622 Bulletin 319 



degrees at night. From this house Mr. Zvolanek cut 20,400 blooms 

 during the month of December and 38,800 during January, the stems 

 14 inches long. 



" The variety is one that originated with Mr. Zvolanek. Five years 

 ago he noted among some Lottie Eckfords a plant that started flowering 

 about two weeks earlier than the others and was dwarf er in habit. The 

 following year he fertilized this with Blanche Ferry and the result was 

 a decided improvement in color, size, stem, and habit. He named it 

 Zvolanek's Christmas. He has five other houses of sweet peas, the seed 

 having been sown outside in 4-inch pots early in September and the 

 seedlings planted out in the solid beds inside in November and 

 December in the same soil in which chrysanthemums had been growing. 

 These seem to do as well as those in boxes, supplying a crop of flowers 

 by Christmas." 



The above account of the origin of this group is confirmed in a paper 

 written by Mr. Zvolanek and published in MoUer's " Deutsche Gartner- 

 Zeitung," May 3, 1902. In that account he states that he discovered 

 the original plants in January, 1892, among Lottie Eckfords that did 

 not usually flower until March. The following is his account: 



" On January i, 1895, I was able to send the first ten dozen cut blooms 

 to New York, where they occasioned great surprise. In 1899 I intro- 

 duced this variety as Zvolanek's Christmas. 



" Meanwhile I endeavored to secure other colors by crossing, in which 

 I was also successful. In January, 1899, I exhibited four new seedlings 

 before the New York Florists' Club, and these were in the colors pure 

 white, lavender, malmaison-colored, and red; all of which were commended. 

 Especially prominent is the pure white, which was registered with the 

 Society of American Florists December 18, 1900, as Miss Florence E. 

 Denzer and which will be sent out next August (1902). This excellent 

 sort surpasses its mother, Zvolanek's Christmas, in the size of its flowers 

 as well as in length of stem, producing over twenty per cent blooms with 

 four flowers on very long stems." 



There was found no record of the exhibit mentioned above, but the 

 writer finds mentioned and illustrated in The American Florist for January 

 6, 1900, the following new and promising varieties originated by Mr. 

 Zvolanek : 



" No. I has been named Zvolanek's Christmas; No. 2 is a seedling 

 from Emily Henderson; No. 3, variegated seedling; No. 4, sport from 

 Zvolanek's Christmas; No. 5, seedling from Katherine Tracy." 



The New York Florists' Club, on January 14, 1901, awarded honorable 

 mention to A. C. Zvolanek for a pink variety named Cliristmas and for 

 two white varieties, No. 6 and Miss Florence E. Denzer. 



