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24 



The Florists^ Review 



May 10, 1917. 



BAIT THAT DRAWS CROWDS. 



The progressive retailer, ever on the 

 lookout for ideas that will make his 

 window displays out of the ordinary and 

 therefore attractive and valuable, will 

 appreciate the possibilities suggested by 

 the accompanying illustrations of the 

 Easter flower display at the Phipps Con- 

 servatory, Schenley park, Pittsburgh, 

 Pa. The display was called "The 

 Springtime of Life," and proved an 

 attraction that drew thousands of Pitts- 

 burghers to the conservatory. 



J. W. Jones, foreman, discovered sev- 

 eral years ago that it took more than 

 an ordinary arrangement of flowers and 

 plants to excite much interest in the 

 conservatory among the people of Pitts- 

 burgh. Consequently in making dis- 

 plays for special days, such as Easter, 

 he has conceived and executed novelties 

 which have accomplished their purpose 

 of bringing crowds, who, after they had 

 arrived, were more delighted with the 

 flowers than they realized they would be. 



Easter this year came only a few days 

 before the opening of the baseball sea- 

 son, so that sport was selected as the 

 thing around which to build the dis- 

 play. A miniature playing field, with 

 grandstand and bleachers, was built. 

 Dolls represented the players and spec- 

 tators. No detail was omitted, even the 

 small boy viewing the game through a 

 knothole being present. On the tennis 

 court outside the ball park, also, there 

 was a game in progress, while nearby 

 were three boys fishing in a basin con- 

 taining goldfish. And around the whole, 

 or nearly so, was arranged the flower 

 and plant display. 



In speaking of the display, Mr. Jones 

 declared it had eclipsed all his previous 

 efforts, causing quite a sensation, not 

 only among the children, but the grown- 

 ups as well. 



The plants which formed the back- 

 ground for the ball park were of the 

 following varieties: Columbines, wis- 

 taria. Azalea mollis Anthony Koster, 

 Ehododendron Pink Pearl, Deutzia 

 Lemoinei, lilacs, yellow marguerites, 

 sweet peas, magnolias, nasturtiums, 

 German iris and hydrangeas. Beds of 

 Pelargonium Easter Greeting and Paul 



Crampel geraniums, bordered with arte- 

 misia and shrubs, ornamented the fore- 

 ground. 



Outdoor sports make a great appeal to 

 the average American. Such a display 

 as this, even on the much smaller scale 

 necessary in a show window, would at- 

 tract the attention of everyone who i^ 

 a lover of sports. And the person who 

 likes outdoor games is a person tempera- 

 mentally fitted to like everything that 

 pertains to the open, especially that 

 which is beautiful. 



Aside from their beauty, the greatest 

 appeal of flowers is the suggestion they 

 make of nature at its best. Conse- 

 quently lovers of nature, of the open — 

 and there is no one who needs so much 

 outdoor space as the baseball enthu- 

 siast, be he fan or player — are all flower 

 buyers in embryo. A window appealing 

 to their greatest outdoor interest is 

 bound to be impressive. 



ESSENTIALS OF HYBRIDIZATION. 



[Extracts from a paper by Floyd Bralllar, of 

 Nashville, Tenn., read at the second annual con- 

 vention of the Tennessee State Florists' Asso- 

 ciation.] 



Where the object sought is to pro- 

 duce in greater degree some character- 

 istic already possessed by some indi- 

 vidual plant, it should be carefully 

 crossed with another plant of the same 

 family that is as nearly like it as it 

 is possible to find. 



Mendel, a monk who did a great deal 

 of plant breeding, announced it as a 

 law that where two parents are allowed 

 to breed, one-fourth of the offspring 

 will be like one parent and one-fourth 

 like the other parent, and that seed 

 from either of these fourths will come 

 true to name and will be like the parent 

 whose character it followed; that the 

 remaining half of the offspring of such 

 a union will partake of the character- 

 istics of both parents in varying de- 

 grees, and that it is among this half 

 that we must look for improvements. 

 In the second generation a certain fixed 

 proportion of the seeds of these plants 

 will revert to each of the original par- 

 ents, but a portion of them will be 

 like their own parent. By selection for 

 a few generations, fewer and fewer of 



the seedlings will revert and the variety 

 will become fixed. The announcing of 

 this law has greatly lessened the labors 

 of the breeder by telling him which of 

 the offspring to throw away as being 

 worthless to him. He no longer bothers 

 with the half that is like one or the 

 other of the original parents. 



An Experiment with Cannas. 



This law seems to be pretty generally 

 operative where crosses are not too vio- 

 lent, but where the parents are too 

 widely different the law is by no means 

 fixed. 



A concrete example of this method of 

 procedure is before you. I have a canna 

 with green foliage that bears flowers 

 that are almost white. This canna has 

 great vigor, a quality no other white 

 canna possesses. I was desirous of 

 producing two results. First I desired 

 to produce a canna that would bear 

 pure white flowers; secondly, I desired 

 to produce a white canna with bronze 

 foliage. Accordingly, a pink canna of 

 equal size and vigor, with good bronze 

 foliage, was selected. You see before 

 you eight seedlings of this cross, using 

 the white canna as the mother plant. 

 Four of them have bronze foliage and 

 four of them have green foliage. The 

 other seeds failed to grow. Should these 

 eight plants prove to be illustrative of 

 all the results of such crosses, two of 

 them should be white cannas like their 

 mother, with green foliage; two of 

 them should be pink cannas with bronze 

 foliage, like their father; one should be 

 a pink canna with green foliage, one 9 

 white canna with bronze foliage, and 

 the other two should produce flowers 

 that are of a lighter pink than their 

 father but not so nearly white as their 

 mother, while one should have bronze 

 foliage and the other should have green 

 foliage. 



A Problem in Probabilities. 



Unfortunately, all of the seed pro- 

 duced by the cross did not grow, and 

 these seedlings may not, in all proba- 

 bility will not', follow this order. Most 

 likely they will not produce any new 

 variety at all, but half of them will be 

 like each parent, or inferior to it. But 



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A View of the Phfpps Conservatory, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Famous for Progretsive Policies. 



