Breeding 67 



Many growers who have large acreage are not 

 satisfied to wait so long, and prefer to use the 

 pollen from the finest decorative and cactus 

 varieties upon a fine open-centred peony flower. 

 They tell me that about seventy -five per cent, or 

 more of these seedlings will bear splendid cactus 

 or decorative varieties, but out of ten thousand 

 such there may be only one which is totally 

 unlike any other dahlia grown. 



Among the cactus, decorative, and show va- 

 rieties there are a number which, although forced 

 to bloom an open-centred flower, bear pollen 

 which is sterile, or at least which will not combine 

 with the stigma of a selected variety. Their 

 pistils, if they have any, refuse to accept the 

 pollen of another, and so they never set seed. 

 Such plants, I find, have strong, vigorous roots, 

 and there is no need for nature to provide seeds. 



Working on this theory some years ago, I 

 planted some roots of Delice and Gustav Doa- 

 zon, both noted for their sterility, in boxes of 

 rather poor soil, plunging the boxes in a hot, 

 sunny part of the garden. This was done so 

 that the roots could not expand. The plants 

 grew slowly, and in August I gave them some 

 nitrate of soda to stimulate the blooms. Delice 

 gave three blooms, two of which were duplex, 

 the third almost full, yet showing a centre. 



