PW^' 



MABCH 17, 1910. 



ThcWcckly Florists^ Review. 



4) 



Easter Lilies Grown From Seed at the Wild Plant Improvement Gardens, Santa Ana, Cal. 



origin. The success of this undertaking 

 was quite gratifying, but the percentage 

 of loss in handling the bulbs was large 

 enough to show that a good deal must 

 yet be learned about the growing of 

 Harrisii bulbs under American condi- 

 tions. It was also stated, at the time, 

 that several other lots of the same crop 

 of bulbs had been sold to the trade and 

 flqyered with more or less success. 



Pierce's Bulb Fields. 



Newton B. Pierce, another enterpris- 

 ing resident of Santa Ana, is also grow- 

 ing the Harrisii bulbs successfully from 

 seed, and a part of one of his lily fields 

 is shown in the photograph which is here 

 reproduced. 



Mr. Pierce is proprietor of the' Wild 

 Plant Improvement Gardens, at Santa 

 Ana, Cal. He says that there is no suffi- 

 cient reason why the culture of the 

 Easter lily in California should not meet 

 with commercial success, if such an en- 

 terprise were properly backed and prose- 

 cuted. Such commercial culture, he says, 

 should begin with proper seed. The work 

 should be done in an isolated position, 

 where no bulb mites would be introduced 

 by the grower or his neighbors, as these 

 pests would destroy the industry. The 

 first few years should be devoted to the 

 selection of plants free from the Ber- 

 muda lily disease and having the needed 

 qualities of flower as well as the habits 

 of growth and seeding qualities required. 

 Mr. Pierce is convinced that after at- 

 tending to these prerequisites, which may 

 be secured by careful work, then suitable 

 ground and water supply are all that is 

 necessary to assure the success of the 

 work in California. 



The results of one of Mr. Pierce's 

 earliest tests are indicated in the illustra- 

 tion. The test was conducted as follows : 

 Seeds were planted in flats October 3 

 and germinated in sun frames. In three 

 and one-half months (January 20), they 

 were potted oflF into 2-inch pots and 



plunged in sand in cloth houses. Nine 

 months after seeding (July 1), the bulbs 

 were set in the field in a firm, sandy 

 loam, and in rows two feet apart. The 

 land was properly graded, so that irriga- 

 tion could be practiced, and each time 

 they -were irrigated they were properly 

 cultivated to form a good moisture-re- 

 taining mulch. Proper irrigation and 

 cultivation were continued during the fol- 

 lowing year, but with no fertilization, 

 and June 12 to June 20, twenty months 

 and a few days after seeding, they were 

 in full bloom, as seen in the illustration. 



The necessity for potting the young 

 plants, Mr. Pierce says, may be avoided 

 by planting the seed under cloth or other 

 protection, where they may be grown 

 until of size for planting in the field, or 

 from August or September till the fol- 

 lowing May or June, Seed is harvested 

 from the first part of August onward, 

 for four to six weeks. The bulbs are 

 matured at the same time by cutting off 

 irrigation. Mr. Pierce 's bulbs produced 

 as high as eighteen flowers to the plant, 

 but commonly eight, ten and twelve 

 flowers. 



The Wild Plant Improvement Gardens, 

 now owned by Mr. Pierce and used by 

 him as the field of his operations, were 

 founded for the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and exchanges were 

 at that time organized with the missions 

 of many foreign lands. Seeds of our 

 best economic plants were sent to the 

 missionaries in exchange for seeds of 

 valuable wild plants and fruits, known 

 to the missionaries or to the natives 

 among whom they Worked. After several 

 years of such exchanges, and further ex- 

 changes with botanists in different parts 

 of the world, the Department of Agri- 

 culture withdrew from the work and its 

 interest in the gardens was purchased. 

 The large collection of rare plants thus 

 obtained has since been increased, it is 

 said, by purchase and further exchange. 



A Bulb Forcer's View. 



Emil Buettner, of Park Kidge, 111., is 

 a large forcer of Easter lilies and a man 

 whose opinion on any subject of trade 

 interest is of value. Mr. Buettner has 

 inspected the bulb fields at Santa Ana 

 and last season forced a few hundreds 

 of the bulbs grown from seeds there. 

 "There proved to be about as many 

 types of plant as there were bulbs, ' ' said 

 Mr. Buettner. "Some of the plants and 

 flowers were excellent, and some were 

 not at all good. In order to be useful 

 to the bulb forcer the California growers 

 must turn out an article that will give a 

 uniform result. When I visited the 

 Santa Ana growers I noted in their fields* 

 that there were a great number of types, 

 which condition probably must continue 

 as long as the bulbs are grown from 

 seed, though it may in time be possible 

 to select a type and grow it carefully 

 enough from seed so that a fair part will 

 come true. I told the growers that I 

 thought they would fail to get any spe- 

 cially valuable commercial success until 

 they selected some certain type of lily 

 and grew it from scales or offsets, so 

 as to get it true, but they said growing 

 from seeds was necessary to avoid the 

 lily disease and the mite. So T conclude 

 the California growers still have a long 

 way to go before they become dangerous 

 competitors of the present sources of sup- 



ply." 



East Syracuse, N. Y. — E. C. Bene- 

 dict states that he expects to sell his 

 business and retire from the florists' 

 trade. 



HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. — Wm. F. Snyder 

 says that trade is picking up nicely now 

 that spring weather has arrived after a 

 hard winter. He is planning to build a 

 showhouse this summer on the Fourth 

 street side of his place, the one built 

 last season on the Main street side having 

 proved a winner. 



