A CULTURAL MANUAL 239 



More hybridizing is going on than ever, which makes it possible 

 for the florist to keep step, like the worker in other lines. True, many 

 so-called novelties prove worthless, but that cannot be helped. We 

 need only look back a few years in order to realize the progress 

 made in the development of plants and flowers. Yet, as with all 

 other things, we have only begun, just started on our way; the 

 highest type of anything in the way of a flower now holding the 

 center of the stage, is likely to be pushed aside overnight to make 

 way for a still higher type, and this is going to keep on and on. 



Here and there we come across a festiva maxima Peony, a S. A. 

 Nutt Geranium, or an Enchantress Carnation; again, with all the 

 many beautiful Roses coming along, we perhaps have none to equal 

 the beauty of some of the oldtime favorites among the hybrid 

 perpetual sorts. But as a general rule, only the latest and best 

 and such varieties as are best adapted for present day methods of 

 handling, will prove worth growing. 



What has become of our Ust of favorite Sweet Peas of a few 

 years back? Of Snapdragons, Carnations, Cannas, Petunias, 

 Begonias and others ? It is only in recent times that we have grown 

 Chrysanthemums, Sweet Peas, Gladioli and Calendula under glass 

 as we are doing today. What did yesterday's list of perennials or 

 shrubs consist of compared with that of today ? Yet the very hsts 

 that we are so proud of right now, will in turn soon be out of date! 



Look at a vase of fifty well-grown, long-stemmed Columbia, 

 Russell, Premier, or Ophelia Roses, and it is hard to believe that new 

 varieties are on the way to replace them aU. It seems only yester- 

 day that Killarney was the most popular Rose grown under glass, 

 and only a httle earUer that Bridesmaid had replaced all other 

 pink Roses; it is no less interesting for the Carnation grower or the 

 Cyclamen speciaHst to look backward — he who thought his flower 

 had reached a state of perfection forty years ago. 



With so many beautiful and improved types of flowers on hand 

 today, we can look forward to stiU gregiter developments in the 

 introduction of new sorts. The ilorist should keep posted on all 

 such developments as may directly interest him. In order to get 

 the most out of his business, he must keep step with the times. , 



There are beautiful plants that we don't grow today. What, for 

 instance, would there be in it for the retail grower in particular, if 

 he were to carry a house full of Camelias — a plant of which, thirty- 

 five years ago, every florist had a stock. Stephanotis and Asclepias 

 used to be desirable plants for cut flowers under glass; both of them 

 were beautiful as well as useful in their day. Even Passiflora, the 

 Passion Flower, had a place. We thought the world of a Marechal 

 Neil Rose under glass, running all over the house, and every retail 

 grower handled Gloire de Dijon and Malmaison. But all these 

 had to make way for others. 



