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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1909 



Wild Flowers Worth Improving 



V. — The Brown-eyed Susan 



IT is strange that no plant-breeder, professional 

 or amateur, has undertaken the culture of 

 the Rudbeckia (which includes the brown-eyed 

 Susan) and its allied genera, Echinacea and Lepa- 

 chys, for Burbank's profitable experience with 

 Shasta daisies has shown the extraordinary possi- 

 bilities possessed by flowers which are so common 

 that we usually think about them as weeds. 



There are ten species of Rudbeckia which can 

 be secured from American nurserymen, but the 

 only famous one is the Golden Glow, a double 

 variety of R. laciniata, which took the world by 

 storm about ten years ago. This variety was 

 not at all the production of hybridization. It 

 was merely a chance product of Nature which some 

 one was shrewd enough to save and sell. 



Perhaps the commonest species in the wild is the 

 brown-eyed Susan, or yellow daisy (R. hirta) which 

 is illustrated herewith. To indicate its possibilities 

 for improvement let me say that I found, in one 

 hour nineteen variations that were highly dis- 

 tinctive and full of promise to the plant-breeder. 

 These were all found in a suburban lot, and I trans- 

 planted them to my garden in flower; but, unfor- 

 tunately, I was not able to save the seeds of any 

 of them, as my family had to go away from home 

 during the critical period when the seeds should 

 have been saved. None of the seeds germinated 

 the next year, and as the species is either annual or 

 biennial, all these variations were lost. But that 

 is of no matter, as our readers will doubtless be 

 able to duplicate them by searching. 



The largest flower I found was 3 J inches across, 

 which is an inch larger than the average size. 

 The smallest flower was only an inch and three- 

 quarters across, and the 

 plant bore such a profusion 

 of these dainty flowers that 

 I thought a miniature flow- 

 ered type might be worth 

 developing. There was 

 little evidence of double- 

 ness. I found many flow- 

 ers that had two rows of 

 petals (strictly speaking, 

 "rays"), but they did not 

 give even a semi-double 

 effect. The largest num- 

 ber of petals I found on 

 any one plant was from 

 seventeen to twenty. 



The most interesting 

 color variation was a rich, 

 pure brown, as fine as any 

 you ever see in the annual 

 Coreopsis. This clearly 

 suggested an important 

 line of plant-breeding, and 

 correspondents have writ- 

 ten me of brown-eyed 

 Susans in which one-half 

 the petals are brown and 

 the other half yellow, as 

 is exactly the case in the 

 corresponding variety of 

 coreopsis. I have also 

 found a lemon-colored va- 

 riety and an orange and 

 yellow variety, in which 



the orange was down the centre of the petal with 

 yellow at either side. 



As to the form of head, I found three distinct 

 types which I called for convenience, "cup-shaped," 

 "stellate," and "shooting star," according as the 

 petals pointed upward, horizontally, or down- 

 ward. My observations were not extended enough 

 to determine whether these forms were constant 

 or merely represented different stages of develop- 

 ment in the same flower, but I found one plant in 

 which the cup-shaped condition seemed to be fixed. 



As to form of petal, I found four exceedingly 

 interesting types. One resembled the single cactus 

 dahlia by reason of the margins of the petals being 

 revolute, and more or less twisted, thus producing a 

 flower of spirited appearance. Another was 

 laciniate, but not particularly pretty. 



The most exciting flower of all, however, was a 

 tubular flower in which the entire petal was rolled 

 up into a tight tube, producing exactly the same 

 effect we get in quilled asters and chrysanthemums. 

 Of this type I found three examples, of which one 

 plant bore flowers three and three-eighths inches 

 across, while another was only one and three- 

 quarters inches across. 



The rudbeckias all have yellow petals and the disk, 

 or central portion, may be yellow, greenish, brown 

 or dark purple. Some of these disks are flat and 

 some make a rather high cone. The only impor- 

 tant color variation that can be hoped for in the 

 genus is brown and red. 



The beauty of the genus Echinacea is that it 

 supplies flesh color, pink, rose-purple, and crimson, 

 also a singularly beautiful form of flower by reason 

 of the downward-pointing petals. 



The beauty of Lepachys is that it has a still 

 higher cone which, combined with the downward- 

 pointing petals, gives it a very animated appear- 

 ance, like the cyclamen or shooting-star. The 

 colors are yellow and pink. 



Connecticut. Jabez Tompkins. 



The Best Cup-shaped Lily 



PROBABLY the most useful hardy lily for 

 garden iUse," says Professor Waugh in his 

 monograph on lilies in the " Cyclopedia of Amer- 

 ican Horticulture," "is Lilium elegans." 



This is the species to which I have ventured to 

 give the name Japanese erect lily because of its 

 cup-shaped flower. It is a dwarf, large-flowered 

 lily with red, yellow, or orange flowers. It is 

 normally only a foot or two high, and bears from 

 one to five flowers on a stem, each flower being 

 five or six inches across. It blooms about the first 

 of July. 



The strong points of this lily are its vivid colors 



Liliiirn elegans blooms about the 1st of July. The flowers, of vivid color, measure five or six 

 inches across and are borne in clusters 



The brown-eyed Susan, or yellow daisy (Rudbeckia 

 hirta), which blooms from June to August 



and ease of culture. Alost lilies have to be care- 

 fully planted in light soil to which plenty of leaf- 

 mold has been added, but the Japanese erect lily 

 thrives in the ordinary border, and I have seen it 

 multiply at a wonderful rate. 



The best idea connected with lilies that has 

 come to us in recent years is to plant them in 

 beds of rhododendrons or other members of the 

 heath family, because all these plants require the 

 same sort of soil and winter mulch, also a cool 

 soil in summer which will not dry out easily. 

 Lilies, as a rule, have rather insignificant foliage, 

 and are so uncompromisingly stiff in their habit 

 that it is rather difficult to group them nicely with 

 other plants. In the rhododendron bed, their 

 defects of habit and foliage are more or less hidden. 

 Lilies are, therefore, a natural complement of the 

 heath family, and enable us to have life and color 

 in these shrubbery beds 

 throughout the summer 

 and autumn, when other- 

 wise they would be devoid 

 of flowers. 



While the Japanese erect 

 lily is commonly planted 

 in rhododendron beds 

 because of its cheapness, I 

 would urge readers of The 

 Garden Magazine to 

 plant it in any ordinary 

 garden soil, and when 

 they have worked up 

 sufficiently, start to mass 

 them amongst the shrub- 

 bery. 



There are about a dozen 

 varieties, ranging in color 

 from pale yellow through 

 apricot and orange to 

 bright red. So far as I 

 know, the names umbel- 

 latum and Thunbergianum 

 are exactly synonymous. 

 Lilium BatemannicB is a 

 variety with apricot 

 flowers, which grows 

 about four feet high, 

 and has rather narrower 

 perianth segments than 

 the type. 



Thomas McAdam. 

 New Jersey. 



