24 



The Florists^ Review 



May 10, 1917. 



BAIT THAT DRAWS CROWDS. 



Tlio projiTOissive rctniler, over on tlic 

 lookout J'or ideas tliat Avill make liis 

 Aviiulow (iisjilays out of the ordinary and 

 tlierel'ore attractive and valuable, will 

 ;ili|ireciate the jiossiljilities sui:<j;e.sted by 

 tlie aeeoni]ianyin<; illustrations of the 

 I'^a.ster liower disjday at the JMiipji.s Con- 

 servatory, !S(dienlev i)ark, J'ittsbur^h, 

 J'a. The display' Mas called "The 

 Sprinjjtime of Life," and ]»ro\ed an 

 attraction that drew thousands of I'itts- 

 burj^heis to the conservatory. 



.1. \V. .Tones, foreman, discovered sev- 

 eral years ai^o that it took moi-e tlian 

 an ordinary arianj^enient oi' flowers anil 

 plants to excite much interest in the 

 conservatory amonj^' the ]ic!ople of i'itts- 

 bnrL;li. ( "onse(|uently in makinjjt dis- 

 I'lays for sjiecial days, such as Easter. 

 he has conceived an(l executed novelties 

 whiili have accomplished their purpose 

 of brinnin.u crowds, Avho, after they had 

 arrived, \vere more delighted Avith the 

 llowers tlian th(\v realized they would bo. 



I'-aster this year came only a few days 

 before the oiienin<f of the bastdiall sea- 

 son, so that sjiort was selected as the 

 thinjjj around which to build the dis- 

 jday. A miniature ])laying tield, with 

 grandstand and bleachers, was Imilt. 

 Dolls represented the ])layers and s])ec- 

 tators. No detail was omitted, even the 

 small bo\' viewini,^ the game through ;i 

 knothole being ]iresent. On the tennis 

 court outsiile the ball jiark. also, there 

 w;is a game in ]>rogress, while nearby 

 were three boys lishing in a basin con- 

 taining goldfish. And aiouml the wholt>, 

 or nearly so, was arranged the liower 

 and plant display. 



In speaking of the display, ^Ir. Jones 

 declared it had eclipsed all his jirevious 

 tdforts, causing (juiti- a sensation, not 

 only among the children, but the grown- 

 ui)S as well. 



The ])lants which formeil the bacds- 

 ground for tlie ball jjark Avcre of the 

 following varieties: Columbines, wis- 

 tari.a, Azalea mcdlis Anthony Koster, 

 Khododendron I'ink I'earl, Deutzia 

 Lemoinoi, lilacs, yellow marguerites, 

 sweet ])eas, magnolias, nasturtiums, 

 (iernian iris and hydrangeas. Beds of 

 relargoniuiii Kaster (Jreeting and Paul 



Cramind geraniums, bordered with arte- 

 misia and shrubs, ornamented the fore- 

 ground. 



Outdoor sports make a great appeal to 

 the average American. Such a liisplay 

 as this, even on the much smaller scale 

 necessary in a show window, would at- 

 tract the attention of everyone who is 

 a lover of sjiorts. And the person Avho 

 likes outdoor games is a ])erson tem])era- 

 mentally fitted to like everything that 

 jiertains to the open, esj)ecially that 

 which is beautiful. 



Aside from their beauty, the greatest 

 ajipeal of llowers is the suggestion they 

 make of nature at its best. Conse- 

 (|uently 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^ a]i]>ealing 

 to tludr greatest outdoor interest is 

 bound to be impressive. 



ESSENTIALS OF HYBRIDIZATION. 



fl'xtracts from a paper by Floyd Bralliar, of 

 Nasliville, Tcmi., read at the second annual con- 

 veiitiiin of the Tennessee Slate 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, l)Ut a portion of them will be 

 like their OAvn 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 

 o})erative where crosses are not too vio- 

 lent, but where the jtarents 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 floAvers 

 that are almost white. This canna has 

 great vigor, a quality no other Avhite 

 canna possesses. I was desirous of 

 producing tAvo results. First I desired 

 to produce a canna that avouIcI bear 

 pure Avhite floAvers; secondly, I desired 

 to produce a Avhite canna Avith bronze 

 foliage. Accordingly, a pink canna of 

 equal size and vigor, Avith good bronze 

 foliage, Avas selected. You see before 

 you eight seedlings of this cross, using 

 the white canna as the mother plant. 

 Four of them liaA'e bronze foliage and 

 four of them have green foliage. The 

 other seeds failed to groAv. 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, witli green foliage; two of 

 them should be pink cannas Avith bronze 

 foliage, like their father; ono should be 

 a pink canna with green foliage, one 9 

 Avhito 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 Avill be 

 like each parent, or inferior to it. But 



A VieAv of the Phipps Conservatory, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Famous for Progressive Policies, 



