The Editor's Outlook. 



FLORISTS' "PDITOR GRANT'S sugges- 



DISPLAY GROUNDS. tion, at the nurserymen's 



convention, that commercial 

 florists should establish show grounds, is worthy of 

 careful attention. Where do we get decisive im- 

 pressions of ornamental plants ? From the speci- 

 mens crowded into a greenhouse, or the little fellows 

 on the benches ready for shipping, or the masses at 

 the auction rooms ? Very rarely are these ever 

 really attractive to the half-inclined amateur, whose 

 custom is sought. From the catalogues ? O, yes ; 

 but what a doubting and doubtful customer it is 

 who buys from such pictures and descriptions, except 

 he buy from the all-too-few, whose catalogues are 

 synonyms for accuracy and fair statement. But 

 let the commercial florist and nurserymen plant 

 show grounds — small or large, according to his 

 land and means — where his various specialties are 

 grown in perfection, how happily would his trade 

 develop among those who should visit his place, 

 and how greatly would his visitors increase in 

 number! If proof be needed, we need not wait for 

 the future creation of such places, for most of our 

 successful growers to-day owe their success in no 

 small measure to just such conditions. The wise 

 youngsters in the trade will surely go and do like- 

 wise. 



SOUTHERN 

 POSSIBILITIES. 



SOUTHERN gardeners do not 

 half appreciate their long, 

 sunny and temperate autumn 

 weather. Their practices, in many respects, are 

 the same as those of gardeners where frost comes 

 much earlier and more severe. We feel sure that the 

 great difficulty in growing good fall cabbage in the 

 south arises from sowing the seed too early and 

 carrying the plants through all the long, hot sum- 

 mer. Even the much-enduring collard is sown too 

 soon, and set out too early. All summer long it 

 manages to keep alive when a less hardy plant 

 would perish. But it drops its leaves and gets 

 awfully long-legged. Now these plants will make 

 all the growth necessary, and a much better growth 

 too, between August and Christmas. There is an 

 old notion in the south that fall cabbage and col- 

 lard must not be cultivated during "dog-days," so 

 we generally see them barely maintaining existence, 

 and if they live over the "dog-days" they grow 



with the coming fall rains and better culture. But 

 there is no necessity whatever for starting cabbage 

 seed until dog-days are gone, and we believe collards 

 will do equally as well sown later. We are perfectly 

 satisfied that with moist, rich soil and good cul- 

 tivation, cabbage seed sown south in August and 

 transplanted in September will make as good cab- 

 bage as those brought here every winter by the car 

 load. Experiments with late sowing of collard seed 

 this year will be made at Raleigh ; see what is the 

 difference between them and those sown early. 



Only a few years ago the late potato crop was as 

 uncertain in the south as the cabbage crop now is ; 

 but with a better knowledge of the conditions for 

 success, as fine potatoes can be grown in the middle 

 south in the fall as can be grown anywhere. Salsify 

 sown in July and August will make a better crop 

 than that sown in spring, which always loses its 

 lower leaves in mid-summer if it does not run to 

 seed. Sweet potatoes planted in July and August 

 from cuttings of the vines of the early planting will 

 give potatoes that will keep much better in winter 

 than those raised from early planted sets. 



Garden peas sown in the middle south September 

 1 to 15 will, in ordinary seasons, give a good crop of 

 green peas before frost gets hard enough to injure 

 them, and they will stand more frost in the fall than 

 in the spring, owing to the ground being warm. In 

 short, autumn, after the summer heat is past, is the 

 season for growing many things which our hot and 

 dry summers injure. Tomato seed sown early in 

 June will furnish plants that will give a better crop 

 than the early ones, and fruit of firm quality. 



'yORONTO, CANADA, will enter- 

 tain the Society of American 



SOCIETY 

 AMERICAN 

 FLORISTS 



Florists, the third week in August. 

 Doubtless the usual large attendance will be re- 

 ported, this society being very popular among the 

 large class for whom it speaks, the immense im- 

 portance of which was surprisingly shown by the 

 preliminary census returns reported in the June 

 Garden. 



This society is young ; it is healthy and vigorous, 

 and has great possibilities before it. Its mistakes 

 — it has some sins of omission, at least, to its 

 charge — are those of youth and inexperience, trace- 

 able to lack of conception among its leaders of 



