172 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



JULY 21, 189S. 



walls and both inside and outside of 

 the benches. 



For the coming season they have 

 benched 1,7(X) Beauties, 1,300 each ol' 

 Maids and Brides and 550 Perles. All 



above is young stock this year, but 

 last year they forced again the plants 

 of the year before, and the carried over 

 plants gave practically the same re- 

 sults as young stock. 



ORIGINATION OF NEW VARIETIES. 



Originating new varieties, to grow 

 them from seed, has widely spread 

 for the last few years. Growers that 

 never heretofore had a fancy for dab- 

 bling in this work have a few seed- 

 lings of their own growing under 

 trial. The alluring fascination of this 

 work proved to be too much; the tem- 

 tation to make a fortune, as so many 

 growers are supposed to have made, 

 too strong not to make a trial. But 

 let me tell you many of these sup- 

 posed fortunes are imaginary or have 

 been made with other help. True, 

 when luck will have it so, and a hit is 

 made, the gi-ower can scarcely be 

 thwarted out of a remunerative com- 

 pensation, when the introduction is 

 carried out in a fair, honest business 

 way. 



My ten years' experience in grow- 

 ing new varieties has convinced me 

 that the whole business is a game of 

 chance and therein lies the fascina- 

 tion. It is like a game of cards or 

 chess; certain rules have to be ob- 

 served, and on the skill of the player 

 and knowledge of the intricate work- 

 ings of the game depend the winning. 

 But again, many a novice in playing a 

 certain game may win, while the ex- 

 perienced player may lose. This is 

 called luck. The same happens in 

 growing new varieties. The one with 

 his 50 or 100 plants grown in an in- 

 different way may have a prize among 

 them, while the other with his thou- 

 sands of plants grown with a calculat- 

 ing knowledge of the intricate work- 

 ings of nature will have nothing to 

 show. 



What is the cause of this uncertain- 

 ty, the miscarrying of calculations 

 based on fundamental principles? To 

 answer this question wg have to turn 

 back to the original primitive Dian- 

 thus of centuries ago. Culture 

 wrought improvements; cross fer- 

 tilization created variety; these com- 

 bined have been going on for ages in 

 the evolution of our carnation. 



Cultivation is the progressive mo- 

 tor. With its help cross fertilization 

 has wrought wonderful changes. A 

 relaxation in culture will take us as 

 far back as our greatest care can 

 bring us forward, for there we meet 



that opposing power, the tendency to 

 return to the primitive existence. So 

 in growing seedlings we find all stages 

 of this long period represented. There 

 is a mixture of influences that make 

 themselves manifest. It is a fight be- 

 tween progressive culture and cross 

 fertilization, and the strong adher- 

 ence to primitive originality. We can- 

 not say any more that like produces 

 like. There are so many ancestors of 

 different habit, form, color; there is 

 such a mixture of different influences 

 that make themselves manifest, that 

 our present growing of new varieties 

 is indeed a game of chance. 



Culture is the first factor to be con- 

 sidered; cross fertilization comes 

 next, and here a true knowledge of 

 the pedigree of the parents is of im- 

 portance, a knowledge of the good as 

 well as bad properties of the ances- 

 tors, to enable the grower to strength- 

 en, improve and combine the good 

 properties of the seed parents, and to 

 avert or neutralize defects with op- 



plished in two or three with a steady 

 working on the same line. Patience 

 and perseverance are virtues in this 

 work. We must not expect too much 

 for one season, when we consider the 

 time it required to bring the carnation 

 from its primitive existence to its 

 present state of perfection. Thanks 

 to the progressive spirit our growers 

 manifest, much more has been attain- 

 ed in the last decade than during a 

 century before, but to make improve- 

 ments we have to overcome the same 

 obstacles as of yore, and culture and 

 good judgment in the selection of the 

 seed parents are the most prominent 

 influences to surmount them. It is a 

 tedious but fascinating work, result- 

 ing in more failures than success. 



I will make this the theme for a 

 series of articles to appear from time 

 to time, commencing with the grow- 

 ing of the seed, and ending with an 

 introduction of a new variety. 



FRED DORNER. 



CARNATIONS AT REINBERG BROS. 



In carnations Reinberg Bros., Sum- 

 merdale. 111., will this season bench 

 13,000 Scott, 11,0<XI McGowan, S.fKK) 

 Nancy Hanks, 7,000 Pingree, 6,900 

 Jubilee, 6,000 Flora Hill, 4,(W0 Tri- 

 umph, 3.000 each of Daybreak and Mo- 

 rello, 2,000 each of Argyle and Evelina, 

 1,000 each of Armazindy, Painted 

 Lady, White Cloud and Evanston, and 

 500 Mrs. McBurney. 



They like Flora Hill. It is a good 

 grower and bloomer, a.nd though not 

 as free as McGowan, the flowers bring 

 a much better price. Jubilee they con- 

 sider a good carnation, but fear its 



posing good qualities. But after all, 

 the most exact calculations are uncer- 

 tain factors in this capricious work, 

 and we are not always able to attain 

 what we aim for. 



To leave everything to chance is too 

 haphazard a work to satisfy the pro- 

 gressive grower. He prefers to work 

 on fundamental principles based on 

 nature, even if expectations do not at 

 all times materialize. What cannot 

 be attained in one year may be accom- 



stay won't be long on account of its 

 tendency to rust and irregularity in 

 blooming. They are much pleased with 

 Triumph, which they find to be a good 

 grower and free bloomer and flowers 

 with good stems, but it must be well 

 staked. Pingree suits them very well 

 and is decidedly the best yellow they 

 have grown. They are surprised that 

 Nancy Hanks is not more generally 

 grown. With them it is a very profit- 

 able variety, free in blooming, flow- 



