RED: There are many fine reds and all of them hold great potentialities. Since 
the following are already established as being good parents you can’t go wrong on 
them. Redward, Garden Glory, Lights On, Captain Wells, C. Gersdorff, Diplay, Ranger, 
Red Valor and Action Front as well as others. My own best results have come from 
working along several lines, at times inbreeding and at times outbreeding or combining 
several different lines. I do consider some varieties unfailing parents for reds—varieties 
that are not themselves red. These are Casa Morena, Cape Bon and Jasper Agate. 
Rocket and Damascus, though orange, are both good parents for red. I would say it was 
the great predominance of red in the seedlings from Damascus that led to the breeding lines 
that have given me my present reds such as Aria, which is a sure fire parent, and Manana 
which is the parent of No. 50-90. Kwilsena, Apex, Bandit, Britannia, Caravan, Dark 
Fire and Ebony Echo are also producing fine clean seedlings in good red colors. These 
all involve Casa Morena, Cape Bon, Garden Glory, Jasper Agate, Redward, Damascus 
and Rocket in their ancestry and if you will follow the parentage through on each you will 
see where various lines have been brought together. 
Of course there are numerous other ways in which one might achieve red. I am 
also trying to reach bright red by working through the deep flamingo and magenta 
red or purples with the red beards. Mr. Lapham tells me he is working this line 
also, as is Henry Sass, so you too might keep this in mind when working for your “Red.” 
BENDS: Good parents here are too numerous to list but good seedlings from 
the following should be endless. Tobacco Road, Sultans Robe, Casa Morena, Melodist, 
Mirabelle, Veishea, Three Oaks, Gypsy Rose, Cape Bon, Lady Albright, Russet. Wings, 
Miogem, Honeyflow, Argus Pheasant, Pretty Quadroon, Copperclad, Arab Chief and 
many more both old and new. 
WHITES: There are now a number of very fine whites available in a wide price 
range, all of which seem to be fine parents. Among them are Katherine Fay, Cathedral 
Dome, White Goddess, Sharkskin, Snow Carnival, Snow Flurry, Chi Yun, Spanish 
Peaks and Lady Boscawen. Among good parents for Icy or blue whites I have found 
the following to be very good: White City, And Thou, White Wedgewood, Mount Blanc 
and White Waters. 
PLICATAS: This field is so large, possibilities endless and variations so great 
that almost any cross seems to give something lovely and unexpected. I feel that here 
you will be able to use almost any varieties and get something you will like. You 
may use direct plicata parents or any one of a vast number of varieties that are not 
plicatas but do carry plicata blood in their background. I have found that certain 
varieties do carry fine color and form into their seedlings. Tiffanja, Ruth Pollock, 
Occidental, Rare, Marble, Bright Lights, Firecracker and Blue Shimmer all seem to carry 
fine form and color as should their descendents. Captivation is giving me an extremely 
high percentage of good seedlings. Older Tiffany seems to be behind a lot of fine new 
things some of the above included as well as the stunning Josephs Mantle, Weirdie 
and Rich Raiment and others by Tom Craig. 
BLUES: In this class we find Great Lakes still holding its own as a top notch parent. 
We now have about all the “size” we need and the battle for “color” and ‘‘smoothness” 
seems to be on. Almost any blue listed should be interesting. I would say to select those 
that are best for color and those most free from veining except for the fact that many 
veined flowers such as Lake Shannon do not carry a lot of veining into the second 
generation so certainly some of them are good parents. Personally I consider Lake 
Shannon very blue as is Lake Huron, Stratosphere Blue, Cornflower and Blue Valley 
and many more . While these may be veined we will get a percentage of clean blues 
even the first generation so I would suggest working varieties such as these with clean 
unveined varieties such as Cahokia, Blue Rhythm, Pierre Menard, Gloriole, Frosty 
Blue, Distance and others of that type. I have been working up a line from Narain 
which while an old variety is still one of the brightest blues in the garden and 
probably one that has been the least used as a parent. It has a quality in its coloring 
that fairly seems to shout at you, a quality which it seems to impart to its progeny. 
A blue bearded sister to Courtesy when crossed with a blue from Annabel and Narain, 
gave me a host of fine blues from which I have chosen Columbia for introduction. 
The whole cross produced blues with the same brilliance of Narain but with almost 
perfect blue color even to the beards. And while I have not done so, I should like to 
see crosses made with Narain involving other blues such.as Cahokia, Helen McGregor, 
Great Lakes, Azure Skies, Gloriole, Chivalry, Windsor, Consolation and others including 
whites. Helen McGregor seems to be a fine parent as anyone who has seen Guy Rogers new 
Senorita Ilse and Lady Rogers, can testify. They came from Helen McGregor as the pod 
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