GROWING FLOWEK SEED IN THE SANTA CLARA VALLEY. 93 



Some things, such as poppies, do not transplant well, and, being hardy 

 in our climate, are sown out-of-doors in the field. Once in the field, 

 next come the hoeing and cultivating, and since most flowers grown for 

 seed are more or less delicate, there is but little opportunity for horse 

 work, and hand cultivating is therefore necessary and always expensive. 



Of course, practically all flowers want deep, rich soil, either natu- 

 rally so or made so by fertilization, and they require a great deal of 

 moisture in summer as well as spring, either naturally moist soil or 

 irrigated land. 



One wants to get a good, vigorous growth to his plants to get the 

 most perfect bloom possible, as well as the greatest quantity of them, 

 and the soil and climate are the principal elements required to accom- 

 plish this. The interesting time to the flower-seed grower is when his 

 flowers are in bloom. Then comes the period of rogueing and selecting 

 and marking and note taking. 



There is practically no flower in this age of advanced scientific cul- 

 tivation but what has been developed from the wild state by process of 

 selection, and the tendency of all flowers is to "sport;" that is, its seed 

 will produce an occasional plant whose blossoms are of different shape 

 or size or color from the true type. The "sports" are frequently inferior, 

 since the flower is likely to revert to the oldest er original type, and 

 hence, as a rule, have to be pulled up and thrown out, a process we 

 call rogueing. Not only inferior types must be rogued, but everything 

 untrue, and the thoroughness and intelligent manner of this rogueing 

 are what determine the merit of the seed grower's stocks. 



To illustrate: In chrysanthemum-flowered sunflower, a plant is fre- 

 quently much taller than his fellows; another has less flowerets, and is, 

 therefore, less double; another's fringe of outside petals is too large, 

 and while each "sport" is perhaps a desirable flower by itself, it is "off," 

 and must come out. In Scarlet Defiance verbenas, on the other hand, 

 there is little or no difference in the flower or the size of the blossoms on 

 all plants, but there is here and there a plant of different shades of 

 red, all very pretty indeed, but "off," and every one but the true, bright 

 scarlet of one shade must be pulled up and thrown out. Again, there 

 are tall or climbing and also dwarf types of many things, such as 

 sweet peas and nasturtiums, and there must be absolutely no mixture of 

 the two classes, so that if one type appears in the other it must come out. 



Sometimes, however, it is neither shape, size, nor color, but time that 

 determines a rogue, as in Queen of the Market aster, for instance. This 

 is one of the earliest varieties to bloom, and should there be some tardy 

 plants which fail to blossom until after the majority of the others are 

 past their prime, these plants ought to come out. Just so with many 

 other kinds of flowers, for early and late sorts are characteristic of 

 flowers as well as of fruits and vegetables. 



