Ta Our Friendly Customers 
Anosr A YEAR has gone since Mr. Leonian’s death and 
the announcement that we, his wife and son, would carry on 
the work with the flowers. It has been a great deal of help 
to us that you have stood by during the past months and a 
real comfort that so many of you took time and energy from 
busy lives to write to us. Some of the letters we were able to 
acknowledge in later correspondence, some not, but it has 
meant much to us to read the fine things you said about my 
husband and his work. To realize that there are so many 
kindly people in a rather limited group of flower lovers does 
something to one’s morale. For the part you played we are 
grateful and we thank you wholeheartedly. 
However, all this does not mean that we expect anything 
but a strictly business relationship from here on in. This will 
be our first year alone in the work and our real test. Of 
eourse, we’ll make mistakes which we shall do our best to 
rectify but we shall expect to grow by training and exper- 
ience. We hope this growth will show itself in the plants you 
eet from Lyondel seeds. If, after a few years, we find that 
we have really gone on from where Mr. Leonian’s work with 
delphiniums, lilies and poppies left off we shall feel the true 
satisfaction that comes with a job well done, In the mean- 
time we shall have added to the beauty in your gardens and 
acquired friends for ourselves — a rich reward, 
To Introduce the 1946-47 
Catalogue 
It is with a great deal of hesitancy that I set about writ- 
ing the Lyondel cxtalogue for the coming year. I am sure you 
will expect it to be different in tone from the ones you have 
received in previous years. You will miss the frank, though 
friendly, seoldings you sometimes received through its pages — 
scoldings you did not mind too much because, in your dealings 
with the author over a period of time, you learned that he 
was fair and honest as well as frank. Often vour letters have 
indicated that vou enjoyed the style Mr. Leonian used because 
through the catalogue you became better acquainted with the 
personality behind the flowers he produced. Certainly, I shall 
not expect to take his place as an authority on flower culture 
just vet. For that reason I am going to copy his notes on 
how to go about the production and care of plants from our 
seeds. I shall also copy, for this year, his deseription of the 
various groups under which we sell seeds. As last year there 
will be no Connoisseur Series offered though as was true dur- 
ing 1945 those who order late for indoor planting will get 
them very largely from the plants grown in our garden from 
last summer’s seed. 
I shall omit the section ‘‘What Others Say’’ until such 
time as what you say applies to that which the present hy- 
bridizers in Lyondel Gardens produce. Just the same I want 
you to know that your good letters which came along with the 
very early orders last year gave both Mr. Leonian and me a 
great deal of satisfaction. 
With the exceptions noted, this first catalogue will be an 
informal letter from me to you. 
Join the 
American Delphinium Society 
and see the latest in the world of delphinium. Dues $2.00 per 
year, Stanley Ohala, secretary, 1260 West Road, Highland 
Park, Ill. The date for the Delphininm Show in Chicago is 
set, tentatively, for June 22, 1946, 
