A Personal Letter, to You 
Dear Floral Friends: 
We have just finished writing this Fall, 1951 catalog, and nothing remains except 
to write you this introductory letter. We receive so many letters that we cannot answer, 
that, many years ago, we began writing the catalog letters. The catalog this fall was 
carefully revised in order to omit repetitions and to shorten it without omission of 
important culture information, in order to allow space for a longer letter. 
Several months before beginning to prepare a new catalog we begin research for 
new items to list in addition to those we grow. We are always experimenting too, about 
the culture of plants, in order to learn more about the best methods. We believe we have 
added some information to the lore of growing plants. We try also to learn from other 
growers and often ask questions of them and of experienced amateurs. We give you 
this information in our catalogs. 
We are asking one of these questions here and we hope to have over 100 answers. 
Brunsvigea rosea, (Amaryllis belladonna) thrives and flowers well in Calif., and some 
nearby states. We have had a few reports of failure to flower in La., and Miss. Does 
it grow well and flower for you in your state or does it fail in any way? We do not 
wish to sell plants to customers who may not be able to succeed. 
Our research for plants this year has been very successful. We are able to offer cer- 
tain items that have been hard to get and therefore high priced, at a much lower sum. 
Prominent among these are Lycoris aurea, the Golden Spider Lily, sometimes known 
as the Hurrican Lily. These have been prominent flowers in the gardens in Saint Aug- 
ustine, Fla., where they flower about the beginning of the season of the big winds. So 
far as we know the history of its introduction is obscure but occurred long ago. It is 
the most tender Lycoris and hardy only in the south and along our two coast lines. 
Lycoris alba is much more rare and is little known. As these two items are coming 
to us from Japan this year we are able to sell them at a much lower price. As they have 
not yet arrived, we don’t know the exact date of delivery but it will be as soon as we 
get them and we hope in time for you to see the flowers this year. 
We are happy to announce success in crossing Marica northiana by M. gracilis. The 
result is more profuse flowering thru a longer season and better flowers. These hybrids 
so far as we know are the first ever produced in this genus. We are offering them for 
the first time this year altho our. stock consists only of a 40 ft. row. Thanks to Mrs. 
Wilson and her book, “Enjoy Your House Plants,’ Maricas, long a rare house plant 
in the north, are becoming better known and more popular. Their curious characters 
add to the interest of the pretty flowers. 
One of the most amazing things in the history of horticulture is the wide distribu- 
tion, and popularity of Saintpaulias or African Violets within less than 60 years after the 
discovery of the first wild plant. They seem to be our most popular house plant and it 
may happen that more African Violets will sometime be grown than all other house © 
plants. This growth in popular favor in such a short time can be attributed to the 
fact that nature had already created them in a climate within 10° of what we prefer 
in our living rooms. In fact many grow wild where the mean average temperature is 
70° which is what most people like. Myself, I prefer 80° and so do some others. About 
the only thing we must add to our kitchen or living room conditions is to add more 
humidity, which is easily done. 
When nature created them thousands or even millions of years ago, she must have 
been thinking about modern houses and modern humans. No artisan could more skill- 
fully join the parts of his creation than nature has done in this instance. In the distant 
past was created that which was exactly fitted to a modern pattern. Nature further con- 
tributed to modern needs by making them especially amenable to the art of the hybrid- — 
izer and already we have many more colors in the flowers, great improvement and vari- 
ations in the foliage. Some of the “girls” are “out of this world.” 
Therefore we present. you in this catalog a longer list of Saintpaulias and especially 
all the new ones that can be obtained in a commercial quantity along with the best of 
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