"There died in Baltimore, a short time ago, a man whose life was spent among flowers and whose contributions to the floral varieties are said to include the introduction into America of the geranium and the propagation of the 'American Beauty' rose. Mr. Anthony Cook, says the Hartford Courant, came from Germany, where his father was a florist to a royal family. He was born ninety years ago and never knew other love than that for the flowers with which he surrounded himself. Of his life the Courant says: While he loved all flowers, his favorite was the rose, and its cultivation was a specialty in which he accumulated a considerable fortune. He raised about 6,000 rose plants a year and sometimes grafted as many as 16,000 buds in a single season. In good years, when the rose plants flourished, he cut between 50,000 and 60,000 blossoms. [...] His life was almost as simple and regular as that of his flowers. Almost invariably he rose at five o'clock in the morning and after a long day with his plants he went to bed at half-past seven at night. To this simplicity and regularity he attributed his length of years. With so long a life devoted to beauty, he must have added much to the joy that other people found in living.

The Baltimore Sun speaks a little more intimately of his work: The aged florist's life was spent among his blossoms, and flowers were his life. In addition to raising blooming flowers he was a collector of rare plants, in his collection being one of great rarity from the South Sea Islands. Another, which never failed to attract the attention of the lover of flowers, was a plant technically called the astrolitz, with curiously shaped petals of sharply contrasting colors and quaint spear-like leaves. The blossom part emerges from a pointed leaf, tightly closed, and consists of two pointed petals of a bright orange color extending in an opposite direction from a harpoon counterpart of what may be best described as Alice blue. [...] With his vast knowledge of flowers, Mr. Cook not only grafted bud with bud, but was cognizant of the sexes, and hybridized them. It was in this manner, according to him, that he propagated the 'American Beauty'. It was his story that he first raised the flower under the name of the 'Apollona', and under that name sold it to a woman enthusiast of Washington. A florist there finally secured an interest and exported the rose to England, from which country it returned to its native land under its present name," from periodical Literary Digest, 1906, pp. 952-953.

“Anthony Cook, who was the dean of the florists’ trade of Baltimore, died May 13 [1906], at the age of 90 years. He was born in Germany and went to Baltimore when about 23 years old and lived there ever since, most of the time on the property he acquired nearly 50 years ago and where he died. During most of his long career he made a specialty of the rose and both in forcing and garden sorts he had pretty much everything that came into the market. He did a good deal of hybridizing and got some excellent flowers. His ‘Cornelia Cook’ is still remembered by florists, who found its fine shaped and pointed buds amongst the prime favorites of its day and generation. The old gentleman always declared that from his garden was taken the rose which was noticed in George Bancroft’s garden, transplanted thence and propagated and introduced to the trade as the ‘American Beauty’. Another of his roses was one which he named ‘Charles Getz’, after a friend of his, a celebrated theatrical scene painter of Baltimore. This rose is a climbing ‘La France’ of remarkably vigorous growth and a handsome flower. Mr. Cook had several sons, all of whom, we believe, were gardeners, as are their sons. One son, Charles, survives his father, having been engaged with him in the business. Some months ago a portion of the land so long occupied by his extensive greenhouse plant and the outside gardens, was sold, and the old gentleman deplored greatly the advance of building upon his long-time holdings. Mr. Cook was a natural gardener, with an enthusiasm for fine plants and flowers quite distinct from their commercial value, and he delighted to expatiate on the merits of his favorites. He regularly got out from the other side seeds of numerous varieties, and it was a courageous man who would venture to suggest that any one else’s plants were nearly equal to those of the old veteran,” Gardening, 1906, p. 269.