278 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



to resist the blight and hot weather. (5) We want a rapid multiplier, 

 one that will stool readily and also bear an abundance of seed, one in 

 fact, greatly interested in the business itself. 



Many plants have fine ndividual flowers, but tTiey do not have a 

 good crown. We want them to match and blend into a symmetrical 

 head, so that on the stem in the garden, or in the vase they will 

 seem like one large flower. We want something doing from July to 

 November if possible. 



There are some sorts which will flower gloriously for a few weeks, 

 and then go out of business. Sometimes we pardon them for not com- 

 ing up to all the specifications, but if possible we want all the demands 

 met in every specimen. 



A good strong constitution is a very important factor. A delicate 

 Boston bred woman does not transplant well out on a bleak prairie, 

 where instead of living in a palace she must have her home in a sod 

 house. So some plants are almost human in their sensitiveness and 

 cannot endure the privations of the "wild and woolly west." They do 

 not like to be whipped by our siroccos, and cuffed by the storms. Give 

 us something rohust as well as beautiful, like the Grand Old Enclaireur, 

 Richard Wallace, Lepole, Nord, Pearl, and Independence. 



Again there must be the abiuity to withstand the blight in wet 

 weather, some varieties are so sensitive they will be wiped out al- 

 together. Sometimes it does rain in Nebraska. Last summer a cloud 

 burst poured a flood three feet deep over our phlox beds, but the hardy 

 ones did not mind a little thing like that. Some sorts will do well in the 

 early summer, and succumb to the heat of August. 



My associate went out with me to select some choice specimens 

 for naming and propagating. Among the seedlings there was one 

 clump of very rare delicacy and beauty. The flowers were white, washed 

 with the faintest tints of pink. 



The florets were large and the head was fine. Not to subject 

 these beauties to too much hardship to tide them through the hot and 

 dry spell then coming on, I dug a trench around them and poured in a 

 pail of water, and when the water soaked away, I drew over the wet 

 ground some dry earth. This ought to have carried them through. 

 Three weeks later they were so badly scorched, and so nearly dead 

 they were discarded altogether. 



Again some kinds are not very profitable to the grower, because 

 they multiply so slowly. Fraulien von Lossburg, Queen of the Whites, 

 Esperence, Lamartine, Amphitryon and Le Mahdi, with many others 

 are very unprofitable to the grower. They will not increase by di- 

 visions, and in three years a plant may not have more than a single 

 stem. 



It works like this: You get a lot from an eastern grower. Gen- 

 erally they are so small your customers do not like them. You must 

 plant them out and let them grow a year and then you are expected 

 to sell them at the same price you paid for them. 



