 

 tenters, but his April trip to Chicago 

 was his first journey west. On his way 

 he wrote copious notes and impressions 

 for home consumption. Here are a few 

 of them: 



A Visit to Poehlmannville. 



"There are three brothers in this gi- 

 gantic business, and it was the youngest 

 that started out when 17 years of age, 

 and got rough work around the district 

 where their nurseries now stand. Later 

 he went into a nursery as a worker un- 

 til he had amassed a fortune of rather 

 less than $100. The two brothers had a 

 little more cash, so the whole of the 

 nnount was pooled, and the nursery was 

 started. This was twenty-two years ago. 

 Now the glass area covers thirty-eight 

 i<res and there are about five acres of 

 -heds and roads forming the entire site, 

 riiey have enormous boilers, with ma- 

 'hiues of every description for green- 

 liouse rejiair, and the boring, drilling, 

 "unching, sawing, electrical and hauling 

 •hints of the establishment are big 

 vorks apart from the nursery. Any- 

 hing that can be d<ine to save labor is 

 arried out by msichinery. For instance, 

 he boilers feed themselves, the railway 

 iiins on the si)ot, and the .lO-ton coal 

 trucks are pujled np a raised track by 

 nieans of a coil, the coal drops out of 

 the bottom of the truck, a digger raises 

 the coal, half a ton at a time, and puts 

 it into a hojiper wliicli supplies all the 

 fires. Then an affair like a winnowing 

 machine scatters the coal over the fire 



and an automatic regulator controls the 

 whole. All that is done by hand is to 

 set the steam gauge to the required pres- 

 sure, and to clinker and keep the flues 

 clean. 



"The system of watering, manure wa- 

 tering, etc., is a marvel. The large boil- 

 ers do most of this, too. A truck of ma- 

 nure is j)ulled up, water turned into it, 

 the lot is boiled, then filt.^red and 

 pumi)ed into the benches. The quantity 

 of manure they use is enormous, and all 

 the soil is mixed in the open. The ground 

 is ridgeil uj>, the ridges filled with ma- 

 nure, then jilowed with a special i)low 

 crossways, bone meal is added, and from 

 this the soil is plowed again and again. 

 In The winter this gets frozen and splen- 

 did results are obtained. 



"With all this machine work, tlie 

 wages bill of the firm is well over .$.1,- 

 000 }ter week. Who says flowers are not 

 a l)oon and a blessing? 



"This concern needs a man of nerve 

 and power, and Mr. Poehlmann the 

 younger has this, and more. He is gen- 

 tle but firm, and all his employees ap- 

 pear to res])ect him. Nearly all the men 

 seem to be liritishers. The elder 

 brother, Adol|)h, is the rose grower, the 

 second is manager of the rut flower 

 store in the city, while the youngest is 

 the boss, and buys, constructs, and do<'s 

 everything j»ossible to save labor, which 

 is exjjensive and on the scarce side. 



"Roses, carnations and clirysanthe- 

 mums are grown by the million. Six- 

 teen acres are needed to i)lant out the 

 carnations, as nearly 300,(100 are v- 

 (juired for filling their own houses. Roses 

 here are perfection and in every stage of 

 growth from grafted stock to 4-year-olds. 



"The store in <'hicago, where the flow- 

 ers are sent to, is a big concern also. 

 The flowers are sent in from the nurser- 

 ies twice daily per motor van, and two 

 deliveries daily are made by an express 

 comi)any. Hesides the chief items men- 

 tioned, there are a few house;; devoted 

 to orchids, sweet peas, ferns, smilax. 

 lilies, and apparently anything that will 

 pay a florist to grow. The concern has 

 grown so quickly that one can hardly re- 

 nlize how large it will be when build- 

 ing is stoiqted.'' 



Notes at Richmond. 



"The E. G. Hill family have a big 

 nursery, the chief attraction of which 

 is a house with 70,000 carnations. This 

 house, while one building, is really a 

 four-ridge-and-furrow. Mostly stan- 

 dard varieties are grown here for cut 

 flowers, and in another range plants are 

 grown for stock and not allowed to 

 flower. Nearly 700,000 cuttings have 

 been rooted and dispatched this season. 

 The chief novelty was the beautiful 

 scarlet, Carnation Commodore, which 

 should be noted by the home growers. 

 Roses, again, are a big thing. They 

 grow about ."{O.OOO for flowering, and 

 propagate and distribute about 700,000 

 to the various parts of the world. Chry^ 

 santhemums, too. are extensively grown; 

 about 40,000 are wanted for planting in 

 the benches for autumn flowering, while 

 about half a million are jjropagated for 

 sale. Mr. Hill grows a few other things, 

 among which are 100,000 gladioli and 

 four acres of ])eonies. The wages bill 

 of this firm is about $S0() weekly." 



At Dorners*. 



"Messrs. Dorner have some promis- 

 ing seedlings. The best is undoubtedly 

 one named Champion. The growth and 

 iiabit is equal to Knchantress, but the 

 flower is scarlet. The raisers term it a 

 scarlet White Wonder. The chief ob- 

 ject in making this trip was to see the 

 new carnations, and as I thought I 

 slioulcl like to st>e more of this Champion 

 Messrs. Dorner have kindly consented to 

 W. W. & Co. being their sole agents on 

 this side for their seedlings. This will 

 be ai)preciated by the home growers, 

 who buy a number of new sorts each 

 year in the h(q)e of getting something 

 iiood. but find that all varieties suitable 

 for the States are not moneymakers in 

 Kngland. .\nother variety bound for 

 ^lerstham is a deep ajiricot seedling with 

 ji shade of ochre overhanging. Like all 

 yellow shaded varieties, there is no scent, 

 which i>erhai>s is a drawback, but is not 

 unknown in other leading sorts grown." 



Washingtonville, O. — Mrs. Lydia Cox 

 has disposed of her greenhouse here 

 and retired from business. 



