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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1908)
THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND. SUNDAY MORNING. AUGUST 23, I90S 1? warm rm n mm i I- i f I OTDERFUL PRICES OF THEPRDCEMY 'J) ll ' t , - r i - r , v . , l l I J PETUNIA andM HERPRTOSISTEto 7 HA' seedsman took up a tiny spoon of horn, smooth as a pearl all over, with its cup the shape of a mustard spoon, and no larger, if as large. f'ery carefully he dipped it into the little pile of drab ponder on the highly cal endered paper before him, and scooped up a liliputian spoonful. He sjiook ijwith gentle solicitude, until the spoonful was rounded of nearly level tilth the edge. Then he deposited the pon der on a separate i .1 r paper, sucn as me arug vist uses for his pre par a- Hons. ft "That ponder mivht be gold dust from the J way you handle it," re- "" v rriuf hcm trie t ft. 1 1 1 j v u u IV vtl spectator. . ' " XHf "Gold dust!" the Y rn V L seedsman retorted, dis dainfully. "Why, this is worth fifteen or twenty times its weight in gold. Man, this is double- ' fringed petunia seed, Yyy- worth $3 a thousand seeds at retail $300 or $400 an ounce." The interested spec tator bnit over for a ..: pur . in 1 J- 4 Wlicther the florists drew their metaphor from iuimitablo Homer, with liis refcVonce to "rosy-fijigered dawn," or, whether they discov ered the beautiful resemblance afresh for them selves, need not matter. It is an exceptionally true comparison, for the new variety 01 petunia wears, in the most delitiatrt perfection, tho rosy flush of tho dawning1 day, perhaps the most fas cinating tint man's eyes can look upon. It came from the north of Germany last season, and. won instant favor. Unlike bo many fads in flowers, whose triumphs can bo counted by the hundreds, and whoso quick declino hap pens almost as frequently, the rosy morn petu nia, with its fringed edge and its exquisite pink shadings, has been more popular this year than when it made its cordially received debut. Remarkable in such an event, ita prico re mains low only 20 or 25 cents for a package of half a hundred seeds. That makes its price at least $500 an ounoo to the public; but still, at tho charges tho public is called upon to pay for triv ial packets, made out of the 100,000 and more seeds that go into the ounce of the wholesaler, it 1 BSS4Bfks Si Vs 7 hi is cheap coiopared with the 50 cents, per packet charged for tho little imported collection of half a dozen fringed varieties. They sometimes re tail at $1000 for an ounce; while many double fringed varieties of imported stock sell at 75 cents, or $1500 an ounce. Yet the petunia is neither the most expen sive nor the tiniest of the aristocratic flower seeds. There is the begonia, household word with lovers of fine flowers, to whom its intense ver milions, brilliant yellow and orange, rosy pink and creamy whito blooms, measuring as large as six inches across, have appealed irresistibly for years. Fine as are the seeds of the petunia, those of the begonia are only half their size, almost as delicate as the motes that fly in the sunbeams. In England, where some of the choicest kinds are , produced, the buyer will pay $200 for an ounce, if Bueh a riot of extravagance should occur to' him; here, the charges on such seeds are usually double. He would scarcely escape paying less than $400. But, abroad, as Jiere, the fine art of the seedsman is called upon to plit and divide the ounce, even, for the great florists, down to the sixteenth and thirty-second fraction. ' All these seeds, from those at $5 an ounce, ;to those worth nearly $500, at wholesale rates, ,are sold in fractions of sixteenths and thirty seconds. The public enjoys their outcome through the efforts of the professional florist; the very wealthy, through the skill of highly paid gardeners. , The seed of calceolaria, that strange, pocket-like flower, which comes into bloom in the early spring, with its "tigered"' and spotted blos soms, is no larger than that of the begonia. Eng land charges $100 an ounce for it there, and the price riss to $250 by the time it is on sale in the United States. 1 closer look. The seedsman waved him away, in hasty apprehension. "Don't breathe near that pile!" he cried, warningly. ". single breath upon those seeds might cost me $50 or $100. This is prctt serious business." r r if i5 i4 1 &7(7WCC? -A PS, 1 ""A A r r i rn r f 1 s r- hy a river'? Iirim A eli"vv r,r i'nrnse v'a : !i!m And it ..s nothini; n,( :l - W rds wt.rth. 1" Wonlswort n;a- iii'iro to the - tl,. iirc. in rum 1 1 it: n : ; 1 -)m;t 1 tr'Tiii r,. ((, U "t tilt- JH'Mllf"--' 'uii'c. ai'd tin- w!;"lcsal r . m.i ,,t Hi. mi. 1 t- than th' , r .,n w c.rt h ;ii in tin-' jir'tty ii ;h"y it pays a quar 1 in!,! a ni i;g ah"iit priinr'i- t '-'-njf s a '. a In ,1 turn 1 m - p i EYE.N ihf j r i in ri 1 tt-nali'-t is a ',, M-cdiiiaii. ( 'far-' jiarir-i'ii wi:h tin- lives of the Tn tmiia. average 'i,!"" in :h price is u-ual! 1 t nuni-r- a t""il i' a i th-ir weight 111 - J . When the p '.ill pril('tnrinns ci ; :n f. are nnd i"ar- an Ver of a dollar t. r fifty. S rvi 11 ih- Ki iit la t U'Tth i7."i an which virgin g'-ld )- ' W)f-!1 It (-fITii' t the f-fis that hhi : anxii'-u- -if-'l-n:..!! !iin,i"i hi phrase h t'v. Vrry -ri-iu. dfd;ir- I h r ;ri t 1 u-itu I nit-d StHtfi Mjjii Kuri ; . I v-t th'.-i- An- 'n n -j-'i r . garden. iin'uV" -i ;n r ?y i ' 1 r d Pf r i'f !;,.. 1 1 rv ph. iv.n l.v thr-m pur rhafccl in 1 .'.1 r. r id for a h i1 encf-d on it r-y th Ihe thr dcmri ! Whfn tin- -. , which cv'tild t - rne'a fnrr-fiuki r. an of )iuhi; r.il roi tho - a j ' h 1 k 1 i of tl I.. "p. ' ., IIP,. r. t . ri eni.-e gh-aned hy modern horticulture, can afford to own and enjoy some of them. And that is precisely what the poor and the fairl.v well off and the passahly rich do. For then, even m their smallest, earli est development, as they stand shyly in their three-inch pots, the plants that have grown from one of those thousand seeds, which cn-t three for a cent, are worth from 15 to 05 cents api.cr n price at which almost any one with an nmhitious taste in plants ran own one or two. By this time an mmee of the douhle frmged petunias, which had cost the whole saler $l.-'l in tho tir-t phvo and brought h:rn between $:;" and .loi) in the second iliice, have im-rea-t-.! in value to' IS'.'oOO. -nice, grown into pen,'-, at I. a -1 ' loo.iMtu m number, they hv . clear market value at l.'i cent a plant, a- a rule, and 2," cents i ii many iii-taie-os. Hut t);,. jM iMlnjo. f the tiny pile of lmpalpaelo dust in -1 o, that oriirinsl v 1 hb 1 S V V V i 5f ' - Re -.i it 1 j- n were not yet t'X- "un.-e 1 t ji; Miuia s, ,.,) ... . i T 1 1 ... ""-'I- l'U.V ( il,! IV, I'- J :;,t,i ilr. j.Jant- r'' ' 11 ' of 1 loominc. m .,11 ,l,p hr,i- UvWllliiV1 -ti r: 1. tor i aU-- ( ut some of mallness the wa. mild in 1 li-llli -a it is, in- . too, all (,fr the . ds f.f the floral 1" and the gar- V of th t" I'l'irimn: . : t s ma rkf ; p f the po.-li. t dust piii 1 every uiie of l- -s than lalf o 'lie Anal, s that lay la- he piper W8: ,1 1 unce. I ne ' d- i' r-xperi-se trade sup- h 1 s r- s nf th j "unia. h';n"ired of iK-red tip ', the damp t.p of ave und rc -ne r.aiurp's mar- Tlou trnf - n.n und. r 'he au-ir-cs of the expert rrdTT r,r ion.t th results ar th rarat an4 Ck charmirur rrrdoct of the ralm t flowvra; ani yet th - rt amor thote who $ te 'i'ntntg!y upon th ("awrt- nHt cf the tkh, br ti hiii-a!aritl expfrt bricgi to lar Mpvm their i-lantiaf and cultare all the aci- il.ii.- aro them v, a - t a dollar a lull worth tent in tha $.'.0,(111. Throughout t he u-.t r in New England ai d N'ew " dor- of the petnn-a- f h ight during the :,.;! It is almost the I'!,, i.;. the whole range h igh flower feeds that 8'ts: the mmmcr. But it i fit to mni' among all the rich rt r i-on. rew plants r,tual it :n effectivens for outdoor decoration or for house cul turp. It maintain a contiguous sheet of blom until killed by frot. The flowers red. purplp. vhitp. yrl!ow and. again, ft-ar-rd in coloring had a new hue added to inf'T admirable repertory latt year. fioriiU hare called it tha Roty Mora. t ltd bu: . "rk. the aiilen- (e s,-en at their I the summer, produced from d, microscopic :ts triumph in i;n ;t distinction -- r.ce of the sea- i '; ! "V-iAf The ' I 0 . r 1 1 k L L. S U 17 J a
