96 
The Garden Magazine, April, 1920 
creased my regard 
for its fine quali- 
ties, not the least 
of which is its pe- 
culiar blend of the 
East and the West 
in parentage — for 
it is a cross of the 
Japanese native 
Rosa wichuraiana 
with theAmerican 
native R. setigera. 
This splendid and 
substantial Rose is 
the work of the 
most notable 
American hybrid- 
izer of the day. 
Dr. W. Van Fleet, 
now officially 
“ plant physiolog- 
ist” of the Bureau 
of Plant Industry 
in the Federal Department of Agriculture, but actually the 
potential Rose wizard of the western world. 
This shy, retiring scientist won't talk about himself, or tell 
of his work of more than forty years as editor, investigator and 
plant breeder, but he will “open up” on Gladiolus, Chestnuts, 
and Roses, if you are the right sort of interlocutor. The Gladiq- 
lus has benefited by his skill, and he becomes really enthusiastic 
when he shows you the 85 per cent, blight-resistant Chestnut 
seedlings he has bred at his laboratory of plant wonders between 
Baltimore and Washington. Of course he will succeed in putting 
the Chestnut back into our forests, for he is only 15 per cent, 
from success now. And what has Burbank done in comparison 
to that ! 
But the Rose causes Dr. Van Fleet to smile — a slow smile 
of pleasure, of vision. He has under his hands now crosses with 
all the virile West China Rose species collected by the late F. 
N. Meyer, or brought in by E. H. Wilson and by him discussed 
in The Garden Magazine for June, 1913, and he is each year 
producing here in polyglot America Roses that are absolutely 
and hopefully new in parentage, flower, and foliage. I hey are 
“on the way” to the eventual true American hardy garden Rose, 
which must of course be a cosmopolitan Rose, made up just as 
we are of the best — and some of the worst — of all the lands 
under the sun. 
In each succeeding American Rose Annual since 1916 have 
appeared Dr. Van Fleet’s “ Rose- Breeding Notes,” which have 
much of the peculiarly fascinating quality so characteristic of 
the writings of E. H. Wilson. In the 1 920 Annual are illustrated 
several of the wonderful new forms produced by Dr. Van Fleet, 
and he tells of the Hugonis and Moyesi and Soulieana crosses. 
The officers of the American Rose Society are now making 
an effort to secure a means of distribution for Dr. Van Fleet’s 
Rose originations which will more quickly and completely make 
them generally available. The conventional method of distri- 
bution by the Bureau of Plant Industry involves the propaga- 
tion of a few plants which may or may not be applied for by 
those to whom the bulletins of this Bureau are sent. It is 
hoped now so to arrange that a larger propagation may be accom- 
plished, that tests may be made in all of the recognized Rose 
test-gardens of the country, and that therefore progressive 
Rose-growing firms may have opportunity to obtain sufficient 
propagating material, as an exclusive possession, for a long 
enough term to permit the development and disposition of a 
large stock at prices only sufficient to cover the cost of distribu- 
tion, plus a reasonable business profit. 
Silver Moon (another properly descriptive name!), Alida 
Fovett, Bess Lovett, and the exquisite Rose named by the in- 
troducer for the originator, are all fine Van Fleet climbers. His 
M. H. WALSH 
The man whose climbing Rose Ex- 
celsa was winner of the super-honor 
of the Rose world five years ago 
work with the Rugosa type has also been valuable, as evidenced 
in NewCentury, SirThomas Lipton, and several other good sorts. 
A HARDY climber that will bloom continually or repeatedly 
— an “everblooming” climber — has long been earnestly 
desired. 1 know of one electrical engineer who has set himself 
the task, as recreation from volts and amperes and watts, of 
producing it. While he has been working toward it, another 
very earnest, capable and persistent worker has seemingly 
attained the goal. Captain George C. Thomas, Jr., who for 
many years has tested, hybridized and discarded thousands of 
Rose-crosses, presents in the 1920 Rose Annual details and illus- 
trations (several in full color) of certain Roses of semi-climbing 
habit, vigorous growth, good foliage and attractive single and 
semi-double flowers, which have bloomed on the wood arising 
from the previous year’s growth, as with the conventional 
climbers, and also on wood of the current year, right up to the 
frost stop of late fall. It is the more pleasing that these Roses 
should be announced now, after their trial at Captain Thomas’s 
superb gardens during his absence “flying in France” with 
the American Expeditionary Force. It is his belief that these 
varieties are the forerunners of a race as susceptible of develop- 
ment as have been other distinct classes or “breaks” in the 
Rose family. One of these Roses, “4A,” received a Silver Medal 
in the tests at the well-managed Portland Rose-Test Garden 
in Oregon, as well as a special prize of the Portland Rose Society 
for “the best Rose for outdoor cultivation produced by an 
amateur.” It will be formally named at the Portland Rose 
Festival in June. Another, Dr. Huey, not an everbloomer, is an 
exquisitely lovely dark red single beauty. 
Captain Thomas has undoubtedly made a most important 
contribution of American Roses for America, and his critical 
work is continuing. 
APPROPRIATELY NAMED PURITY 
This lovely white Climbing Rose is a worthy memorial to its producer, the 
late Josiah Hoopes who gave us also the superb Climbing American Beauty 
