August 17, 1918 



1 1 H T I C U L T U E E 



133 



Letteks From an Old to a Young Gardener 



On Hybridizing and Crossing the French Iris 



What Are the Chances of Getting 

 a Prize 



In the last tifty years probably 

 several million iris seed have been 

 planted, either the results of artificial 

 crossing or from plants that have 

 seeded naturally, but only a few hun- 

 dred are on the market. Out of these 

 there are a dozen or more that are real 

 aristocrats, using this term in its 

 proper sense. Among a thousand 

 plants raised from a j^ear's crossing 

 you will get many fine enough to give 

 to your farmer neighbors, for their 

 wives' gardens, to encourage ■ the 

 growth of the iris in the country. If 

 these are p>lanted in rows in the veg- 

 etable garden the care will be so little 

 the "men folks'' will not notice it. 

 while if they are asked to work in the 

 flower garden they "l^ick" saying they 

 are behind with the farm work. 1 

 find this little dodge works all right. Out of the thou- 

 sand perhaps you will get two or three good enough to go 

 into the hybridizing garden. One must raise many seed- 

 lings to draw a prize. However, the laws of chance 

 work strangely. Cases are on record where an amateur 

 raising new^ narcissi has quickly been favored with for- 

 tune, and as we all like a game of chance, growing iris 

 seed is a fine game. 



Time of Transplanting from the Transplant 



Bed 



At the end of the second year remove all the plants, 

 and prepare the bed for the next lot of seedlings. It 

 is evident that to do this there must be two transplant 

 beds. 



Labels and Records 



'J"he painted labels used for marking the plants after 

 crossing wdll remain legible, if an indelible pencil, so 

 called, is used, until time tn gather the pods, but cannot 

 be trusted in the seed or transplant beds. My corre- 

 spondent. Monsieur Dessert, sends his peonies to Amer- 

 ica with labels that can be read after being underground 

 for two years, but I have not been able to duplicate 

 these here, and recommend Farqtihar's copper labels, 

 which are five inches long li inches wide. These are 

 intended to have the record made on them with a hard 



. point. I do not like the method. Get 

 a set of stencil letters and figures, one 

 quarter of an inch high. Perforate 

 the lal)els and the printing will remain 

 always clear. These labels have long 

 and strong copper wires. When fast- 

 ened to iron stakes they are most satis- 

 factory, ^larking the plants in this 

 way and making the records to cor- 

 respond is not enough for the seed 

 and transplant beds, w'here the plants 

 are near together, as the stakes 

 get moved. There must be fixed 

 points from which the distances of 

 each plant can be measured. Iron 

 l)il)e one and a half inches diameter 

 and ill pieces eighteen inches long is 

 useful. This displacement of labels 

 occurs in places you would not e.x- 

 pect it. One spring I went to a cele- 

 brated botanical garden and saw more 

 than a dozen labels that did not cor- 

 respond witli the plants. In a garden 

 of hylarid seedlings this would have 

 been fatal unless the owner had a sys- 

 tem of fixed points aiid a record by 

 which he could replace the labels. It 

 seems to lie a habit with many visitors to a garden to 

 ]nill u]3 a stake to look at the label rather than bend over 

 to read it, and if they replace it within a few inches that 

 is supposed to be all right. 



Record Books 



t^uite elaborate directions for keeping records may 

 lie found in literature. Better make your own plan, for 

 no two brains work alike. Summing up it may be 

 written that the chief troubles of a hybridist are rain, 

 excessive heat, bugs, misplaced labels and weeds. 



Forty years ago I hstened to a lecture by Emerson, 

 in which he defined a weed as a plant whose uses we 

 had not yet discovered. This made a ,£rreat impression 

 at the time, but long years of gardening cause me to 

 think a better definition of a weed is a plant out of 

 lilace. Surely we know the uses of grass and clover, but 

 tliev are pestilent weeds in an iris garden. 



Tain worth, N. H. 



llluwvKoUlH^ 



APPE.\DIX. Plant Anatomy — Stevens. Morphology of 

 Angiospernis — Coulter and Chamberlain. Methods in Plant 

 Histology — Chamberlain. The Cell — Wilson. Plant Breed- 

 ing — DeVries. Species and Varieties, Their Origin and 

 Mutation — DeVries. These books are remarkably clear and 

 simple, and should be in the libraries of all gardeners who 

 are interested in making new flowers. 



