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HYBRIDIZER’S PAGE Presented to Help YOU Create Superior New Iris 
HYBRIDIZING IS EASY —And Lots of Fun 
You'll live longeR—and better—if you have an absorbing hobby that repeatedly, year after 
year, gives you something interesting and exciting to look forward to. | challenge anyone 
to suggest a hobby that will accomplish this as surely and effectively as does Iris hybridizing. 
Already thousands of my customers have tried it, and nearly all of them are rapidly becom- 
ing enthusiastic amateur hybridizers, almost over night. 
For the most part, the same varieties are available to all of us to use as parents, and 
oftentimes amateurs get results never achieved by the experts. To get YOU started at 
once, | am giving in this catalog a great many parentages and descendants, together with 
many hints for hybridizers, and my symbol lM to indicate my recommendations of the very 
best values for hybridizers. Thus this catalog contains the most extensive data ever printed 
on which kinds of Iris to use in your own breeding. 
Since many varieties never set seed, or have no pollen, the surest way for beginners is 
to buy for hybridizing varieties that are known to set seed or to have pollen, and where 
practicable, varieties that have already proven their ability to yield good seedlings worthy 
of being named and introduced. | have gone to great pains to assemble these data, and 
present them here so that this catalog will be your constant guide in all of your fascinating 
hybridizing activities. 
Of course, most of the hybridizing that yields outstanding seedlings is done with the 
newer and finer varieties. Oftentimes, to keep sufficiently up-to-date, one has to use in part 
the very newest varieties based on their apparent worth, before there has been time to 
assemble information on their potency, and before they have any named descendants to prove 
their genetic worth. | do a great deal of exploratory pollinating of this type, and my latest 
results are reported to you in enlarged form in each yearly edition of this catalog. 
While one can readily start and get some helpful practice by crossing older varieties 
that he already has in his yard, it will soon be found that it is ever so much better to have 
just a few good, new, highly potent varieties to use as parents than a lot of the older ones. 
Of course, there are a few of the older, inexpensive varieties that are still well worth while for 
use in hybridizing, and | have taken pains to point out a number of these in this catalog so 
that those with limited budgets can still get good results in certain lines. 
HOW TO HYBRIDIZE IRIS 
Thousands of my customers are now taking up this most fascinating and rewarding of all 
hobbies. To learn the vital flower parts see Ektachrome of Melody Lane, page 24. The 
3 reddish beards have nothing to do with pollination. Above the center beard is the cream- 
colored anther, containing the pollen. Remove an anther from a flower of one variety, and 
rub the pollen grains onto the top of the stigma of the variety to be pollinated. Stigma is 
the curved lip just above the anther. Many helpful details in my MANUAL, pages 20 to 41. 
My Exclusive HYBRIDIZER’S KIT 
Anyone can start the fascinating hobby of Iris Hybridizing with ease with my Exclusive 
RAINBOW HYBRIDIZING KIT. The most vital items are 2 special tweezers | had made to order 
for this purpose. The Anther-collecting Tweezers have special flat rounded points that 
permit collecting the anthers without injuring the delicate and vital style arms. The 
Clamp-style Pollinating Tweezers are designed to hold the anthers firmly and thus eliminate 
the strain of pollinating. The Kit also includes the following additional items: 5 Camel Hair 
Brushes; 36 Special Sliding Pollen Boxes; 100 Pollination Tags in four colors; 2 Weatherproof 
Pencils; 50 seed bags; 15 Printed Record Cards; 12 Simplex Permanent Labels; 1 Stylus 
for lettering labels; 1 copy of the leaflet ‘Technique for Iris Hybridization.” Price 
postpaid $6.25; 2 for $12.25 
NATURALLY-HYBRIDIZED IRIS SEED 
All seed orders accepted subject to 1955 crop and for delivery in October for regular fall 
sowing. See my MANUAL and SUPPLEMENT for full directions for sowing. 
WESTERN NATIVES: Readily grown from seeds. Over 60 seeds per packet — Rainbow 
Iris (Douglasiana), PKT. $1.00; Innominata Many-colored, $1.00; Innominata Yellow, 
75c; Tenax, 50c. 
SUMMER BLOOMERS: Often bloom first year from seed. Vesper Iris (Dichotoma), or 
Leopard Flower (Belamconda), $1.00; any 3 for $2.00. 
SIBERIANS: Easy and economical from seed; over 60 seeds per packet. Red, PKT. 
$1.00; Pink, 75; Choice Mixed, $1.00; 3 for $2.00. 
LOW GROWING: Mixed Colors, 50c; 3 for $1.00. 
BEARDLESS: Pseudacorus, Hyacinthiana, or Ensata, 50c; any 3 for $1.00. 
REGELIA SEED: Will give much variation; slow germinating. About 20 seeds per packet. 
Choice Mixed, PKT. 75c¢; Hoogiana, 50c; Hoogiana Bronze Beauty, 50c; Stolon- 
ifera, 50c. 
"Last year I got a package of Iris seed from you and on Sept. 22 I planted 
18 seeds in a little cold frame I made from a cigar box with a pane of glass 
on top. So far 17 seeds have germinated, in fact some of the plants are about 
3” tall.” Mrs. O.T. Olson, Oak Park, Il. 
“Here is an order for more Iris seed. Got wonderful results from your seed 
purchased two years ago.” Chas. T. Kendall, Larkspur, Calif. 
PERMANENT LABELS 
Immensely popular permanent ENGRAV-A-LABELS, in heautiful dark green on which 
you can make clear, white lettering with metal-pointed stylus supplied with the labels. 
Long-lasting copper wires are also supplied. Ideal for your new and old Iris; also for roses, 
perennials, shrubs, fruit trees, etc. 
Priced postpaid at..$2.50 per package of 100; 3 packages for $6.95 
At Last! A Chemical Way to Speed Germination 
My New GERMINATION STIMULANT 
Ever since Iris hybridizing rose to its present status as the No. 1 hobby of American garden 
enthusiasts, there has been an insistent clamor for better ways of hastening the naturally 
slow germination rate of Iris seeds. Many methods have been proposed and tried, but here- 
tofore all have had serious drawbacks—either too much valuable time was involved, or the 
results were not as good as might be desired. While | do not, as yet, have the final answer 
for all types of Iris seeds, | have gotten such good results with my chemical stimulant, that 
| feel | should not wait for years of further experimentation before releasing this material 
for use by the thousands of enthusiastic hybridizers among my customers, who are waiting 
for something like this. | therefore report to you briefly on my results and offer my chemical 
formulation for you to try. S 
| took several hundred different lots of my hand-pollinated hybrid Iris seeds and divided 
each in half. One half of each lot was treated with my Rainbow Germination Stimulant before 
sowing, and the other half of each was sowed at the same time without treatment. | give 
you below the germination results three months after sowing, for a typical sample assort- 
ment of crosses: 
Seed Number Germinated 
Sowed 
of Each Treated Untreated 
Seed Parent x Pollen Parent 
GhenieexePink@hontialeeneercemete cr eres 
Ruffled Bouquet x Cherie............... 
Ruffled Bouquet x Fantasy 
Gold Sovereign x Pinnacle............... 
Melodyalkaneexeselimeerer-ertastctserte ister. 
TOTAUS ee eee neato -rroriert 
With results like this it would seem foolish to.sow seed without treating, when this 
easy and inexpensive method will give you, in a short period, 2 to 8 times as many seedlings 
from a given batch of your precious hybrid seeds as would be secured without treatment. The 
quicker you can get them to germinate the sooner they will bloom. See my SUPPLEMENT 
for detailed results to date with seed of different types of Iris. 
RAINBOW GERMINATION STIMULANT — Exact quantity to make 1 quart of solution, with 
full directions for use. $1.00; 3 for $2.75; 10 for $7.95 
‘T shall use your Germination Stimulant on my new crop of hybrid seeds. 
I was so pleased with it last year. I have over 500 seedlings that look good 
and I hope will bloom next spring.” Mamie O. Short, Santa Barbara, Calif. 
“Pe found your Rainbow Germination Stimulant to be definitely helpful 
U’'m certain it’s increased germination by at least 40 to 50 per cent.” Richard E. 
Tucker, Rt. 4, Box 556, Port Orchard, Washington. 
PEDIGREE CHARTS—lo aid amateur hybridizers in studying the lineage of many 
of today’s most outstanding new Iris varieties, | offer free of charge with an order for any 
of the following varieties, a pedigree chart of that variety showing the genealogy back for 
3 to 6 generations: Big Time, Cloudcap, Dolly Varden, Helen McGregor, Laurel Hill, Paradise 
Pink, Party Dress, Pink Sensation, Pinnacle, Pretender, Pretty Quadroon, Thotmes III. 
@- >) LOOKING AHEAD ~~o 
All seedlings you get from seed | send you naturally belong to you. When you get an 
extra fine one you may wish to name it. If it is good enough, you may want to have it intro- 
duced so people everywhere may enjoy it. If it is really outstanding | shall be glad to have 
you send me a rhizome or two, and then if it proves worthy of introduction, | will be glad 
to buy from you the stock and the right to introduce it. This applies, also, to seedlings you 
raise from your own crosses. But be sure they are good! My customers want only the best. 
@- > ANY GREEN SEEDLINGS? ~—~o 
| am particularly interested at this time in new GREENS, and approaches to green. | 
shall be glad to hear from you and learn what you have along this line. If | introduce a 
seedling for you, you naturally will be paid for it, and you will get full credit for its origina- 
tion. Your name will be given after the variety in all catalogs. 
FLASH! The first book on Colchicine has just been printed. It is “COLCICHINE in Agri- 
culture, Medicine, Biology and Chemistry” by 0. J. Eigsti and Pierre Dustin, Jr. Available 
for $5.00 from the lowa State College Press, Ames, lowa. Very complete, with a vast bibli- 
ography. Now you can start your experiments to double chromosome numbers. | suggest 
you begin with the Oncos, which are all diploids. 
My 1955 Tall Bearded 
MILESTONE SERIES—(Continued from page 3) 
FANCY BRIGHT (Austin ’55) ® M-L38” The brightest of my new fancies, 
and one that really attracts attention. Standards light reddish wine-colored. Falls bright 
rosy heliotrope, prettily veined in white, with a distinct border of heavily dotted maroon. 
Style crests cinnamon brown, contrasting beautifully with the beard of violet and yellow. 
Stunning: ertere cas eon ew aeaeasoaes caloce eames Na etenmes $2.50; 3 for $5.50 
BLACK FLARE (Austin ’55) ® ML-34” ——_ One of the most flaring and best formed 
of the various approaches to black. Standards bright dark purple. Falls velvety purplish- 
black, flaring, with a contrasting golden-bronze beard.......... $1.75; 3 for $4.95 
For a collection carefully worked out to aid hybridizers in reaching their various goals, 
see my CASH DISCOUNT COLLECTION, for Hybridizers and Iris Lovers, on page 36. 
“The vast possibilities of plant-breeding can hardly be estimated. They are not alone for one year, or for our own time or race, but are beneficent 31 
legacies for every man, woman and child who shall ever inhabit the earth.’—LUTHER BURBANK. 
