Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-10
ROSE KING OF AMERICA
Immense Establishment and Vast
Business in American
Beauties.

The rose king Of America has his pTin-
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
roses. 1t is common for him to ship to
New York City 10000 roses. You scarcely
would know that one had been taken. In
the miles of glass houses there are hum
dreds Of thousands more. About 7,O0O,00O
are sent away each year. All are American
Beauties.
The king is Paul NJ. 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 nag 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 dew.
Unusual condensation" is the echnical
term that describes this. Too much mois-
ture on the leaves causes the "black spots"
to appear, and when this comes it is all
over with the roses affected, and they
have TO be dug up and destroyed. Too
much moisture about the roots is the cause
of another of the American Beauty roses
deadliest menaces. The roots begin to
rot, almost in a day, and the work has
to be done 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 rear in which
the conditions for rose culture are the
most favorable-the ideal month Tune 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 Tune 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 that
time.
Yes, during June we frequently send
away 1000 beauties. and even more, in a
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 $50 apiece for them
from the big florists in the great cities.
How much they sell them for l don't know.
Did you ever know that a rose needs
sleep2 1t needs sleep just the same as a
person. But Less OF IL, curiously enough,
In the summer than in tho winter. We
have been making some experiments with
some OF the new artificial lights to see II
we cannot fool the roses during the win
ter into thinking hat the days are twelve
OF fourteen hours long. 1 do not think II
would be practicable to try to force Ameri-
can Beauties or any other roses by at
tempting to grow them under a combina-
ton OF artificial light and sunshine with
out giving them any rest at ALL"
American Beauties are divided into siS
grades; Specials" 'fancies." extras, 4"