LUTHER BURBANK 



of the minor plant developments accomplished 

 there. There is no record of a true blue poppy 

 ever having been produced elsewhere. 



The blue poppies bloom toward the last of May 

 or early in June each year, furnishing a spectacle 

 that never fails to excite the interest of visiting 

 florists. 



The story of the production of the blue poppy 

 is a comparatively simple one as to its chief out- 

 lines. That is to say, the work that was directed 

 exclusively to the production of a flower with this 

 color was carried out without any complications 

 of hybridizing, solely as a problem in selection. 



A measure of success was attained in the course 

 of five or six years after the problem had definitely 

 presented itself. 



But, on the other hand, it should be explained 

 that the specific idea of developing a blue poppy 

 came only as a sequel to a long series of very 

 arduous experiments in selective breeding through 

 which the ancestral stock that finally produced 

 the blue poppy had been developed. And it is 

 more than probable that the preliminary experi- 

 ments, although aimed at quite different purposes, 

 were absolutely essential to the segregation of 

 hereditary factors in the plants of my poppy col- 

 ony that made possible the final development of 

 the flower with the anomalous color. 



[106] 



