SEEDLING ROSES i^ 

 RAISED AT RICHMOND 



When one expert writes an appreciative description of another ex- 

 perils work, the account surely is worth reading. When E. G. Hill tries 

 to heat even his own past record in raising new roses, and when C. II. Totty 

 reports the results of the Hill experiments, the report deserves attention. 



ETURNING from St. Louis 

 after the meeting of the 

 National Flower Show 

 committee, held October 

 13, I stopped at the estab- 

 lishment of the E. G. Hill 

 Co., in Richmond, Ind. 

 Since it is one of the larg- 

 est places in that locality 

 and there is nearly always 

 something of interest there to show 

 visitors, I try to call there at least 

 once every year. This year I was 

 doubly and trebly rewarded when I 

 found there a wonderful selection of 

 seedling roses. Mr. Hill informed me 

 that about three years ago, before the 

 stock of Ophelia was distributed at all 

 in this country, he learned its wonder- 

 ful value as a forcing rose and decided 

 to make a great many crosses, with 

 Ophelia in every case as 

 the mother plant. A 

 series of crosses were 

 made, using as the pollen 

 parent such standard va- 

 rieties as Sunburst, Mrs. 

 Russell, Mrs. Ward, My 

 Maryland, etc., and a 

 most Q^reful record was 

 kept of each cross and 

 the resulting seedlings. 



Watching Results. 



Out of about 3,000 

 seedlings which resulted 

 from these crosses, forty 

 varieties were selected 

 and are now in their sec- 

 ond year. Some have 

 propagated better than 

 others and a total of 

 about 3,000 plants are 

 now in flower. 



Anyone who is at all 

 interested in roses would 

 do well to visit Rich- 

 mond once or twice this 

 year, to see how these 

 seedling roses are pro- 

 gressing. Personally, I 

 consider Mr. Hill has 

 had excellent results. 

 There is hardly a poor 

 thing in the forty varie- 

 ties selected for the sec- 

 ond year's trial and 

 some of the types are 

 simply wonderful; they 

 will startle the country 

 if they retain their pres- 

 ent proclivities. I was 

 80 interested in them 

 that I spent an entire 



By CHARLES H. TOTTY. 



day with Mr. Hill, tramping up and 

 down the rose houses and studying these 

 plants. Never before have I seen seed- 

 ling roses that showed their parentage 

 so strongly as do these of Mr. Hill's. 



Marked with Three Crosses. 



For instance, in the case of seedling 

 No. 627, which I marked with three 

 crosses, the pollen plant, Killarney Bril- 

 liant, has left its imprint on the seed- 

 ling as regards color and it resembles 

 the pollen parent much more than do 

 most seedlings, which are usually of de- 

 cidedly the same type as the mother 

 parent. I shall be indeed surprised if 

 No. 627 does not eventually resolve it- 

 self into a splendid forcing rose for 

 America. Another cross that shows 



Rose Red Rover. 



both parents quite well is No. 393, 

 Shawyer on Ophelia. This has all the 

 Shawyer earmarks of growth, never 

 needing pinching; it makes a wonder- 

 fully long growth without any stopping. 

 Shawyer, when it does well, is hard to 

 beat either on the exhibition or com- 

 mercial dealers' tables. No. 393 would 

 be well worth more than the single cross 

 I gave it. 



No. 427 seemed to resemble Mock con- 

 siderably in growth and also somewhat 

 in color. The fully expanded flower was 

 a little flat, but otherwise the growth 

 of the plant was ideal in every way. 

 No. 467 was a lovely shade of pink, with 

 a deeper heart. Eventually — after I had 

 been up and down the rows about a 

 dozen times — it secured three crosses. It 

 is interesting to hear the different criti- 

 cisms offered by the various members 

 of the Hill family on 

 their roses. I found 

 afterward that Mr. Hill 

 lias set his heart on No. 

 467 as being perhaps the 

 best of the entire collec- 

 tion. Time alone, of 

 course, will settle this 

 question. 



Almost Ideal. 



The best shaped flow- 

 ers of the entire collec- 

 tion were on No. 882, 

 also a three-cross va- 

 riety in my notebook. 

 The color ia an espe- 

 cially delicate shade, 

 sometimes referred to as 

 blush pink. It may be 

 that this variety will 

 not stand the pressure 

 when jammed and 

 pushed around in the 

 wholesale market, but, 

 as I saw it blooming, it 

 certainly was the "pink 

 of perfection, ' ' with its 

 high-pointed center. 

 This struck me as being 

 an almost ideal rose. I 

 made this note after it 

 in my book: "Will it 

 ship!" I suppose we 

 shall have to wait and 

 see. 



No. 32, close by, was 

 growing literally like a 

 weed. .It has this slight 

 handicap, that the bud 

 is separated, or, as some 

 people say, it "comes 

 double." Otherwise it 



