32 
Z3l)e Slower (Brower 
April, 1919 
Hybridizing and Crossing the French Iris. 
By William Rollins. 
(Reprinted by permission from Horticulture, Boston.) 
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF GETTING A PRIZE? 
In the last fifty years probably several 
million Iris seed have been planted, either 
the results of artificial crossing or from plants 
that have seeded naturally, but only a few 
hundred are on the market. Out of these 
there are a dozen or more that are real aris- 
tocrats, using this term in its proper sense. 
Among a thousand plants raised from a 
year’s crossing you will get many fine enough 
to give to your farmer neighbors, for their 
wives’ gardens, to encourage the growth of 
the Iris in the country. If these are planted 
in rows in the vegetable garden the care will 
be so little the “men folks” will not notice it, 
while if they are asked to work in the flower 
garden they “kick,” saying they are behind 
with the farm work. I find this little dodge 
works all right. Out of the thousand per- 
haps you will get two or three •good enough 
to go into the hybridizing garden. One 
must raise many seedlings to draw a prize. 
However, the laws of chance work strangely. 
Cases are on record where an amateur rais- 
ing new narcissi has quickly been favored 
with fortune, and as we all like a game of 
chance, growing Iris seed is a fine game. 
TIME OF TRANSPLANTING FROM THE TRANS- 
PLANT BED. 
At the end of the second year remove all 
the plants, and prepare the bed for the next 
lot of seedlings. It is evident that to do this 
there must be two transplant beds. 
LABELS AND RECORDS. 
The painted labels used for marking the 
plants after crossing will remain legible, if 
an indelible pencil, so called, is used, until 
time to gather the pods, but cannot be 
trusted in the seed or transplant beds. My 
correspondent, Monsieur Dessert, sends his 
Peonies to America with labels that can be 
read after being under ground for two years, 
but I have not been able to duplicate these 
here, and recommend Farquhar’s copper 
labels, which are five inches long inches 
wide. These are intended to have the record 
made on them with a hard point. I do not 
like the method. Get a set of stencil letters 
and figures, one-quarter of an inch high. 
Perforate the labels and the printing will re- 
main always clear. These labels have long 
and strong copper wires. When fastened 
to iron stakes they are most satisfactory. 
Marking the plants in this way and making 
the records to correspond is not enough for 
the seed and transplant beds, where the 
plants are near together, as the stakes get 
moved. There must be fixed points from 
which the distances of each plant can be 
measured. Iron pipe one and a half inches 
diameter and in pieces eighteen inches 
long is useful. This displacement of labels 
occurs in places you would not expect it. 
One spring I went to a celebrated botanical 
garden and saw more than a dozen labels 
that did not correspond with the plants. In 
a garden of hybrid seedlings this would have 
been fatal unless the owner had a system of 
fixed points and a record by which he could 
replace the labels. It seems to be a habit 
with many visitors to a garden to pull up a 
stake to look at the label rather than bend 
over to read it, and if they replace it within 
a few inches that is supposed to be all right. 
RECORD BOOKS. 
Quite elaborate directions for keeping 
records may be found in literature. Better 
make your own plan, for no two brains work 
alike. Summing up it may be written that 
the chief troubles of a hybridist are rain, 
excessive heat, bugs, misplaced labels and 
weeds. 
Forty years ago I listened to a lecture by 
Emerson, in which he defined a weed as a 
plant whose uses we had not yet discovered. 
This made a great impression at the time, 
but long years of gardening cause me to 
think a better definition of a weed is a plant 
out of place. Surely we know the uses of 
grass and clover, but they are pestilent weeds 
in an Iris garden. 
APPENDIX. Plant Anatomy— Stevens. 
Morphology of Angiosperms— Coulter and 
Chamberlain. Methods in Plant Histology — 
Chamberlain. The Cell— Wilson: Plant 
Breeding— DeVries. Species and Varieties, 
Their Origin and Mutation — DeVries. These 
books are remarkably clear and simple, and 
should be in the libraries of all gardeners 
who are interested in making new flowers. 
Royal Horticultural Society. 
Awards of Merit 1918. 
The following plants received an award 
of merit at the meeting of the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society held on the 27th of Au- 
gust, 1918: 
Montbretia Queen Mary— This glorious va- 
riety grows about a yard high and bears 
many branched spikes upon which numerous 
flowers remain open at the same time. The 
individual blooms are about two inches 
across, colored light orange-yellow, with 
deeper orange reverse, and small crimson 
marks at the mouth of the tube. The stems 
are dark and stout. 
Montbretia Nimbus— This variety is of 
more upright habit than most, the side 
branches growing more erect than usual. 
The color of the flowers is deep gold, with a 
ring of soft red brown towards the base of 
the segments, and a few small markings of 
the same color at the mouth of the tube ; a 
very free flowering and effective variety. 
Montbretia Queen Alexandra— An erect, 
slender stemmed variety which bears mod- 
erate-sized flowers that are of unusually 
good, rounded form. The color is light apricot 
yellow, with purplish red markings at the 
bases of the lower three segments ; a very 
elegant variety. This and the two foregoing 
varieties were raised and shown by Sydney 
Morris, Esq , (gr. Mr. S. Henley) Norwich. 
Gladiolus Prophetess (La Prophetesse ) —A 
dainty variety with shapely flowers and good 
spikes. The blooms are cream white, with 
large red brown blotches on the bases of the 
three lower segments. In form and texture 
the flowers are first rate. Shown by Mr. J. 
S. Parker, Upton Cheyney, Bitton. 
Dahlias. 
The following Dahlias received the R. H. 
S. Award of Merit and the National Dahlia 
Society’s First-class Certificate : 
Marion Walton — A charming garden Cac- 
tus Dahlia of great decorative value. The 
stems are long and stiff ; the flowers, of fair 
size, are colored rich rose-pink, with buff 
shading at the bases of the central segments. 
Purple Emperor — A very handsome and 
distinct decorative variety. The flowers are 
of large size and carried boldly on stout 
stems. The segments are broad and the 
blooms regular in outline. The color is deep 
purple tinted maroon with bright purple 
reverse, the latter color showing up in the 
short, central segments. 
Pennant— This handsome Cactus variety 
has large blooms composed of slender in- 
curving segments that produce an elegant 
effect. The color is rich salmon-cerise, a 
distinct shade. 
Meridian — A large Cactus Dahlia of fine 
form, with graceful, slender pointed seg- 
ments and a neat centre. The color is pale 
straw yellow. Stems long and stiff. 
These four varieties were shown by 
Messrs. J. Stredwick & Son. 
President Wilson— A huge and gorgeous 
decorative Dahlia of splendid form and with 
very long, stout stems that carry the flowers 
erect. The broad segments have their edges 
somewhat reflexed towards the ends, thus 
producing a pointed effect that adds to the 
fine appearance of the bloom. Shown by 
Mr. J. T. West. 
Southern Star— This is another addition to 
the “Star” group of Dahlias. This group con- 
sists of very useful varieties, particularly 
suitable for garden decoration and for sup- 
plying cut blooms. The variety has the 
same elegant form as its congeners, but the 
color is scarlet, streaked with yellow, and 
shading into pink at the tips of the segments. 
Shown by Messrs. J. Cheal & Sons.— The 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, Eng. 31 Aug., 1918. 
Outdoor Sweet Peas. 
Just as soon as the frost has gone and the 
soil dried out sufficiently so as to be work- 
able, the sweet peas should be sown out- 
doors. Be sure the ground in which they 
are to be sown has been liberally prepared. 
You cannot get good sweet peas in poor 
land. Dig or plow in plenty of well-rotted 
manure and work it down as deeply as pos- 
sible. Special trenching is necessary for first 
class flowers of exhibition quality, but you 
can get good blooms without going to all 
that trouble. Sow thinly, cover the seeds 
two inches and do not hill them up as they 
grow, as is often recommended, unless you 
want to develop stem-rot. Leave the rows 
when covered somewhat hollowed to catch 
water. Sow such useful sorts as Nora 
Unwin, white ; Countess Spencer or Hercules, 
clear pink ; Fiery Cross or Scarlet Emperor, 
scarlet ; Florence Nightingale or Asia Ohn, 
lavender and mauve ; Mrs. Cuthbertson, rose 
and white; Edith Taylor, rose, and Martha 
Washington, white, suffused light rose. Pink 
is the best selling color; next to that pure 
white and lavender. Be sure to sow early. 
You cannot get good sweet peas if you wait 
until the ground is warm and dry. Florists’ 
Review. 
