February 8. 1908 



WHAT THE GROWER SHOULD EX- 

 PECT FROM THE INTRO- 

 DUCER OF A NEW 

 SEEDLING. 



By S. S. Skidelsky; read before the Car- 

 nation Society at Washington. 



It would be hard to find in the his- 

 tory of floriculture another instance of 

 the rapid strides and development of 

 a flower to equal that of the carnation. 



The divine flower has indeed sprung 

 into favor as if by magic wand. Un- 

 like the short-lived chrysanthemum or 

 the queen herself — the rose — the car- 

 nation is pre-eminently the flower of 

 the masses. It is grown everywhere, 

 it is sold everywhere, the "curb mer- 

 chant" no less than the society florist 

 handling it in immense quantities. 

 More glat.s is going up, more carnations 

 are being grown, and the demand con- 

 tinually is for still more. Nor is its 

 popularity confined to our own borders. 

 England. Germany and FYance depend 

 upon our varieties: far-away Norway 

 and Sweden grow them with success; 

 and even darkest Russia, we are told, 

 can do Liawson, Enchantress and 

 White Perfection well. Let us hope — 

 and you will pardon my slight digres- 

 sion from the subject — that wiU\ the 

 advent of Beacon there may come a 

 light to brighten the hovels of the 

 semi-civilized, wretched peasantry in 

 the Czar's domain. 



A Prediction Verified. 



When .lohn Thorpe, but a compara- 

 tively short time ago. predicted that 

 our puny carnation of yesterday would 

 attain the respectable size, by actual 

 measurement of four inches in diam- 

 eter, there are many among us today 

 who were inclined at the time to treat 

 such prophecy with a four-inch grain 

 of salt. That prediction of Mr. Thorpe's 

 hcts come true, nevertheless. We have 

 practically reached the goal of our am- 

 bition. The four-inch carnation is 

 here, and has evidently come to stay. 

 Nor are we content to rest upon the 

 laurels achieved. We are aiming high- 

 er and still higher. What was good 

 enough a season or two ago, does not 

 satisfy us today. We must have some- 

 thing better. It won't do to stay the 

 march of progress or to check the 

 course of evolution. Aside from the 

 size of the bloom itself, we mu.st have 

 also stem — a long and stiff one at that. 

 We must have a carnation with a non- 

 bursting calyx, of good color, good 

 keeping qualities, and last but by no 

 means the least, we insist on varieties 

 that will produce the flowers and yield 

 us dollars and cents — "bread and but- 

 ter" carnations, if I may borrow the 

 scereotyped description, now and then 

 applied tcf seedlings which do not pay 

 for the bread, let alone the butter. 



It is not my intention, however, to 

 point out any particular varieties, nor 

 do I wish to call to the bar of the 

 grower's opinion any of the introduc- 

 ers of the "bread and butter" sorts, 

 the kinds that never paid for either 

 the bread or the butter. 



The Origin of "Worthless Varieties." 



I am rather inclined to the belief 



that the average introducer of a new 



seertlin.s is honest and honorable: that 



HORTICULTURE, 



171 



he means well; that his sole aim and 

 object in introducing a carnation is to 

 give satisfaction: that under all cir- 

 cumstances he aims to give the grower 

 his money's worth. There have been 

 some exceptions, of course, but this is 

 another story, having no bearing up- 

 on the .subject under consideration. 

 Granted then that no fraud or decep- 

 tion on the part of the introducer is 

 ever intended, the question arises. 

 Why are worthless varieties thrown 

 upon the market? Why indeed? 



I shall attempt to answer this ques- 

 tion, as I have studied it at "close 

 range, depending upon my personal 

 impressions and observations, whioh, 

 of course, are in no wise infallible. 

 My observations upon numerous occa- 

 sions lead me to the conclusion that 

 tliere are some hybridisers who are 

 inclined to be too optimistic, often be- 

 ing carried away, so to speak, by the 

 momentum of their own enthusiasm. 

 The man thus inclined makes his cross, 

 selecting for the purpose sturdy and 

 meritorious parents. The result, he 

 takes it for granted, must be highly 

 satisfactorj'. I say "he takes it for 

 granted" advisedly, because taking 

 things for granted is a characteristic 

 trait of the enthusiast. He watches the 

 seed pocl with all the care, hope and 

 love which a young mother bestows 

 upon her first born. To be sure, he 

 reasons, something good must result. 

 A chip of the old block is an asset not 

 to be despised. In course of time the 

 seedling or seedlings appear. Out of a 

 dozen or more "uncertainties" the one 

 looking the most promising is selected 

 and duly labeled. No sooner does the 

 bloom break through the calyx than 

 the plant is chopped down, literally 

 hacked to pieces, in order to get all 

 the cuttings, good, bad and indilterent, 

 that it may yield through and beyond 

 the season. The vitality of the "prom- 

 ising one ' is thus impaired at the 

 very outset of its ephemeral career. 

 The season following it still looks 

 promising, although the calyx is some- 

 what inclined to go asunder, nor is 

 the stem strong enough to sustain the 

 weight of the blocm or the bunch of 

 petals. The season, of course, which 

 happened to be either too dry or too 

 wet, is accountable for that. Perhaps 

 a little overfeeding did the mischief; 

 maybe a degree or two below or above 

 the temjierature required to suit its 

 delicate constitution. To be sure there 

 are numerous reasons for its misbe- 

 havior, but no matter, where there is 

 life there is hope. A second massacre 

 is in order and the plants are propa- 

 gated to the limit. Ctittings are taken 

 regardless of their condition. It won't 

 do to "put off" when the growers are 

 so much in need of a good White, a 

 good Red or a good Pink, and, inci- 

 dentally, when there is a fortune in 

 sight. I will stop right here, however, 

 to reiterate my assertion that the in- 

 troducers of new carnations are abso- 

 lutely honest; that no fraud is intend- 

 ed when a carnation is finally launched 

 with all the pomp and all the songs 

 in its praise which we are accustomed 

 to see and to hear. 



Not How Many, But How Few. 



The question what the grower 

 should expect from the introdticer of 

 a new carnation is rather a perplexing 

 one, and is not so easily answered as 

 on" might expect. Our ideas of the 



fitness of things are so much at vari- 

 ance with local conditions and local 

 requirements that it would be practi- 

 cally impossible to set up a standard 

 with a view to insuring general satis- 

 faction. 



In one of the November issues of 

 HORTICULTURE Mr. John Thorpe, 

 in his notes cm the Chicago ^ower 

 show, has this to say about the car- 

 nations which were on exhibition 

 there; "Of new carnations — in quan- 

 tity very short, in quality never better. 

 Raisers of seedlings are getting wise. 

 It is not how many, but how few. Let 

 this prevail, because the few have the 

 best chance." Tersely expressed, but 

 true. That the few of superior quality 

 have the best chance is not to be de- 

 nied. Yet, on the other hand, we must 

 also not ignore the fact that while 

 there ur3 comparatively few growers 

 ever in quest of "fancies" or carna- 

 tions of quality, whose products are 

 sure to command the highest prices at 

 all times, there are hundreds and thou- 

 sands of others who are ever on the 

 lookout for "the bread and butter 

 sorts." whose local markets, either 

 wholesale or retail, do not warrant 

 heavy investments in "fancies," who, 

 in brief, must have carnations which, 

 taking local conditions into considera- 

 tion, will pay for the coal, the help, 

 the interest on the greenhouse plant, 

 and will leave a dollar to boot. It Is 

 the rank and file that is to be consid- 

 ered; the man who can no longer grow 

 Lawson or Queen, who is in want of 

 something to take their places. A 

 standard, therefore, to suit alike the 

 successful growers in the vicinity of 

 New York or Chicago and the man in 

 the Dakotas, is not to be thought of. 



But what, after all, is the grower to 

 expect from the introducer of new 

 seedling carnations? 



That Happy Middle Ground. 

 Coming to the point by the shortest 

 possible route, it begins to dawn upon 

 me that there ought to be a sort of 

 happy middle ground, upon which both 

 the grower and the hybridizer could 

 meet for the purpose of advancing 

 their mutual interests, for the purpose 

 of adjusting differences, of overcoming 

 prejudices and of facing conditions. 

 If the one realizes the need of the 

 other; in other words, if the intro- 

 ducer of seedling carnations will ex- 

 ercise the most scrupulous care in be- 

 half of the "goose that lays the golden 

 egg," and the grower in his turn will 

 bear in mind that his very success or 

 the "golden egg" has been made pos- 

 sible by the men who have made hy- 

 bridization their life study, who are 

 sacrificing their time and their means 

 in order to improve upon past achieve- 

 ments and thereby advance the inter- 

 ests of the carnation growers, — if both, 

 I say, could meet upon such ground, 

 there surely woiUd be no cause for 

 disappointment or dissatisfaction. But 

 how is this to be accomplished? Leav- 

 ing the hybridizers' cause in the hands 

 of Mr. Rudd, who, I am sure, will do 

 ample justice to it, I will take up the 

 growers' end of the question and will 

 briefly outline his expectations from 

 the introducers of new seedlings. 



The Grower Expects His Money's 



Worth. 



First, The grower expects his 



money's worth. By this I mean that 



