14 



The Florists^ Review 



Januabx 14, 1910. 



WHY DO VAEIETIES RUN OUT? 



Av«^a.ge Life Short. 



A recent letter from a customer, com- 

 plaining that in the mum world there 

 are altogether too many novelties, that 

 they are unnecessary, and that properly 

 handled the varieties in cultivation 

 should increase in vigor and beauty 

 every year, is one of the reasons for 

 these remarks on why varieties run out. 

 Granted that excessive propagation is 

 not good for any plant, there must be 

 some fundamental reason why the vari- 

 eties pass on ultimately to that bourn 

 from which no mum ever returns. It is 

 true that some varieties have a great 

 deal of natural vigor and last longer 

 than others. An excellent case in point 

 is the old Major Bonnaflfon, still grown 

 extensively, at least in the west, as a 

 commercial cut flower, but showing 

 nothing like the splendid characteris- 

 tics that it had fifteen or more years 

 ago. But, as a rule, the average life 

 of a mum is comparatively short. 



Probably the principal reason is ex- 

 plained by a recent writer, Felix J. 

 Koch, in the Technical World Maga- 

 zine. This article, reprinted in the 

 Literary Digest a short time ago, was 

 interesting reading for me, and seemed 

 to throw a clear light on the subject. 

 Mr. Koch says, "The newest leaf of an 

 old tree is not really new at all, but 

 it is as old as the tree itself. ' ' The aver- 

 ago man, accustomed to think of spring 

 as the rejuvenating period when every- 

 thing is started out into new life, does 

 not often think of this, but assumes 

 that nature is renewed in all respects 

 and, given favorable conditions, should 

 go on indefinitely. This is the same 

 argument that some men put up in re- 

 gard to mums. Given new cuttings and 

 healthy stock and surroundings, they 

 should be rejuvenated, and, instead of 

 deteriorating, they should be as good 

 as or better than they were in the 

 previous year. 



Can Teli Age by Growth. 



Mr. Koch states that Prof. H. M. 

 Benedict has proved beyond question 

 that he can tell by the growth of fruit 

 trees whether a branch is from a cut- 

 ting or a seedling, or, in other words, 

 whether it is from a young plant or an 

 eld one, and says that every man who 

 is the possessor of a magnifying glass 

 can do the same thing, the secret of 

 this being disclosed by the venation of 

 the leaf, which becomes closer as the 

 plant grows older. He proceeds: 

 "Practical fruit growers have for some 

 time insisted that cuttings do show re- 

 lation to the age of the parent tree. 

 They observed this in the bearing qual- 

 ities of the tree. But botany has al- 

 ways said this is impossible. Now we 

 are able to prove that practical nur- 

 serymen are in the right! The prin- 

 ciple involved is that of senility, or 

 the gradual loss of power even when all 

 external things are favorable. Senility 

 applies to youth as well as old age in 

 this connection, says Prof. Benedict; 

 in fact, it is most marked in the earli- 



est stages of some animal forms, espe- 

 cially human beings. In plant life the 

 embryonic tissues, whereby the plant 

 grows, partake of the age of the plant 

 itself. This is the point which contra- 

 dicts formerly accepted botanical prin- 

 ciples. In other words, the new twig 

 which presents itself on the older branch 

 in the springtime is not a new growth, 

 as has been thought; it is as old as 

 the tree itself. As the plants grow 

 older the multiple cells which carry the 

 rcurishment in the leaf become smaller 

 in size and greater in number. It was 

 by noting marked differences here and 

 establishing a more or less uniform 

 scale that the botanist was able to es- 

 tablish this new principle." 



Only Three Years at the Top. 



Personally, I think this' statement 

 makes it clear why not only mums, but 

 roses, carnations and other plants, to 

 use a common term, run out. This 

 running out process is doubtless helped 

 along by the more or less unnatural 

 conditions of a greenhouse. Three 

 years seems almost as long as the 

 average mum can maintain its place 

 at the head of the list as an exhibition 

 flower. Merza and Col. Appleton are 

 two exceptions that occur to me at 

 this moment, but finally they went the 



way of all mums. The variety Wm. 

 Turner, which was imported in 1910 

 and distributed to the trade in 1911,. 

 may be said today to be on the crest 

 of the wave of popularity. Just how 

 long it will atay there is a <)uestion.. 

 As an interesting item in regard ta 

 increasing stocky < I may state tha^'the- 

 stock of Wm. Ttiirirer in Xaaeri6Hk at 

 the present time w^s all provided fronk 

 ten stock plants I imported in the- 

 spring of 1910 from England. The- 

 descendants of these ten plants must. ^ 

 be over half a million today, judging 

 from the enormous sales this variety 

 had last spring. How many millions, 

 of plants the variety Major Bonnaffon 

 has produced would be an interesting^ 

 problem that could be worked out by 

 some florist during the long winter 

 evenings. C. H. Totty. 



son. FOB CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Will the soil I take from my carna- 

 tion benches next spring be all right to 

 fill my chrysanthemum benches with! If 

 so, how much manure should I addf 

 ^_^ E. C. 



If you want really good chrysanthe- 

 mums I would not advise you to use- 

 the old carnation soil, but procure fresh 

 pasture loam, to which is added one- 

 fourth of well rotted cow or horse 

 manure; also add some fine bone a few 

 weeks before housing the compost. If 

 only the carnation soil is available, I 

 would add one-third rotted manure ta 

 it and give it a couple of turnings be- 

 fore housing. The best plan is to sprea<) 

 your old compost in the field and lay 

 it down .'Ti grass for a couple of years,, 

 to get so ae fiber in it. C. W. 



NOTES FROM FOREIGN KKteNDS 



Rheims, France. — This district has 

 been under shell fire for weeks and the 

 efforts of some of the smaller nursery- 

 men to save their stock have been al- 

 most beyond belief. Concussion breaks 

 nuich glass not hit and some sashes 

 and houses had ])een reglazed three 

 limes before the supply of glass and 

 putty was exhausted. 



London, England. — So generally have 

 the French horticulturists responded to 

 the call to arms that the Societe Fran- 

 eaise d 'Horticulture of London has sus- 

 pended its meetings. When the action 

 v\ as taken there were only five members 

 of the society in England, three of 

 whom were Swiss, one a Belgian, and 

 one a Franchman, too young to take 

 part in the war. 



Darmstadt, Germany. — The grass and 

 tree seed interests here have suffered 

 a loss of business with the countries 

 with which Germany is at war, but have 

 licen able to conduct business with Amer- 

 ica as usual, via Rotterdam. The busi- 

 ness of Conrad Appel, which has been 

 conducted uninterruptedly for 125 years, 

 has passed through many wars and is 

 continuing in this one the same as in 

 the Franco-Prussian conflict of 1870, 

 some of the employees then with the 

 house still being active. 



Berlin, Germany. — Correspondents iu 

 MoUer's Deutsche Gartner Zeitung ad- 

 vocate the translation into German of" 

 names of varieties of plants raised in 

 France, England, Belgium, etc.; in fact, 

 to boycott the languages of the allied 

 nations. In case those words are- 

 avoided which are incapable of trans- 

 lation or of pronunciation in another 

 tongue, this step would be preferred ta 

 the renaming of the varieties, which 

 was first suggested. 



Ghent, Belgium. — Although exporta 

 to neutral countries were larger than 

 uraal this year because of the cutting 

 off of trade with some European na- 

 tions, next year will in all likelihood- 

 find a far different situation. A sud- 

 den drop in temperature in the latter 

 part of November caught the growers 

 unprepared, killing nearly all azaleas 

 which had not been brought into the 

 greenhouses, for ice formed on the cold- 

 frames, and touching the leaves of the 

 palms. The growers, many of whom 

 are completely discouraged, pay little 

 attention to their stock, use coal spar- 

 ingly — too sparingly for such subjecta 

 as palms — and do little propagating. 

 Between the war, a hard winter and a. 

 lack of cash in the growers' pocket- 

 books, the prospect for plant stocks for^ 

 export next season is not promising. 



