How to Burbank Your Geraniums 



HY single out the geranium for your first experiment 



W pollenizing? Burbank gives the following reasons 

 for recommending the plant to his amateur disciples and 

 suggests the possibilities in working with this common 

 flower which almost everyone grows in his garden or win- 

 dow box. 



''Some of my experiments in hybridizing have been con- 

 ducted with the idea of producing fragrant races of gera- 

 niums. The chief difficulty in this work is that most of the 

 fragrant geraniums have been grown for such a length of 

 time from cuttings that they have for the most part lost the 

 power of producing seeds. This makes it obviously difficult 

 to secure seeds from the plants that are precisely the ones 

 it would be desirable to use for the purpose. 



''Nevertheless^ I have produced a number of varieties 

 having fragrance^ of very attractive new qualities. One of 

 these fragrant varieties is developed from a compact-grow- 

 ing Australian form which produces an enormous amount 

 of seed. This fragrant variety^ which I have named Coco- 

 nut Geranium, has a most pleasing fragrance and is unusu- 

 ally hardy and handsome in growth and foliage. Bearing 

 as it does an abundance of pollen^ it was used to pollinate 

 the well-known Rose Geranium so much used in perfumery^ 

 and which never bears seed. But by the use of pollen of 

 the Coconut Geranium^ seeds were produced on the Rose 

 Geranium by which a whole new series of variously per- 

 fumed geraniums are now growing. I also worked at one 

 time in selecting the geraniums for the production of large 

 flowers of dazzling brilliant scarlet color^ and with a good 

 measure of success. 



"It will thus appear that there is abundant opportunity 

 for improving the geraniums^ even by working with the 

 species ordinarily under cultivation. However^ the best 

 opportunity for work in this line will involve hybridizing 

 experiments in which the exceedingly hardy wild species 

 are utilized. It should be possible thus to produce new 

 races of geraniums that have altogether exceptional 

 qualities. 



7 



