CHAPTER VI 



HYBRIDIZING 



A CHAPTER on this subject having been asked for, the 

 following has been written. 



Hybridizing is the art of bringing together individual 

 flowers or plants of different species. Cross breeding effects 

 similar results with individuals of the same species. 



The average Rose grower has little time or inclination to 

 practice this art and, when we consider that a man might raise 

 thousands of seedlings, which take up valuable time and space 

 for months and sometimes years, only to find them all worth- 

 less at the end of it all, we understand why so few attempt it 

 and feel genuine admiration for our pioneers in America 

 who have done such noble work in this direction. 



Generally speaking, a man to be successful in this work must 

 follow out a well defined and systematic course when crossing 

 Roses; he must know just what he is striving for and select his 

 parents with that end in view and, most probably, will have to 

 keep this up for years, perhaps discarding 20,000 seedlings be- 

 fore he gets one worth growing. And yet there is another side 

 to this. 



It is a fact that occasionally, a beginner will make a cross 

 which turns out well and this element of chance is so alluring 

 that it is well worth the attempt. It has been asserted by 

 eminent Rosarians that there is no limit to the diversity or 

 variation of Roses produced from seed. Some have sown thou- 

 sands of seeds of certain varieties without obtaining one of the 

 same kind. It is commonly thought that the double varieties 

 do not perfect their seed as well as the more single ones, but 



