■ Twrr^.i'^y-' ■t 



Ja.nuabx 30, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



23 



c\ 



it for granted" advisedly, because tak- 

 ing things for granted is a characteristic 

 trait of the enthusiast. He watches the 

 seed pod with all the care, hope and love 

 which a young mother bestows upon her 

 first-bom. "To be sure," he reasons, 

 "something good must result. A chip 

 of the old block is an asset not to be 

 despised. * ' 



Enthusiastic Dissemination. 



In course of time the seedling or seed- 

 lings appear. Out of a dozen or more 

 "uncertainties," the one looking the 

 most promising is selected and duly 

 labeled. No sooner does the bloom break 

 through the calyx than the plant is 

 chopped down, literally hacked to pieces, 

 in order to get all the cuttings, good, 

 bad and indifferent, that it may yield 

 through and beyond the season. The 

 vitality of the "promising one" is thus 

 impaired at the very outset of its ephem- 

 eral career. The season following, it 

 still looks promising, although the calyx 

 is somewhat inclined to go asunder and 

 the stem is not strong enough to sus- 

 tain the weight of the bloom or the 

 bunch of petals. The season, of course, 

 which happened to be either too dry or 

 too wet, is accountable for that. Per- 

 haps a little overfeeding did the nus- 

 chief, or the temperature was a degree 

 or two too low or too high to suit its 

 delicate constitution. 



To be sure, there are numerous rea- 

 sons for its misbehavior, but no mat- 

 ter, where there is life there is hope. 

 A second massacre is in order and the 

 plants are propagated to the limit. Cut- 

 tings are taken regardless of their con- 

 dition. It will not do to "put oflE" 

 when the growers are so much in need 

 of a good white, a good red. or a good 

 pink, and, incidentally, when there is 

 a fortune in sight. I will stop ri^ht 

 here, however, to reiterate my assertion 

 that the introducers of new carnations 

 are absolutely honest, that no fraud is 

 intended when a carnation is finally 

 launched, with all the pomp and all 

 the songs in its praise which we are 

 accustomed to see and to hear. 

 The question as to what the grower 



Carnation Andrew Carnegie. 



should expect from the introducer of 

 a new carnation is rather a perplexing 

 one and is not so easily answered as 

 one might expect. Our ideas of the 

 fitness of things are so much at variance 

 with local conditions and local require- 

 ments that it would be practically im- 

 possible to set up a standard with a 

 view of insuring general satisfaction. 



Real Bread and Butter Sorts. 



In one of the November issues of 

 Horticulture, John Thorpe, in his notes 

 on the Chicago flower show, has this 

 to say about the carnations which were 

 on exhibition there: "Of new carna- 

 tions — in quantity very short, in quality 

 never better. Raisers of seedlings are 

 getting wise. It is not how many, but 

 how few. Let this prevail, because the 

 few have the best chance." Tersely ex- 

 pressed, but true. That the few of 

 superior quality have the best chance is 

 not to be denied. Yet, on the other 

 hand, we must also not ignore the fact 



Carnation Splendor. 



that while there are comparatively fsiw 

 growers ever in quest of "fancies" of 

 carnations of quality, whose products 

 are sure to command the highest prices 

 at all times, there are hundreds and 

 thousands of others who are ever on 

 the lookout for "the bread and butter 

 sorts, * ' whose local markets, either whole- 

 sale or retail, do not warrant heavy 

 investments in * * fancies, ' ' who, in brier, 

 must have carnations which, taking local 

 conditions into consideration, will pay 

 for the coal, the help, the interest on 

 the greenhouse plant, and will leave a 

 dollar to boot. It is the rank and file 

 that is to be considered, the man who 

 can no longer grow Lawson or Queen 

 and who is in want of something to 

 take their places. A standard, therefore, 

 to suit alike the sucessful growers in 

 the vicinity of New York or Chicago 

 and the man in the Dakotas, is not to 

 be thought of. 



But what, after all, is the grower to 

 expect from the introducer of new seed- 

 ling carnations f 



A Happy Middle Ground. 



Coming to the point by the shortest 

 possible route, it begins to dawn upon 

 me that ^ there ought to be a sort of 

 happy middle ground, upon which both 

 the grower and the hybridizer could 

 meet for the purpose of advancing their 

 mutual interests, for the purpose of 

 adjusting differences, of overcoming 

 prejudices and of facing conditions. If 

 the one realizes the need of the other; 

 in other words, if the introducer of 

 seedling carnations will exercise the most 

 scrupulous care in behalf of the "goose 

 that lays the golden egg," and if the 

 grower in his turn will bear in mind 

 that his very success, or the "golden 

 egg," has been made possible by the 

 men who have made hybridization their 

 life study, who are sacrificing their time 

 and means in order to improve upon past 

 achievements and thereby advance the 

 interests of the carnation growers — if 

 both, I say, could meet upon such 

 ground, there surely would be no cause 

 for disappointment or dissatisfaction. 

 But how is this to be accomplished! 

 Leaving the hybridizer's cause in the 

 hands of Mr. Rudd, who, I am sure, 

 will do ample justice to it, I will take 

 up the grower's end of the question and 



