File:Florists' review (microform) (1912) (16501221628).jpg

Title: Florists' review (microform)
Identifier: 5205536_36_1 (find matches)
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Floriculture
Publisher: Chicago : Florists' Pub. Co
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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>■■'■,"•J.?..< rTvi REMOTE STOl THE WISTARIA'S WAYS AND WANTS In landscape adornment, vines as well as shrubs and trees can often he used to advantage—to the advantage of both gardener and grounds. Vines increase the possibilities for variety and effectiveness in design, thus adding to the trade's opportunities. And few vines are more serviceable in this way than the wistaria. O ONE viae, q^ qourse, will answer ail the different purposes £«piNI?hich vines ' "^ be p'ossible, even, to find a vine that is perfectly suited to any one purpose. The commercially perfect vine, or commercially per- fect plant of any sort, never yet has been obtained and prob- ably never will be obtained, catalogues to the contrary notwithstanding. All normal products of nature, such as plants, may be perfect in their own way, but as soon as man begins to adapt these natural products to artifi- citflJ/'Conditions—then, in the words of the, famous jingle, "nee- dles and pins, his trouble begins;" he begins his ceaseless effort toward what he calls improve- ment, improvemettit that ever leads onward to greater improvement. In plant raising, as in other human undertakings, our present best will generally be followed by a future better. Thus the world "do move," and for that let Providence be thanked! So the wistaria, com- mercially speaking, has its defects as well as its merits. Or, if the ad- mirers of the wistaria will not admit that it has any defects, they will at least acknowledge that it has its limitations. About Its Name. The wistaria is more than ordinarily beautiful. It has a most unique and distinctive sort of beau- ty, and even the name "wistaria" is pleasing enough to accord well with the grace and charm of the plant. The name is pretty enough to fit the plant and that is more than can be said of hosts of other plant ap- pellations. The word "wistaria" has in it a suggestion of music and romance; it is such a name as chimes .*vell ka. song and s±oi^. "-' f^f Yet therte is nothing mysterious or romantic about the origin of the name. The wistaria was so called in honor of Caspar Wistar, who was professor of anatomy in the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania about the be- ginning of the nineteenth century. When he was thus honored by having the plant as a namesake, he had prob- ably done something else to earn such a distinction, besides simply bearing a name that would sound well when adopted for the vine, but even the suitability of his name is of no slight importance when one considers the un- couthness of pie names which have been inflicted bn many beautiful but helpless and hapless flowers. The wistaria also has had other bo-
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The Wistaria on a Rochester Workman's Porch. 35SCG3 tanical names and it is still listed oc- casionally as a glycin'e. Familiarly it is sometimes called the kidney-bean tree, the grape-flower vine, etc. But, luckily, it is most frequently known as the wistaria. Its Family RelationsMps. The wistaria belongs to the legu- minosae, that immense order or family whose members vary in size from the slender, fragile sweet pea to the huge, rugged coflPee tree, honey locust and others. The ^ wistaria's pea-shaped flowers and pods are sufficiently sugges- tive of its family connections. Though there are both giants and dwarfs in the leguminos8B family, the family resem- blance is plainly visible in nearly every individual, whether huge or tiny. TJie defects — no, the limitations—of the wista- ria are less obvious than its beauties and should therefore be emphasized To begin where the planf negins, it is somewhat <lifficult of propagation, as cuttings of it do not root readily unless the conditions are exactly right. It can be grown from seeds, but with un- certainty as to the char- acter of the seedlings. A •method sometimes em- ployed instead of the us^ of cuttings is to graft a small shoot on a piece of root, but an easier and surer process is to layer the young growing shoots. However, as far as the florist is concerned, a still easier and more practical method is to let the nur- seryman do the propagat- ing and all the attendant worrying. Indeed, the nurseryman is so accus- tomed to the job that he \ can dispense with most of the worrying; for him there is only enough dif- ficulty in the operation to make it interesting. Its Start in Life. It is advisable, then, that the nurseryman start the little wistarias into life and keep them in his possession until they are^

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