234 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
M a v , 19 17 
be cut back in winter, nor, obviously, in 
spring. 1 he only winter pruning that is 
permissible is the cutting nut of weak, crowded 
or superfluous branches, but do not cut back. 
Overgrown bushes that are to be brought into 
control, should be cut back in the winter time 
in order to get it down where it is wanted. 
I his, of course, sacrifices the flower for the 
season, but it induces strong breaks and well- 
formed bushes for the future. Do moderate 
pruning and disbudding just after the bloom- 
ing period, and generally thin out and attend 
M EASURED not alone by the num- 
ber of novelties, but also by their in- 
trinsic value to the gardens of the 
world, Victor Lemoine, the great 
French nurseryman, deserves credit as the 
greatest plant breeder, "creator” if you will, 
that the world has ever seen. Not a person 
who grows plants in a garden but what at one 
time or another, if not always indeed, has 
handled something that was the product of 
this master craftsman. His modest, retiring 
nature found a large share of its reward in the 
mere achievement of the results, yet for many 
years horticulturists looked forward eagerly to 
the announcements of novelties in the annual 
catalogue of this redoubtable nurseryman. 
Very often other hybridist plant breeders, 
who have made for themselves reputations 
along special lines, devoted their time and 
energies to the development of one particular 
group of plants; but Victor Lemoine accom- 
plished in fully a score of different lines, results 
that in each would have sufficed to build the 
reputation of any one man. How many people 
to-day even have a ghost of an idea of the debt 
of reverence due to the memory of this trans- 
cendent genius? 
Elsewhere in this number of The Garden 
Magazine reference is casually made to the 
map’s achievements in Lilacs, and Deutzias, 
and Astilbes, and these are but typical in- 
stances of what he did in his little nursery at 
Nancy. 
Victor Lemoine came from a long line of 
descent of practical horticulturists. For gen- 
erations back his ancestors have been gardeners 
and nurserymen. He was born at Belme, 
Lorrain, October 21, 1823. He died December 
11, 1911, being then in his 89th year. 
After completing his studies at college 
and before establishing himself in the place 
which his name has largely helped to make 
famous, he devoted several years to traveling 
and working in the leading horticultural 
establishments of his time, according to the 
custom of the profession in the old world. At 
that time Mr. Louis V an Houtte had a famous 
establishment in Ghent, Belgium, and part of 
the time Lemoine spent there. It was in 1850 
that he established himself in a very small way 
as a florist and gardener at Nancy where he 
earned the admiration and veneration of the 
craft the world over. And in his later years 
he was much honored by horticultural and 
scientific organizations of France and Europe, 
and he was the first foreigner to receive the 
Victorian Medal of Horticulture of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, and only a few weeks 
to the symmetry of the bush but be cautious 
over pruning of any sort. It is easy to do the 
wrong thing. 
Propagation is by cuttings of the young wood 
in early summer. Placed in sand in a hotbed 
kept shaded, they will root freely in about 
two months. Layering can also be done in 
late summer, and of course, suckers, where 
such are developed, can be removed in spring 
with their roots, and if cut back will start 
readily. 
Two well known public institutions have 
AN APPRECIATION 
before his death the Massachusetts Horti- 
cultural Society honored itself by granting 
Lemoine the George R. White Medal of Honor. 
In a short note such as this, it is quite im- 
possible to even catalog the multitude of val- 
uable productions and introductions of Victor 
Lemoine. It would require a space of several 
pages in small type! Has any other plant 
breeder, living or dead, produced a tithe of 
the permanent worth of this master crafts- 
man ! Casual reference has already been made 
to one or two lines of his activity, and we 
VICTOR LEMOINE 
Bom October 21, 1823; died December 11. 1911. In his 
world famous nurseries at Nancy, France, he worked in- 
cessantly in the hybridizing of garden and greenhouse plants 
and to such purpose that there is not a garden to-day in 
which the products of the master genius are not familiar 
friends 
should remember that he was concerned very 
largely in the modern Gladiolus, and to show 
still further diversity, reference need only be 
made to the Begonia Gloire de Loraine which 
alone is such a popular plant in its particular 
class that its absence would now be greatly 
missed. Sixty years of continuous plant pro- 
duction is in itself a wonderful record, and the 
work is still continued in the succeeding gener- 
ation under his son, Emile. 
representative collections of Lilacs: the 
Arnold Arboretum, although it lacks some 
of the most modern varieties, and the 
Park System of the City of Rochester, New 
York. 
As to planting, a common fault is over- 
crowding, not giving sufficient room. In the 
private collection of Prof. Sargent, Brookline, 
where the plants have been given ample space 
to develop, it can be seen that they require 
twenty to twenty-five feet, and yet we plant 
Lilacs three feet apart! 
HYBRIDIST 
It was in 1852 that the first mention of 
Lemoine’s work was found in the Revue 
Horticole — a double flowered Portulaca. Two 
years later, under the name of Gloire de 
Nancy, came the first double Potentilla, and at 
the same time the first Streptocarpus hybrids 
which later on were developed by another 
establishment into some of the most pleas- 
ing of greenhouse plants. It was about the 
same period that Lemoine turned his hand to 
fuchsias and introduced many varieties, in- 
cluding the double flowered hybrid Solferino. 
Work thus begun was continued without 
cessation, but the creation of hybrids and 
crossings was occasionally varied by the in- 
troduction into commerce of new species or 
varieties for which he was always on the look- 
out. 1 hus a white form of Spiraea callosa 
came in 1862; in 1866, Hydrangea paniculata 
grandiflora, and in the same year he pro- 
duced and sent out the first genuine double- 
flowered Zonal Geranium, Gloire de Nancy. 
In 1868 he began the introduction of his hy- 
brid W eigelas, which have not been super- 
ceded to this day. It was in 1874 that the 
horticultural world was surprised by the first 
double tuberous Begonia, and this great genus 
in all its other branches has from time to time 
been greatly benefited by this one man’s work. 
Indeed without Lemoine the Begonia would 
probably never have “arrived.” He intro- 
duced new perennial Phlox and the hybrid 
large-flowered Clematis in great number, in- 
cluding, more recently, the reddish-flowered 
Andre Leroy and others. 
Space forbids anything like even a partial 
catalogue of achievements of which, however, a 
fairly complete list will be found in “Horti- 
culture” December 23, 1911. Our purpose 
has been to show in a broad way how much we 
owe to Victor Lemoine. No mention- has been 
made of the greenhouse plants and of the im- 
provements of previous crosses which contin- 
ued to pour out in such profusion from his nur- 
series. During the last fifteen years of his life 
he devoted his energies to the improvement on 
Deutzias, Peonies, Hydrangeas, Weigelas, 
Gladiolus, Astilbes, Lilacs, Delphiniums, Pyre- 
thrums, Heucheras and Pentstemons; but in 
passing, mention must in justice be made to 
the fact that he worked also with Mont- 
bretias. Dahlias, Saxifrages, Chrysanthemums, 
Bush Honeysuckles, Spiraeas and Phloxes the 
results of which we all enjoy the year round. 
Truly as we look back we are positively 
appalled at the immense volume of results, and 
again we ask: Has any other plant creator 
given us as much? L. B. 
VICTOR LEMOINE, PLANT 
