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PUBLISHED BY 
WAYLAND DAHLIA GARDENS 
Boece NL: _Ryno, Props. 
Wayland, Michigan 
SEASON OF 1950 
We Bought Zant’s 1948 Crop 
Our good friend and neighbor, Mr. 
John J. Zant, of Zant’s Wildwood 
Gardens had a slight stroke of apop- 
lexy last year, making it necessary 
for him to give up the dahlia bus- 
iness with which he had been iden- 
tified for so many years. Mr. Zant 
has long been nationally known as a 
grower of the largest and finest 
dahlias in the world and at the time 
of his attack he had many fine seed- 
lings which he had been growing on 
for several years but had not yet 
offered to the public. We bought Mr. 
Zant’s entire planting and have de- 
cided to offer his new productions 
through our Honor Roll Counter 
Trade Assortments before we list 
them in our general open stock list. 
This will give them a wide distribu- 
tion among the better class of ama- 
teur dahlia growers, which we con- 
sider the best preparation for a mail 
order catalog listing when we can 
offer them in bulk. 
Among the leading varieties which 
we found in Mr. Zant’s plantings 
were the following: 
ZANT’S RED MONARCH—a seed- 
ling of Boutillier, and in Mr. Zant’s 
opinion a taller and better grower 
than Boutillier with fully as large 
flowers. 
ZANT’S WHITE GIANT—a seed- 
ling of Zant’s White (which is of- 
fered in our regular list) and a very, 
very fine extremely large informal 
decorative. 
ZANT’S PINK GIANT — a seed- 
ling of Everybody’s Favorite, fully 
as large as its parent variety and a 
beautiful clear pink color. 
ZANT’S BRONZE GIANT — a 
seedling of Jane Cowl, growth very 
similar to Cowl but of a_ pinkish 
bronze color. 
ZANT’S PURPLE BEAUTY — 
a seedling of Purple Mist, very large 
rich purple color and the best true 
purple we have seen. 
ZANT’S RED BEAUTY —a seed- 
ling of Mrs. Thomas Edison, a very 
beautiful rich red with lighter re- 
verse and very large flowers. 
ZANT’S PINK BEAUTY—another 
seedling of Jane Cowl, a very large 
fluffy pink, in our opinion the best 
of the Cowl seedlings. 
We should have about 1,200 to 
1,500 roots of each of these varieties 
which will give us enough for about 
100 cases of each of our two Honor 
Roll Counter Trade Assortments. If 
you want to get these varieties 
started in your community be sure 
to get your order in for a_ case of 
each of this series while the stock is 
still available. Remember at $12 per 
case our H R series costs you only 
$1 per collection of 5 varieties, each 
root individually boxed so it can be 
sold separately for $1. or in a collec- 
tion of 5 for $3.75 and the cost to 
you is only 20c per root which is less 
than most of the standard varieties 
are selling at. 
For further information see page 7. 
Keep America Free 
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confusion and night.” In modern 
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our idea of free enterprise over the 
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smiles? 
Care & Handling of 
Dahlia Roots 
This is a question about which 
nearly all dahlia growers seem to 
have little to say; yet it is just as 
important as any element that enters 
into the production of good dahlia 
roots. After roots are harvested in 
the fall they are placed in storage 
where they remain for weeks or per- 
haps months. If the storage condi- 
tions are right the roots are ap- 
parently in just as good condition at 
time of shipment as they were at 
harvest time. The roots are plump 
and firm, eyes are dormant, necks 
are sound and there is no sign of 
deterioration in any way. 
During the period of storage the 
roots have been kept cool, damp, 
dark and away from moving air 
currents. Considering these facts, it 
almost seems that the roots could be 
stored indefinitely without loss, yet 
in actual experience the deterioration 
that takes place after the roots leave 
this storage leads us to believe that 
in some way the conditions prevail- 
ing during storage have been radical- 
ly changed during the period between 
shipment and actual planting. In 
some cases the roots remain in tight 
warm shipping packages for weeks 
either through slow freight transit 
or after being received, causing them 
to mold and rot. In other cases the 
roots are stored in too warm a room 
or where light or moving air can 
reach them resulting in drying out 
and shriveling. In other cases the 
roots are exposed to cold air result- 
ing in chilling, and often planting is 
done in wet soggy ground resulting 
in rot of both root and sprout. These 
conditions are absolutely beyond our 
control yet we feel that it is to our 
interest to have the root reach the 
ground in the best possible condition. 
In the first place nearly every 
locality has its normal planting time. 
If the dealer’s supply of roots are 
ordered shipped very much before 
the normal planting time it is to his 
interest to have storage facilities 
which will duplicate, so far as pos- 
sible, those under which the roots 
have been held since harvest time. 
I know there are always a few cus- 
tomers who will buy their garden 
bulbs several weeks before time to 
plant but these few people nearly 
always take their stuff home, let it 
kick around in the warm rooms for 
two or three weeks, then the first 
warm day that comes they put it 
into the ground. Usually the results 
are unsatisfactory and both the deal- 
er and grower are blamed. It seems 
that it would be much better for the 
dealer to impress these facts upon 
the customer before he buys than to 
have to make excuses and replace- 
ments later. 
Then in other cases we know ol 
dealers who ordered their supply of 
boxed dahlias early and placed the 
entire shipment in their windows 
where we have seen the light so 
bright that the labels were actually 
faded out before the goods were all 
sold. Under such conditions there is 
bound to be a deterioration of the 
stock just as there would be if you 
placed rose bushes on the open count- 
er exposed to air and light and heat 
for days or weeks before they passed 
into the customer’s hands. 
Our best advice to all customers, 
especially those who sell dahlias ov- 
er the counter, is to display only a 
small part of the stock, keeping the 
rest of it under proper storage con- 
ditions; and to put your heaviest 
selling effort back of the item right 
at planting time. We have hundreds 
of retail stores handling our dahlias 
and invariably the best results are 
obtained, and the greatest profits 
made, by those who push the sale of 
their dahlias during one or two weeks 
at the right planting time instead of 
catering to a few customers who al- 
ways buy way ahead or way behind 
in the season. The stock is ordered 
or is brought in from storage just 
before wanted, is in perfect condi- 
tion when it reaches the counter and 
also when it reaches the customer. 
This means that it is ready to start 
action just the minute it is placed in 
the ground and under such conditions 
is bound to be satisfactory. 
Our record of direct shipments for 
some of our largest customers, made 
under a guarantee providing replace- 
ments of all roots that fail to sprout 
show less than 1% failures. Here we 
used our judgment and shipped the 
goods at proper planting time and 
we have every reason to believe that 
they reached the ground within very 
few days or a_ couple of weeks at 
most after they left our cellars. 
There is absolutely no reason why 
these same results cannot be obtained 
when goods are shipped direct from 
your place or sold over the counter. 
