202 



The Garden Magazine, May, 1922 



"BROKEN" OR "RECTIFIED" TULIPS 



These are really the matured forms of hybrids of which the self- 

 colored breeders are merely juvenile forms; after having " broken " 

 or matured, these adults will not change in later years 



think the statement necessarily true. At any rate, it is one not safe 

 to make. Also I have seen it stated that broken forms are permanently 

 weak in comparison with the unbroken bulbs from which they origi- 

 nated. This I know is not true. Occasionally one may be, but I have 

 a plenty that are not. 



"There is a lot of nonsense about the impossibility of moving the 



bulbs until they are thoroughly ripened . A Tulip bulb may be 



dug even when in full bloom — and moved with safety, providing it is 

 lifted carefully with a full quota of roots and soil adhering and is given 

 attention after being planted, in the way of watering, until it has rip- 

 ened its bulb." To be sure; but that is not moving it, any more than 

 carrying a potted Geranium from one window to another is moving the 

 Geranium. 



I once read about "thief bulbs," with a statement that they are a 

 great mystery, and a surmise that perhaps they are a reversion to 

 type. There is no mystery about them, and no excuse for fanciful 

 surmises. Any variety can be a thief bulb if a bulb of it gets thrown 

 among the bulbs of a variety that has larger bulbs. Clara Butt would 

 operate as a thief bulb in a planting of Farncombe Sanders, Bouton 

 d'Or in any variety of Darwins, etc. The bulbs, on account of being 

 smaller, constantly grade back into the planting stock. The only way 

 to get rid of them is to dig them up and destroy them when their blos- 

 soms appear. Even then there will always be bulbs smaller than of 

 blooming size which will remain to give further trouble. If a planting 

 is left three years without digging, and the thieves are carefully re- 

 moved each year, the stock may or may not be completely freed from 

 them, but will be practically so for a few years. There is one special 

 variety to which I suppose the name is commonly applied, a small, very 

 inferior, slender flower of the color of Inglescombe Pink. It makes very 

 small bulbs, and an enormous quantity of them. — Benjamin C. Auten, 

 Missouri. 



— Perhaps the following remarks will tend to clear the situation; there is 

 nothing really mystifying. "Broken" or "rectified" Tulips are the 

 matured forms, while the self-colored breeders are juvenile forms of hy- 

 brids. If Tulips are raised f/om hybrid. seed, the flowers first produced 

 are as a rule self-colored, a few may be "rectified" or adults from the 

 first, and any such will not change in later years. The self-colored, or 

 breeders tend to "break" into feathered forms, but the time required is 

 not definite. And that worried the old-time fanciers of "Florists 

 Tulips" — they wanted breaks — and set no value on the breeder, which is 

 the favorite to-day. Thus does fashion change in floral fancies. Of 

 course species, like T. Gesneriana, for example, do not break. A "bi- 

 zarre" is a broken Tulip having the color, whatever it may be, on a 

 yellow ground. A "Parrot" is a laciniated form. In the bulb grow- 

 ing districts of Holland a tendency to develop narrow petals is noted in 

 some varieties normally broad petalled. The bulb bearing such a 

 bloom is termed a "thief." — Ed. 



Where, Oh Where Are. Our "Old-Fashioned Pinks?" 



To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 



BEING one of the numerous amateur gardeners who have long 

 sought in vain the "old-fashioned Clove Pink" I am hoping 

 that perhaps someday someone will write a really clear article about 

 Pinks and tell us exactly what they all look like and what they will do. 

 I hope it will begin with Dianthus plumarius, stating clearly that while 

 it is one of the integral parts of the old-fashioned garden, it is not the 

 hardy Clove Pink we remember; but is the single, fringed Grass or 

 Spice Pink, sometimes but not always fragrant, that it has a variant 

 in a lovely smooth-edged flower like an Apple blossom — and another 

 that is slightly double. There is much uncertainty to be cleared up 

 about the various forms of annual Pinks which, as far as I have ob- 

 served, have none of the graces of the hardy Pinks. Then maybe we 

 shall learn something about the "old-fashioned double white fimbria- 

 tus" which the English catalogues describe as powerfully fragrant — and 

 some of the others that are all as easily grown as annuals. And again 

 we shall discover which varieties are hardy here in the North without 

 special protection. — R. F. Howard, South Lincoln, Mass. 



OUR REMUNERATIVE RHUBARB PATCH 



In Apple blossom time we sell fifty dollars worth of Rhubarb from four 

 rows one hundred and thirty feet long. Cora June Sheppard, Shiloh, N. J. 



One of Nature's Bag of Tricks 



To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 



THE accompanying illustration shows a natural graft or a graft 

 which has been accomplished without the assistance of man. As 

 this now stands, two large trunks of the same species of Oak arise from 

 rather close contact near the ground and at a height of about 8 feet a 

 lateral branch from one trunk extends across on a slant to the other 

 trunk and is completely united with it. Above the union the diameter 

 is considerably greater than is the diameter of either of the parts below, 

 but the graft is so complete that the part above is symmetrically 



