Results in Groi?ving' Gladioli 



PERSISTENT and continuous ac- 

 tivity, with the use of the best 

 material obtainable from all out- 

 side sources is the price of the success that 

 I am able to claim in the interest of 

 civiHzation and horticultural science 



Some Types 



For an unknown man in an obscure 

 town, in a country of slandered climate, 

 to bring a semi-tropical plant to Canada, 

 as the foundation for a strain of world- 

 wide recognition, seemed the height of 

 folly and a deliberate courting of failure 

 and loss; and it did not take me long to 

 discover that to secure more than partial 

 success meant a severe and persistent 

 fight. 



I found the conditions of soil and 

 climate admirable, and the absence of 

 long-continued periods of atmospheric 

 humidity most congenial to the work 

 of successful crossing. Although the 

 season for maturing late crosses is un- 

 favorable, I overcame this difficulty in 

 securing the admixture of mid-season 

 and late-flowering types by cutting the 

 immature seed spikes on the first threat- 

 ened frost, and maturing in water a 

 month later — a process requiring much 

 time and trouble — but as pollen from 

 young, early flowering types (which 

 bloom till frost) was used, I soon had 

 the valued characteristics of the later 

 flowering sections available for normal 

 use at a more favorable season, a vic- 

 tory over adverse conditions of in- 

 calculable value. 



Again, I found that our clear, dry 

 atmosphere, so favorable to success in 

 crossing, also frequently wilted the 

 flowers— an effect not only making rapid 

 work impossible, but most prejudicial 



♦Extracts from an address presented to the 

 American Breeders' Association at Columbus, 

 Ohio, January 18, 1907. 



H. H. Groff, Simcoe, Ontario 



to the "taking" of crosses so made. 



This difficulty I overcame by daily 

 carrying the pollen over until the follow- 

 ing dawn, when I found that the work 

 could not only be accomplished in far 

 less time, but that the percentage of 

 successful crosses was most materially 

 increased. The two foregoing original 

 practices are the result of a struggle for 

 control and, as I have never heard of 

 them being advised, I may include them 

 in this record of results. 



When I be- 

 gan this work 

 over 1 5 years 

 ago, although 

 Europe had 

 been engaged 

 on it for 100 

 years, the 

 ground was 

 only broken — 

 varieties lack- 

 ed vitality, re- 

 productive 

 powers and 

 adaptability to 

 changed con- 

 ditions. My 

 first work cov- 

 ered a complete 

 series of violent 

 out-crosses in 

 which every 

 section was 

 made use of to 

 bring the de- 

 sirable features 

 possessed b y 

 each under 

 control for 

 transmission in 

 cross-breeding. 

 From the foun- 

 dation work of 

 those first 

 years, by the 

 aid of selected 

 types as sires, 

 according to 

 the practice of 

 animal breed- 

 ers, has this 

 control been 

 handed down 

 with continu- 

 ous yearly 

 progression until the past season. 



In America, the flower was discredited, 

 and the demand so influenced by its 

 lack of quality, value and beauty, that 

 growers thought of allowing large blocks 

 to freeze in the fields with the view of 

 stiffening the market; certainly not a 

 very progressive idea. The advent of 

 my new hybrids changed all this, and 

 the exhibits made at the Pan-American 

 Exposition where they were awarded a 



57 



gold medal, and at the St. Louis World's 

 Fair, where they secured the grand 

 prize, not only re-popularized the flower, 

 but exercised a favorable reflex influence 

 on existing low-grade stocks. Thus, no 

 existing acreage has been displaced, 

 but the values have been improved, 

 with over 100 acres of the highest qual- 

 ity in the world added to this country, of 

 such excellence as to enforce commercial 

 recognition throughout the civilized 

 world. Surely this may be included in 



A Field of Bloom 



the record of results in growing gladioli. 

 My practice has proven that not only 

 can the scientific worker do all that he 

 may sanely plan to do, but he will find 

 that from year to year mutations will 

 appear beyond the range of the area of 

 his expectations, of such progressive 

 value, that he will be led onward by an 

 ever lengthening and broadening horizon 

 — beyond the conception of the human 

 mind. The past season afforded an in- 



