40 
March, 1920 
Slower (Brower 
Improving Varieties of Flowers. 
By William H. Phipps. 
[Written expressly for The Flower Grower. ] 
T HERE has ever been an effort on 
the part of some members of 
various professions to mystify 
the public with supposed intrica- 
cies of their work and to give the 
impression that the difficulties of 
mastering the work, are almost insur- 
mountable. The writer has encoun- 
tered some of these and found that 
they are readily solved by earnest ap- 
plication. It was the fortune of the 
writer to be appointed by President 
Taft to fill the position of Auditor Gen- 
eral of the Philippine Government. 
When President Taft called me to 
Washington and asked me to accept 
this post, I hesitated to accept, and 
told the President that I was not an 
auditor. He replied, “ You are a law- 
yer, are you not?” I answered that I 
was, and I accepted the appointment. 
Later I had the pleasure of receiving a 
cable from him, congratulating me on 
my work. 
I found that accounts frightened 
most officials, and many required 
a personal explanation, all because 
they would not give them analyt- 
ical study and consideration. Many 
accountants seemingly seek to mystify 
rather than to make plain, hence the 
impression that accounting is a pro- 
fession only to be acquired by long 
years of study and practice, when after 
all if we but use good sound judgment 
systematically applied, it unravels so 
easily that one is amazed at the rapid- 
ity of solution. All this only shows 
that if we will but apply good sense to 
hybridization of flowers, the mys- 
tery sought to be thrown about the 
subject falls to the ground and even 
the amateur may produce fine new 
flowers that he will be entitled to name. 
Suppose you are a stock raiser and 
want to raise fine pedigreed cattle, 
what do you do? You select for the 
sire and dam the best blood you can 
secure. If you want a race horse you 
select the winners of the turf sweep- 
stakes for the progenitors of the colt 
who is to add to the glory of his fore- 
fathers. If you want to raise draft 
horses you do not cross a draft horse 
with a race horse. Nor cross a good 
breed of short horned durhams with 
the long-horned cattle of Texas. If 
you want to improve your Barred Rock 
chickens you do not cross with game 
rooster, but you select if you can a 
better Barred Rock. So much for our 
prelude. 
You want to raise a better strain of 
Gladioli. No matter of what color, let 
us see what you will need to do. This 
flower has been so greatly improved in 
the past ten years that most of the 
older stock should be discarded. When 
we see the marvels that have been 
produced by Groff, Kunderd, Diener, 
Zeestraten, Vos, Austin and many 
others and compare them with varie- 
ties which were the vogue ten, twenty, 
thirty years ago, our judgment is soon 
passed. So if you want to produce a 
new kind that will do you credit, get 
the best that is grown and have them 
for the parents of your new seedling, 
for new strains are most surely pro- 
duced from the seed and not from 
cormels, save and except a sport now 
and then, such as Wilbrink which is a 
sport of Halley. 
Suppose you are trying to produce a 
new and better white— let us do this 
by crossing Diener’s While with Maine 
which is claimed to be the purest white 
grown, or select any other whites that 
you think may aid you in your en- 
deavor. The point being that you would 
not select a color and cross it with a 
white and expect to get a pure white. 
So with red -if you want to improve 
a red variety you will select the shades 
of red which when crossed will pro- 
duce possibly the desired shade, neither 
as dark as one nor as light as the other. 
There is no end to what may be ac- 
complished and accomplished as surely 
as in any other division of the animal 
or vegetable kingdom. 
How shall this be done? It is not 
our purpose to go into the minutiae of 
pollenation, either by hand or some 
other method. We pass by hand pol- 
lenation as a matter to be taken up 
and studied from the best authorities. 
It is not so difficult and is more certain 
in results but for the purposes of many 
growers the bees, moths and humming 
birds are very satisfactory servants 
as they pass from flower to flower and 
thus fertilize with the pollen carried 
in their search for honey. If you have 
a large field keep a few swarms of 
bees near by. You will get results in 
the seed you gather. 
Suppose you plant the two varieties 
you desire to cross in adjoining divi- 
sions or adjoining rows. The bee comes 
along and dives into the flower on 
spike “A” and flies from there laden 
with pollen to the flower on spike “B” 
and this flower is fertilized ; then 
the flower dies and the seed ripens 
to be carefully planted by you 
in the early spring ; the second year 
you see a glorious flower unfold the 
like of which has never been seen. It 
is your child, the child of your tenderest 
care and you nurture it for a few years 
to make sure that it grows true to its 
promise. When you have proven it 
and accumulated a stock, you announce 
it to the world and have placed the 
flower so much nearer perfection ; you 
have added so much to the beauty of 
living and the happiness of mankind. 
If you wish to make sure of the re- 
sult you can hand pollenize and look 
forward to the result with as much 
certainty as to the progeny of animals, 
for the same fundamental law governs 
procreation. Nothing is left to chance, 
God’s laws are inviolate. 
Some Gladioli are weak spiked, there 
the cross should be made with a strong 
spike. Any weakness should be bred 
out by cross breeding, whether this be 
in the spike size or color of the flower. 
You can do it— Groff, Kunderd, Diener 
and others have done it, and hundreds 
of others will. Let us not fall behind ; 
rather let us strive to do better. We 
can, for they have prepared the way by 
placing at our disposal all that they 
have accomplished. 
While I have used the Gladiolus in 
this article as my subject, what I have 
said applies with equal force to Peonies, 
Irises, Roses and the whole flower 
kingdom. 
Floral Life from Past Ages. 
As a result of the deep trench dig- 
ging and the blasting out of shell holes 
by high explosives during the war in 
Europe, northern France has produced 
some interesting floral results. Strange 
plants and flowers unlike anything 
heretofore known are growing on the 
battlefield. It is believed that this is a 
result of bringing into action of the 
sunshine and air, seeds which have re- 
mained deeply in the soil for many 
years. 
An instance is reported from north- 
ern New Jersey, where in dredging a 
stream, the materials excavated from 
many feet below the 'surface were 
scattered over the surface of neighbor- 
ing fields. On these deposits an en- 
tirely different vegetation has started 
growth. 
It is interesting at least to know 
these facts, and it is hoped that botan- 
ists will make careful study of the 
plants thus produced. It is hoped that 
the strange plants may be classified, 
and the age to which they belong de- 
termined. 
It is possible, however, that they may 
quickly succumb under present climatic 
conditions. 
American Gladiolus Society. 
The following varieties of Gladioli 
are offered for registration by John 
Lewis Childs, Flowerfield, N. Y. If no 
objections are filed prior to March 15, 
1920, the same becomes complete : 
Conspicuous— ( Childsii). Beautiful clear 
cardinal-red, with a large white throat. A 
very attractive combination of color. Origi- 
nated by John Lewis Childs. 
White America — Buds and partially ex- 
panding flowers pale flesh, 136 (1-2). Flower 
opens snow white, 2(1), with a faint streak of 
violet mauve, 195( 1), or paler in the throat. 
Has the same strong habit of growth, form 
of flower and substance as America, of 
which it is a seedling. 
A. C. Beal, Sec’y. 
Sand Method of Preserving Flowers. 
Popular Mechanics has a short article 
on preserving flowers by filling the 
petals and all parts completely with 
clean dry sand. We would suggest 
that it is important that the sand 
should be washed to free it from dust 
or dirt which will discolor the bloom. 
It is stated that flowers treated in this 
way after being buried in a box filled 
with sand and left for about ten days 
will completely dry up and they will 
then keep indefinitely with the colors 
and shape well preserved. 
