LUTHER BURBANK 



the new varieties, and to make sure as to which of 

 them are the hardiest. 



There is still opportunity for fine work in this 

 direction. The clematis is so beautiful a vine, and 

 there are so many species available, and among 

 these species such amazing variety of form of vine 

 and flower, that the opportunity for extensive 

 breeding experiments with this type is most invit- 

 ing. 



In raising the seedlings my practice was to sow 

 the seed quite thickly in boxes in the greenhouse, 

 as soon as it ripened in the fall, forcing the plants 

 throughout the winter, and transplanting them in 

 the open field in the early spring. The seedlings 

 would make vines from eighteen inches to two feet 

 long the first season. They would rarely bloom 

 the first year, but in the second season they would 

 almost invariably do so and the general character 

 of their flowers could then be determined. 



But the blossoms of the first season would not 

 fully represent the possibilities of their mature 

 production. For example, plants that first bear 

 blossoms that are semi-double would in later sea- 

 sons, when the vines had gained in strength, bear 

 fully double flowers. 



At the time when my first hybrid double 

 clematis flowers were produced, there was, I think, 

 but one other double one known anywhere in the 



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