The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-07-26

in the tenth case. Ask for pink and
your order will probably be filled with
Bridesmaid. though Killarney is now
pushing hard for first place. and there
are Chatenay and one or two others
successful with a few growers. For
red. Richmond is used almost exclu-
sively, only an occasional bench of
Liberty now being found and we have
our American Beauty-so that We can
safely say that ninety per cent of all
the winter cut roses are Bride, Rich
mond, Bridesmaid, Killarney and AM
erican Beauty.
A hundred times a year the florist
is asked why don't you grow Bon
silene and Marechal Mel and Malmai-
son? | am simply hungry for some
of the dear old roses that my mother
used to grow in her garden" The
sole reason is that they do not pro-
duce perfect blooms in suffient GUAM
tity in the winter time to pay for the
space they occupy. Many of the fin
est summer boomers in the open,
though given heat and moisture in
the greenhouse, refuse to open per-
fectly and come with very bad col
or and the florist of average intel
ligence, will not plant a variety the
second time. that he has found a fl
nancial failure the previous season.
Different in Europe.
In Europe, conditions are very diff
ferent in rose culture. There the rose
is par excellence. The Queen of the
Gardn, from royalty down, through
all classes, to the hublest cottager,
roses are planted in profusion, and
are dearly loved by rich and poor
alike. The climate and soil suit them
to perfection, but the dark cloudy
winters prevent the florist from hand
ling them in their greenhouses as We
do in America. They cannot plant
in soil on the bench as we do because
the soil would remain wet and be-
come sour and a crop of mildew and
black spot would result. The produc-
ing Of cut roses in winter is next to
impossible, so that in judging a new
rose, its garden qualities are para
mount and it's forcing qualities are
never known until tried out in Amer
lea.
In this country. new out door rose,
! If better than existing sorts, will
meet with a fair sale of several thous-
and plants, but distinct new sort
that will force in the winter time,
can be sold by the ten thousand.
Take the Richmond for instance; it
has most of the points that go to
make up a very profitable winter
rose; a free grower; healthy and dis
ease resisting; very quick in produc-
| ing new growths and every growth
crowned with a scarlet bud of grand
size.
! Last March at the American Rose
show held in the Art Museum. there
were IL vases of Richmond, each con-
| tanning 100 blooms of enormous size,
on stiff stems feet long. The finest
vase came all the way from Boston,
sent by w. H. Elliott, who says ii is
| the most profitable rose that he has
ever grown and every florist in the
country is now growing 1t in larger
or smaller quantity. But, Richmond
would not rank in France as a garden
rose with many older red sorts, from
the fact that it opens too quickly in
the hot sunshine, showing too few
| petals.
My efforts in cross-fertilization
have been to produce forcing variet.
les adaptable to our winter culture,
for very fortunately l combine the
business sense which enables me TO
view the rose commercially as well
as the pure delight to be found in its
culture and in the production of new
forms and colors. Too often the en-
thusiast in any line Of art or inven'
ton seems to have the commercial in.
stinct entirely absent from his make
I'M
When, therefore, | was invited by
VI. Jules Gravereaux to send on for
inspection by the jury, my new roses
which were to be dissemmat/i TO the
trade, he had to select from the seed.