HORNBERGER’S SERVICE 
HAMBURG, N. Y. 
29 
HARDY PHLOX—Cont. 
ANNIE COOK, soft lilac pink; BARON VON DEDEM: orange red; BEACON: 
cherry red; BRIDESMAID, white, crimson eye; CHAMPS ELYSEE: dark purple; 
ECLAIREUR: rosy magenta; EIFFEL TOWER: white, carmine eye; ELECTRA: rich 
amaranth; ENCHANTRESS: bright salmon pink, dark eye; FIREBRAND: flaming 
orange scarlet; FRAU ANTON BUCHNER: large white; GENERAL PETAIN: rose- 
pink, dark eye; GOLIATH: royal scarlet; LA VAGUE: mauve with carmine eye; 
MISS LINGARD: waxy white, very early; MRS. CHAS. DORR; MRS. JENKINS: early 
pure •white; PALADIN: salmon pink, violet eye; PANTHEON: soft rose pink; PARA¬ 
CHUTE: bright mauve, white center; R. P. STRUTHERS: rosy red; RICHARD 
WALLACE: white with pink eye; RIVERTON JEWEL: mauve rose, with carmine 
eye; SALMON QUEEN, salmon; VON HOCHBERG: dark red; VON LASSBURG, pure 
white; WM. KESSELRING: large violet, white eye. 
MUTANTS OR SPORTS 
Plant mutations are commonly called sports. They seem to be more 
prevalent in some varieties of a species than in others of the same 
species. For instance, among the gladiolus, some of our leading com¬ 
mercial glads have produced many color sports and are likely to continue 
to produce such sports every year as they are inclined this way. Many 
varieties produce sports very frequently, among them Aflame, Minuet, 
Picardy and perhaps scores of others. One variety we have grown a very 
long time, in fact from the time it was listed at about $25.00 per bulblet (is Mr. W. H. 
Phipps), in all our large production of this variety and in all the years we have 
grown it, we have never found a very distinct color sport or change in color. On 
the other hand the variety Paul Pfitzer has in past years produced so many different 
color changes each year that we discarded the variety. 
In my personal opinion I think a vast number of sports are pulled out and 
thrown away each year as simply stray plants of some other variety, accidentally 
mixed with the stock, as you will find in large commercial plantings and often in 
small ones, that glads that are cut to be shipped or sold to florists are cut in the 
bud, or before first flower opens, and if the person is in a hurry as is often the case, 
the plant is likely pulled out as a stray plant, if the buds are of a different color or 
shade, and it does take considerable expert discrimination to detect a sport in the 
bud, before flower opens, and a radical change of color makes a variety look so 
different that even when in flower, the plant may be regarded as some other variety 
mixed with the stock. We use the term “color sport” to distinguish it from sports 
that produce plant changes other than color alone, we have found that the color 
sport, where only the color has changed to be the most common of such mutations, 
so we will confine this discussion solely to where just color alone changes, and the 
plant remains the same in all other qualities, if you label such a plant that has 
changed its color to some degree, and plant it under label separately the next season, 
it may continue to remain true to the new color change, but in many instances, you 
will find it back to its original color, as many of these changes of color, even very 
radical color changes only remain so for one season and then return to the original 
coloring, if such a color change stays the same for two or three years, then as a 
rule, you will find it established in its new color, as it is the product of a variety 
whose nature seems to be to produce color changes each year, such named sports, 
from Aflame, Picardy, Minuet, Marmora and many others, will go on and produce 
new sports of their own, as we have found, and they will also produce a few plants 
of the original variety, and no matter how well you “true up” your stock, you can¬ 
not prevent these color changes insofar as I know. So if you are a beginner, and 
you find a different variety mixed with your stock, it does not prove that the grower 
sold you mixed stock. You must first determine what variety the plant is to be 
absolutely sure where the fault lies. Remember “color changes” for both one season, 
and those that become permanently established are much more common than has 
been thought possible. We only find the truth of this by going to the trouble of 
labeling and growing separately all such color changes. When we do this a long 
time in our case nearly twenty years, you can also piove something about the natui e 
of color changes. 
