Report To Our Customers: 
It is with a sense of pride and pleasure that we 
submit herewith our catalog for the 1953 season. 
This year our firm is celebrating its Silver Anniver- 
sary and this catalog is the twenty-fifth in a series 
that we have published annually since 1928, the 
year the Oregon Bulb Farms was founded and in- 
corporated. While our current list does not contain 
as many species and hybrids as some of our earlier 
publications, we feel that our offering has gained 
thereby and that both in regards to variety and 
quality our present collection of fine daffodils, iris 
and lilies is the strongest that can be made today. 
While we realize that twenty-five years count for 
little in the history of horticulture, for us the Anni- 
versary is a milestone of importance. Of that coura- 
geous and forward-looking group of farmers who 
pioneered the industry here in the Pacific North- 
west, only a few are still alive or active. With its 
twenty-five years of continued growth, the Oregon 
Bulb Farms is now one of the oldest among these 
veterans. At the same time, we take great pride in 
the fact that from the point of view of the introduc- 
tion of new and better varieties, as well as from that 
of using the most up-to-date machinery and cultural 
practices, we are as young and progressive as any 
grower in the country. 
As we look back over those twenty-five years we 
are struck by the fact that many of the now gen- 
erally used cultural methods, as well as many of 
the tools, were first thought of, designed, tested and 
put into use by us. We are firmly resolved never to 
slacken our efforts to test and use the latest ideas 
and to bring the best possible crops in the best pos- 
sible condition to our customers. It also is worth 
noting that the variety selection we have made over 
those twenty-five years is now becoming the stand- 
ard for the industry. This year we are adding a num- 
ber of descriptions to our list of new daffodils, iris 
and lilies, raised by us here in Oregon. We have 
every confidence that twenty-five years hence they 
too will be among the popular varieties for our 
American gardens and greenhouses. 
Since this business was founded great changes 
have taken place in the rules and regulations affect- 
ing the industry and in our economic relations with 
foreign countries. We readily admit that the pres- 
ent-day wide-open competition from Japan and the 
Netherlands is not as comfortable a period for us 
as those early days when Quarantine 37 gave us 
protection or as the war period, when virtually no 
foreign bulbs could be imported. We take particular 
pride in the fact that in all the years of our cor- 
porate existence we have never been able to grow 
OREGON BULB FARMS 
GRESHAM, OREGON 
enough stock to fill the demand for our products. 
This holds equally true for all recent years, in spite 
of the strongest competition from abroad. 
We believe that in this keen demand for our prod- 
ucts we can see proof that, in this country, there is 
a definite place for American-grown, acclimated, 
quality bulbs. We also see proof in it that our policy 
of selling only at wholesale and to the legitimate 
horticultural dealers has been the right one for all 
concerned. As more and more foreign bulbs, often 
of questionable quality, are going into channels 
other than those of the horticultural trade, then it 
should be obvious to all dealers that our line of stock 
presents a profitable field to exploit. We do not sell 
at retail nor do we supply directly any other direct 
consumer of bulbs, such as the florists or market 
gardeners. 
From a scant fifteen acres planted to bulbs in 
1928 we have now grown to an acreage of more 
than two hundred, planted in 1952 to varieties and 
stocks of infinitely superior quality. From the twen- 
ty acres originally purchased, the land under our 
control has now increased to more than seven hun- 
dred acres. Our buildings — the homes of our em- 
ployees, our warehouses, greenhouses, offices, shops 
and garages have kept step with this growth. With 
our now thoroughly worked-out production meth- 
ods and with our fine equipment, most of it new and 
built in our own shops, ably handled by a staff of 
men of considerable horticultural experience here 
or abroad, our problems are no longer essentially 
those of production. They are rather those of mar- 
keting and merchandising — creating a market for 
the novelties we have raised and helping our cus- 
tomers fill the demand for these American-grown 
vigorous and hardy introductions. 
We take pride in the publicity we have obtained, 
not just for our own products, but for all American- 
grown bulbs. We take pride in the company we 
keep — our long and growing list of quality distrib- 
utors, jobbers and dealers all over the United States 
and Canada. Our sincere thanks go to the editors of 
our garden magazines and to all our friends in the 
trade who have made our first twenty-five years’ 
work possible, enjoyable and rewarding. At the be- 
ginning of our second twenty-five years we pledge 
ourselves to a continued effort to bring to our Amer- 
ican gardens the best that can be raised in daffodils, 
iris and lilies. 
Sincerely yours 
du 
Qw 
DE GRAAFF, President 
Gresham, Oregon 
January, 1953 
Page 3 
