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THE GARDEN M A G A ZINE 



May, 1914 



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224 



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Your 





TO-DAY 



MIGH ELL'S 



SEED BOOK 



Just the book 

 you would expect from 

 a house built by courteous, 

 5c5& helpful service. 



224 pages — profusely illustrated. 

 Many cuts in natural colors. Tells 

 when — what — and how to plant. 



Shows in natural color and size, 

 the beautiful claret-colored flower- 

 spikes of the wonderful 



Everblooming 

 Butterfly Bush 



Introduced by us three years 

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 over. A single plant perfumes 

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Young, hardy plants, which will 



bloom profusely this season and 



each year thereafter, 50 cents each 



(postpaid): 3 for $1.25; $5 per 



dozen. 



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Henry F. Michell Co. 



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520 Market St., Philadelphia 



The Biltmore Nursery Books 



Contain practical helps for planters of trees, shrubs, and 

 perennials. The titles are "Hardy Garden Flowers," 

 "Flowering Trees and Shrubs," "The Iris Catalog," 

 "Biltmore Roses" and "Biltmore Nursery Catalog." Write 

 for the book you are interested in. 



BILTMORE NURSERY, Box 1752, Biltmore, N. C. 



Hardy 

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The finest Hardy Lilies, Hardy 

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The Next Storm May Do This To Your Finest Trees 



Your trees may appear strong and healthy — and yet be so unsound that the next storm will snap them 

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Branches -with telcpho?ie connections: New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Montreal, San Frattcisco 



Dahlia Seedlings and Eugenics 



THE oddities of seedling dahlias are well illus- 

 trated in the following catalogue of a set 

 which I watched last season. The seed was home 

 grown, partly hand-fertilized and partly bee- 

 fertilized, and the seed-bearing parents were selec- 

 ted for distinctive traits of constitution. 



I. Seed of white cactus Parsifal (pollen of un- 

 known sources) gave 17 mature plants. Of these, 

 not one was cactus petalled, and only one was white 

 and that not pure. The others were peony and 

 singles, three very good peony sorts being retained 

 for later trial. Colors were yellow and pink, one 

 white, one crimson. Singles predominated. 



None of the Parsifal seedlings came good out of 

 17 plants. Now Parsifal is a German dahlia, 

 raised, I think, at Frankfort some years ago. It 

 has strong traits and great constitution. The par- 

 ent plant stood, the year of seed -bearing, far sep- 

 arated from any other German dahlia, surrounded 

 by English cactus sorts which were very short of 

 pollen, and American peony seedlings which the 

 bees visited for pollen every minute of the day. 

 Whichever stock set the seed, it was indubitably 

 a crossing of alien strains and the 17 seedlings 

 came mongrel, decidedly. 



II. Seedlings of the giant cactus Wodan, salmon 

 and yellow: 7 mature plants. One splendid rose- 

 pink cactus without shading, larger than the parent 

 with habit identical in every way. One good 

 chrome yellow like Wodan, but shorter stemmed. 

 Two excellent decoratives, salmon shades, habit 

 intermediate between Wodan and Phenomene, 

 very free and good, but no improvement on existing 

 sorts. One worthless pink single, petals pointed, 

 small; foliage and root exactly like Wodan. One 

 scarlet decorative, as large as Gustave Douzon and 

 prettier, flowering in clusters of four, foliage and 

 growth exactly duplicating the decorative American 

 Beauty. Two plants did not flower in 1913. 



That is to say, of the five Wodans that bloomed, 

 two resembled the parent flower, four resembled 

 the parent foliage and growth, two came decorative 

 in shape though of Wodan color, and one was a 

 distinct break in every way. The distinct break, 

 and the pink cactus most closely resembling Wodan, 

 are the valuable two of the lot. 



The cactus Wodan, German but of different stock 

 altogether from Parsifal, bore its seed in 191 2 in an 

 isolated position. It was largely hand-fertilized 

 with Wodan pollen, and with pollen from its blood- 

 brother, Vater Rhein. Out of 17 apparently per- 

 fect seeds, 9 germinated. Only 7 lived to make 

 plants; two are as yet unbloomed. There to begin 

 with is a high mortality rate in inbred stock. But 

 of the five, two are good and two amazingly fine — 

 as good as anything I have ever seen at the great 

 dahlia farms of English and American growers. 



III. Seedlings of Auburn Beauty — Juliet, hand 

 fertilized, but also exposed to bees: one anemone- 

 flowered white, 1 grand anemone-flowered lavender, 

 very large, 1 large crimson like a duplex-century; 

 2 yellow singles with pointed petals, on the star 

 order; 2 pink singles, with pointed petals very nice 

 for cutting, like a superior cosmos with wiry red 

 stems; 1 common yellow single and one terracotta, 

 worthless; one yellow decorative, fair; 1 true single 

 cactus, pink; 1 yellow cactus, like Mrs. J. J. Crowe, 

 but slightly better; 1 ivory yellow cactus, long stem- 

 med and most beautiful; 1 good apple blossom cac- 

 tus; 2 terra cotta or salmon cactus sorts, no differ- 

 ence save in freedom of bloom, rather like Even- 

 ing Star and no better; 1 superb pure white cactus, 

 bush very robust and tall, free blooming, flowers 

 of great size and long stem. All seedlings of 

 this Auburn Beauty stock flowered young, often 

 before plants from tubers set in the garden at the 

 usual time. 



Of the Auburn Beauty and Juliet stock, the dis- 

 tinct break was in the lavender anemone plant, 

 probably a valuable flower if it holds its great size. 

 The white, yellow, and pink cactus seedlings inherit 

 true to type from their parents, and are good flowers, 

 the white being superb. 



Auburn Beauty and Juliet are English grown, 

 Auburn Beauty raised by Keynes, Juliet older, but 

 raised by Keynes or Cannell. They are, so to 

 speak, products of the same climate and of the same 

 general strain. Of their 17 children, 7 were close 

 to the parent type in every way, and very nice 



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