July 29, 1911 



HORTiCl LTURE 



i;$7 



THE NEW CHRYSANTHEMUMS 

 FOR 1911. 



Bead Before the Morris Couuty Gardeners' 

 and Florists' Society bj >'. u. Totty. 



Just as regular as the year rolls 

 around, so does the chrysanthemum 

 enthusiast, at flowering time propound 

 the question, "What have you that is 

 in w in 'mums?" 



There seems to he a perpetual crav- 

 ing among the chrysanthemum .mow- 

 ers, more than any other flower grow- 

 ers, t'oi' something different. Since 1 

 have been giving you what we may 

 here term as the "Yearly Digest" of 

 new varieties, Which now extends over 

 a period of nine or ten years, we have 

 seen tnan\ wonderful changes in the 

 chrysanthemum. The marvellous 

 flowers of Mis. David Synie, exhibited 

 at our own show last fall demonstrates 

 perhaps a greater advance than any 

 other variety, although in any color 

 the peer of five years ago is of very 

 average quality today. Chrysanthe- 

 mums, it is true, run out more quickly 

 than roses or carnations and many 

 new varieties must be continually 

 raised to keep the standard moving 

 upward and onward, hut, even if they 

 did not run out, the variety that we 

 thought was a king five years ago, 

 would he easily outdistanced in the 

 shows of 1911 by this year's seedlings. 



The chrysanthemum today is syste- 

 matically hybridized and a careful and 

 scientific record is kept of the peculiar- 

 ities and good points of each variety. 

 \\ here variety has perhaps a splendid 

 color and is deficient in foliage the hy- 

 bridizer will use that type just to get 

 the color fit on a sturdy stem or he 

 will proceed to work on a variety that 

 is perfect in form but small, to get 

 that same form in a flower two or 

 three times as large. The old days of 

 saving seed indiscriminately from pol- 

 lination by the wind or bees, are past 

 and while one cannot yet definitely 

 forcast exactly what will result from 

 different crossings, a percentage of the 

 seedlings will come near the desired 

 result. 



I will briefly describe a few of the 

 novelties for 1911. What the varieties 

 that I recommended so highly last 

 year have done, is now a matter of 

 history, Mrs. D. Syme, Howard Gould, 

 L'lnou and Onunda being among the 

 most prominent flowers in the exhibi- 

 tion just past. It is very encouraging 

 to see one's varieties maintain their 

 winning way year after year, but, as 

 before stated the result is due to scien- 

 tific selection of the seedlings and we 

 may reasonably expect that still fur- 

 ther advances will be made in the 

 future. 



Looking first at the variety Wm. 

 Turner; this showed up splendidly 

 with us. though stock was too limited 

 to be exhibited at many of the shows. 

 Mr. Wells stated, when writing regard- 

 ing its winning the Gold Medal at 

 Edinburg, that it would easily beat 

 Mrs. Syme. Those of us who remem- 

 bered the way Mrs. Syme was exhib- 

 ited at Morristown in November, might 

 perhaps be .pardoned for a little scepti- 

 cism, did we not know that in almost 

 every case, varieties sent out by Mr. 

 Pockett as improvements on this or 

 that, have invariably fulfilled the pre- 

 diction of their raiser. Wm. Turner 

 is an excellent grower, just as strong 

 as Mrs. Syme and it will be interesting 



to note how long it takes the former 

 variety to climb to the top of the heap. 



The variety that 1 like best of all the 

 novelties is Mrs. G. C. Kelly. This 

 in certainly a splendid grower and 

 seems to combine every good feature 

 i in chrysanthemum should have, ami 

 so far as I could see from my limited 

 stock, has no faults whatever. 1 had 

 seven plants and each one produced a 

 perlecl flower. The color is old rose 

 wilh a reverse light enough to give a 

 : i meal effect of silvery pink. 1 have 

 predicted that this variety will be a 

 leader in the shows next fall. Time 

 will prove whether 1 am righL or not. 



E. M. Byrnes, which many ol you 

 saw growing at my place is not going 

 to Bet the world on fire for size. It is 

 only medium, hut the color is wonder- 

 fully brilliant. We have today many 

 Splendid scarlets raised from the same 

 stock, Pockett's Crimson, Pocket t's 

 Surprise and Leslie Morrison being 

 pi i haps the most largely grown. 

 Byrnes, on account of its wonderful 

 color, is entitled to be grown along- 

 side of these kinds and I think it pos- 

 sesses wonderful possibilities for the 

 hybridizer. 



Harry E. Converse may be described 

 as an improved Howard Gould, giving 

 somewhat the same color with a larger 

 flower and heavier growth. My only 

 objection tu Converse is that it is so 

 slow in reproducing that I am afraid 

 most of the exhibitors this year will 

 have to go without it, as stock is al- 

 together too limited for general distri- 

 bution. Lady Carmichael is a while 

 which was heavily recommended by 

 its behavior in Australia. Past per- 

 formances have taught us that varie- 

 ties that do well in Australia and 

 stand the sun and weather will also 

 do well here, as our climalic condi- 

 tions are much the same. When we 

 get temperatures running up into the 

 seventies, and brilliant sunshine, un- 

 less a variety has lots of petals in it, 

 it will become hollow-eyed and is then 

 only half Us proper size. Carmichael 

 should next year make an excellent 

 showing as it is a splendid grower and 

 carries itself like a major. I think 

 when this variety gets into general 

 cultivation it will be considerablj 

 grown by the commercial men to 

 whom stiffness of stem is one of the 

 chief essentials of profitable cultiva- 

 tion. These varieties are the cream 

 of the Australian seedlings imported 

 for testing iu this country and repre- 

 sent the final assortment of a great 

 many thousand seedlings and it is in a 

 large measure due to this unsparing 

 pruning down that the Wells-PocKett 

 varieties occupy the enviable position 

 that they do at the present time. 



Of the American-raised seedlings, F. 

 E. Nash is the only one I have seen 

 personally and I am consequently noi 

 in a position to say much regarding 

 others. Nash is a Duckham seedling, 

 having much the same color and 

 splendid habit of growth but it has re- 

 flexed petals, whereas the Duckham 

 petals are incurved. There are other 

 American seedlings — Tarrytown, Mor- 

 ristown, Lenox, Glen. Cove, etc. — but 

 I have not seen any of them and there- 

 fore am not in a position to give you 

 any information about them. 



The novelties in types other than the 

 tremendous exhibition flowers also 

 show marked improvement. The new- 

 est singles, for instance are very dif- 



fer ut to the types we were working 

 witli five years ago. Some of the best 

 of this year's set are Miss Hilda Wells, 

 a beautiful red with a yellow zone at 

 i In- base of the petals; Crimson Mary 

 Richardson, which is a sport of the 

 popular single ever sent out — 

 Marj Kiehardson, and is worth grow- 

 ing by everyone; and two very hand- 

 yellOWS are Margaret Totty and 

 Emma L. Davis. 



And while Bpeaking of singles 1 may 

 here mention that during the past two 

 or three years I have been experiment 

 ing and working up a group of what 1 

 term, Early-Flowering Outside 

 Singles, which 1 have gotten down to 

 such a fine point that 1 can guarantee 

 them to be in full bloom the last week 

 in August and the Ural week iu Sep- 

 tember. These, no doubt, will fill a 

 long-li It want and will give a mucn 

 different appearance to the estates and 

 gardens where the superintendent is 

 an enterprising man and wishes 

 flowers along the drive or in clumps 

 on the place. It not only adds to the 

 beauty of the same but they will give 

 an over-abundance of flowers to use, 

 whereas if it weren't for these, as has 

 been the place appears barren. Now 

 if he wants to find something to cut 

 he has it. These single chrysanthe- 

 mums are certainly very effective no 

 matter how they are used. 



Pompons are not grown as much as 

 I think they should be. Any gardener 

 who has to produce great quantities of 

 flowers from a limited space will find 

 it hard to grow anything that will 

 give as good return for the time and 

 space involved as these chrysanthe- 

 mums. They can be grown outdoors 

 all summer and lifted in the fall and 

 potted or stuck into a deep frame and 

 they will give an abundance of flowers 

 until quite late in November. Some 

 newer varieties that are not as yet 

 generally distributed are: Barney, 

 Golden Bronze, Myer's Perfection, a 

 m t y handsome white, Sylvia, Urith, 

 Windlass and Yellow Gem. 



The type known as Early Flowering 

 varieties, which many of you with an 

 old-country training will recall as 

 flowering so profusely outdoors during 

 the months of August and September, 

 will also give you varieties well 

 worthy of your time and attention. We 

 have been importing these sorts for the 

 last three years trying to get a selec- 

 tion that would come early enough to 

 give good satisfaction before the 

 frosts. As you are probably aware the 

 intensely hot sun in July and August 

 causes most of the early buds of these 

 varieties to dry up. This is, of course, 

 explained by the fact that the chrysan- 

 themum is a cool-grow'ing plant. I 

 would suggest, wherever possible, to 

 plant them on a border facing north, 

 where the rays of the very hot sun do 

 not rest on them for many hours dur- 

 ing the day; also, where a man is not 

 handling very many, a continuous use 

 of the sprayer will help much to de- 

 velop and expand the buds, thereby di- 

 minishing the loss of the same. 



We now have some fifteen or 

 eighteen varieties that will begin to 

 flower the third week in August. They 

 need no greenhouse and one need not 

 worry about bud selection; simply give 

 good soil ami persistent cultivation. 

 Plants set out in the spring and left 

 to develop naturally produce handsome 

 es literally covered with flowers. 

 I would state that as a commercial 



