ROSE-FORCING IN AMERICA. 



459 



ROSE-FORCING IN AMERICA. 



By Miss Anne Dokeaxce, F.R.H.S. 



It is, perhaps, impossible for me to express the pleasure with which I 

 accepted the invitation of the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 to make an effort to add to the pleasure of this Conference — to attempt 

 to add to its knowledge is quite beyond my power. I have chosen as my 

 subject Rose-forcing in America for several reasons, among which may be^ 

 mentioned my lack of experience with out-door Roses, and the fact 

 that we must all look to England for them. Her Roses and the work of 

 her rosarians stand so near the ideal that I think we practically consider 

 them synonymous. But, having accepted, I hope to offer something of 

 my branch, though a very small and humble something, so microscopic 

 that it hardly seems worth while. 



Whether your beautiful Roses are due to climatic conditions, or to 

 something in your hearts, as your prince of rosarians has said, I know 

 not. If it be climatic, we of the eastern part of America are lost ; if it is 

 m the heart we can take courage, for we have a goodly share of that, and, 

 growing upon what it feeds on, it is becoming more and more of a factor. 

 Who can look upon a Rose without feeling its power ? Who can live 

 among Roses without coming completely under their sway, captivated by 

 their beauty, perfection of form, colour, fragrance, and size '? 



In America the art of forcing flowers of any sort is scarcely more than 

 a hundred years old — a day, to a nation which has just celebrated the 

 thousandth anniversary of her Alfred ; but to a nation whose whole life is 

 summed up in but few years more than the aforesaid one hundred, quite 

 remarkable indeed do the strides seem. The bulk of Rose-forcing is done 

 by those who make it not only their life work but also their means of live- 

 lihood. Consequently they enter upon it with all the alertness, eagerness, 

 and energy which in this age of strenuous living go to make up success. 

 In the recital of it all I shall try not to include the aphis. 



The following quotation from the opening address of the president of 

 the Society of American Florists at its annual meeting a year or two ago 

 may serve to throw some light on the subject : — " In the western part of 

 the country the population has increased over 400 per cent., while the 

 increase of glass devoted to floriculture is over 1,100 per cent." Of 

 course, by no means is all this given over to Rose-forcing. In 1800 there 

 was but one establishment devoted to commercial horticulture, a fact 

 explicable by the youth of the nation, when every man was needed for 

 the development of the country, for actual hardships and labour, when 

 patriotism was shown by the giving of life to one's country on the field 

 of war, not only with other nations of the world, but also with the 

 savage aboriginal tribes. During this transition from colonial to national 

 life many of the pleasures and graces were laid aside, but not forgotten, 

 to be taken up again at the earliest possible moment when stern necessity 

 gave way. In Philadelphia, the first capital of the country, we find the 



