Dic =DuNG 
PUBLISHED BY 
WAYLAND DAHLIA GARDENS 
E. R. RYNO, PROP. 
WAYLAND, MICHIGAN 


SEASON OF 1944 


It has been our custom to make 
two issues of our Bulletin each year. 
The General Trade Edition listing 
individual varieties was published in 
September primarily to meet the re- 
quirements of those who sell their 
goods by mail through catalogs. The 
Retail Store Edition was issued in 
January and was devoted to our 
Boxed Dahlia Collections and _ in- 
tended to be of interest to those who 
sold dahlias over the counters in re- 
tail stores. 
This year we have combined these 
two issues and thus eliminated 2 
lot of clerical work connected with 
mailing, ete. If you receive your 
copy earlier than usual therefore be 
sure to file it where you can find it 
when you are ready to order because 
when this edition is exhausted no 
more copies will be available this 
season. 
Our retail store customers will 
note that we have added another line 
to our boxed dahlias. This line will 
be made up of Honor Roll dahlias 
and the first number of the series is 
illustrated on pages 14 and 15. It 
was our intention to feature this 
new line a little more intensely this 
year, but each collection is packed 
in a fiber box and as it is impossible 
to obtain more of these boxes than 
we now have on hand we shall have 
to limit this line to single case or- 
ders—that is, only one case of Honor 
Roll line to a customer. 
It will be noted that each dahlia 
in our Honor Roll collection is 
packed in a _ separate paper box. 
This is to enable the dealer to sell 
these dahlias either singly or in sets. 
And while we have no _ arbitrary 
selling prices for any of our goods 
we think the Honor Roll line should 
sell for at least $1.50 for each col- 
lection of five roots, and under 
present conditions $2.00 could not be 
regarded as  exhorbitant. If your 
price is $1.50 for the set, price of 
single roots should be 35c; if $2.00 
for the set, price of single roots 
should be 50c. This should be a 
profitable line and we have some 
beautiful varieties now growing es- 
pecially for use in this line after the 
war. 
Every year we have many requests 
for prices on undivided clumps of 
dahlias. To these inquiries we wish 
to state that we do not sell or offer 
for sale undivided clumps at any 
time. We have ample storage space 
for our entire crop, and all clumps 
are cut to one-eye divisions ready 
for planting when offered for sale. 
We have been growing dahlias for 
a great many years and we admit 
that in many points we have strayed 
from the beaten paths as regards our 
method of handling our stock. Most 
growers wait until spring before di- 
viding their clumps but this would 
be impossible with us both because of 
the very large number of clumps we 
have to divide and because of the 
fact that we usually start shipping 
in December. It is, therefore, neces- 
sary that we start dividing our 
clumps just as soon as we are done 
digging. When the divisions are 
made each root is trimmed, all fresh 
cuts are treated with hydrated lime 
to prevent mold and rot and all roots 
are stamped with varietal number 
before being placed in our stock 
room where they remain until time 
for shipment. As we keep this 
room dark, cool and at a very high 
humidity point—just below the point 
of drip—we are thus able to carry 
our stock through in perfect condi- 
tion without having roots rot or 
shrivel before spring. 
Once in a while a customer will 
ask us to send him roots which have 
not been trimmed, treated or 
stamped. When order is given early 
we can prepare roots in this manner 
but we really believe it is to the in- 
terest of our customers that we 
process roots in our regular manner 
because by trimming off unnecessary 
parts of the root we save on storage 
space, by treating each root we in- 
sure against all danger from decay 
and by stamping varietal number on 
all roots we avoid all possibility of 
varieties becoming mixed in handling. 
With so many years of experience 
and with such extensive plantings to 
back up our methods we believe all 
our customers can feel assured that 
stock is handled absolutely right at 
our point, especially when it is con- 
sidered that all this extra work on 
our part costs money which we cer- 
tainly would not spend if we did not 
think it necessary. 
We wish you could visit us this 
fall and take a trip through our 
gardens. Here you would see, not 
just a few plants of each of a num- 
ber of varieties as you would find in 
most dahlia gardens but whole 
fields devoted to nothing but dahlias 
—large mass plantings of thousands 
of plants of each of the leading va- 
rieties—all under the very highest 
state of cultivation possible and 
offering an inspiration to almost 
any man who likes to see things 
grow and grow right. We _ should 
also like to have you go through 
our storage cellars. Here we have 
absolutely fireproof and _ frostproof 
storage built especially for dahlias 
and with a capacity of 3,000,000 
roots each season. We believe after 
such a visit to our place you would 
be convinced that your chance of 
getting the best stock available is 
really greater when you deal with 
us than it would be were you to buy 
from some jobber whose growing 
connections are variable and uncer- 
tain. 
It will be noted that we offer each 
year more and more of the newer 
Honor Roll dahlias. It must be re- 
membered, however, that a large 
stock of any new variety cannot be 
built up in a year or two and even 
after a variety leaves our trial 
grounds and goes into our regular 
fields, it is still a matter of several 
years before such variety is pro- 
duced in sufficient quantity to be 
available at a low price. 
We have many new varieties which 
are still grown only in limited quan- 
tities —less than a thousand plants 
of each—and such varieties are al- 
most always contracted for by one or 
another of our customers even before 
the crop is harvested. For this rea- 
son we suggest that you always com- 
municate with us before listing any 
of the newer varieties in your cata- 
log to make sure that stock is still 
available. Most of our customers 
know that we are the largest pro- 
ducers of dahlias in the world, and 
many of them are apt to think that 
stock of all varieties is, therefore, 
available throughout the season; but 
don’t forget that we have hundreds 
of really big customers who are 
drawing upon this stock and nearly 
every variety is taken up long be- 
fore the end of the season. If you 
go ahead and list some particular 
variety without first having had us 
reserve it for you, it may be already 
sold to another customer making it 
necessary for us to pick over our 
planting stock in order to help you 
out with your own requirements. 
This very thing happened in a num- 
ber of cases last season and not 
only did it use up most of our own 
planting stock of some varieties but 
also did it make it necessary for us 
to send out stock which we would 
rather have held for our own added 
plantings. We send this bulletin out 
early especially to enable customers 
to get their reservations in in ample 
time to insure both quantity and 
quality necessary to meet their re- 
quirements for the coming season. 
We urge you to look over our list now 
and if you are not able to visit us 
and make your selection from the 
blooming plants you can at least be 
certain that your coverage is com- 
plete and fully adequate for your 
needs by placing your reservation 
order NOW. 
This year, with the shortage of 
merchandise which prevails in nearly 
all lines, our Boxed Dahlia Collec- 
tions should be of especial interest 
to the wide awake seed merchant. 
Here is a line of goods strictly in 
keeping with your’ regular line, 
packed already for instant acceptance 
by your customer and selling at a 
price, even if you retail at 69c as 
many of our dealers are doing, which 
is really a bargain under present 
conditions. 
Each collection presents a_ per- 
fectly balanced range of colors and 
you can sell your customer either a 
single box or the whole line and as- 
sure him that each collection pre- 
sents a list of varieties entirely dif- 
ferent from the other collections. 
