The Weekly Florists" Review. 



April 2. 1908. 



ill two or tiirt'o iimiitlis, iiiul in othora I 

 liiivc kuowii it to lie doi'iiuuit I'roiii twelve 

 l<i liftt'L'ii iiKtiiths. I have iie\er lieeu alile 

 Id f^ive any reason why this should he 

 so, and, ])articuiarly, why there should 

 lie marked differences in the periods of 

 ■^'ernunalioii in seeds taken troni tlrf' 

 same hip; yet there is very rre(|uently 

 a marked differenci'. 



Danger of Rash Judgment. 



'!'<! cotitiime on the jioiiit 1 am making, 

 it takes anywhere 1 rum three to six 

 uuinths, aecordinjj to the \ igor of the 

 plant, to bring it to such amount of 

 growth as will enable us to bud it for 

 the purpose of testing outside. Then, 

 when it is budded, of course it takes 

 a fitU year to bring the plant to ma- 

 turity. Here, again, one has to face 

 uncertainties and to be very careful about 

 forming a judgment, as experience has 

 . jH'oved time and again that in the early 

 stages of culture some varieties ha\e 

 displayed the greatest shyness in tlower- 

 ing, and yet, after a few years' cultiva- 

 tion, have taken their places in the front 

 rank, as perfect garden roses, blooming 

 with the greatest freedom. 



Ea(di year we are compelled to make a 

 very close selection, and to discard every 

 seedling whiidi does not suggest sonu' 

 improvement in at least one or two. of 

 the essential elements of the perfect 

 rose; otherwise we ^vould, of course, 

 lia\e been flooded out with varieties, 

 which would ha\(' b<'en of no practical 

 v;ilne to us, or, indeed, to the rose world 

 at large. 



An Exact System of Experiments. 



The system ue ultimately adoptetl 

 was hyl)ridization, in the first instance, 

 between hylirid jterpetual ami teas, and 

 then inbr(H'ding from their offspring, 

 upon the following lines: \Vt> made four 

 "iistinct crosses. We took a see(liing of 

 our own, whi(di gaxc some eviilence of 

 jpossessing at least some of the (|ualiti<'s 

 aimed at, and in the first instam-e this 

 seedling was crossed with the male 

 jiarent ; secondly, the seedling crosseil 

 with the female parent; thirdly, the 

 male p.areiit crossecl with the seedling: 

 fourthly, the female )iai(iit crossed with 



the seedling. 



.\s soon as We were ;dile 1(1 form ;iii 

 opinion of the results of this interbrt^'d 

 ing. We ayain made a selection of those 

 most closely approaidiing our i(h';il, 

 ayaiii iidireeding. but with this differ- 

 ence, that we only maile use of .a limited 

 nuinbei' of parents, but in ;ilniost every 

 instance making a double cioss. 



j-'or ex.aniple, if we m;ele a seedling 

 \\illi, say. Marie \'aii llmitte ,as th(> male 

 parent, then duiing that season we le 

 Ncised the cross, making Marit- \'an 

 lliuitte the seed bearing jiarent, and the 

 seedling the male parent. We always 

 had relays of plants ]>repared in dupli- 

 cate fur tills purpose, and we c.irefully 

 ami methodically registered e.ach exjieri- 

 ment, thus carrying on our work in a 

 system.atii- manner, the system of seh^c 

 ti<»n, of course, always playing the most 

 piominent jmrt in the results. 



Gratifying Results. 



From jiractical experience, we were 

 able to ascertain which varieties, or 

 rather typt-s, gave us the best results, 

 and we were, therefore, able to .a con 

 siderable e.xtent to lessen the waste, and 

 to reduce our methods to a system con 

 taining at least some fdements of cer- 

 taiiitv. <)t' ciiurse. we lia\e made use 



of \arie1ies of other raisi'rs, where we 

 h;i\(' been struck by any special features 

 which they contained, \\hich were, in inir 

 opinion, an :id\ance upon anything in 

 conuiierce. 



Tile result of oui> laluus has been to 

 produce what is ••olmittedly an .absolulely 

 distinct (dass, if not family, of roses, 

 known as the Alex Dickson tyiie. We, 

 of coui'se, claim that the tyi)es of roses 

 we have introduced have made a great 

 advance on those |>re\iously in com 

 merce. We aimed at jiroducing a type 

 having vigor of growth, fri'cdom and 

 continuity of bloom, the tlowers full and 

 perfecdiy forme(|, with unusually long 

 pet.als, at the s;ime time growing on 

 bushes the foliage (d' whi(di is luxurious 

 and handsome. How far the varieties 

 we have si'Ut out have done \vh;it we 

 claim for them, you must judge. 



Work With La France. 



In our experiments and in struggling 

 with the qualities we have indicated, we 

 felt convinced that La France would 

 prove one of the most useful parents we 

 could piossibly have, if we could suc- 

 ceed in making it produce seed. It was, 

 of course, the opinion of most hybridiz 

 ers that L.a France was sterile, and with 

 this o|diuon we were for a long time 

 imdineil to agree, and indeed the best 

 that could be said for it is this, that 

 there is just the possibility that it nuiy 

 lie fertilized. Out of many hundreds of 

 crosses with this rose, only in one single 

 instance di<l we succeed in making it 

 jiroduce seed, but We feel that the labor 

 we sperd was amply repaid, as the ulti- 

 mate residt of it was the iidroduction of 

 Mis. W. .] . draid, known to you as Belle 

 Sii'liiecht, in our opiidon one of the 

 finest roses in cultivation, at least from 

 the Britishers' standpoint. 



Some Notable Varieties. 



In addition to this, we have .always 

 lounil from practical experience that the 

 roses descemled from this particnl.ar cross 

 have alw.ays iui])ressed their olfspring 

 with Some, at least, of the nioic pronn- 

 nenl ijualities of the jtareiits, and it was 

 pursuing this particular line ot breeding 

 that enabled us to produce varieties 

 which, from a British standpoint, are 

 ide.al exhibition llowcrs, .and ;it the sanu' 

 time the plaids are Ihuifeious and of 

 exci'llent const it ut ion. In this group we 

 might mentiiui Killariiey. Mrs. Ivlward 

 Mavvley, Bessie P.rowii. Liberty, Ladv 

 Moyia lle;iU(di'rc. Lady .Vshtowii, Mrs. 

 David .Mi-Kee. Bean Hole, ('oillltess ot' 

 Derby, Betty, Mrs. C. W. Kershaw, an. I. 

 last but not h.ast. Mildred (!raiit ainl 

 Willi.am Sheaii. two ot' the finest exlii 

 bitioii roses ;it present in i-nli i\ at ion in 

 (ireat Britain. .Mildred (ir;iiit resulted 

 from a seeclling between .Xiphefos and 

 Mine. W'illeriijoz in the first inst.ance. 



crosseil with a seeilljne of (Mil- own. 



which is not in commerce, and the svs 

 tern of which this is ;in instance .apjilies 

 jiretty generally to all the better cl.asses 

 of roses irdrodiiceij by us. 



The Long Sought Yellflw Tea. 



.\fter many \e;iis of coiitinunlis ex 

 perimeiit on v.arious lines, we h;i\c ;it 

 last been able to produce wli.al h;is Ion;; 

 been sought for. namely, a vellow tea 

 ot' good size and color with the viyor 

 and hardiness of the hybrid jieipet iial. 

 I refer to the rose Harry Kirk. v\hich 

 is now being yrovvii by most of von. 

 .ind yon will shortly be able to judg(; 

 whether it fulfills the jiroinises we liave 



iii.ade on its b(dialf. 1 think you will 

 not b(^ disappointed. 



Jt is interesting to note, in ridation to 

 the La France cross, that the same in- 

 clination to sterility is apjiareut in the 

 rose Augustine (iuiiinoisseau, a sport 

 from La France. Out of hundrcMls of 

 experiments, we have not succeeded in 

 getting a single seed pod from this 

 variety. 



Continuity of Bloom. 



The only other point of i)ractical im 

 portance, which occurs to me, is the fact 

 that in our early experiments, when we 

 had in view the object of jiroducing 

 varieties which woiWd give a greater con- 

 tinuity of bloom, we used in our efforts 

 Husa Indica, ami after a considerable 

 amount of labor, we succeeded in im- 

 jiressing this much valued quality on 

 some of its offspring vvhicli are now in 

 commerce. 



In a general way, we found it very 

 ditlicult, and indeed impossible, to place 

 the smallest dependence upon the pre- 

 sumption that hybrid perjietuals would 

 impart to theii- (dfspring anything of 

 tlu'ir own color, and in a general way 

 we may say that, .after much experience, 

 the chi(>f varieties which we use, and 

 use with the best results, for the pur 

 pose of getting blends, are the hybrid 

 per]ietnals. Horace X'ernet, Charles Le- 

 feiivre. (leneral .l;ici|ueiiiiiiot. and also 

 .\ustrian briars, I'eisian N'ellow and 

 ll.arrisonii. 



r'nini what I have s.aid, you will rea<l 



ily .appreciate the fact that it would be 



wholly impossible, and indeed, I think, a 



waste of your time and mine, to give in 



detail the results of thirty years' liy- 



bri<lizing, and 1 have done my best to 



make (dear the general lines upon which 



our Work has been conducted, fr(Mn which 



it will be readily inferred tliiit the ele 



meiit of (diance must always play a 



]pidniiiient jiart, and I might aptl.y use 



the \\(dl known (imitation from I'ope: 



All iiMtiirv is lull :o'l. iiiiknnwii tn llioc; 



.\ll clKUirc, (ilrectioM. vvliiili llimi laiist no! see. 



.\iid f ;isk smdi of you as may desire to 



enter for yourscdves upon this interestiiii; 



field of experinieni, to go forward with 



i-onlidence — 



KiiovviiiK Hint iiatiiro never did IxMra.v 

 The heart that jnveil lier. 



CYCLAMENS IN SUMMER. 



1 have :!()() cyclamen plants which did 

 not bloom. Would you kindly t&H me 

 the best way to keep them over tJimYtKir 

 and when to start them to hav(' thein 

 bloom for ' hristm.as .* T. II. 



.\s you do not state the size or age of 

 voiir jilants, I assume that tlie.v .are prob 

 ably seedlings raised Last fall. These 

 should now be in il imdi pots on a light, 

 sunny bemdi. A tem|ierature of oO de 

 grees at night and plenty of ventilation 

 v\ill suit them. I'ot along before the 

 roofs become matted. I>et the next shift 

 be to I imdi jiots. Blower them in r>-inidi 

 •and (i iiudi pots. June 1 your |ilants can 

 be jil.aied on a beil of .ashes in a eold- 

 fiaiiie, where they will do better tliiui in 

 the greenhouse. Let them have ventila- 

 tion both from the top and bottom of 

 the s.ashes. They require sh.ade during 

 brijfht weather. Do not shade the glass 

 with whitewash. .\ better jdan is to use 

 lath sh.ades or cheesecloth run over the 

 top on ,a roller. Bive .all the light possi 

 ble when bright sunshine does not strike 

 the frame. 



To ward off greenfly and tlirips, jiut 

 tobacco stems among the jiuts, renewing 



