GROWING FLOWER SEED IN THE SANTA CLARA VALLEY. 91 



the cells are in no condition to stand strain. A good method is to spray 

 the plant liberally with water, and even should the water turn to ice, still 

 the chances are in favor of the plant. Any method of screening, cover- 

 ing, or raising a dense, steamy smoke can be used advantageously. 



So much for the theory. The practise rests with yourselves. 



U. 8. Weather Bureau, San Francisco. 



GROWING FLOWER SEED IN THE SANTA CLARA VALLEY. 



. 



BY LESTER L. MORSE. 



The culture of flowers for seed is quite different from vegetable-seed 

 growing, since the whole concern of the grower is to get good blossoms, 

 and his efforts are directed toward the development of larger, stronger, 

 and more fragrant blossoms, as well as a greater variety of shades and 

 colors. In vegetables, of course, the color, shape, or size of the blossom 

 is of little consequence, since at the period of blossoming the type of the 

 vegetable has been determined and the rogueing and selecting have all 

 been done. In the flower, the rogueing and selecting must be done when 

 the plant is in full bloom, and intelligent work in this requires no little 

 experience. 



As a foreign flower-seed grower of wide experience remarked to me, 

 "You have the soil and climate in California, but you lack the knowl- 

 edge/' and that is true. Personally, I have been at work on flower-seed 

 growing since quite a boy, having experimented with a great many dif- 



(ferent varieties and species of flowers for seed, and am now interested 

 in the culture of a ponsiderable acreage of them, but feel that as yet I 

 have not the knowledge referred to by my friend. 

 Seed-growing in all of its branches is a high form of horticulture, 

 rather higher than that of propagating nursery stock or of growing 

 fruit and vegetables for market, but of all of the departments of the 

 seed business that of growing flower seed is the most refined and diffi- 

 cult. It means a great deal of detail work, from the fact that prac- 

 tically all species of flowers are found in great variety, and these varie- 

 ties run in a wide variation of shades and colors. 



Growing flower seed carefully means that every shade and color of 

 every variety must be kept separate and distinct, and even mixtures, 

 if they are of a high grade, must be made up of named varieties mixed 

 together, definite quantities of -each in sufficient amounts to properly 

 blend the whole or to give the mixture a well-balanced assortment of all 

 shades. 



My knowledge of flower-seed growing in the Santa Clara Valley is 



