October, 1919 £3l)e JHower (Brower 
The Work of an Alabama Plant Wizard. 
By T. Dabney Marshall. 
[ U'ntun expressly for The Flower Grower . ] 
ATTRACTED by the unique adver- 
/\ tisements of Mr. L. H. Read in 
The Flower Grower and his 
ever widening fame as a plant 
wizard and breeder, I determined to 
visit his nurseries near Deer Park, Ala. 
Although Deer Park is only about fifty 
miles North of Mobile and hardly a 
hundred feet above the level of the 
gulf of Mexico, I was amazed to find 
that its native flora was very similar to 
that of the North Carolina Mountains 
near Ashville and the Biltmore nursery. 
When I arrived there, about the first 
of May, the last feathery flakes of the 
blooms of the Azalea Nudifolia were 
waving above the tender little leaves, 
showing where just a few weeks before 
the tides of green had broken into a 
foam of flowers. Here and there 
clumps of Kalmia Latifolia displayed 
great clusters of pink waxen blooms 
and almost justified J. Wilkinson Elli- 
ott’s claim that it is the first of Ameri- 
can ornamental shrubs. Wild bulbous 
orchids of the loveliest lavender shade; 
great patches of purple Phlox and clump 
after clump of the unique Sarracina 
made the little clearings in the pine 
woods and the railroad right-of-way a 
blaze of beauty. 
I had vainly tried to grow such flow- 
ers at my home, which is at least two 
degrees North of Deer Park and I could 
not understand how they stood the in- 
tense heat which I knew must beat 
down on them in July and August. An 
examination of the soil explained the 
mystery. It was that same sand with 
a little mixture of clay that abounds in 
the North Carolina mountains. Thus 
was demonstrated that soil rather than 
temperature counts with certain plants. 
We walked up the avenue leading 
from the railroad to Mr. Read’s cot- 
tage between a glaucous hedge of 
Camphor trees, which are perfectly 
hardy there. On the one side of this 
hedge flamed out in long lines of beaten 
gold, Hemerocallis by the tens of thou- 
sands and on the other glowed the still 
more gorgeous colors of Amaryllis 
Vitata hybrids which Mr. Read had 
grown from the seed. The Amaryllis 
ranged in colors from almost white 
through shades of pink to intense crim- 
son. They were as glorious in color- 
ing as Darwin Tulips and greatly 
superior in size. 
But it was Mr. Read’s Daisies which 
attracted most attention. It is these 
also which make good his claim to be- 
ing a Southern Luther Burbank. He 
has about the finest thing in the Daisy 
line that graces a garden. He origi- 
nated it himself. It is a cross between 
the common wild daisy and the daisy 
maximus. He will shortly put it on 
the market under the fetching name 
of Over the Top. It deserves its cogno- 
men. Though it was the first of May 
these splendid daisies were in full 
bloom in the open and the nursery was 
shipping them by the thousands to 
Mobile and other markets. It has the 
splendid large glistening flowers of the 
Maximus and the slender graceful 
stems and fern-like foliage of the field 
daisies. It is easily '.he finest daisy in ex- 
istence. Larger than the famous Shasta 
or King Edward VII., immaculate in the 
silvery whiteness of its petals and 
gorgeously golden in its sunlike center, 
it is a thing of beauty to the amateur 
and of profit to the professional florists 
who plant it in large quantities. I can 
conceive of no more effective decora- 
tion than a large basket of these 
blooms mingled with Asparagus Plu- 
mosous. But it is the earliness of its 
florescence which makes it most in- 
valuable. It comes into bloom a full 
month before the King Edward VII and 
six or seven weeks before the Shasta. 
More interesting to me personally 
were the Hemerocallis. I was familiar 
with daisies of all kinds, both human 
and floral, but I did not know the beauty 
of the Hemerocallis. I had grown the 
lovely Hemerocallis flava and I had 
grown and then thrown away the 
Hemerocallis Fulva and Kwansoni be- 
cause of the dinginess of their color. 
But when I saw the clear sparkling 
gold of the Dumorlieri, Mindendorfi and 
above all of Mr. Read’s hybrids, ob- 
tained by careful crossing of the vari- 
ous varieties, it was a revelation to me 
and a delight. These hybrids were 
much taller and much earlier in flow- 
ering than their parents and were of 
almost every shape. Some were cup 
shaped, some like lilies flared open like 
saucers, some had twisted petals and 
the bizarre forms of those impossible 
blooms that Japanese artists love to 
depict and they were of every imag- 
inable hue of yellow and as gaudy as 
the silken robes of a Mandarin on oc- 
casions of state. Any one desiring 
striking effects could do no better than 
to make large plantings of these bril- 
liant flowers. 
Mr. Read was also very proud of 
his Cyanus, commonly called Corn 
Flower Asters. These he found grow- 
ing wild in the Deer Park swamps. He 
took them to his nursery, worked with 
them, hybridized them and gave them 
the intelligent care they needed and 
sold to Henry A. Dreer the original 
stock which that enterprising firm 
featured some years ago and put upon 
the market. The wild Cyanus is a 
lovely azure blue, but in the nursery 
there has been a break in the colors 
and now Mr. Read has them in all 
shades from almost pure white through 
purple to dark blue. 
There were many other interesting 
plants and novelties but space does not 
admit of my mentioning all of them. 
Excessive rainfall in places together 
with extreme heat rather early in the 
growing season, will doubtless result 
in weakening Gladiolus bulbs and other 
flower stocks to some extent. Condi- 
tions have been very favorable for the 
developing of rot of various kinds. 
97 
A Flowering Hedge. 
Some twenty-five years ago I pur- 
chased a little 4x5 plate camera- 
think it cost me $6 — but it has an ex- 
cellent lens and sometimes when I see 
anything that pleases me, and it is not 
too far away, I take a picture of it. 
Perhaps readers of The Flower 
Grower will be interested in the pic- 
ture shown here, which was taken on 
account of the blooming hedge. I 
haven’t taken time to hunt up the bo- 
tanical name of the plant used, but it 
is that type of spirea commonly known 
as Bridal Wreath. It certainly presents 
a beautiful appearance, is cheap and 
easy to grow. 
The best time for planting such a 
hedge is in the fall, but early spring be- 
fore the plants begin to grow will do 
almost as well. A word of caution, 
however, to any who may be attracted 
by the picture. The hedge shown was 
planted too near the sidewalk and the 
next year after the picture was taken 
it drooped over the walk to such an 
extent that it had to be trimmed, which 
interfered with its blooming the next 
season. 
One objection to a hedge like this 
is that it looks badly for two or three 
weeks after the blooms fade as the 
white blossoms wither and turn a rusty 
color. However, it is hard to find any- 
thing prettier than this spirea hedge 
when in bloom, and there are some 
drawbacks to almost anything we can 
grow. 
Harmon W. Marsh. 
Glads. 
Gladioli is a misnomer, 
Too technical and long. 
They ought to be called by a syllable, 
Undeniably potent and strong. 
Pardon the amateur gardener, 
Who in her place should belong. 
For giving them the single name, 
That in itself is a song. 
Dear “Glads,” my obeisances to you, 
Your exquisite beauty and grace 
Is a triumph of Divinity. 
And dignifies each small space. 
You are named for beautiful ladies, 
With eyes like the summer nights, 
And hearts like the mid-day’s splendor; 
That is one of a Glads delights. 
So here is a toast to the Glad-flo vers ; 
The message to me they brought, 
Was a treat in God’s great thought-world ; 
Inspiration can not be bought. 
—Ruth La Shorne Bundy. 
