March 23, 1907 



HORTICULTURE. 



S83 



forthcoming. The purpose in view was 

 first to secure a vigorous constitution 

 in the progeny; that must always be 

 first; seediings showing exceptional 

 vigor have again been bred with 

 Liberty, Richmond, American Beauty, 

 Queen of Edgely, American Beauty 

 best H. P.'s. My aim has been in this 

 particular line of work to secure a red 

 rose that would flower freely under 

 glass in winter; furthering this idea of 

 improving the red varieties, pollen was 

 taken from American Beauty and over 

 300 crosses were successfully made 

 last year (1906) and these latest seed- 

 lings are now nice little plants growing 

 vigorously in their little pot^. My hope 

 in thus securing American Beauty 

 pollen is to secure if possible a long 

 stemmed, free blooming winter forcing 

 variety; a previous effort in this line 

 has given us a rose superior in color 

 and size to American Beauty with 

 the additional advantage of producing 

 flowers as freely as Richmond or 

 Bridesmaid. 



Quite a separate line of crossing has 

 been to improve upon the size of Rosa- 

 lind Orr English while retaining its 

 general color scheme; with this in view 

 hundreds of crosses have been made 

 with pollen taken from Richmond. 

 Queen of Edgeley, American Beauty 

 and Paul Neyron during the season of 

 ]905; the progeny from these have 

 mostly flowered, with a result that 

 some thirty have been retained for a 

 second year's trial; two out of the 

 thirty selected are of unusual promise; 

 one of these is American Beauty X. 

 Rosalind Orr English, and is especially 

 i.otable for its stiiT, long stem and 

 large size; the other cross is Rich- 

 mond X. Rosalind Orr English which 

 is intermediate in color between its 

 two parents with the additional merit 

 of possessing double the number of 

 petals that either of its parents pos- 

 sess. The above two instances are 

 cited to show concentrated effort on 

 a given line in a multiplicity of crosses. 

 I give the above in detail to illustrate 

 my conviction of having an ideal iu 

 mind when working for a given end. 

 Perhaps some day we will find a means 

 to the end desired by simply making 

 one direct cross. 



I do not know to a certainty, yet 1 

 believe that Mr. Joseph Pernet, of 

 Lyons, has followed out a similar cer- 

 tain line in his raising of new varie- 

 ties; I judge this by the similarity iu 

 growth, foliage, and the general build 

 of the flowers in his originations. Take 

 Pres. Carnot and Antoine Rivoire, note 

 their general characteristics and I 

 think it is easy to detect a similarity 

 OL lineage running on down through 

 his Madam Rivary, Le Progres, Joseph 

 Hill, Mme. Jenny Gillemot, Mme. Philip 

 Rivoire, Mme. Melanie Soupert, and 

 Baron Sinety and three of his very 

 latest introductions, Mrs. Aaron Ward, 

 Mme. de Liuze, and Renee Wilmart 

 Urban show the same general charac- 

 teristics. It would be interesting to 

 know if M. Pernet had been following 

 out Mendel's theory in his breeding of 

 roses. Not all his productions are 

 allied to the varieties mentioned above, 

 lor his Etoile de France, Marquis Litta, 

 Soliel d'Or and Laurent Carle are quite 

 distinct from the type cited above. 



If the law of inter-breeding be cor- 

 rect, gathering in only pollen from 

 closely related varieties, then the law 

 of heredity as applied to the animal 

 kingdom would not hold good in the 



vegetable family. My suggestion would 

 be to follow both lines of work, inter- 

 breeding and promiscuous breeding, it 

 I may thus put it, but always have iu 

 mind the design of a given improve- 

 ment. 



Of late my one thought has been to 

 select the "most vigorous grower for the 

 mother plant, for without health, vigor 

 and a good constitution the finest new 

 rose is a failure. I am thoroughly con- 

 vinced by observation and experience 

 that the mother plant has the most to 

 do in giving health, vitality and con- 

 stitution to the offspring; this being 

 the case, we can see at a glance how 

 important it is to select only the very 

 strongest among the everblooming va- 

 rieties to serve as the female parent. 

 We should select the pollen from those 

 varieties which have pronounced qual- 

 ities in the way of color, stem, length 

 of bud and fragrance: If these qualities 

 are present in the male, you may hope 

 that they will have an influence upon 

 your crosses. 



With the increased vigor possessed 

 by many of the later productions in 

 Tea and Hy, Tea roses, such as Betty, 

 Pharisaer, Killarney, Kate Moulton, 

 and others of like vigor, it need not be 

 many years before a race bred from 

 such parents will give greatly increased 

 vigor over present existing varieties, 

 and with this increased strength of 

 growth, great good will come to the 

 grower. 



The infusion of Hybrid Perpetual 

 blood will also have a marked tendency 

 to increase the vigor and growth of 

 seedling roses, and by using the ever- 

 bloomers for the seed bearer, freedom 

 of bloom will in large measure be pre- 

 served; it ought not to be many years 

 until the present non-flowering Hybrid 

 Perpetual roses are superseded by a 

 lace equally as virile, but which will 

 give continuous bloom. If we get vigor 

 of growth with certainty of bud 

 flowers on the ends of long straight 

 stems, that will be the type that shall 

 give us larger and finer flowers for oar 

 winter forcing as well as better varie- 

 ties for our gardens. 



I know that you will say that pre- 

 dictions of this sort are easy to make; 

 but kindly indulge me a little; let us 

 use any means to impress upon the 

 mind of those just taking up this work, 

 that constitution is the foundation 

 upon whicla all effort must proceed. 



A great number of skilled and prac- 

 ticed workmen are enthusiastically 

 bending their best energies toward im- 

 proving the rose and we are surely 

 making a steady advance in the right 

 direction under such men as the Dick- 

 sons, the Pauls, the Souperts, Pernet 

 and others in France, and Peter Lam- 

 bert and his colleagues in Germany to- 

 gether with Cook, Walsh and others 

 in this country; we have a right to ex- 

 pect even better results than have yet 

 been obtained. Even with the com- 

 bined efforts put forth by the rosarians 

 in this and other countries progress 

 will appear slow to the impatient work- 

 ers in our ranks, trifling advance will 

 be noted, but better types and varie- 

 ties will surely gladden our eyes and 

 hearts for nature has been kind in the 

 past both in bud-variation and by cross 

 fertilization and the coming years will 

 be no less fruitful than the past; we 

 shall improve upon Malmaison, Mare- 

 chal Niel, Catherine Mermet, Bride, 

 Perle des Jarrtins, aKiserin Augusta 

 victoria, American Beauty. Frau Karl 



Druschki, Liberty and the two Cochets, 

 or at least she will reward us with 

 varieties more readily amenable to our 

 20th century requirements, which are 

 stringent in the extreme. 



By all means let us study Mendel 

 and his theory, note the deductions of 

 De Vries, and gather all the informa- 

 tion possible from whatever source It 

 can be had, remembering that nature's 

 working theorems are to be discovered 

 only by the painstaking application of 

 the knowledge at hand, and that no 

 amount of speculative theory will take 

 the place of intelligent persistent ex- 

 periment "personally conducted." 



Let no one think for a moment that 

 good results may not be obtained by 

 the simple direct crossing of two varie- 

 ties of roses, for such Is quite possible 

 without inter-breeding. Richmond was 

 obtained by using pollen from Liberty 

 upon Lady Battersea, but it was the 

 one valuable result out of a very large 

 number of the same cross, so that we 

 may say there is a chance of a good 

 return, though it is not probable, from 

 this procedvire. 



I have carefully avoided the use of 

 any scientiflc or technical terms and 

 have only tried to embody in this very 

 imperfect paper my own ideas and to 

 chronicle the results of my own ob- 

 servations. 



Our gardens are sadly in need ot 

 roses that will grow and bloom as do 

 most 01 the present standard varieties 

 in England, on the Pacific Coast and in 

 many of our Southern States, but here 

 in the North, only a pitifully small 

 number can be depended upon, and 

 right here is a wide field for the hy- 

 bridist to enter; a good reliable, ever- 

 blooming garden rose will give pleasure 

 and delight to millions of American 

 citizens; it is to be hoped that many 

 rose lovers may enter this sadly 

 neglected field; my ideas on this line 

 ot the subject were given in a paper 

 read before the S. A. F. at their an- 

 nual meeting at St. Louis, 1905. 



This line of work might have received 

 a fine stimulus if the Trustees of the 

 Carnegie fund had been empowered to 

 set aside certain funds to be awarded 

 • for meritorious new garden roses^the 

 field is not inviting to one who must 

 earn a maintenance, but if a prize or 

 a money consideration could be offered 

 ot sufficient size it would stimulate 

 efforts in this direction. 



In closing 1 wish to express the hope 

 that I have not wearied you in the 

 presentation of my thought on work- 

 ing towards an ideal in the production 

 ol new types of roses. 



CLIMBING AND TRAILING ROSES 

 IN THE HARDY ROSE GARDEN. 



A paper read before tbe American Rose 

 Society by M. H. Walsh. 



The popularity of this class of roses 

 is increasing yearly as their valuable 

 (lualities for garden decoration become 

 known. It was in the year 1903 when 

 Wichuraiana was first introduced into 

 the United Slates. Shortly after the 

 Crimson Rambler was also brought to 

 this country. The Wichuraiana and 

 Crimson Rambler are the two parent 

 plants from the many varieties of ram- 

 bling and trailing roses and these may 

 properly be called Wichuraiana and 

 Multiflora hybrids, a new race of hardy 

 garden roses. Their vigor and consti- 

 tution make them desirable as they 

 I)rove hardy in the coldest localities. 

 The freedom of growth, fine foliage. 



