THIS BUSINESS OF SALES TALK 
Mosr SALES TALKS contain comparatively 
little truth and altogether too much ballvhoo. At 
times, gross exaggerations and bald falsehoods have 
studded the delphinium sales talk like the quills on 
the back of porcupine; and yet the gardening pub- 
lie does not seem to learn its.lesson. Consider, if 
you please, this matter of spike architecture: English 
hybridizers took it from the French and developed 
it to perfection, so that even some fifteen vears ago 
they had those very long spikes we dream about; the 
low starting habit; the broad pyramidal types; the 
infinitely graceful spiral forms; the columnar spikes; 
the whip-like, wind resistant sorts; the loose and the 
compact varieties; the ideal form and placement of 
flowers, and the resistant habit whereby the sepals 
kept on clinging to the seedpods long after the top- 
most flowers had opened. They had the tall growing 
types and the short growing types, and they had 
delphiniums that tolerated the coldest of winters. 
We have not materially improved, and I doubt if we 
will ever improve these qualities. And vet, to hear 
some people ballyhoo, one would think that the Eng- 
lish hybridizers were mere pikers. Enormous ad- 
vances have been made in this country, to be sure, 
but not in the architecture of the spike. For in- 
stance, white delphinium hybrids of good quality 
were first introduced by Mr. Charles Barber; the 
first significant advances in the quality of these whites 
were made by Mr. Frank Reinelt who also gave us 
the first blue delphiniums of vigor and quality com- 
parable to others. The Iivondel Gardens pioneered 
hand pollenized seeds that became the foundation of 
a new era of high quality delphiniums, available to 
rich and poor alike. The Lyondel Gardens made 
available the many self colors varying from soft laven- 
ders to deep orchids and royal purple. The large 
flowering race of delphiniums with individual flowers 
measuring from three to as much as four inches across 
was first distributed by the Lyondel Gardens. Earler, 
the Vanderbilt Hybrids had introduced a variety of 
floral patterns and a brillianeyv of colors rarely, if 
ever, seen in the world of delphiniums. From the 
Vanderbilt strain eame the foundation of floral pat- 
terns, of self colors. and of other sparkling, vivid 
shades that have given the I:vondels their unique 
place. The architecture of the Lyondel spikes caine 
from the English Hybrids, while other well known 
and not so well known strains have made and are 
constantly making their contribution to support my 
pledge that each current year’s Lyondels will be bet- 
ter than all previous ones. 
The foregoing, my friends, is my sales talk. I ean- 
not promise you the world of delphinium with a fence 
around it. My delphiniums will not behave as true 
perennials in all parts of our country; they will not 
withstand, if unstaked, the fury of wind-driven rain- 
storms; they are not immune to root rots and crown 
rots; they are not all delphinium-virtues and no 
faults. No one is more keenly aware of their short- 
comings than I am. It is not such a simple matter to 
