.lANfAltV 18, IIH'J. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



11 



C.'w of tlio I'xix'iisi's. Tlic prcniium 

 lists also ran into ((insidcrahlc money. 



S. ,1. dotlilanl, ISonth Fraininj,'liain, 

 Muss.; ( ". S. SI rout. I'licMcl onl, Mc, 

 and K. A. I'circc, Walthani, Mass.. went 

 to Domcr's. at i>a Fayotic, and Jiaur & 

 .StcMnkaiiii>'s, at J ndiaiiaiudis, al'tcr llio 

 Detroit doinj^'s. 



.1. A. Valentino and W. X. lUidd 

 went to New "^'ork with (.'. 11. Tolty 

 .lamiarv J 2 to close a contract with 

 the (iVand Central I'alace t'or the 

 N'ational Flower Show, to he held tlie 

 week of Ajiril '>, 191.'!. The National 

 Flower Show conunittee is j,'oin;,' into 

 partnership with the Palace j)Coj)le as 

 a means of avoiding a riMit liability of 

 some $2,()()() a day. 



None of the carnation novelties 

 showed uj) as well as they did at the 

 National Flower Show at lioston last 

 .\farch. 



There was but one vase of the I.ia(ly 

 Hillinf^don rost> in the sliow, but it at- 

 tracteil much attention. 'J'ho only crit- 

 icism was on the long neck. 



Karl ]\rann, who represented the K. 

 G. Hill Co., said that the concern's 

 sales of Sun])urst alrcvidy exceed the 

 sales of any variety S(>nt out since Itich- 

 nutnd and jM'omise, before the season 

 is o\ IT, to bc^at e\en the introductory 

 season's sales ot' l\ichrnond itself. 



FRED DORNER AS A HYBRIDIZER. 



[A iiapcr l)y I'rnf. 11. i;. 1 icuih-t'. oI I'i 

 hatKt, 111., r>'a>l Ix'l oil' tin .\ iini iiini i 'a in.i I inn 

 ."Sociclv. In convcnl i.iii ai l>.-liiiil. .Iaiiuai\ 



10 to rj. 1012.] 



At the earnest solicitation of your 

 ]iresident, 1 am presenting to you today 

 a ])aper on "The Work and ."\lethods of 

 the Late Fred Dorner in the Hybridiza- 

 tion of Carnations." ]t is a pleasure 

 to do this, as 1 was directly associated 

 with liim for a number of years in 

 this, his most belov(>d work. 



Fred Dorner was born in the little 

 town of Schilltach, Haden, Germany, 

 and it was there he sjicnt tlio first sev- 

 enteen years of his life. He inherited 

 from his mother his great love of flow- 

 ers and in hia early y(\'irs devoted a 

 great deal of time to tht> care of her 

 garden. 



At the age of ]7 he emigrated to this 

 <-oiintry and joined liis brother at La 

 Fayette, Lid. There lie was employed 

 for a number of years at various occu- 

 pations. About LS70 he rented a place 

 then known as (Jaasch's Garden, and 

 b(>came a market gardener. Li the lit- 

 tle greenhouse on the ])lac(! he grew a 

 few jiotted plants, whicli w^'re sold 

 mostly from the wagon at the market 

 place. Five years later he moved to 

 Indiana avenue, where he had better 

 greenhouse facilities. There his time, 

 at first, was divided Iietween the grow- 

 ing of flowers, fruits and vegetables, 

 but as the demand for flowers became 

 greater the growing of fruits and veg- 

 etables was omitted. 



At this time his trade was purely re- 

 tail and the liouses were devoted to 

 such niisccdlaneous stock as was re- 

 (|uired at that time. This, then, was 

 the scene of his first achievements in 

 carnation lH\eeding. 



His First Experiments. 



In about 18SS Fred Dorner became 

 interested in some experiments in the 

 breeding of carnations being carried 

 on by Mr. Van Landeghem, who had 

 charge of the small greenhouses at Pur- 

 <lue University. lie quickly saw the 

 possibilities of the work and became 



Herman B. Dorner. 



so deeply interested that he took n|i 

 this lint^ of work liimself. For this 

 jiurpose he used the \iirieties wdiich lie 

 was then growing, and wliich his rec- 

 ords tell us were Silver Spray, Grace 

 Wilder, K. (J. Hill, Century, Buttercuj., 

 Uin/.e's White, jMangold, Mrs. Cleve- 

 land, Wm. Swayne, Sunrise, Itobt. Craig 

 and a variety called Purdue, which was 

 raised by Mr. Van Landeghem, but 

 never disseminated. Li the following 

 three years he added the vari(>ties Star- 

 light, Portia, Garfield, Tidal Wave, An- 

 dalusia, Golden Gate and Daybreak, 

 whicli were all used in his work and 

 show today in many of the seedlings 

 grown. 



As the result of this first y(>ar's work 

 in crossing, he secured about TjOO seed- 

 lings. Thes(! were jdanted in the field 

 :ind carefully observed, and those which 

 he desired to test out were brought 

 into the house. Well can 1 remember 

 seeing him day aft(>r day carefully ex- 

 amining these wonderful flowers as 

 they were opening. His records show 

 us that of the oOO seedlings grown 

 about twenty-five })er cent were splits, 

 fifty per cent singles and twenty-five 

 per cent commercials. From this first 

 year's work were secured the varieties 

 Christina Dorner, Tecumseh, Hoosier, 

 Mrs. Harrison, Indiana and P>en Hur. 

 This, then, marks the end of his first 

 year's work in the breeding of car- 

 nations. 



His First Seedling House. 



The growing of these seedlings nec(^s- 

 sitated further accommodations, and so 

 a lean-to house, about fifty feet long 

 and ten to twelve feet wide, was built 

 and was heated by means of two stoves. 

 The carnations were planted directly in 

 the bench, the same as today, and were 

 carefully observed and varieties se- 



lected for further testing. This little 

 lious(> was the home of the seedling car- 

 nations for two years, until lie ihovimI 

 into his new range on the opposite side 

 of the street. \Vith this beginning he 

 lontinued and from year to year grew 

 many seedlings and offered to the pub- 

 lic ;it least oiu! iKJW \ ariety each year. 



His \vork continued uninterruptedly 

 for twenty-one years and during this 

 time he grew over LlOjOUO seedling car- 

 nations. Of these l.")O,U0n, not more 

 tiiaii seventy-five ever reached the mar 

 ket. The larger number of them went 

 to th(> dump-heap, but we can not say 

 tlmt tluMr existenc(j w;is in \ain, for 

 inaiiy of them were the ancestors of 

 siitiie of his best \arieti(is of today. 



l-'recl Dorner always believed that 

 many of the failures of new varieties 

 were due to the fact that the owners 

 treated them and tliought of them as 

 they would jiets. They could only see 

 their good f|ualities and not their short- 

 comings. After the first few years, 

 \\\\h this idea in mind, li(» insisted 

 upon a tliorough test of each \ariety 

 iiinl would not disseminate it until he 

 was tlioroughly convinced that it was 

 better than something already on the 

 market or that it might fill a gap some- 

 where. It can bo truthfully said that 

 no variety was put on the market from 

 liis greenhouses unless, as nearly as he 

 could tell, it possessed qualities that 

 would make it a good market variety. 



A List of His "Varieties. 



It may be of interest to ha\e a list 

 of th(! varieties resulting from his care- 

 ful and painstaking work. This list 

 does not include all of his \arieties 

 that were disseminated, but merely 

 those which he put upon the market 

 himself and those disseminated by E. 



