File:The American florist - a weekly journal for the trade (1902) (18138239575).jpg

Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw25amer (find matches)
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: American Florists Company
Subjects: Floriculture; Florists
Publisher: Chicago : American Florist Company
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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378 The American Florist. Oct. IT, The entrance or lobby leading to the exhibition will be flanked alternately with statuarj' and bay trees. At the imme- diate entrance a large arch of trellis work will be erected, covered with wild smilax and other greenery. Passing under the arch one will see a vista of the whole exhibition. A long, unbroken walk twen- ty-five feet wide will reach to the far end. Ranged on either side will be massed the cut flower exhibits, with a background of palms, foliage plants and statuary on pedestals. A feature of the cut flowers is that they will be arranged in groups of one color on benches of irregular size and shape, in stairway fashion and covered with sheet moss. The vases will be of uniform white, in harmony with the general color scheme, white and green. At the east end, that is, opposite to the archway, will be erected an immense arbor, semi-circular in shape, the two ends facing the arch, all of trelliswork and painted white. The base will be six feet in height, twelve feet wide, while stairwaj'S of rustic work will lead to the promenade, where a view of the whole exhibition can be obtained. Each side of the platform will contain sixteen arch- ways of trellis work and the roof will also be a trellis, all painted white and covered with wild smilax. Between the archways plants and statuary will be alternated. In the center of the arbor on the amphi- theatre floor will be a semi-circular pool of water to be filled with water lilies and a(;uatic grasses. A fountain will be midway between the ends of the arbor. On the two sides of the amphitheatre, about midway from either side and ends will be two square arbors of trelliswork, arched and about forty feet in height, in the same style as the other features, and on either side about midway between these arbors and the arch and semi- circular arbors four fountains will be installed. A hedge of cedars will surround the garden, clipped to the height of the boxes which surround the amphitheatre. Where possible these will be trimmed to give a toparian effect. A canopy of some light material and light blue in color will be hung from the roof, covering the whole An Experiment With Hyacinths in Water. The object of the experiment here described was to show whether the behavior of varieties was due to the variety itself or the manner of culture. The experiment was planned by Prof. John Fields and the writer in the fall of 1899 in connection with the work at the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion. The experiment began December 11, 1899. Sixteen ounce, salt-mouth, glass bottles were used in place, of hyacinth jars. Of each of nine varieties six bulbs were used and these were arranged, for convenience, in a solid square and the bottles numbered from 1 to 54. Six dif- ferent culture media were used so that each bulb of each varietj' was in a dift'er- ent culture medium from the rest, as follows: B! k; Cb a. o o Leonidas, single, light blue.. 1 2 3 4 ."> 6 Grandeur a Merville, blush white, single 7 8 9 10 II 12 Bouquet Royal, pure white, double.." 13 l-l 15 16 17 18 Charles Dickens, double, dark blue 19 fO 21 22 f3 24 Gertrude, single, deep rose..2.5 Stf 27 i.8 i9 30 Czar Nieholas, double dark pink 31 32 33 34 35 36 Amy, single, bright carmine 3? 38 39 40 41 42 Robt. Steiger, single, deep red 43 44 45 48 4T 48 Voltaire, single, creamy white 49 5) 51 52 .53 .54 Each time the water was changed six cubic centimeters of the fertilizer were added. Set five was not changed at all. The chalk was introduced in order to neutralize any acid that might be formed. The water was changed at intervals of two weeks during the experiment. The plants were kept in a dark, cool cave for forty-nine days until the roots of some oi the bulbs had reached the bottom of the jars and a little foliage showed, when they were placed in the greenhouse in subdued light. Notes were carefully made from time to time on the development of
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DELIVERY WAGON OF J. SIMMONS, OF TORONTO, CANADA. of the rafters and reducing somewhat the height of the building. Formal tables for the exhibits will be entirely dispensed with where possible and groups of plants displayed in uncon- ventional lines. Specimens like foliage plants will be placed in raised beds, filled with tan-bark so that the pots can be plunged. roots, flowers and leaves. In February the standing was as follows: Leonidas, flowers late, uneven, good; Grandeur a Merville, late, even, good; Bouquet Royal, late, even, inferior; Charles Dickens, long, uneven flowering period, good; Gertrude, nearly always two or three spikes, uneven, fair; Czar Nicholas, verj' late, poorest of the lot; Amy, early, fine; Robert Steiger, uneven, fair; Voltaire, very even, early, fine. On March 7 Leonidas, Bouquet Royal, Charles Dickens, Gertrude, Czar Nicholas, Robert Steiger and Voltaire flowers all gone. Grandeur a Merville in prime con- dation. Amy had the second spikes of flowers at their best. The first stalks all gone. At no time could any difference due to different culture media be detected but there was a marked difference in the dif- ferent varieties. E. E. BoGUE. American Paeonias. Until recently it has been our custom to draw on Europe for our new pa?onias, and most of us who have imported roots have had our experiences, often vexatious and costly. Some of the leading foreign propagators seem incomprehensibly care- less or else they have not yet learned that "Honesty is the best policy," for a good deal of their stock has been sadly mixed. In one instance aleadingEnglish dealer sent an old customer in Massa- chusetts a lot not at all true to name. Lady Alexander Duff, for instance, was supposed to head the list, and this costs $5 a root, but the plants were entirely spurious. Now this is not an exceptional case and England is a long way off, so that it is hard to get mistakes corrected. I myself, imported from one of the leading dealers of Holland. On blooming the stock proved badly mixed. After considerable correspondence I secured a correction, but will it be any better? I cannot tell till blooming time again. Those he sent for Madonnas, which should have been fine, delicate flowers, were the coarsest kind of common pink. Some years ago I sent to a large French firm for a choice lot. I think they were true to name, but they cost set down 60 cents a root. I afterward found I could get exactly the same kinds, with better roots, and true to name, only 200 miles away, where the propagator was using every precaution to keep his stock pure, and I could get them by the thousand for one-third of what the imported ones cost. This man some fifteen years ago bought about $50 worth of the very best sorts and now has about 30,000. It is time for us to begin to rely on our- selves for pai'onias, first, because our lead- ing propagators are responsible and reli- able, and, second, because we have plenty of good, rich land and we can propagate cheaper than Europe can, and so save duty and freight. Pa;oniascanbe grown as a field crop on our rich prairies and raised by the million. They are a crop in which labor does not count, like sugar beets. We are no longer obliged to go to Europe for our Ijest varieties. A few years ago some of our florists commenced raising from seed. See what Richardson, of Boston, did. Where is there anything that can out-class his creations? His Grandiflora and Perfection stand beside the Glory of Erfurt, and his Rubra Superba is peerless as a late flower. It is a grand, solid, crimson ball, with a deli- cate, satiny finish, and can be cut and kept in cold storage to the middle of July. I have planted the costly, foreign kinds side by side with our Iowa and Nebraska sorts and for the life of me cannot see why preference should be given to the for- eigners. Zoe Callot is unique and beauti- ful, but for delicacy of finish and exqui- site loveliness it bears no comparison with Terry's Mrs. Harrison, which it so closely resembles. Many sweet and deli-

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