This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V25", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
Nanz & Neuner, Louisville, Ky., write: "In answer to that covered attack in your February number about our new seedling tuberose, ' Diamond,' we pronounce the same false in every particular. .
" I. Over one-half of our saleable first-quality bulbs has been sold in this country, and we still have orders ahead which we are unable to fill with extra large bulbs.
"2. We offered this Diamond tuberose to over eight hundred American florists. Please notice enclosed wholesale circular, which was mailed to the trade in September.
" 3. But one house handles our tuberose in Europe, and strange to say, does not reside in France. Nor do we think it will restrict its sale to France or any one part of Europe.
" 4. The price we charge is but a trifle higher than that of the Pearl tuberose, as everybody could see in last advertisement in Gardeners' Monthly. We never charged fancy prices.
" 5. The European house had over five hundred bulbs of this tuberose in bloom, was satisfied as to its earliness, etc, and ordered accordingly.
" Our D. Tuberose is a seedling of the single one, which every one knows is fully two to three weeks earlier than the Pearl or Double Italian. It has inherited this earliness, and resembles in growth neither the Pearl nor the Italian, but the single. The true D. Tuberose has also the good quality of being dwarfer than the pearl; but we do not hesitate to state that our tuberose is defective to some extent as regards its evenness in height, but we are fully confident to overcome this delect in a few years. In the meanwhile we recommend it only as a forcing tuberose, which by its earliness alone will more than repay for the little extra price asked for same.
" By introducing none but first-class novelties, from the White Grape Myrtle, etc, down to our perpetual blooming Bouvardia, B. rosea multiflora, and now our double red one, all sent out by us, and all which are going to stay, we have acquired a fair, but, we think, well-deserved business reputation, which we will not be slow to defend against malicious attacks."
[We admit this communication, under our usual rule of risking an error on the side of fair play, if we are to err at all. But to our mind we should have been justified in declining its insertion, as it does not meet the points stated, and the indignation against "covered attacks" and "malicious attacks" is thrown away by the writers.
In reference to point one, we have to insist that our first statement was made on the strength of a letter dated December 7, 1882, addressed to a responsible nurseryman, signed Nanz & Neuner, and from which we quote as follows: "The orders lor export have been so large that we have sold nearly-all our whole stock of Diamond Tuberose to France and Germany." N. & N. now say this is not true; that " over one-half has been sold in this country." If this is "false in every particular," Nanz & Neuner of December 14th must settle the matter with Nanz & Neuner of December 7th.
The point about the price is of no consequence. No one objects to a "fancy " price for a new thing; but if the thing is old under the pretence of being new, it is another matter. Nor is it material that the purchaser is satisfied. If they have not seen the Pearl it is only another illustration that where " ignorance is bliss," etc.
The real point at issue is simply this; After our notice of it last season, we had many letters from responsible parties, giving us their reason for believing that the Diamond tuberose was in no way distinct from the Pearl. On the strength of the announcement that the introducers intended to give doubters an opportunity to judge of this matter another year, we thought it but fair to Nanz & Neuner not to publish these letters. We have not been given this opportunity, nor do we know of any one who has, and we are therefore compelled to say that on the authority of very good evidence submitted to us, we believe there is no difference between the Diamond and the Pearl.
This must close this controversy for the present. - Ed. G. M.]
 
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