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30 



The Florists^ Review 



Mabch 2. 1922 



Maid, Dorothy Gordon, Denver, Democ- 

 racy, Laddie, Miss Tlieo, Northport, 

 Philadelphia Pink, Peerless Pink, Ruth 

 Baur, Pink Sensation, Nancy, Alice and 

 Gloriosa. There are some fine scarlets 

 in Aviator, Belle Washburn, Comfort, 

 Eureka, two varieties of this name; 

 Edna, Eed Wing, Scarlet Glow, St. 

 Nicholas, The Herald and Commodore. 

 In the variegated class are Benora, Bay 

 State, J. W. Riley. In yellow are Maine 

 Sunshine, Old Gold, Yellow Prince and 

 Yellowstone. In crimson are Bernice, 

 Doris and Pocahontas iind in cerise arc 

 Gorgeous, Rosalia and Rosette. 



Those in the foregoing list of out- 

 standing merit are: Matchless, Laddie, 

 Cottage Maid, Aviator, Belle Washburn, 

 Eureka, Benora, Maine Sunshine, Doris, 

 Yellow Prince, Rosalia, Rosette and 

 Pocahontas. 



We have not by any means reached 

 the limit in carnations and I look to 

 see just as? big an advance in the next 

 decade, llow puny Lawson now looks 

 alongside of Laddie! Even the latter 

 wonderful variety will, undoubtedly, be 

 eclipsed, for steady progress is the order 

 in the carnation world. W. N. C. 



CARNATION SEEDLINGS. 



Hybridization and Raising. 



I might state in opening that I have 

 read the following works with much 

 profit; "Commercial Carnation Cul- 

 ture," by J. Harrison Dick; "Plant 

 Breeding," by Bailey and Gilbert, and 

 a work on Mendel's laws of heredity. 



Any members who have not read E. G. 

 Hill's article on commercial forcing 

 roses and reminiscences, published in 

 the trade papers last December, should 

 do so. It will be found quite profitable. 

 Something he said struck a responsive 

 chord in my heart, for I felt I had been 

 blundering along a good many years. 

 He said, "I have talked with Pernet 

 and Russell, with Lambert and Soupert, 

 of Luxembourg, and with both families 

 of the Dicksons and have tried to gather 

 information, but I found that a great 

 many of these men were stumbling 

 along. They were not doing things (yi 

 scientific lines. I do not think it is 

 speaking disrespectfully of them, but I 

 think they were groping their way to 

 a certain extent. Perhaps Frank Dick- 

 son and Alex Dickson were the most 

 pronounced in their work in regard to 

 scientific knowledge conoerning hy- 

 bridization." So I have not been the 

 only man going it blind to some extent. 



Facts Worth Knowing. 



A. F. J. Baur says : ' ' Most of the real 

 acquisitions have'been produced by the 

 few who have studied the problem care- 

 fully and followed it up systematically 

 over a long period. To the hybridizer 

 belongs the credit for changing the car- 

 nation 's habit from the periodical to 

 the perpetual blooming habit and for 

 the wide range of color. ' ' [The speaker 

 here showed a pistil, removed stamens.] 



A stigma is receptive in from six to 

 fourteen davs. Some use a camel 's-hair 

 brush in their work. I prefer a forceps; 

 curved ones are best. Also I prefer an 

 old felt hat. [A type of record tag 

 was here shown; the female's name al- 

 ways comes first. The petals were left 

 on and the calyx was slit.] 



C. H. Conners, of the New Jersey ex- 



Dlgest of the talk by Edward Wlnklor. Wake- 

 fleld, Mass., before tbe Gardeners' and Flo- 

 rists* Club of Boston, February 23, 1922. 



l)erimcnt station, says : ' ' Only one grain 

 of pollen is necessary to impregnate the 

 seed, provided germination takes place, 

 but it is desirable to cover well the 

 stigma with pollen. The sticky fluid is 

 the germinating medium. In it the pol- 

 len grain germinates and throws out a 

 tube, which enters at one of the hairs 

 and so down to the ovary, where it im- 

 ])regnates the ovules, which thereupon 

 become seeds." 



Characteristics to be sought after are 

 a free-branching habit, a fairly stiff 

 stem without too much growth up high, 

 good calyx, fragrance, everblooming 

 (juality and last, but by no means least, 

 keeping quality. A'ccyisiderable amount 

 of my crossing is done during my noon 

 hour. I do not like Sunday work and, 

 while some practice it, I consider it un- 

 necessary. 



Ideals Needed. 



A successful hybridist has well said: 

 "To be a successful hybridist or to at- 

 tain success in fertilization, we have to 



Every Florist 



ha« hit upon idea* 



that have made money 



for him. The spread 



of such ideas throucfa 



the trade makes progress. 



'mBf 



is the medium for spreading those 

 money-making ideas. Tell the trade 

 about yours. Contributions on any 

 subject relating to the trade lare 

 always welcomed by the Editor. 



The way tliey are wrltton Is not so 

 lni|)oitant as the Ideas they convey. 

 Write as you would talk. 



have idealism; we must have visions of 

 the things we want to aim at. Young 

 men must get this thoroughly grounded 

 in their minds and thoughts. If it were 

 not for the dreamers, there would not be 

 much accomplished in this world. Have 

 a vision of the thipgs you want to do, 

 and then have the purpose of mind, the 

 stability to stick at it and work it out, 

 and you will get results. I don't care 

 what line of action you take up in this 

 life, but in any profession, *stick-at-it- 

 ness' and that desire to carry out your 

 ideals and to make them a success will 

 carry you forward at a wonderful rate. 

 And, let me tell you, it will give you 

 pleasure and delight, as you go along 

 through this experimental stage. If you 

 are engaged in raising new plants, in 

 hybridization or in cross-fertilization, I 

 cannot explain to you the great joy and 

 satisfaction you will get out of it. It 

 pays; pays every minute and every day 

 of your life." 



A. F. J. Baur says: "There is no 

 true-bred strain, one that will reproduce 

 itself from seed. This can perhaps be 

 accounted for in two ways. In the first 

 place, the perpetual-flowering carnation 

 of today is so different from the orig- 

 inal from which it sprang, and the 

 change has been so gradual, that there 

 remains a strong tendency to revert. 

 Then, too, the breeders have not con- 



centrated their efforts on the production 

 of a true-bred strain. The custom has 

 been to infuse the blood of any variety 

 ])ossessing certain qualities in which the 

 strain may have been deficient; conse- 

 quently, the ancestry of most varieties 

 is so complex that no definite results 

 can be relied upon when a cross is 

 made." 



Recent SeedUngs. 



[Mr. Winkler here showed a number of 

 his recent seedlings, including Little 

 Gem, Benora, Matchless, No. 11 and Pe- 

 ter Ball, a fine rose pink, also a cerise. 

 In the latter he thought he had a sure 

 winner, but stem-rot finished it.] 



I have repeiited crosses forty times, 

 saved seeds until January and even when 

 seeds w&^e sealed up in wax paper I 

 have lost all from thrips. At least, 

 thrips seemed^^esponsible. Now I save 

 seed whenever/it ripens. William Sim, 

 by crossing Matchless on Matchless, has 

 produced Gold Dust and Sunset. Va- 

 rieties vary much in the production of 

 pollen. Morniiig Glow has none in win- 

 ter, Aviator and Ward none at any time, 

 and it is hard to\find on Belle Washburn. 

 Morning Glow is s^terile; so is The Queen, 

 for many years a prolific and profitable 

 white. Seeds in a pod number any- 

 where from one to sixty. It takes four 

 to six weeks to ripen the seeds. I prefer 

 to sow seeds in flats, marking rows by 

 pressing 12-inch field labels, and pick 

 each seed separately. Possibly small 

 seed pans might be better when sown 

 broadcast. Indoor space is too valuable 

 to carry along seedlings in pots or in 

 benches and it is best to plant them 

 outdoors. Mr. Baur considers pot cul- 

 ture the better method. I have some in 

 pots and consider the method interest- 

 ing, but decidedly expensive. 



To determine the value of a new va- 

 riety, a record should be kept of how 

 it produces and what price the blooms 

 bring compared with standard varieties 

 of the same color. It is hard to improve 

 on what we already have and it seems 

 to me about the same as trying to clip 

 a quarter of a second off a race horse's 

 time. An originator should send out his 

 new varieties and he should get all there 

 is in it the first year. He may think he 

 is not known, but how did Dorner, Ward 

 and Fisher get their reputation! It is 

 a difficult matter to gauge a variety's 

 value. Some of the most promising 

 kinds have turned out dismal failures. 



W. N. C. 



PONTRIOH'S NEW STORE. 



More than a score of years ago, Simon 

 Pontrich built several greenhouses on 

 the outskirts of Louisville, Ky. In those 

 days he was able to care for his small 

 retail business without special facili- 

 ties. But, as time passed and his busi- 

 ness grew, he found need of a store. So 

 he boarded off one end of his potting 

 shed and equipped it with such furnish- 

 ings as were indispensable fof retailing 

 flowers. When his sons gave the busi- 

 ness added impetus, trade grew so that 

 before long an up-to-date-display room 

 was thought necessary to care for the 

 business that had been built ' up. A 

 brick building has been erected, at the 

 corner of Twenty-eighth ^and Green- 

 wood streets, which contains all the fix- 

 tures and equipment of a shop in the 

 heart of the city. The exterior of the 

 store which adjoins the greenhouses is 

 shown in the illustration on page 31. 



In the new store, the sons of Simon 

 Pontrich are now in full charge of the 



