six weeks appearing, and some failed 
entirely. We have used the glue and 
paper method, again, but are determined 
not to use it any more. We are convinced 
that the glue delays germination con- 
siderably. ‘This season we are going to 
erect canvas barriers to keep the wind 
from blowing our seeds away, and expect 
to plant no later than April 20th. We are 
going to cover all seeds with equal parts 
of sand, peat moss and sifted soil; and 
not over a half inch of covering. Our 
Skinner sprinkler lines will keep the 
little plants growing well if we can just 
get them up early. We surely would like 
to hear from other growers, how they 
made out with their seed. 
Now for the seedling blooms: We 
planted about five thousand small bulbs 
grown from seed in 1949. What a spot 
for excitement! I was usually up and 
out there by six in the morning going up 
and down the rows looking at each new 
bloom. By eight o’clock, Bill, Fred and 
Eugene were here and then the fun 
would really start. Mrs. V. would be 
out there too, having her say. All of 
this resulted in about 160 selections be- 
ing made by various persons. Even 
other growers would drop out and ask 
us to “increase this one” until far too 
many were set aside. Thirty would have 
been plenty to select and grow along on 
test- Another season will soon be around 
and we will be making more selections, 
and increasing the chores. 
And this matter of “the chores” must 
be kept carefully in mind. Planting each 
seedling with its increase and keeping 
careful records, involves more work with 
each passing season. However worthy 
some of these selections may have been, 
yet we are certain that forty carefully 
selected numbers would have been suffic- 
ient. Planting and growing our new crop 
of seed will involve eight or ten times 
the labor usually allowed for this job. 
There is at least that much seed to plant. 
And we are very happy about it. 
I might give a hasty description of a 
few outstanding numbers we found this 
year. We nick-named one the “He-Red” 
because of its size and masculine ap- 
pearance. It favored its pollen parent, 
Mighty Monarch, in size and flower-head, 
but it had better bulb qualities in our 
soil. We heard many favorable comments 
on this huge fellow. It reached up to our 
ears. In the late season Mrs. Vennard 
discovered one that brought all of us up 
looking. She calls it the water-mellon 
red. The color differed from any glad we 
have ever seen. Rather plain and flecked 
a little—but what a glad! She says it 
will never be named! It is just hers. 
Then there was the little Rich Rose, 
a dead ringer for Parthiena but much 
smaller, in 300 class, with a perfect 6- 
open spike. Blue Horizon was still smal- 
ler but a wonderful shade of blue. Just 
line une sky, at evening. Believe it had 
Elizabeth the Queen blood too. A huge 
ruffled buff, of a very pleasing shade 
appeared about mid-season, an Arethusa 
product, and its 6-inch florets—seven 
open—made a tremendous spike and such 
a beautiful number. Hope it does well 
next season. I could name it now. 
Some of the varieties that seem to be 
good parents, and which we can recom- 
mend are Arethusa, Evangeline, J. V. 
Konynenburg, Boulogne, Abigail, Eliza- 
beth the Queen, Huntress, Chic, Magno- 
lia, King Lear, Spic & Span, Orange 
Gold, Aureole, Phantom Beauty, Red 
Rascal, Corona, Astrid, Wedgewood, 
Mighty Monarch, and Burma. We use 
our own seedlings very freely too. 
{f we can be of any help to anyone in 
getting started with this entrancing 
past-time—write us and we will be happy 
to answer any question, or help in any 
way we can. Some day we want to hold 
“seedling shows”, maybe house-to-house 
affairs and compare our pets. What fun 
we could have! Seed production is quite 
simple; growing the seed is just a mat- 
ter of daily watering or sprinkling; and 
cultivating the little plants lightly each 
week. They will produce No. 4 and No. 5 
bulbs freely. How these kids will bloom! 
Brother-r-r-r. 
I have been growing seed since 1941. 
Have not named one yet. My folks say 
I have several I should name, but I think 
the first one will come from 1950 seed, 
