Luther Burbank — Life-Long Friend of Flowers 



An Appreciation by the Advertising Man 



In the early seventies there lived, in the Massachusetts 

 hills, a lad into whose heart God had put an extra- 

 ordinary amount of compassion and sympathy for the 

 helpless. Soon after he came to an age where he began 

 to appreciate the significance of things he became 

 aware of the utter contempt with which the farmers 

 thereabouts treated the wild or Ox-eye Daisy. It was 

 persecuted with relentless vigor as a dangerous weed in 

 which, however, the boy's vision could see much more 

 than the average man. 



In due time this lad moved to the Golden State. With 

 him he took some seeds of this much despised, and, on 

 his part, much pitied wild Daisy. In due time he sowed 

 the seeds, he nursed the seedlings, and then began that 

 process of selection which ultimately resulted in the 

 birth of the Shasta Daisy. Rivaling in brilliancy, the 

 wonderful snow-capped Mount Shasta, this Daisy now 

 graces thousands of gardens, gladdens millions of hearts, 

 and all because a boy pitied the despised weed of the 

 rough Massachusetts hills. 



What Luther Burbank did for the Daisy, he did for 

 scores of other flowers. Soon after he became established 

 in the Golden State, he became interested in the State's 

 flower, the California Poppy. With loving care he fertil- 

 ized and hybridized existing forms; with more care he 



studied the habits and characteristics of thousands of seedlings, and in due time he gave to the world 



an entirely new race of California Poppies, larger, more brilliant, 



more vigorous than its semi-wild ancestors. 



Nor have Luther Burbank's efforts been confined to flowers from seeds. 

 His hybrid Gladioli, the collection of which includes nearly 100,000 

 varieties, are adding to his fame. Amaryllis with flowers eight and ten 

 inches across are opening the eyes of garden lovers everywhere to the 

 possibilities of patience and preseverance rightly applied in the garden. 



And now, plant lovers of America, behold America's foremost plant 

 breeder, slightly gray around the temples, but with the fire of youth 

 still in his eyes, stretching out his hands, and beseeching you to "Say 

 it with Flowers." 



Two lovely Shasta Daisies, in view of Mt. Shasta 



— c&^=- ex 



has been the eternal force which, through all the years, has helped to kindle 

 the^enthusiasm of a Luther Burbank, whose answer to the appeal we now have 

 in scores of improved forms of flowers. To find recognition for a plant little 

 better than a weed, proved the starting point. To make America one glorious 

 flower garden, is the inspiring ideal which keeps Luther Burbank, even at his 

 advanced age, busy on an average eighteen hours a day looking after his pets. 



Mr. Burbank is not given to writing about his work and himself, being, as all 

 philosophers, a modest man. But he publishes a catalogue, and I am sure he 

 will gladly mail a copy to all the garden makers in America, especially if they 

 mention the Garden Magazine. 



Luther Burbank. whose name is quite familiar to gardeners 

 as a plant breeder and introducer of novelties, is an active 

 member of the National War Garden Commission 



