THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
123 
THE GARDNER NURSERY CO., OSAGE, IOWA 
T he Gardner Nurseries were established in 
1869 by Mr. Charles F. Gardner and were con¬ 
ducted by Mr. Gardner and his sons until 1901 
at which time the business was incorporated,, with 
Charles F. Gardner and Clark E. Gardner as owners of 
the $50,000.00 capital stock. 
In the early days most of the business was secured 
through agents,but later on a Mail Order Department was 
started and this grew so fast that the agency work was 
finally dropped, and all sales are now made direct with 
months. Plants of these new varieties set in spring, 
will bear a big crop of berries the same summer, and fall 
plants are set and come through the winter ready to go 
at it again the next spring. The Gardners prophecy 
is that the everbearing strawberries will take the place 
of the common once a year fruiting sorts, in a few years 
time. 
Nurserymen as a class have been very slow to 
look into the merits of these new strawberries, but dur¬ 
ing the past year there has been a marked change in at- 
Oriental Poppies and other hardy out-of-door flowers on grounds of 
the Gardner Nursery Co., Osage, Iowa. 
customers by mail and come from all over the United 
States and Caiiada. 
Up to about ten years ago evergreens were a leading 
specialty with the Gardners, but as the heavy demands 
came in for fruit trees, small fruits, ornamentals, etc., 
etc., the evergreen line was gradually curtailed, and more 
attention given to the more active lines. For the past 
eight years Mr. Charles F. Gardner has devoted a large 
part of his time at work with the new race of everbearing 
strawberries. At the present time they have hundreds 
of new hybrids that were selected from many thousands 
of seedlings that are showing up extra strong. Among 
them may be found strawberries of every size, shape, 
color and flavor of the common once a year fruiting 
sorts, but these new varieties instead of simply bearing 
for a couple of weeks, at regular strawberry season, con¬ 
tinue fruiting heavily all through the summer and fall 
titude and now there is a great scramble to get on the 
bank wagon. Still even now, you will find here and 
there a well meaning authority on horticulture who will 
solemnly declare that there is no such animal, or if there 
is such a fruit it is worthless. Some such parties admit 
there is such a fruit in successful bearing, but take the 
point that people do not care for strawberries out of sea¬ 
son, or that the fruit will not stand the competition of the 
summer fruits such as grapes, peaches, etc., etc. The 
Gardners have proved all of the above to be fallacies. 
During the summer and fall of 1915, they picked and sold 
exactly 22,563 quarts of everbearing strawberries, get¬ 
ting at wholesale from 15 to 26V£ cents per quart net. 
They found people just as ready buyers all during the 
summer and fall and in the spring and that strawberries 
topped the markets in competition with all other fruits. 
Another line of work the Gardners are interested in is 
