42 



The Florists^ Review 



Mabch 23. 1*22 



where they won't be subjected to drip. 

 If the soil is fairly moist, do not water 

 until it dries out well. Shoots will be- 

 gin to appear about the end of January, 

 when the plants should be placed on the 

 bench near the light. This lily should 

 not be forced hard, like longiflorum 

 giganteum, as it will do poorly, but 

 grown in a temperature of 45 to 50 de- 

 grees at night, in winter, it will come 

 ^of splendid quality. As the pots become 

 filled with roots, liquid manure once a 

 week can be applied in moderately 

 weak doses, until flowers start to open. 

 The plants bloom in summer, varying 

 from May until September, according 

 to the warmth given them, and carry 



spikes of remarkable vigor, with nu- 

 merous flowers. Plants stood on the 

 floor of a frost-proof cellar or placed 

 in a coldframe and well covered with 

 dry leaves, with sashes over them, will 

 give much later flowers than those 

 started below greenhouse benches. Cold 

 storage magniflcums may be started 

 in August or earlier and may be 

 had in flower from November until 

 January or later, if desired. If you 

 want some fine specimen plants of this 

 lily, try a number of bulbs in 12-inch 

 or 14-inch pots. Grown this way, you 

 can get stalks six feet in height and 

 carrying twelve to thirty flowers per 

 stalk in many cases. C. W. 



BLOOD WILL TELL 



SEUBCTING THE STBAIN. 



Propagating for Perfection. 



Florists, no doubt, are aware of the 

 fac*^ that there is much variation in the 

 flowers of a particular crop. The flowers 

 vary in size, form and shade of color. 

 Some flowers are more desirable than 

 others, although all may have been pro- 

 duced under similar or, possibly, the 

 same conditions of culture. 



A quite common characteristic of cer- 

 tain varieties of carnations is the curl- 

 ing of the outer edges of the petals, 

 which gives the flower a more or less 

 distorted appearance. This condition we 

 usually refer to as "crimping." Asso- 

 ciated with this curling of the petals 

 is a smallness of flower, such a flower 

 always being smaller than the average 

 good flower of the variety. What the 

 inherent cause is of this abnormal con- 

 dition is not known; it may be the re- 

 sult of external conditions operating on 

 the flower during its early stages of de- 

 velopment or it may be the result of* 

 some disarrangement of the internal 

 functions of the plant; in other words, 

 inherent in the plant and bearing no re- 

 lation to the conditions under which the 

 plant is being grown. 



In the course of our experiments at 

 the University of Illinois on the influ- 

 ence of selection for high and low pro- 

 duction strains, an attempt was made to 

 determine to what extent this peculiar- 

 ity of the flower is dependent on the in- 

 herent characteristics of the plant. Ac- 

 cordingly, certain plants were selected 

 whicli had a record of having jiroduced 

 a high percentage of these crimped flow- 

 ers. Observation had shown that some 

 plants produce many such flowers in 

 a season, while others produce none or 

 only a few. Several plants were selected, 

 also, which had produced no crimped 

 flowers. 



Records Kept on Carnations. 



Cuttings were made from these plants 

 and a record of production kept of each 

 ]>lant and the resulting progeny. The 

 data in the accompanying table illus- 

 trate the results from two plants, one se- 

 lected for crimps, the other for the lack 

 of crimps. The first plant, selected be- 

 cause of its perfect flowers, was carried 

 through four years, when there was a 

 total of fifteen plants. During all this 

 time every flower was perfect, so far 



hand, a strain may be developed with 

 perfect flowers, at any rate with a high 

 percentage of good flowers. We may 

 find here, too, an explanation for the old 

 belief that varieties eventually "run 

 out." The explanation is that a new 

 strain has come into existence because 

 of the type of plants selected for repro- 

 ducing the variety. 



There may have been a certain tend- 

 ency in the original plant, possibly a 

 tendency not desirable, and by selecting 

 at random, this tendency has been per- 

 mitted to exert itself and become the 

 dominant characteristic of the variety. 

 On the other hand, it appears possible, 

 by means of careful and continuous se- 

 lection, to keep up the standard of a va- 

 riety and develop a strain which pro- 

 duces a high percentage of good flowers. 

 P. A. Lehenbauer. 



as the crimping of the petals is con- 

 cerned. The second plant, selected be- 

 cause more than half of its flowers were 

 crimped, was carried through nearly five 

 years. As can readily be seen, the per- 

 centage of flowers which were crimped 

 increased from year to year until, in the 

 last year, of the 582 flowers produced, 

 ninety-five per cent were crimped. 



Not all the plants gave results as 

 clean-cut as the two above. However, 

 all the data indicate the same general 

 tendency; in other words, the data show 

 that if we propagate from a plant which 

 has produced one or more crimped flow- 

 ers a progeny will, in course of time, 

 be developed which produces a high per- 

 centage of crimped flowers. 



Another interesting fact brought out 

 is that of the ninety-six plants grown 

 this year, the complete progeny of plant 

 No. 32, eighty-two plants have a record 

 of 100 per cent crimped flowers; that is, 

 every flower produced by these plants 

 was crimped. Only fourteen plants pro- 

 duced flowers which were not all 

 crimped and the proportion of the two 

 kinds of flowers was: Crimped, sixty- 

 six; not crimped, twenty-nine. In other 

 words, the tendency seems to be towards 

 a strain of plants which produces only 

 crimped flowers. 



Isolation of Strains. 



These two strains were gotten by the 

 process of selection. By means of care- 

 fully selecting plants, we then are able 

 to isolate strains differing in this flower 

 characteristic. The experiment illus- 

 trates the importance of propagating 

 from the most desirable plants. Unless 

 some care is exercised, a variety may 

 after a time lose its good qualities and 

 instead a strain result which is much un- 

 like the original plants. On the other 



VALLEY FOR EASTER. 



What is the latest we can plant valley 

 pips to have them for Easter and what 

 is the general culture of them? 



S. F. C— O. 



Allow about three weeks from the 

 time you start them until flowering. 

 Fresh fall-dug pips should have a bot- 

 tom heat of about 75 degrees if possible 

 and a top heat around 60 degrees. Plant 

 the pips in clean sand and water well. 

 Keep them dark for fourteen days; then 

 gradually allow a little light to give 

 stamina to the flower stalks and to 

 encourage leaf growth. Cold storage 

 pips need no bottom heat. If you are 

 growing them in pots, give them a night 

 temperature of 65 degrees and keep in 

 the light all the time to produce stocky 

 plants. C. W. 



VALLEY PIPS. 



What is the difference between Hol- 

 land and German valley pips? What is 

 the best time to use Holland pips for 

 forcing? Are pips in cold storage while 

 en route from Europe? When are pips 

 harvested in Europe? L. F. — N. J. 



Before the war the Holland valley 

 pips were considered inferior to the 

 German pips, were smaller in size and 

 produced flowers of inferior quality. 

 Germany, undoubtedly, sent during the 

 war many Berlin pips into neutral Hol- 

 land and these were sold here as Dutch. 

 Probably from now on we can depend 

 upon receiving the two types more as 

 they were before 1914. 



Holland pips succeed best when start- 

 ed towards the end of January. Valley 

 pips are not placed in cold storage while 

 en route from Europe, but they are 

 placed in cold storage here in large 

 (]uantities. They usually come here in 

 November and December, being har- 

 vested abroad in October. C W. 



How Tendency to Crimping Increases in Successive Generations of Carnation Plants. 



