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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 1920)
T il s i VOL,, xxxix. PORTLAND CANNOT SUPPLY DEMAND FOR ROSE Flowers for Which This City Is Famed Are Grown in Fields Like Corn, but Enormous Shortage Develops in Markets and Local Growers and Others See Danger of 02 Nearby Jfose F&T77JS Flowers Crow in Zxetcfc Zzke corn 5 BY rE WITT HARRY. (CopyrljhJ. 1920 INTRIGUED by Portland's wonder ful record as a rose-growing- cen ter an expectant world, anxiously waiting- for examples of the priceless plants that can be grown no place else on the face of the globe, seems doomed to disappointment. 'So criti cal has become the state of the rose bush market that this city, recog nized everywhere as the queen of rose centers, has been forced for the past several years to import plants Instead of exporting them, ,aa she rightfully . should. Portland cannot even supply the local demand for rosea. A period of danger confronts her and her well-earned laurels as he prime test center. Just as a concrete example of the local situation the proposed beautify ing of Sandy boulevard by converting It into a roseway seems doomed. Un less the proponents of this scheme get right to work and contract for their bushes that will be needed they would eeera unable to carry their project to completion. In any event, it will be Impossible for them to get their plants In place before 1923, even if they hasten contracts. The only solution for their dilemma would seem to be for the residents along the boulevard and those interested to get after their own salvation by planting their own hoots and growing their own bushes. Florists here today cannot cope with 4 4, w;." ? the demand. The situation has out grown production -by leaps -"and bounds. - Thousands of Rose Plants Wasted. Every day orders pour Into Port land' for bushes that cannot be sup plied. Not merely Isolated orders from the visitors who came here with the Shrine this year, saw Portland's peerless blooms and went away de termined to have some of them in their own yards, but orders from big concerns who wish to purchase tens of thousands of plants to supply the ever-increasing demand. , Portland has'developed a market for something the whole world wants and cannot even begin to fill the demand. Foreign Imports, up to the time of the war. managed to supply some of the markets in this country, but florists overseas have almost quit producing. and even If they coulu they cannot get their product into this country on ac count of rigid, laws recently enacted to prevent the entering of varioas plant disease scourages that have ob tained a foothold In foreign nurseries since the start of war. The result Is that wholesale flourlsts and big firms In this country, who in the past have relied on imported plants to supply their demands, have no source of sup ply. They are up against It and beg for shipments at top prices never be fore dreamed of. Seeing the development of this PORTLAND, OREGON, phase In the markets of the world. 1 California growers' several years ago began to prepare for the movement and planted Immense fields to roses. with the resdlt that this ' year they will be able to supply, some 3,750.000 plants. Altogether they are esti mated to have this year some 6,000, 000 plants ready for market, com prising both budded stock and own- root roses. Portland, the rose cen ter of the world, apparently losing ground in this vital industry, will not likely be able to sell outside more than-one-tenth of this amount or a mere trifle of 300,000 bushes. It is an unparalleled opportunity for the development- of an essential industry with a great future here, for the reason that Portland, while fighting for years for recognition as the real rose center of the world, is just now beginning to come into her own. With the establishment of the United States rose test gardens here, Portland each year, starting with 1920. names the champion rose of the world, and to the perfection and beauty of thiB rose, growers of all nations maka their obesiance. Roses Grow ' Like Com. Rose farms, on which roses grow just like corn in Iowa, are beginning to spring up near the city, but there are not enough of them. Market con dltiona are so stable right now that prospective growers can even con- SUNDAY MORNING, ',t- -.itJ&tJIti.- tract for their output far in advance with a sufficient margin to make a goodly profit and with hardly any risk. Tested plants, properly budded. have the readiest of sale, as do even the stocks from which the better grades are developed. . Sweet briar stocks find a ready sale at more than, twice what they brought in 1915, and Oregon's ' woods are rife with this plant. .Prior to the start or the war Eng land and Franca grew the majority of the stocks, and these generally went to Holland, where . they were budded and the marketable plant com pleted. From here they were export ad all over the woid, and an industry developed that had hardly a peer In the floral world, even in the Holland bulbs. Oregon Is in the peculiar po sition right now of a section of the globe rife with opportunity for this new Industry in which it is certain that fortunes will be made in the next few years. Rose growers and fanciers from every nation write here for specimen plants, only-to be die appointed. ' War destroyed the fields of Belgium SEPTEMBER 12, 1920 Jrt&tfte from Jill Overr ff7f &Zo2?e C&777? cT'r f&r 2r?i 4? 6 A - NTOCJ and Holland, not so much from in- vasion, for this came In other see- tions. but from inability to care for them. Labor conditions forbade rose and Ttrra I ourttivA fnnnsruffn WArA too badly needed. Now, with the cessation of carnage, the world is again turning to the beautiful and the demand is again in evidence. If anything greater than before, as the available stocks everywhere have nearly, been depleted. In 1913 the United States imported 6.300,000 plants and in 1915 9,400,000. Much of this stock was Just that ready for bud ding. However, in one year as many as 3,515,568 finished plants have been sold to American growers from for eign nurseries. Rooted stocks have fallen off and prices have risen until today these same stocks, rooted, that sold for S20 per thousand, bring from 955 up. - And last year only some 126,000 plants managed to pass Into the United States, leaving an im mense shortage for American grow ers to complete. This they have been unable to do and it is not likely that they will for several years to come. In any vent it Is not likely that any country or portion of the United : K. & States can produce plants that will 1 be able to go out In open markets and cnmnt with the. r.i. or , ' ,, , Rose growing Is an Industry that 1 Is little understood, even here that" should be the real center of culture for the world. The usual practice is to build up a bush on wild roots. This is done for the reason that the wild varieties are hardier, being used to forage for their sustenancs, and the root formation is much bet ter than Is the pampered varieties grown in the gardens. Oregon wild briars are among the best standards in the world for root foundations, and shoots, cuttings or even the seeds gathered from the myriads of red and yellow pods that tastefully decorate the briars in the fall pro duce a parent stock for the grafting of the domestic varlotles that has no peer anywhere. -Japanese stocks are quicker growing and for that reason are favored by a great many who are in this business in a commercial way, but the Oregcn briar produces a root NO. 37 BUSHES Losing Essential Industry. if rz. : s. . 3 f i tf&Y" and stalk formation that cannot be surpassed. After the roots are rirmly set. that is, after the wild rose shoot has taken hold of the soil for itself and begun to grow, comes the time fop budding. This is careful and painstaking work and calls for a great deal of skill and as it is extremely laborious it is the real reason why much of the output of the world today is being lost. Right here one nurseryman was forced to leave some 250,000 plants revert to wild types this spring as he could not get the help to com plete the budding. In the operation of budding, which Is nothing else than the complete changing of the identity of the bush, a bud or shoot that is Just starting to grow from a carefully selected va riety of bush, known as the mother plant, is removed from the garden and placed in an incision cut in the bark of the wild rose shoot. Then the growing section of the wild rose Is ' cut off and the transplanted commer cial bud carefully wrapped with raffia bandages and the plant again set out i (Concluded oa pace a.) T 107.5v
