March 9, 1U16. 



The Florists' Review 



35 



variety, atill, the originals of the type 

 all emanated from it. 



Blanche Ferry in North Africa. 



The Telemly sweet pea, which origi- 

 nated with the Rev. Edwin Arkwright 

 at Telemly, Algiers, Algeria, Africa, 

 also sprang from Blanche Ferry. Mr. 

 Arkwright explains that a sport from 

 Blanche Ferry showed itself in his gar- 

 den, blooming in February, when he 

 promptly marked it, and the seed saved 

 from this plant showed flowers the fol- 

 lowing January. From this time on he 

 jjot various sports from this and also 

 crossed them with some of the best of 

 the summer-flowering sorts. He explains 

 that he sows all his peas about the end 

 of September, and while the summer- 

 flowering varieties do not bloom until 

 May, these early varieties come into 

 bloom in January. 



As soon as Countess Spencer was in- 

 troduced, in 1904, Mr. Arkwright pro- 

 cured it and has been crossing his orig- 

 inal type with the new waved or Spen- 

 cer varieties, and I believe he has now 

 a number of Spencer early-flowering 

 varieties quite fixed to color. 



Work of Engelmann and Zvolanek. 



Mention should also be made of the 

 early-flowering type known as Engel- 

 mann 's. Mr. Engelmann explains that 

 about 1903 some plants of the regular 

 summer-flowering type sported with 

 him, producing plants of the true win- 

 ter-flowering habit. These he grew for 

 some years under glass in England, 

 where he is located, but, on account of 

 the dull weather usually experienced 

 there throughout the winter, he has 

 ceased to grow this type, as he can get 

 the original summer-flowering Spencers 

 to bloom under glass in April. 



The first of Zvolanek 's varieties of 

 winter-flowering Spencers to be intro- 

 duced are, we believe, the direct re- 

 sults of crossing the winter-flowering 

 grandifloras with the sumnrer-flowering 

 Spencer type, but there have also been 

 introduced several varieties of true 

 Spencei; form, but winter-flowering type, 

 which we understand came as direct 

 sports from the summer-flowering vari- 

 eties; namely, Yarrawa, Rose Queen and 

 Anita Wehrman. 



Experiments in Australia. 



The origin of that great Australian 

 variety, Yarrawa, is interesting. Arthur 

 Yates, of Sydney, explains that for 

 many years the sweet pea was looked 

 upon as one of the most difficult plants 

 to grow successfully in the warmer sec- 

 tions of Australia. The regular sum- 

 mer-flowering types bloomed in the late 

 spring, when they were liable to be 

 subjected to sudden bursts of hot 

 weather and heavy winds, which often 

 shortened their flowering season to a 

 few weeks. Occasionally they entirely 

 failed to bloom. However, the intro- 

 duction of such varieties as Earliest of 

 All, Mont Blanc and later the Telemly 

 and newer American varieties quite 

 revolutionized sweet pea culture in Aus- 

 l^ralia, as these early varieties flowered 

 in the winter and early spring, giving 

 a supply of flowers for several months 

 \vhen practically no other flowers were 

 available. 



This was a great advance and the 

 sweet pea in Australia soon became one 

 "f the most popular flowers. However, 

 rne quality of the winter-flowering va- 

 rieties was so much below the standard 

 ^^ the modern Spencers that the Aus- 



tralian growers were not satisfied and 

 efforts have been made with consider- 

 able success by a few enthusiasts to 

 raise by selection and cross fertilizing 

 a superior type of the winter-flowering 

 varieties of the grandiflora section. 



Yarrawa and Its Descendants. 



However, a decided advance was in 

 view, as in 1908 there appeared in the 

 garden of John Young, of Sydney, in a 

 patch of new summer-flowering Spen- 

 cers, one plant of true Spencer type, 

 but quite distinct from all others. It 

 was different in its vigorous habit and 

 upright growth, earliness and color; it 

 was in full bloom when the others were 

 only a few inches high and it had gone 



Votet fof Women I 



A photograph taken by the Rochester repre- 

 sentative of The Review. Miss Pierson, niece 

 of A. N. Pierson, Cromwell, Conn., is seen hold- 

 ing one of H. E. Wilson's bouquets at the recent 

 exposition. In her own words: "I'm mnrrlrd 

 to the cause." She is an ardent sutfrage speaker. 



to seed before the normal type had 

 commenced to show flower buds. The 

 seeds from this plant were carefully 

 saved and sown the following autumn, 

 when it came quite true to the parent 

 and, instead of remaining more or less 

 dormant all winter, as the original Spen- 

 cers do, it commenced to bloom in the 

 late autumn and continued to flower 

 right through the winter, going to seed 

 in the early spring, as Telemly and 

 American winter-flowering varieties do 

 in Sydney, the winters there being com- 

 paratively mild, with only light frosts. 

 This early Spencer is quite distinct 

 in habit from any of the previous early- 

 flowering varieties. It is an extremely 

 vigorous grower. With good cultiva- 

 tion it will, in the vicinity of Sydney, 

 top a 10-foot trellis, while the Telemly 

 and older American varieties, grown 

 alongside, only attain half the height. 

 The Australians have been working on 

 Yarrawa as the seed-bearing parent of 

 many crosses, using the best of the 

 summer-flowering Spencers, and I be- 

 lieve they have now quite a family of 



Yarrawas in the best colors, but, so- 

 far as can be judged from reports, they 

 are as yet far from being properly 

 fixed, though doubtless in a year or 

 two this will be remedied, and, as I con- 

 sider Yarrawa the easiest doer of all 

 winter-flowering sweet peas, if thesfr 

 Australian children of Yarrawa em- 

 body the characteristics of the parent,, 

 they will be well worth having. 



Difficulties in Fixing Types. 



My experiences and observations 

 have indicated that in all lines of plant 

 breeding the experimenter has to admit 

 many times that nature's own crossing 

 produces a type that is far more easily 

 fixed than when one sets about to try to^ 

 obtain a given color or type, and to no 

 other flower does this apply more than 

 to sweet peas. 



Florists were quick to recognize the 

 superior qualities of the Spencer sweet 

 pea which Burpee first offered in Amer- 

 ica in 1904, under the name of Countess 

 Spencer, and with the distinct new 

 type came an earnest desire on the part 

 of those interested to produce, if pos- 

 sible, a strain of the proper growth and 

 flowering characteristics for forcing 

 under glass. 



The first to endeavor to place a type 

 of winter-fiowering Spencer on the mar- 

 ket was Anton Zvolanek, of Bound 

 Brook, N. J., and later of Lompoc, Cal., 

 but Mr. Zvolanek 's experience, judging 

 from trials I have made, must have 

 been quite similar to those which 

 Morse, Burpee and other growers had 

 when trying to fix crosses or sports of 

 the original or grandiflora types. 



As a summer cut flower the Spencer 

 so quickly superseded the grandiflora 

 type that it was only natural for florists 

 to be most eager for a winter-flowering 

 strain producing the same beautifully 

 waved flowers that today appeal to all 

 flower lovers during practically the en- 

 tire twelve months of the year. To me 

 it seems that this extreme eagerness 

 was solely responsible for some selec- 

 tions being placed on the market in an 

 unfixed condition. Such a demand had 

 been created for the seed of the Spencer 

 type for forcing that many growers 

 were satisfied to pay. what might be 

 called fabulous prices for seed which 

 did not represent a fixed type, realiz- 

 ing that the high prices obtained for 

 the waved flowers would permit a se- 

 vere roguing in the bed or bench, or a 

 careful assorting of blooms after they 

 were cut. 



I 



Making Haste Slowly. 



The field of sale for seed of forcing 

 sweet peas is limited, and while watch- 

 ing the work of George W. Kerr at 

 Fordhook I always had in mind the 

 fact that it was better to "make haste 

 slowly" and arrange to place on the 

 market only those selections which are 

 of a pleasing color and which came ab- 

 solutely true to type. 



One of the strains of the modern 

 winter-flowering sweet pea which I 

 have had the pleasure of watching de- 

 velop represents practically six years 

 of hard and patient work on the part 

 of G. W. Kerr, and after repeated trials 

 we were forced to concede that it was 

 better and more sure to start at the 

 bottom and work up slowly in this way 

 than to attempt to fix some of the 

 strains offered to the trade. 



As in all other lines of horticultural 

 work, the seedsman is forever on the 



