FANTASTIC GARDENS 
R. G. WILSON 
9550 S. W. 67th Avenue 
South Miami 43, Fla. 
GESNERIAD LIST 1954 
The Gesneriads are the most satisfactory flowering 
house plants of the many families of tropical plants 
that we have had experience with. In addition to 
their unusual colorful flowers, most of them also 
have beautiful and very interesting foliage charac- 
ters. For a family which a few years ago had only a 
few members in cultivation, today there is consider- 
able variety and more coming to light almost daily. 
We can look forward to the future of this Gesneriad 
family with considerable certainty that there will be 
many new and wonderful forms produced by hybridiza- 
tion, surpassing those we now have. This year we 
have several new hybrids on trial and are working on 
some right now that have wonderful possibilities. 
During the many years that this family was neglec- 
ted by the horticulturists, a great many erroneous 
names were maintained in the limited collections that 
existed. We have in the past used names that have 
come to us with the plants and seeds, but feel that, 
now that Bailey's Hortorium has checked the nomencla- 
ture of the Gesneriads in cultivation, it is time to 
drop the old, erroneous names and use the correct 
ones. We realize that this is going to be quite con- 
fusing to many of you plant collectors but, for the 
sake of the future, we feel it to be to the benefit 
of all to ask you to correct your labels to agree 
with the new setup. You will fine in parenthesis 
throughout our list the name we used previously. 
(Note: Bailey's Hortorium is this country's final 
authority on horticultural names. ) 
