Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-11
ROSE KING OF AMERICA
Immense Establishment and Vast
Business In American
Realities.

Beauties.
The rose king OF America has his prin-
cipality some thirty miles up the Hudson
from New York City. directly in the seat
Of fashion along the Albany post road.
There are roses to right OF him. roses to
left of him, roses in front Of him and
behind him, all told, nearly $50 acres of
I roses. It IL common for him to ship to
New York City 5000 roses. You scarcely
would know that one had been taken. In
the miles Of glass houses there are hun
dreds Of thousands more. About 100000
are sent away each year. Ali are American
Beauties.
The king is Paul M. Pierson, who. for
the last twenty years. has raised nothing
but this variety of rose. How vast his out
put is may best be judged from the fact
that last June between 10000 and 10000
long-stemmed American Beauties were sent
out to serve as decorations at the we'd
dings and commencement exercises In Just
three cities, New York Philadelphia and
Boston. The king and his brother, Fred
erick r., have not resorted to the very fire.
quent modern custom of handling their
vast plant by managers and a board Of
directors, but conduct each individual fea-
ture of the enterprise personally.
In the open air American Beauties can
not be raised successfully. One thing
that means their death is the heavy lew.
Unusual condensation" is the technical
term that describes this. Too much mois-
ture on the leaves causes the BLACK spots
to appear. and when this comes 1t Is all
over with the roses affected. and they
nave to be dug up and destroyed. Too
much moisture about the roots is the cause
of another Of the American Beauty roses
| dan1lIoot Vnnnanaa Tho rnnf0 hanin RI
rot, almost in a day, and the work has
to be lone all over again.
Sunlight is our capital says Paul Pier
son. 'If we didn't have plenty Of that
rose growing would be out of the question.
June is the month of the year in which
the conditions for rose culture are the
most favorable-the ideal month. June Is
the month. too, when most roses are used
1T far leads all the others, even the win
ter months, when entertaining in the big
cities is at its height. You see, there are
more weddings In June than at any other
time of the year. Then there are the
commencement exercises that take a vast
number of roses. Aside from these the
increase is principally due to the number
Of people embarking for Europe at tina
time.
Yes, during June we frequently send
away 1000 beauties. and even more, in 8
single day. Another reason why these roses
are used so largely In June is that they
cost less to raise them and are cheaper
than In any other month OF the year. They
touch the top price about Christmas time
and we generally get N.5o apiece for then
from the big florists in the great cities
How much they sell them for I don't know
Did you ever know that a rose need.
sleep? 1t needs sleep Just the same as 6
person. But less of it. curiously enough
in the summer than in the winter. We
have been making some experiments with
some of the new artificial lights to see 4
we cannot fool the roses during the win
ter into thinking that the days are twelv,
or fourteen hours long. l do not think 1
would be practicable to try to force Ameri
can Beauties or any other roses by at
tempting to grow them under a combina
tion OF artificial light and sunshine with
out giving them any rest at all"
American Beauties are divided into sil
grades: Specials" "fancies." extras,
l "flrsts," seconds" and thirds Thes,
terms are used to designate the degrees o
perfection In the blooms that are hardl!
; apparent to anyone not an expert. Eacl
has a different price from the specials,
which are most perfect in every detail
! down to the cheapest. the thirds which
have the most defects. This is the wa!
they are bought by the dealers. Whei
> they are bought by the general public tn
grading is not used. As a general thin
! the biggest dealers buy only specials" tn,
magnificent long-stemmed varieties. TIL,
others go TO the grades down the line.
3 mo attempts have been made" contin
l ued Mr.. Pierson. Ito change the color o
1 the American Beauty. II can be made
little brighter by keeping the temperatur
> of the greenhouse a little lower than I
! customary. but this hardly pay on &C
D count Of the risk. II the temperature get
$ a shade too low II starts all sorts O