A CULTURAL MANUAL 239 



More hybridizing is going on than ever, which makes it possible 

 the florist to keep step, like the worker in other lines. True, many 

 o-called novelties prove worthless, but that cannot be helped. We 

 eed only look back a few years in order to realize the progress 

 ade in the development of plants and flowers. Yet, as with all 

 ther things, we have only begun, just started on our way; the 

 ighest type of anything in the way of a flower now holding the 

 enter of the stage, is likely to be pushed aside overnight to make 

 ay for a still higher type, and this is going to keep on and on. 



Here and there we come across a f estiva maxima Peony, a S. A. 

 [utt Geranium, or an Enchantress Carnation; again, with all the 

 nany beautiful Roses coming along, we perhaps have none to equal 

 le beauty of some of the oldtime favorites among the hybrid 

 rpetual sorts. Rut as a general rule, only the latest and best 

 nd such varieties as are best adapted for present day methods of 

 andling, will prove worth growing. 



What has become of our list of favorite Sweet Peas of a few 

 ears back? Of Snapdragons, Carnations, Cannas, Petunias, 

 egonias and others ? It is only in recent times that we have grown 

 hrysanthemums, Sweet Peas, Gladioli and Calendula under glass 

 s we are doing today. What did yesterday's list of perennials or 

 irubs consist of compared with that of today ? Yet the very lists 

 lat we are so proud of right now, will in turn soon be out of date! 

 Look at a vase of fifty well-grown, long-stemmed Columbia, 

 ussell, Premier, or Ophelia Roses, and it is hard to believe that new 

 arieties are on the way to replace them all. It seems only yester- 

 ay that Killarney was the most popular Rose grown under glass, 

 nd only a little earlier that Rridesmaid had replaced all other 

 ink Roses ; it is no less interesting for the Carnation grower or the 

 yclamen specialist to look backward he who thought his flower 

 ad reached a state of perfection forty years ago. 



With so many beautiful and improved types of flowers on hand 



oday, we can look forward to still greater developments in the 

 troduction of new sorts. The florist should keep posted on all 



uch developments as may directly interest him. In order to get 

 le most out of his business, he must keep step with the times. 

 There are beautiful plants that we don't grow today. What, for 



nstance, would there be in it for the retail grower in particular, if 

 e were to carry a house full of Camelias a plant of which, thirty- 

 ve years ago, every florist had a stock. Stephanotis and Asclepias 

 sed to be desirable plants for cut flowers under glass ; both of them 



ivere beautiful as well as useful in their day. Even Passiflora, the 

 assion Flower, had a place. We thought the world of a Marechal 



\eil Rose under glass, running all over the house, and every retail 



grower handled Gloire de Dijon and Malmaison. Rut all these 



lad to make way for others. 



