Sbe national IRurserymait 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
Copyrighted 1908 by the National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
Vol. XVI. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., JULY, 1908 
No. 7 
THE CONTINENTAL NURSERIES OF ROCHESTER 
PROPERTY OF BROWN BROTHERS COMPANY 
Rochester, New York, together with Geneva, has for 
many years been recognized as the greatest nursery center 
of the United States, and perhaps of the world. The 
amount of fruit tree stock, of ornamental shrubs, of park 
trees, of herbaceous plants, of flower seeds, and the like, 
grown there and distributed to all parts of the country, is 
almost inconceivable. There are at Rochester the old 
historic firms; there are the strictly recent production of 
late years; and then there are the firms of the middle 
period, conducting a steady reliable business, that makes 
for good incomes and the favorable repu¬ 
tation of the profession and the home town. 
The subject of the present sketch be¬ 
longs to the middle period, and is a 
splendid representative of that progressive 
era. The Brown Brothers Company' is 
recognized by the trade as one of the great 
nursery firms of the present day Flower 
City. It is international in scope, having 
headquarters at Rochester and a branch 
at Welland, Ontario, Canada. 
It was the privilege and pleasure of the 
writer under the pleasant guidance of the 
senior member of the firm, Mr. Charles J. 
Brown, to make the rounds of the lands¬ 
cape department and the nursery area on 
the home grounds at Rochester a short 
time since, and gain thereby some idea of 
the extent of the enterprise, and the sys- 
and adaptability. The grounds about the office are planted 
with a great variety of native and exotic trees and shrubs, 
which are all sufficiently recent in establishment to il¬ 
lustrate to the would-be planter the important possibilities 
of landscape art. A water garden stocked with aquatics 
and flanked with pine trees adds greatly to the interest of 
the grounds adjacent to the office. 
THE LANDSCAPE DEPARTMENT. 
For some time this company has made a specialty of 
designing and executing landscape plans. 
The material for this work is effectively 
displayed in the grounds contiguous to the 
nursery area. One of the striking features 
of this great border is its magnificent 
background of crimson ramblers. It may 
be stated here that Brown Brothers Com¬ 
pany have taken a very active part in 
introducing this rose, which has now be¬ 
come the cottager’s companion from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. The variations of 
this are also being propagated in large 
quantity by the company, as is stated at 
a later point in this sketch. The group¬ 
ing of green and variegated leaved plants 
against this background of crimson ram¬ 
blers has been carried out effectively, and 
beautiful vistas and attractive pictures 
reveal themselves as one passes down the 
line. Although the planting and care of 
tematic and vigorous spirit that pervades charles t brown 
it. We are frank to say that, however of Brown Bros. Co., Rochester, n.y., President these extensive grounds is a considerable 
lar-e of the American Association of Nurserymen q£ expense; yet they are maintained 
necessary it is in the conduct* of a 
business to stick closely to the lines which are revenue 
yielders and to eliminate others that are not productive, 
we are able to congratulate this firm, which makes its 
work educational, and which has evidently the desire to 
cultivate the aesthetic as well as the purely financial. 
These aesthetic and educational features are at once 
apparent in the lay-out of the Brown Brothers buildings 
and grounds. There is an apparent desire to please the eye, 
and educate the mind. This is seen on every hand. The 
spacious and striking office is approached by well executed 
drives, flanked by handsomely arranged and well cared for 
trees and shrubs. These serve the double purpose of com¬ 
pleting the picture and demonstrating their own beauty 
for the benefit of the firm’s customers, and for the pleasure 
they bring to the members of the firm themselves. 
We have said nothing about the small fruit department 
which is complete and extensive, and have only mentioned 
the great herbaceous department, which is an important 
addition to the landscape gardener’s materials; and in fact 
have only given the merest sketch of a great number of 
interesting features which are to be seen on the home 
grounds of Brown Brothers Company. It is to be remem¬ 
bered that these grounds, while exhibiting landscape 
features, are experimental in large measure; and that 
while there is great opportunity for the planter to study 
landscape effects, there is also abundant opportunity to 
