ropajation of 
 the Dahlia 
 
 A Bolles 'Dahlia Booklet 
 
Propagation of the Dahlia 
 
 by 
 
 CHARLTON BURGESS BOLLES 
 Media, Pennsylvania 
 
 Member The American Dahlia Society 
 and The California Dahlia Society 
 
 Copyright, 1922, By Charlton Burgess Bolles 
 

 A List of the 
 
 Bolles Dahlia Booklets 
 
 1 HISTORY OF THE DAHLIA 
 
 2 WHY GROW DAHLIAS? 
 
 3 PROPAGATION OF THE DAHLIA 
 
 4 CULTIVATION OF THE DAHLIA 
 
 5 DAHLIA GROWING COMMERCIALLY 
 
 6 FERTILIZERS AND LARGE BLOOMS 
 
 7 THE ENEMIES AND PESTS OF DAHLIAS 
 
 8 THE HARVESTING AND STORAGE OF DAHLIAS 
 
 Price Thirty-five Cents per copy 
 
 (3 and 4 are Double numbers, Price 50c per copy) 
 
 Address orders to 
 
 CHARLTON B. BOLLES 
 
 Media, Penn. 
 
 C1A678334 
 
 JUN 1 9 15522 
 
 <VV 
 
Propagation of the Dahlia 
 
 PROPAGATION of dahlias is usually by tubers, 
 the "divisions" being planted like potatoes. Gut- 
 tings of new sprouts, and the succulent tips of 
 branches, is the method practically exclusively used in 
 England, and is employed in America by florists and 
 growers of exhibition blooms to increase costly varieties, 
 and to produce magnificent blooms, it being agreed that 
 suitable cuttings produce better flowers than plants 
 that are grown from tubers. Planting seeds is the third 
 and only other method. Seedlings resemble parents 
 very little, and nearly ninety-nine of every hundred are 
 worthless, or at least are no improvement upon existing 
 varieties. This method of propagation is employed to 
 secure new and better varieties. While the prizes are 
 comparatively few the work is fascinating, and the 
 amazing glories of the present-day dahlia world are the 
 results. There is no reason why more wonderful 
 flowers should not be created. Only seeds from fine 
 varieties should be planted. It is not worth while 
 filling garden space with plants most of which are sure 
 to be worthless unless there is a probability of some 
 pleasing results, and the finer the parents are the greater 
 is the likelihood of an occasional prize. Packets of seed 
 from choice varieties, the result of hand-pollenation, 
 may be bought for one to three dollars a packet, with 
 
PROPAGATION 
 
 three new packets offered in 1922 at ten dollars each, 
 and another packet at twenty-five dollars. 
 
 Almost every dahlia catalog uses the word bulb. 
 Dahlia tubers are not tubers — botanically; neither are 
 they bulbs. A bulb is a more or less thick fleshy, 
 usually underground bud, and generally has roots from 
 the under side. The bulb's mission in life is to carry the 
 plant's life over a bad season, or through a winter. 
 Bulbs are always in scales or layers, like an onion, or 
 with scales as is the case with lily bulbs. The bulb is 
 the plant's storehouse, and after the plant flowers 
 within the bulb new stems form, leaves and flowers. 
 The bulb actually contains a new plant, which is pro- 
 tected and kept alive by the reserve food and energy 
 collected in the bulb during one season's growth, for 
 the plant's successor. 
 
 The bulb is the plant's last will and testament; is 
 the plant's soul, transmigrating, but to appear in the 
 same form as before. The plant above ground dies, 
 the roots below ground likewise die; the bulb hiber- 
 nates, goes to sleep like a bear, and in this dormant 
 state can be stored, shipped easily across oceans if need 
 be. Planted properly in due time it awakes, never 
 realizes that it has left its happy home, the embryonic 
 plant develops luxuriantly and with the same per- 
 fection and beauty as its parent. The dahlia "tuber" 
 is a fleshy, tuberous root. Unlike the white and sweet 
 potato, there are no eyes (buds) in the fleshy root itself, 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 
 
 It is simply a storage place for water and plant food for 
 the next year's plant. The buds are on the crown, the 
 point of union of the "neck" of the dahlia root with the 
 main stalk of the plant. Buds are also here and there 
 upon the surface of the stalk, where they are likely to 
 dry out and die during winter storage. Hence the great 
 importance of not "breaking necks" when digging 
 dahlia roots. A broken neck soon dries at the point of 
 injury, cutting off the moisture supply contained in the 
 enlarged root ("tuber" so-called) from the bud at the 
 junction of neck and stalk. The woody stalk evaporates 
 its moisture during storage, and the bud dies as a 
 natural sequence. The broken-necked "tuber" re- 
 tains most of its plumpness. If planted a network of 
 white roots will be put out, but there can be no sprouts, 
 for sprouts are developed buds, and the tuber-like root 
 mass has no bud. It will do its level best to fulfil its 
 mission in life, but it is as unproductive as a fossil. In 
 dividing a field clump it is absolutely necessary that 
 part of last season's base, or stem, goes with the neck of 
 each tuber. Each "division" as commercial growers 
 call the fleshy roots, must have at least one healthy bud 
 attached to it. 
 
 Propagation (multiplication) by the "division" of 
 tubers from field clumps is the commonest method of 
 increasing dahlias in America. In England one never 
 sees tubers for sale, only the "green plants." There 
 are nearly, perhaps quite, five hundred growers and 
 
PROPAGATION 
 
 dealers of dahlias in this country, and their catalogs 
 usually offer tubers only. The commercial grower 
 commences to divide his clumps as early as late January 
 if he has large stocks, storing the separated tubers in 
 closed boxes to prevent rapid drying from the cut 
 surfaces. The amateur waits until nearly planting time, 
 to avoid several handlings, and to delay cutting as long 
 as possible, the tubers naturally keeping better in the 
 clump. 
 
 Making divisions is not easy, and carelessness will 
 certainly result in loss through the destruction of the 
 buds ("eyes"). Thoughtful care must be exercised, 
 and a few suitable tools provided. A short butcher's 
 knife and a hammer to sometimes help the blade 
 through the toughest, fleshiest parts, will answer the 
 amateur very well. With some hundreds of clumps to 
 divide additional equipment of saw, chisel and mallet 
 will be found almost necessary for time saving, as puz- 
 zling combinations of roots are encountered. The 
 curved blade of the family grape fruit knife will some- 
 times cut through otherwise inaccessible inner masses 
 of fleshy roots, between tubers. A punctiliously prompt 
 replacement of this borrowed knife in case of accident 
 is strongly recommended. 
 
 A hack-saw with several spare blades is well worth 
 having handy, and is better than the butcher's fine 
 toothed saw. 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 
 
 A block of wood six inches square and four to six 
 inches high is almost indispensable. A six inch length 
 of a two by three beam would answer about as well. A 
 support for an edge of the clump is afforded by the 
 angles of the block, and prevents smashing of tubers 
 and breaking of necks which would follow if the clump 
 was laid on the flat workbench and there received the 
 force of the cutting tool. 
 
 Clumps often present an unpromising exterior 
 making it difficult to decide where the first division 
 should be started. The only rule is that observed by 
 wise parents in child training. Take the trail that 
 looks most likely and follow it, and when the trail 
 divides, again take the most likely looking one. Ama- 
 teurs usually can wait until about planting time, when 
 the clumps can be sprinkled, provided with a little 
 warmth, or set in moist earth, moss, or sand. Half 
 inch sprouts will soon appear and decidedly help to 
 determine where the division cuts should be made. 
 
 The storage period being over and planting at 
 hand wounds upon the fleshy bulk of the tubers are of 
 small moment, but great pains should be taken that 
 necks are not damaged, and most of all that the "crown" 
 or enlarged head of the neck, where it joins the main 
 stalk of the plant, is not injured. Dahlia tubers unlike 
 white or sweet potatoes have no eyes although oc- 
 casionally one tuber in ten thousand will be found with 
 an eye. Breeding dahlias with fine healthy eyes dotted 
 
PROPAGATION 
 
 over the tuber mass, as with the potato, so that the 
 tuber could be cut into pieces, as the potato is in plant- 
 ing, and multiplied half a dozen times, would seem to be 
 indicated as a nice problem for the enthusiastic creator 
 of new varieties. But until this happy result is ob- 
 tained it is imperative that the eye in the crown end of 
 the tuber's neck be not only uninjured when making 
 divisions, but that a neat little piece of the main stalk 
 be cut off with it. If the beginner has never divided 
 field clumps he might start upon his least valuable 
 varieties. After dividing half a dozen clumps he will 
 have confidence. Better still, ask a friendly neighbor 
 who has had more experience to cut several clumps for 
 you. Watch his every motion and you will soon be able 
 to do it yourself, particularly so if you have a good tool 
 equipment, for an inch chisel is sometimes a very present 
 help, and will save you a broken knife blade. 
 
 One tuber to an eye is all that is needed, but some- 
 times the necks of two tubers join at the same point on 
 the stalk. The smaller of the two can be discarded, or 
 the stalk so cut as to preserve both roots, which should 
 be planted as one. 
 
 Small tubers are quite as likely to be excellent as 
 as larger ones. Some varieties produce small roots. 
 Madame Marze, and some other gigantic flowering sorts 
 grow very large tubers. The strength and vigor of the 
 sprout is the only thing that matters. Some growers 
 maintain that with any variety the medium and small- 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 
 
 sized tubers often produce the finest and most bril- 
 liantly colored flowers. 
 
 Tubers two and three years old are often very 
 large, sometimes weighing two or more pounds. At 
 least two thirds, even three-fourths, should be cut off 
 and thrown away when planting. New roots and new 
 tubers normally start at the base of the sprout. But 
 with these old "grandfathers" a good many roots start 
 from the end of the tuber farthest away from the 
 sprout. Much of the plant food gathered by these 
 roots is absorbed by the fat old tuber, which grows 
 larger and larger, finally weighing several pounds after 
 a few years, and more or less hollow, like a squash. The 
 so-needful new roots at the base of the sprout are 
 greatly discouraged and make only a partial growth. A 
 poor plant with few blooms is quite likely to be all the 
 gardener has for his pains, with a few, undeveloped tubers 
 at harvest time, instead of sturdy reduplication, 
 thirteen-fold, which is the normal average yield of fine 
 plants. 
 
 Presumably it is about planting time when you 
 divide your clumps. But if by reason of inclement weather 
 or other unexpected sidetracking of opportunity you 
 cannot plant the tubers immediately after divsion see 
 that they do not dry out. Cover them carefully in 
 boxes and they will keep a fortnight; the cooler they 
 are the better. If when divided, or at planting time, 
 sprouts more than an inch long are found they should 
 
10 PROPAGATION 
 
 be cut off quarter of an inch from the crown. Invariably 
 a stronger and better sprout will follow. The tubers are 
 planted six inches deep in the garden, upon the side, 
 flat not vertically, sprout uppermost; two feet to thirty 
 inches or more apart in the row, the rows four feet or 
 five apart, all according to the variety, and the amount 
 of land at one's disposal. The more room the plants 
 have the better the blooms, for they are rank growers, 
 gross feeders, and need ample space for roots, branches, 
 and the access of the needful and invigorating flow of 
 air and sunshine. Cultivation is of far greater impor- 
 tance than fertilizing, and both of these factors are 
 treated at great length in the chapters respectively 
 devoted to them. 
 
 The first step in dividing the clump is to tap the 
 hard, woody stem and jar off as much of the dried 
 earth as possible. The wood-like stem is then laid on 
 the block and the stem chopped off with one blow of a 
 hatchet as close to the tubers as seems safe. Some 
 stems remain moist all winter for two or three inches 
 above the roots. Gut off the dry inert top, but leave 
 all of the green stem, which usually has one or more 
 eyes. Very large stems had better be sawed off, a fine- 
 toothed butcher's bone saw being used, if obtainable. 
 This saw will be found exceedingly helpful in separating 
 massive clumps into several parts for more convenient 
 subdividing. 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 11 
 
 Sometimes the chisel can be used to split vertically 
 downwards through the hard stalk several times, the 
 clump being supported on some part of the block in 
 such a way as to prevent damage to individual tubers. 
 In this manner v-shaped portions of the stem can be 
 removed with the tubers, affording a generous amount 
 of stem with each crown neck-end, ensuring an un- 
 damaged eye from which a fine sprout can start. Where 
 splitting this way is impossible the tools must be so 
 manipulated that some piece of main stalk or mass is 
 cut or gouged off and left attached to the crown. The 
 crown must always have some surrounding tissue 
 detached with it. Otherwise the bud may be damaged, 
 or not be included at all, and the tuber "go blind," 
 that is be without a bud. 
 
 Multiplication by cuttings is the second method of 
 increasing dahlias. The finest exhibition flowers are 
 borne by plants derived from cuttings. If you do not 
 possess a greenhouse, a cold frame, or a sunny home 
 window, and cannot manage proper light, warmth, 
 shade, and fresh air, why not make friends with some 
 florist or private greenhouse owner. It should be easy 
 to arrange for the handling of a few dozen cuttings more 
 or less. The "green plants" listed in some dahlia cata- 
 logs are cuttings, and may be excellent. On the other 
 hand propagation by cuttings is sometimes carried so 
 far, considerations of profit being the chief motive, that 
 many of the green plants are weak and good for nothing. 
 
12 PROPAGATION 
 
 Fifty plants from a clump of tubers is about or quite 
 the limit of safety. After that number has been secured 
 the production of vigorous plants is very uncertain. It 
 will always be safer for the amateur to buy tubers 
 rather than of green plants. "Green plants" offered 
 by growers who have glass can be superior to tuber 
 grown plants, but human nature sometimes falls into the 
 sin of carrying multiplication by cuttings too far, "for 
 revenue only." 
 
 Green plants have this advantage: transplanted 
 from the middle of June to July first they only make 
 moderate growth by the time the hottest weather ar- 
 rives; they are then still young and vigorous, in prime 
 condition to maintain themselves against the heat and 
 dryness so hurtful to dahlias. The gardener's good 
 judgment in the use of water, if any be needed; and 
 constant cultivation will carry such plants safely into 
 September, when blooming will begin, and if the 
 flowers are desired for exhibition they will be produced 
 at exactly the right time by plants that in are perfect 
 condition. 
 
 Dahlias may be grown almost exclusively from 
 cuttings at the beginning of a commercial growing 
 enterprise, to gain as much planting stock as possible, 
 in the least costly way. Amateurs also multiply plants 
 from expensive tubers. Many new varieties are offered 
 by commercial growers in their catalogs as "green plants 
 only," the financial returns being better than if the 
 limited stock of tubers was sold by the single root. 
 
-^2. 
 
 Frau van Dor Zyphen 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 13 
 
 Propagation by cuttings is comparatively easy if 
 one has a good cold frame, or a greenhouse. The field 
 clump is taken from storage in February or March, and 
 covered with sifted humus-filled earth, or with leaf 
 mould, or sand, or even spagnum moss, or peat. Any 
 medium that will hold moisture is suitable, and at first 
 should be slightly damp but not wet, lest fungus and rot 
 form. Air temperature of from 60 to 65 degrees is just 
 right. As soon as the eyes start to sprout water may be 
 liberally applied, in order that the sprout growth may be 
 rapid and vigorous. 
 
 Glean, moist sand is best for rooting the cuttings. 
 The amateur with only a few dozen cuttings can sterilize 
 any doubtful sand by baking it an hour in the kitchen 
 oven. 
 
 The sprouts are ready when they have three (or 
 even but two) sets of leaves. When only a few cuttings 
 are needed, or the supply of field clumps of a given 
 variety is ample it is an excellent plan to cut out the 
 "heel" with the sprout — a little bit of the stalk where 
 the sprout starts. A new plant is a greater certainty 
 this way. But if many plants are needed from a limited 
 supply of tubers a maximum of fifty vigorous plants may 
 be obtained from a single clump of roots. Some 
 growers boast that they can multiply a single tuber 
 into five hundred plants, by cutting cuttings from 
 cuttings. But experts claim that the plants will be 
 weak and inferior. 
 
14 PROPAGATION 
 
 To obtain as many plants as is safely practicable, 
 the cutting is taken from the sprout with a sharp knife 
 immediately below the set of leaves next the tuber. 
 This will leave a stub on the root from the base of which 
 new sprouts can start unharmed. If the cuttings are 
 for plants to be used for growing exhibition flowers the 
 wise grower discards the first shoot, fat and stocky and 
 promising though it be, as better plants and better 
 flowers come from the sprouts that follow the first ones. 
 On either side of the stub left on the tuber two other 
 smaller shoots will in due time appear, and should be cut 
 for rooting when the requisite number of sets of leaves 
 have formed. It is important that a sharp knife be 
 used, and that the cut be close to but not through the 
 joint formed by the first set of leaves. If the cut is 
 made too far below the joint formed by the leaves one 
 of two unpleasant results is apt to follow. Though 
 your plant may be vigorous, only a small mass of fibrous 
 roots will be formed, but no good tubers to carry over 
 the winter. Or a clump of tubers may be produced that 
 will not produce eyes the following spring. "Fibre 
 cutting" is the name the experts give to the handling 
 that has so disappointing an ending. 
 
 Having made the cuttings properly the lowest pair 
 of leaves should be trimmed off close to the stem, and the 
 stem buried in sand nearly up to the second pair of 
 leaves. A bottom heat of 70 degrees should be pro- 
 vided if possible. The amateur could do this on top of 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 15 
 
 a hot water radiator regulating the heat by the radiator 
 valves, and more or less insulation under his boxes. A 
 good thermometer should be employed. 
 
 After the cuttings are carefully and firmly set, the 
 joint where the first set of leaves was trimmed off being 
 level with the sand, water moderately using a fine spray 
 and spraying the cuttings at least daily, twice a day if 
 needful, to prevent wilting. Keep the sand moist, but 
 not wet. Provide ample ventilation, but no draughts. 
 The stagnant air of a close house or room would mean 
 failure. Be sure that there is abundance of fresh air, 
 whether house or cold frame. If the air is dead, and 
 either too dry or excessively moist, many of the cuttings 
 will fail to root. 
 
 Shade the cuttings from direct sunlight. In about 
 three weeks the cuttings will have started tiny hair-like 
 roots, and should then be transferred to flats, or to three- 
 inch paper or clay pots. During the three weeks the 
 cuttings are starting rootlets the stubs of the sprouts 
 left on the tubers will each make two side shoots, to be 
 cut off in due time, and rooted. And so on, until the 
 limit in the vigor of the tuber sprouts has been reached. 
 
 In transferring the delicately rooted cuttings from 
 their rooting bed to boxes, or preferably into three-inch 
 pots, the fullest measure of success will be attained by 
 using a compost, six parts excellent fibrous loam, two 
 parts thoroughly rotted horse or cow manure, two parts 
 sifted leaf -mould, one part coarse sand, 
 
16 PROPAGATION 
 
 " Plants raised from cuttings are pretty sure to pro- 
 duce better blooms than those grown from planted 
 tubers. But, and this is only one of the many things 
 that tend to take the joy out of gardening, such plants 
 will sometimes fail to produce good tubers. Where one 
 multiplies a variety into many plants by cuttings a few 
 disappointments like this ought to be bearable. 
 
 Expensive varieties may be additionally propagated 
 by cuttings in the late summer, or early autumn, "pot- 
 roots" as they are called in England being grown; and 
 stored in their pots in the root cellar over winter. The 
 following spring they will make just as good plants as 
 tubers many times as large, and the plants will produce 
 excellent blooms and tubers. 
 
 One grower claims entire success in increasing 
 stocks of exceptionally fine sorts by his cuttings from 
 large plants in August and September. These autumn 
 cuttings are selected from side branches, but not from 
 those bearing flower buds. Tips of twigs and branches 
 are cut with four sets of leaves. The knife must be 
 sharp, and the cut made just below the second set of 
 leaves from the tip, the two leaves nearest the cut 
 trimmed close to the stem, to reduce evaporation of 
 moisture from the tiny fragment of a plant, which is 
 now entering upon a struggle for survival. Each cut- 
 ting is placed in a two inch flower pot filled with sand 
 and leaf -mould in equal parts, very finely sifted and 
 thoroughlyjnixed. Or they may be placed rather closely 
 
OFTHEDAHLIA 17 
 
 in boxes, and after well rooted transferred to three 
 inch pots. Keep the cuttings cool and shaded from the 
 start. Under these conditions they will, after rooting. 
 rapidly make "pot-roots" (small tubers nearly as large 
 as peanuts). As autumn draws to a close let the plants 
 finish their growth naturally. Do not allow the pots to 
 freeze, and store until spring in the pots. Transplant 
 in the spring, shaking out the ball of earth, treating 
 carefully as a single plant, without disturbing the roots. 
 
 In making autumn cuttings from mature plants it 
 is important to choose stock that is vigorous and healthy 
 and the branch tips selected must be succulent enough 
 to snap through, like a "snap bean" when bent at 
 right angles. If the green growth bends and crushes, 
 but does not break off it is too old for rooting. 
 
 Mid-summer and autumn cutting making is not a 
 new idea. Sayers wrote in his "Treatise on the Dahlia," 
 Boston, 1839, "Another, and I think the best, method 
 of managing the dahlia, is to grow plants from cuttings 
 in pots, in summer, to preserve them during the winter. 
 In this method there is an advantage of removing the 
 roots in an easy and speedy manner; an advantage is 
 also gained of protecting them late in the fall from frost 
 and other causes of injury, as the pots can readily be 
 placed in a frame or other convenient place for pro- 
 tection. Mr. Samuel Sweetser of Gambridgeport, 
 Mass., manages dahlias in this manner to excellent 
 purpose: the plants are grown in moderate sized pots, 
 
18 PROPAGATION 
 
 which are taken into the greenhouse in the fall and 
 placed away in a convenient place. If the earth about 
 them is too moist they are placed in a dry place, and not 
 removed until they are thoroughly dried, when they are 
 placed away under the stage of a greenhouse, on shelves, 
 or other places, until they are desired to be started into 
 growth, when a little of the top soil may be taken from 
 the pots and the pots plunged into a frame or other 
 place to vegetate." 
 
 Propagation by planting seeds is the third and only 
 other method of increasing dahlias. Growing seedlings 
 is simple, and can be done by any one. Seeds sown in 
 greenhouse, cold frame, or in a home window will pro- 
 duce plants, blooms, and large tubers by the end of 
 autumn. In regions where the growing season is long, 
 where sweet corn may be planted May tenth, sow the 
 seeds early in April. Earlier planting means plants so 
 large by transplanting time that they are hard to handle. 
 Where summers are very short seeds may be started in 
 late February. In California seeds may be sown in the 
 garden itself April first, and blooms secured in August. 
 If one part formalin to fifty of water be used, two quarts 
 of this weak solution to every square foot of soil before 
 sowing the seeds, damping-off fungi will be lessened, 
 perhaps entirely killed. The solution is also somewhat 
 beneficial in stimulating the growth of the seedlings. 
 
 Sow the seeds about an inch apart in good soil that 
 has been sifted, and to which a third of sand has been 
 
OFTHEDAHLIA 19 
 
 added. After the soil has been well mixed with the 
 sand (sifting together two or three times will accomplish 
 this), and nicely leveled, the very best thing to firm it 
 is a brick, which should be placed here and there upon 
 the surface and tapped with a wooden mallet, or a short 
 piece of wood. Do not consolidate the soil too much, 
 settling it half an inch or less. Tapping the brick with 
 a hammer will crack it clean in two. After sand has 
 been sifted upon the seed the brick can be used again, 
 and tapping with the closed fist will answer this time. 
 
 Sift sand over the seeds until they are covered a 
 quarter or even a half of an inch. The seeds sprout 
 vigorously, and unless thus well covered will push 
 themselves entirely out of the light soil, dry, and die. 
 Water thoroughly when sown, using a very fine sprinkler, 
 a spray, or a piece of cloth trailing over the sand, 
 hanging out of the watering can, to prevent the sand 
 being washed into heaps, uncovering the seeds Do not 
 water again for a week, and if the boxes are kept cool 
 enough they will remain moist enough. Watch, them, 
 however. If they become too dry the sensitive sprouts 
 just emerging from the seeds will suffer, perhaps die. 
 
 Cover with boards, paper, or if flats (boxes) are 
 used lay sheets of glass over the boxes, to reduce evapo- 
 ration. Uncover when the seeds are up and protect 
 somewhat from strong light for a few days. White 
 paper or cheesecloth, hung before the window, or over 
 cold frame glass will suffice. If boxes are used they can 
 
30 PROPAGATION 
 
 be kept out of the way, in the dark, until the seeds 
 germinate, not failing, however, to bring to the moder- 
 ate light when they begin to sprout. Keep the boxes in 
 a cool place until germination takes place, for the more 
 slowly they start the better the plants. Quick sprout- 
 ing means leggy, delicate young plants. A temperature 
 of sixty to sixty-five degrees, Fahrenheit, is just right 
 both for germination and for growing. 
 
 Some of the seeds will be slow in coming up. 
 Watch them. If any are six weeks in sprouting take par- 
 ticular note and care of such, for the finest and most 
 worthwhile flowers as to color and form are likely to 
 come from these late starting seeds. Some experienced 
 growers deny this, claiming that dahlia seedlings are a 
 law unto themselves (which merely means that their 
 human friends do not understand them fully), and that 
 the most beautiful and the sturdiest seedling plants and 
 flowers sometimes come from the weakest and sometimes 
 from the strongest sprouting seeds. This may be true 
 enough, and the majority of fine flowers still be borne 
 by plants from the six-weeks slow germinating seeds. 
 
 After the seedlings are well up they should be given 
 full sunshine or they will grow too slender. But keep 
 them cool all the time. 
 
 One grower had an interesting experience. A box 
 containing one hundred seedlings over six inches tall 
 was forgotten and left out doors one spring night. 
 Frost killed every bit of foliage leaving nothing but the 
 
A New Seedling 
 
Amber Queen, a single Dahlia usually having more than eight petals 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 21 
 
 stems, which also turned almost black. The box was 
 carelessly tossed under a tree. The weather improved, 
 in about a fortnight tiny leaf shoots appeared in the 
 axils of the frost killed leaves, and the stems gradually 
 became leafy again. The plants were neglected, often 
 dried out in their box to almost the extinction point, 
 were sometimes flung a little water, and finally were 
 transplanted. They grew steadily to maturity and 
 produced normal seedling blooms, and excellent tubers. 
 
 If from all your seedlings you have two plants out 
 of each hundred that are worth keeping after they have 
 shown what sort of blooms they can produce you are 
 doing well. One grower started with thirty thousand 
 seedlings; three years afterwards he had reduced all 
 these plants to exactly eleven. 
 
 If you are a very busy person, or have not the 
 facilities for "shifting" the seedlings from flats or cold 
 frame to three-inch pots when two or three sets of leaves 
 have formed, and later into larger pots, as the mass of 
 fibrous roots seems to pretty well fill the pots, you will 
 do well to plant in boxes in five inches of soil, having 
 the top of the box one inch higher to make watering 
 easy, and dropping the seeds two inches apart in each 
 direction. In rich soil these plants, though crowded in 
 the boxes, will do well, and can be transplanted directly 
 into the garden after all danger of frost is past. Some 
 of the little plants will have tubers as large as peanuts 
 if they were started early. Set them deeply in the 
 
22 PROPAGATION 
 
 garden row, six inches at least, disturbing the rootlets 
 as little as possible. By watering exactly right the box 
 soil can be made firm enough to be cut into squares with 
 trowel, and after the first few plants have been trans- 
 planted each square of earth with its plant can be lifted 
 without much disturbance of roots. Use bone meal, 
 and otherwise fertilize and cultivate in the garden 
 exactly as for plants started from tubers. When 
 blooming begins if you have experience enough with 
 dahlias to give you some standards for comparison pull 
 up and throw away each plant that shows itself not 
 worth keeping. This will allow more space and plant 
 food for the others, for at transplanting time you can set 
 the seedlings as close as fifteen inches, if your garden 
 space is at all limited. But if you do plant thus closely 
 you must certainly thin out the undesirables as fast as 
 their flowering reveals them. Where flower pots are 
 not used, and they are not necessary though truly 
 desirable, boxes so constructed that they can be "knock- 
 ed down" will prove convenient. If also divided into 
 two-inch squares, checkerboard fashion, by strips of 
 wood in one direction, and two-inch pieces the otherway, 
 and these pieces well oiled to discourage the clinging of 
 soil, the little plants can be taken from the box in 
 undisturbed cubes of earth and transplanted without 
 interruption of growth. Paper flower pots could be 
 used. Plot the size of your boxes so they will contain 
 square "pots" of strong manila or waxed butcher's 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 23 
 
 paper without loss of space. Have one side of the 
 wooden box detachable by using brass (not iron) 
 screws, or hooks, or pinned "knock-down" style, and the 
 paper pots can be lifted out intact for transplanting. 
 Use a block of wood of the pot size desired, fold the paper 
 about it, fasten with a touch of paste, tube glue, or 
 mucilage, to retain shape until packed in the box and 
 filled with earth. Such a plan is a good one to follow 
 with tomato, pepper, cabbage, and other plants started 
 early in the season. The final transplanting of all 
 seedlings without root disturbance is greatly to be 
 desired. 
 
 Do not make your boxes too large. A wooden box 
 fifteen inches square, filled with five inches of earth is 
 quite heavy, while a twenty-inch box is almost too 
 heavy. When the boxes are planted in the home 
 window it is desirable that they be set out of doors on 
 fine days as spring advances to harden the seedlings, 
 but shielded from nippy winds, of course. Convenience 
 in weight and size will be much appreciated, while 
 "knock-down " boxes possess the added advantage of 
 storage in little space when put away until another 
 spring comes round. 
 
 After transplanting cultivate the seedlings faith- 
 fully; top fertilize as flower buds appear, pinch off all 
 flower buds till mid-August, for the best blooms will 
 come in September. The flowers are no better the 
 second year; except as the result of better treatment, 
 
24 PROPAGATION 
 
 that is all. Give the seedlings the best possible care 
 the first season, secure decisive blooms, throw away 
 the ninety odd per cent of worthless plants, starting 
 your second year with only those that promise most. 
 It is absolutely futile to waste time upon inferior 
 dahlias these days. 
 
 Besides buying dahlia seed you can grow seed from 
 your choicest varieties, accepting the fertilizing done 
 by bees, or crossing selected flowers yourself, which is 
 the self-respecting, scientific method. Cultivate the 
 seed-producing plants constantly. If the soil dries out 
 it means failure. Do not use the first flowers, they are 
 practically worthless for seeding. Most dahlia flowers 
 that have seed follow blooming will show a center just 
 before fading. As the petals die, a few at a time, after 
 the seed is growing, they must be pulled out. This is a 
 very important matter. Go over the flowers every other 
 day until not a petal is left. The pod or seed case will 
 by this time be almost closed. In four or five weeks 
 it should be fit to cut, but leave it on the plant until 
 frost seems certain. If frost is probable any evening 
 before the seed case is entirely ripe then it may be cut, 
 even if ripening is not fully accomplished. Gut with a 
 long stem, and place the stem in water, in a dry, airy 
 place, where it is warm. Change the water and clip 
 half an inch off the stem twice a week. After ten days 
 hang up head downwards to dry. The seed case will 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 25 
 
 commence to open. Do not disturb it until com- 
 pletely dry. If then the pod has a crisp feel the seed is 
 probably excellent. 
 
 The reason for picking off the dead petals so faith- 
 fully is that rain, fogs, dog days, even the heavy dews of 
 autumn, will water-soak the seed husks. A rot much 
 like the waxy rot of peach orchards often forms on the 
 fading blooms in damp weather and will spread rapidly, 
 if the dead petals, and all dead flowers are not removed. 
 Garry the dead flowers away from the garden. Burn- 
 ing is the safest disposition of them. 
 
 Flowers late in pollen production are to be pre- 
 ferred, but since nearly six weeks are needed for the 
 growth and ripening of the seed, protection against 
 frost is important. If the seeds are sappy when touched 
 by frost the germ in the seeds will be killed. As a first 
 frost often is not followed by another for ten or fifteen 
 days completely protecting the seed bearing plants on 
 very chilly nights is obviously worth while. When the 
 seed pod seems nearly completely formed it can be taken 
 into the house if a frost kills the plant. If the seeds are 
 well developed they will ripen in the house. If un- 
 developed when frost comes they will not ripen indoors, 
 
 A perfectly full, double decorative does not seem, 
 to the average amateur, as a likely prospect for either 
 hand or insect fertilizing. Indeed, insect fertilization 
 seldom happens. The pistils, at the base of the petals, 
 are covered and hidden by each closely lapped row of 
 
26 PROPAGATION 
 
 petals. Unless fertilized by hand these fine and most 
 desirable flowers will not bear seed. Every other row 
 of petals should be cut out with manicure scissors, ex- 
 posing the forked, recurved stigmas at the base of the 
 petals, upon which pollen of some flower you desire to 
 make the cross from can be placed with a camel hair 
 brush, or the flower can be itself used, brushing and 
 shaking its pollen upon the flower from which you have 
 amputated every other row of petals. Apply the pollen 
 two or three times a day until the flower has opened 
 fully and has completely bloomed. The flower opens 
 in circles, exposing the pollen-receiving parts succes- 
 sively, until at last the centre of the flower is reached, 
 about five days later. 
 
 The first few flowers that bloom upon a plant are 
 not suitable for seed production. Allow the late 
 blooms, say just before mid-September, to fully open. 
 Clip the petals of the tight double flowers if necessary. 
 To cross-fertilize selected flowers tie a paper bag (to 
 exclude wind and insects) over the flower chosen as the 
 mother flower at the moment the bud is nearly, but not 
 yet, open. Generally speaking the mother flower 
 controls color in the seedlings, and the pollen flower 
 controls form and size. It is also believed by some 
 that style of bush, foliage, and tuber is determined by 
 the mother plant. Some experimenters insist upon 
 always using a white flower to receive the pollen, 
 claiming production of varying colors is better accom- 
 plished thereby. 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 27 
 
 Use the pollen of a large flowering variety upon a 
 small variety mother flower and at least half of the off- 
 spring of such a union will produce large flowers. A 
 peony type flower is a good one to choose for the 
 mother, being loose petalled, with a good sized open 
 center. Select your color in the mother flower re- 
 membering this flower will largely dominate the color 
 of the seedlings. A cactus pollen parent may be em- 
 ployed, if one wishes to do so. It takes about five days 
 to complete the hand-pollenizing of a flower and the 
 paper bag should be carefully kept upon the mother 
 flower all this while, lest winds and insects bring pollen 
 from other flowers, the bag being removed for the 
 shortest possible moment each time the pollen is supplied 
 to the successively developing pistils. When the 
 petals have faded, and the pollen-receiving parts have 
 increased in size the seeds have started to form, and the 
 paper bag may be removed. 
 
 The pollen-bearing flower can be cut when fully 
 open and kept in a vase of water in the house, where 
 wind will not remove the pollen dust. The pollen will 
 increase in quantity upon the cut flower, and when 
 there is abundance the flower can be carefully carried to 
 the garden and rubbed, face to face, upon the mother 
 flower, or the brush can be used. Very careful and 
 exact seed growers first wash the face of the mother 
 flower with a strong, light spray, or a hand syringe, 
 lest peraventure even under the protecting bag the 
 flower be self-pollenated. 
 
28 PROPAGATION 
 
 Some of the seedlings of the cross-pollenated plants 
 will in all probability be found to be hybrids between 
 the two parents while others will be found to be exactly 
 like the mother plant, showing that cross pollenation 
 had not been accomplished with all of the disc florets. 
 From these seedlings the hybrids are selected for the 
 next year's crop and the flowers resembling the mother 
 are discarded. Any desirable hybrids can be per- 
 petuated indefinitely by dividing the roots. If seeds 
 of the new hybrids be planted the second year, a wonder- 
 ful variety will, in all probability, be the result. 
 
 Almost all seedlings are worthless. But "what's 
 natural can't be desperate." If you plan to grow seed- 
 lings upon a large scale buy the very best seed obtainable 
 from several remote regions, California, New England, 
 and Great Britain. Change of climate, change of soil, 
 excessive food, are the three prime causes of variation 
 in plants. Select from the blooms of this seed only the 
 most promising two or three plants out of each hundred, 
 and use these flowers for mothers. Choose your pollen 
 from the very finest varieties obtainable, that you 
 raise from purchased tubers. You could ask neighbors 
 who have costly and exceptional sorts to cooperate 
 with you to the extent of donating pollen bearing 
 flowers, and you could return the favor with some of the 
 seeds of which their flowers are the pollen parents. You 
 start your career, therefore, as a grower of seedlings, 
 by buying the best possible seed, and only the best; and 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 29 
 
 a few tubers of exceptionally fine and established sorts. 
 When autumn ends you should have some seeds that 
 may prove worth while. 
 
 Having crossed your first seedling generation with 
 the finest dahlias obtainable perhaps you will be one of 
 the fortunate people, and have a new variety in your 
 second generation that is worth naming and introducing 
 to the gorgeous dahlia world that is already in good and 
 regular standing. But to be sure of this you must grow 
 your second generation two years to test its permanent 
 or "fixed" character. Four years have now elapsed. 
 You should grow your child a fifth year, and at least one 
 thousand miles from its birthplace. Complete change 
 of climate is the ultimate and acid test. If your seed- 
 ling holds its color and form and other good qualitites a 
 long way from home you have a treasure indeed. Not a 
 few eastern amateurs complain of the poor showing made 
 by some of the expensive tubers bought in California. 
 The California growers undoubtedly receive some very 
 uncomplimentary letters from the Atlantic and Eastern 
 States. What probably happens is that California 
 bred dahlias, apparently "fixed" and stable enough in 
 their native soil and climate, show unpleasant and back- 
 ward variation when transported three thousand miles 
 and given soil, atmosphere, temperature, in com- 
 binations unfamiliar and, to them, not exactly suitable. 
 These far-travelled varieties often recover wonderfully 
 the second or third year, and adapt themselves to their 
 new environment with true American flexibility. 
 
30 PROPAGATION 
 
 The enthusiastic and hopeful grower of seedlings 
 keeps on, each spring sowing more seeds, his own, and 
 those purchased in distant parts. Some autumn he may 
 be rewarded with a flower the fame of which will 
 eventually be sounded from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 If you believe you have a seedling of exceptional 
 merit name it, and record it with the nearest horti- 
 cultural society, and with the American Dahlia Society, 
 1 98 Norton Street, New Haven, Conn. Cultivate your 
 selected seedlings, that you believe have lasting merit, 
 with the greatest care, and supply ample plant food 
 judiciously, that they may show all that is in them. 
 Unless well cultivated and well fertilized they may not 
 fully disclose all that they are. 
 
 In his annual address before the American Dahlia 
 Society in New York, September 28, 1921, President 
 Vincent said: "With its widely separated trial 
 grounds, one near Storrs, Conn., and the other at 
 College Park, University of Maryland, the society is 
 well prepared to test any and all new varieties of 
 dahlias. The expense to an originator is so small that 
 we do not believe any variety ought to be put on the 
 market unless passed at the trial grounds, and if the 
 buying public would only buy the new varieties that 
 have been passed upon by competent judges there 
 would not be so many so-called wonders forced upon 
 growers. The number of visitors to the trial grounds 
 and the interest shown is evidence of the wide-spread 
 popularity of the dahlia." 
 
OF THE DAHUA 31 
 
 The planting at the Storrs, Conn., Trial Grounds 
 begins June first, and the last plants submitted arrived 
 July 2, in 1921 . The plants are set five feet apart each 
 way. Fertilizers are well rotted cow manure, plowed in, 
 and three ounces bone meal about each plant. Wood 
 ashes are scattered over the entire surface twice during 
 the season. No water is supplied, even during dry 
 spells. Each plant is kept to one stem, the top pinched 
 out to produce branching. Disbudding is not done, 
 for it would interfere with the natural growth of the 
 plant, and new varieties must be judged as they are. 
 All the varieties are scored by the judges, of which there 
 were eight in 1921, and a plant must score eighty-five 
 points to be awarded the American Dahlia Society 
 Certificate of Merit. The scale of points used in making 
 the awards is: 
 
 EXHIBITION COMMERCIAL 
 
 VARIETIES VARIETIES 
 
 Color 20 Color 25 
 
 Stem and Foliage 25 Stem and Foliage 25 
 
 Substance 15 Substance 25 
 
 Form 20 Form 15 
 
 Size 20 Size 10 
 
 100 100 
 
 Every dahlia grower should belong to the American 
 Dahlia Society. Its Bulletins are well worth the an- 
 nual membership fee, $2.00, as they contain articles, 
 information, and advertisements of much interest and 
 value. 
 
32 PROPAGATION 
 
 Dahlias belong to the great composite family of 
 flowers — the largest in the world — which includes 
 asters, daisies, sunflowers, zinnias, chrysanthemums, to 
 name but a few. The so-called flower that these 
 different plants bear is a composite or aggregation of 
 several, sometimes many, tiny flowers known as florets. 
 Each seed in a sunflower head is the product of a distinct 
 flower (floret — literally little flower). Each dahlia 
 bloom is composed of many florets, and each floret can 
 be made fertile and seed-bearing by its own pollen, or 
 the pollen from any other floret on that individual 
 flowerhead, as well as by pollen from a flower grown 
 on a different and distant plant. 
 
 Mid-September is the best time to hand pollenate 
 because, apparently, the best and strongest efforts of the 
 plant are then made. The obtaining of pollen from a 
 cactus parent flower can be accomplished better at this 
 time than earlier. A rather inferior cactus bloom, that 
 only slowly opens fully, should be chosen, and this will 
 be found on old rather than the newest growth. If 
 this flower's center is poor, tending to be open, and 
 promising to show yellow, pollen may be obtained from 
 it, not otherwise, for the cactus dahlia does not 
 readily yield pollen. The flower can be cut and kept 
 indoors. When the selected mother flower is ready if 
 your cactus pollen parent is of the tubular petal variety 
 cut the petals back about two inches, split twenty or 
 thirty of these petal-tubes and peel them open back- 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 33 
 
 wards, much as a small boy does the long stem of a 
 dandelion. This will expose the pollen at the base of 
 the tubes, and allow you to rub the pollen surface upon 
 the face of the selected mother flower. If a tubular 
 petalled cactus bloom is selected for the mother flower 
 the same method will have to be employed upon it. 
 With cactus blooms pollen seems more abundant in 
 scarlet and crimson than in orange; white blooms have 
 little, and pink flowers almost none; dark maroons also 
 have very little pollen. Decorative and single dahlias 
 can be crossed with cactus. 
 
 Dahlia pollen is moist, may be lumpy, and is 
 perishable. Allowing the pollen parent flower to become 
 fully open as a cut flower indoors saves all the increase 
 of pollen as the flower ripens from day to day, and the 
 vitality of the pollen is not lessened in any way. 
 
 Experiments with the transportation of dahlia 
 pollen should be tried. Pollen bearing flowers might be 
 expressed or mailed a thousand miles. The U. S. 
 Department of Agriculture has transported pollen for 
 the breeding of citrus fruits. Some kinds of pollen 
 have been sent half way round the world by mail, and 
 found vital and suitable for use after the long journey. 
 
 When the grower reaches the dignity of raising his 
 own seed the obvious advantages of wide horticultural 
 and botanical knowledge will become apparent. If he 
 has read and studied somewhat he will know that the 
 character of the whole plant is more important than the 
 
34 PROPAGATION 
 
 character of any one branch or part. The more symetrical 
 and uniformly well developed the plant is the greater 
 is the likelihood that its seeds will transmit a majority 
 of its characteristics. Just now the popular demand is 
 for gigantic dahlia blooms. The breeder seeking such 
 results should grow his seeds on plants that bear large 
 flowers on all branches, and not select an immense bloom 
 on a plant that only has inferior blooms for the rest of 
 its output. The one gigantic bloom, "the only pride 
 and joy" of the plant, is not likely to transmit the 
 characteristics of producing large flowers. It may be a 
 far larger flower than the average flowers of a plant that 
 produces all its flowers about the same size, but the 
 gardener should choose flowers for seed production from 
 the plant all the flowers of which are nearly alike of 
 good size. The potato grower knows that small po- 
 tatoes from a hill where there are many potatoes, 
 though small, will give him better results than the 
 planting of two or three immense potatoes, when those 
 two or three are the only offspring of a plant. The 
 plant of many tubers is productive, and size may be 
 bred into the offspring; the two or three big tubers have 
 an unproductive parent, and the following generations 
 will not only not be as large, but there will be few of 
 them. Immense kernels of corn from a gigantic ear 
 selected from the crib should not be planted. The ear 
 very likely is an "only child," and each of the kernels 
 in all likelihood will product a corn stalk that bears but 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 35 
 
 one ear, and that a very ordinary one, not as large as 
 its parent. On the other hand selecting as seed corn 
 two fair ears, born on a single stalk while in the field, 
 and while the characteristics of the plant as a whole 
 can be noted, is likely to result in the kernels producing 
 stalks that bear two ears, instead of but one. Very 
 poor plants sometimes produce one or two big fruits; 
 inferior dahlias sometimes show one or more large 
 blooms, but the seeds of such plants are far more likely 
 to reproduce the inferior average of the parent than the 
 unusual quality of the accidentally large fruit, or 
 flower. 
 
 Having selected a plant of good average qualities as 
 the seed bearer, the large and heavy seeds of that plant 
 will generally give better results than the smaller seeds. 
 The larger seeds will transmit greater uniformity of 
 crop, increased vigor, often increase the earliness of the 
 variety, sometimes increase size of flowers and fruits, 
 and usually exhibit a greater capacity for seed produc- 
 tion, which means greater flower production. 
 
 On the other hand the grower of dahlia seeds 
 should remember the curious fact that seeds when ex- 
 ceedingly immature give feeble, but precocious offspring. 
 Such seeds will not weigh more than two-thirds as much 
 as those fully ripe. They will produce, if they live, 
 more abundant but smaller blooms, occasionally 
 slightly different flowers. The explanation probably 
 lies in the chemical constitution and content of the 
 
J}6 PROPAGATION 
 
 undeveloped seed substance. The seed has not reached 
 the stability of maturity, and is more susceptible to 
 stimulations, nourishments, and irritations. 
 
 There seems to be no doubt but chemical changes 
 take place in seeds. The chemical status or content at 
 a given age may result in changes in the seedling plant. 
 Florists have noted that old seeds produce weak plants, 
 and they plant old seeds in the hope of securing new 
 varieties. A writer as far back as 1858 affirms that 
 while one-year old seeds of Ten-weeks Stocks yield 
 single flowers, seeds four years old produce mostly 
 double flowers. 
 
 It is a general and well-known rule that nutrition 
 greatly influences variability. Seeds that are nourished 
 the best will probably produce more double flowers than 
 will seeds produced by half -starved parents. The 
 amount of useful plant food a plant has, that is, food in 
 such a dissolved form that the plant can assimilate it, 
 is probably the all-important factor in the growing of 
 seeds from which new varieties are hoped for. 
 
 Seeds for the breeding of striped flowers should be 
 taken only from those blooms having smallest stripes 
 because there is always reversion towards too broad 
 stripes, and the broader the stripes of color, the less 
 diversified the colors of the flower. 
 
 In breeding for new varieties with each succeeding 
 step the number of individuals must be doubled. Many 
 thousands of seedlings are required to go beyond the 
 
Dreer's White, the finest white of its type 
 
Flora, a fine Hybrid-Cactus 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 
 
 ordinary range of variations, and each further im- 
 provement requires doubling the number of specimen 
 plants. If ten thousand seedlings of the dahlia (or of 
 any plant for that matter) do not give a profitable 
 deviation, twenty thousand seedling descendants must 
 be planted; then forty thousand of the third genera- 
 tion, eighty thousand seedling descendants of this line 
 will be required next, and so on. All this work, be it 
 remembered, is required for the improvement of a single 
 quality, a stiff, long stem, for example. Wise breeders 
 try to evolve only one quality at a time. It's obvious 
 that "there's a reason." 
 
 The success of the plant breeder depends upon 
 careful observation of variable forms, growing large 
 numbers, in order that there may be more opportunity 
 for variation; and in discovering the unusual, (often 
 through accidental observation), and setting it apart. 
 
 Plant offspring, even from seed, are the material 
 continuations of the parents and consequently can be 
 expected to be like them. Nevertheless "The most 
 invariable thing in nature is variation." In the plant 
 world as in the animal world mutilations, curious 
 formations due to accidents, injuries, etc., are not 
 transmissible. "Wooden legs are not inherited, though 
 wooden heads are." 
 
 As L. T. Bailey well says: "It is very important 
 when selecting seeds from plants which seem to give 
 promise of a new variety, to sow seeds of each plant 
 
38 PROPAGATION 
 
 separately, and then make the subsequent selections 
 from the most stable generation; and it is equally 
 important not to trust to a single plant as a starting 
 point, whenever there are several promising plants from 
 which to select." And Vilmorin says: "Gross-breeding 
 greatly increases the chance of wide variation but 
 makes the task of fixation more difficult. " 
 
 Visitors to a large dahlia field are quite apt to ask 
 the grower how new varieties are originated, and often 
 remark that they suppose new sorts are produced by 
 splitting tubers of different colored flowers and "graft- 
 ing" the tubers. It has to be explained to these poorly 
 informed would-be horticulturists that the tubers, 
 and the sprout cuttings, of any plant almost without a 
 single exception in millions of specimens, "come true." 
 The "grafted" split tubers would "come true," each to 
 its variety, if an "eye" (bud) was preserved on each one. 
 They could not possibly blend and produce a new 
 variety. At State Agricultural Colleges an apple tree 
 will sometimes be grafted with one hundred different 
 varieties of apples as a demonstration of grafting to the 
 students, and each grafted bud produces its own sort of 
 apple, but there is no blending into new sorts between 
 graft and graft. 
 
 These home gardeners will also most earnestly inform 
 the commercial dahlia grower that when they have plant- 
 ed red and white dahlias side by side the tubers have 
 "mixed" and produced flowers that were white, splashed 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 3U 
 
 with red. It is well-nigh impossible to convince them 
 that this is something that nature never allows, never 
 could bring about. Should any of these visitors adopt 
 a Japanese child it would not occur to them to expect 
 that soon the little Oriental would begin to develop the 
 physical characteristics of an American youngster, and 
 that the American child, sitting at the same table, take 
 on some of the complexion and facial features of the 
 Japanese. This could not possibly occur, the two chil- 
 dren could not "mix." It would be absolutely im- 
 possible. 
 
 For exactly the same reasons, it is absolutely 
 impossible for one dahlia tuber to "mix" with another 
 and different variety, even though they were planted in 
 the same position, and the tubers and stems mingled in 
 one crowded, confused, tangled mass, touching each 
 other. New dahlia varieties can only come from seeds, 
 when the pollen of one dahlia flower is carried by in- 
 sects, wind, or by the gardener, to the flower of a 
 different variety; or from "bud variation" — mu- 
 tation the botanists term it, when for obscure and at 
 the present state of our scientific knowledge unknown 
 reasons the plant "sports" and produces a bud, and 
 afterwards a flower sometimes very slightly, sometimes 
 very decidedly different than all the other buds and 
 flowers upon that individual plant. These sports or 
 mutations are rare. Many occur in the wide realm of 
 the vegetable world, with the hundreds of thousands of 
 
JO PROPAGATION 
 
 different kinds of plants, in the course of the centuries 
 and have beyond question played a considerable part in 
 the production of varieties, but in the close range of the 
 course of one short human life they can with strict 
 literalness be said to be rare indeed. 
 
 Yet the unscientific home gardener will insist, 
 unconvinced, that his white dahlias did produce red 
 color, while growing side by side with the red sorts, and 
 that the tubers "mixed." The amateur is partly right. 
 His flowers did "throw red" although they did not, 
 could not, mix. Peonies and some other flowers will do 
 the same thing. Red color seems to have a persistency 
 in flowers that cannot always be bred out of them. The 
 dahlias that revert to red tints had a red ancestor 
 somewhere, perhaps far back on the family tree, and 
 now soil, climate, excess or lack of food, possibly some 
 physical irritation, brings to the front the stronger and 
 more dominant characteristics, just as brilliant auburn 
 hair will sometimes be given some children in families 
 that have not been "red-headed" on either side of the 
 family for some generations. But the youngster does 
 not have red hair because he is growing up alongside of 
 some carrot-topped son of Erin, occupying the next 
 desk to him in the schoolroom. 
 
 Again, a frail human memory may be the ex- 
 planation. The tubers of red dahlias seem to winter 
 better than some other sorts. The amateur puts his 
 roots away as best he can in the fall, only to find that 
 
OFTHEDAHLtA 41 
 
 the home cellar has been a poor storage room, and his 
 tubers are about all killed, by drying out, or by rotting 
 from too much moisture. He salvages a few sound 
 tubers from the rubbish, and ten to one he gets red 
 flowers. He is sure, oh, absolutely sure, that he saved 
 some of his white dahlias, and that they have turned 
 red because of the company they were in the previous 
 summer. But the overwhelming evidence is that the 
 lighter tinted flowers have tubers that "enjoy ill 
 health," or at least that endure adverse conditions less 
 sturdily than the roots that bear darker colored blooms. 
 The roots of the red dahlias live through the winter, 
 despite the deplorable storage treatment that causes 
 sad mortality among less robust companions. 
 
 Composite flowers have rarely been found in a 
 fossil state, leading botanists to believe that they 
 belong for all the largeness of the family to com- 
 paratively recent times, and although the result of a 
 long series of formative changes, still possess great 
 variability. 
 
 While all thefuture's rosy hopes are dependent upon 
 the dahlia's variability this chameleon-like quality is 
 rather disconcerting when one wishes to fix color. 
 "Dilute purple," says Wilhelm Miller, "and you get 
 crimson-pink. This crimson-pink has two bad faults. 
 It is inclined to be laid on unevenly in patches and veins 
 instead of being evenly suffused, and it is so variable in 
 quantity and quality as to make it a lottery what sort 
 
42 PROPAGATION 
 
 of flower one is to get. There is only one pink dahlia I 
 know of (A. D. Livoni) that shows no trace of a purple 
 or crimson origin. I shall not have a particle of faith in 
 the stability of any other dahlia advertised as pink until 
 I see it. Whenever the words "lavender" "rosy-pink" 
 or "violet" appear in descriptions of dahlias one may 
 feel almost certain that they refer to this treacherous 
 crimson-pink. Sometimes these tints are pretty well 
 fixed, as the lavender in Arabella. The variety com- 
 monly known as Mme. Moreau would pass for a pink 
 until brought side by side with A. D. Livoni, when the 
 purplish cast of the former is evident. In "selfs" 
 (flowers having but a single color), these shades are 
 practically fixed and uniform, but variegated dahlias 
 containing degrees of purple, crimson, rose, magenta, 
 violet, lavender and pink can never be relied upon from 
 descriptions. They may be any one of these shades for 
 they depend upon factors in cultivation which are little 
 understood and perhaps uncontrollable. Pure and 
 delicate shades of pink can never be reached by such 
 means. Plant food may deepen them all the way to 
 purple in a single season and they are almost sure to 
 revert to purple ancestors sooner or later." 
 
 Prof. J. W. Gregg, of the University of California* 
 calls the attention of dahlia growers "to the fact that 
 not all of the new creations have originated from seed- 
 lings, even though a great many people seem to assume 
 that this has been the case. In looking back carefully 
 
OF TUB DAHLIA 43 
 
 over the history of dahlia varieties it is clear that bud 
 variation has been responsible for the origin of many 
 valuable varieties of dahlias. Methods of propagation, 
 together with variation in soil, climate conditions, and 
 culture, have probably been the most important factors 
 in bud variation. Bud variation in the dahlia is neither 
 new nor recent. While growers continue to produce 
 new and good seedlings they should, nevertheless, be on 
 the lookout during the growing season for bud variations 
 which are sure to be found in any sizeable collection and 
 which may prove, if selected and perpetuated, most 
 desirable acquisitions." 
 
 Chrysanthemums are examples of extreme varia- 
 tion. Just what causes mutability — variability — is 
 not known. The one thing that we are sure of is that it 
 takes place. It's the surprise that may come to you, to 
 any one. There is an instance upon record with 
 chrysanthemums where one variety produced a sport 
 after twenty-five years of steady behaviour under 
 cultivation; and what is still more curious this sport 
 occurred in different localities the same season, the sport 
 in each instance being identical. Another 'Mum now 
 has sixteen named sports in colors of yellow, rose, 
 purple, white and red. 
 
 The marvels of nature are little comprehended. 
 The root system of a wheat plant about a year old 
 averages 600 yards; the root system of a full-grown 
 pumpkin vine averages 15j^ miles (22,280 yards). 
 Try to imagine the root mileage of a great shade tree. 
 
44 PROPAGATION 
 
 Today, in this year of Grace, 1922, the dahlia is 
 the most popular flower in America, and it is safe to 
 predict that it will remain the most generally grown 
 plant in the home gardens of the country because of 
 the remarkable range of its varied beauty, and its ease of 
 cultivation. 
 
 Maurice Fuld says: "The dahlia offers more 
 opportunities for the amateur than any other flower 
 I know of; he can do more with it than the professional 
 and invariably he has the professional all beaten to a 
 standstill; he can with ease breed and cross and pro- 
 duce any quantity of new dahlias all within the short 
 space of one year; and to my mind this is the climax of 
 joy in a garden." 
 
 I When plants that have been under cultivation and 
 observation for centuries are compared with the dahlia 
 it will be realized that we stand only upon the threshold, 
 historically and practically, of dahlia breeding, and 
 that the possibilities may be anything. 
 
 There are many encouragements for the would-be 
 creator of new and worth-while dahlias. Here are some 
 of them: The simple change of seed from one locality 
 to another generally gives a larger and better product, 
 or even more marked variations. It will readily be 
 seen that the procuring of seeds and roots from several 
 widely separated localities is likely to induce changes, 
 sports (mutations botanically speaking), particularly 
 when cross-fertilizing is employed. "If a plant is once 
 
Cerise King 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 45 
 
 strongly modified in size, shape, color, other attributes 
 are forthcoming." And immortal Darwin himself 
 said: "Of all the causes which induce variations, 
 excess of food, whether or not changed in nature, is 
 probably the most powerful." 
 
 A grower in the eastern States has a dahlia with 
 habits of blooming similar to the well known double 
 daffodil, with outer rows of petals pure white, the 
 center filled with pale yellow quilled petals. 
 
 The Cactus dahlia originated as a sport, or mu- 
 tation, and was first presented to the public by the 
 Royal Horticultural Society, in 1 876. In 1 872 M. J. T 
 Van der Berg, of Juxphaar, Holland, received a box from 
 a friend in Mexico containing various kinds of bulbs, 
 flower-roots, and seeds. The slow transportation of 
 those days had allowed much of the contents to spoil. 
 From one small and fortunately undecayed tuber a 
 dahlia came into flower, bright red, attracting much 
 attention. It was called a cactus dahlia in England 
 because the bloom seemed a good deal like the flower of 
 a variety of cactus. 
 
 The peony type of dahlia came from crossing single 
 and cactus varieties, and was introduced into England 
 in 1900. The collarette originated from two sports in 
 1 899 simultaneously on different plants in the municipal 
 gardens of the Pare de la Tete d'Or, Lyons. These 
 sports were fixed and propagated, to delight flower 
 lovers ever since. 
 
46 PROPAGATION 
 
 A tall grass known as teosinte, also called Guate- 
 mala grass, has long been regarded as the ancestor, in 
 far off centuries or milleniums, of one of the most 
 valuable plants known to the world, maize — corn. 
 Eighteen years ago Luther Burbank took this grass and 
 tried to prove, by breeding, what botanists had only 
 theoretical reasons for believing. He recently succeeded 
 in producing an ear of corn on his teosinte, which he had 
 improved and bred upwards by rejecting the inferior, 
 and propagating the superior specimens of successive 
 generations. His success is one of the most amazing 
 results of his many wonderful breeding achievements, 
 and is full of encouragement. 
 
 The important and very profitable "Lucretia" 
 dewberry was found growing wild on a plantation in 
 West Virginia. Without a doubt others equally fine 
 are growing wild, waiting for some observant eye to 
 note and appropriate them. The dwarf lima bean 
 known as Henderson's was found growing along a road- 
 side in Virginia by a negro about 1865. Burpee's 
 Bush lima bean was found by Asa Palmer, Kennett 
 Square, Pa., in 1 883. His entire field of large white 
 pole limas had been destroyed by cut- worms. In 
 removing the poles from the stricken field he found one 
 little plant, ten inches high. It bore three pods, each 
 containing one bean. The three beans were planted in 
 1 884, and two of the plants were dwarf like the parent. 
 In succeeding seasons all plants having a tendency to 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 47 
 
 climb were discarded, and the Burpee Bush Lima was 
 given the world. Kohl-rabi, a table vegetable, is the 
 product of the crossing of the cabbage and the turnip. 
 The exquisitely lovely Shirley poppy is an en- 
 couraging example of the happy results following the 
 accidental discovery of a mutation. This poppy was 
 given the world by Rev. Mr. Wilks, Vicar of Shirley, 
 England. He says: "There is no country under the 
 sun (except perhaps Patagonia and Thibet) to which I 
 have not sent seeds gratuitously. In 1 880 I noticed, in 
 a waste corner of my garden a patch of the common 
 wild field poppy, one solitary flower of which had a very 
 narrow edge of white. This one flower I marked and 
 saved the seed of it alone. Next year out of perhaps 
 two hundred plants I had four or five on which all the 
 flowers were edged. The best of these were marked 
 and the seed saved, and so for several years, the flowers 
 all the while getting a larger infusion of white to tone 
 down the red until they arrived at quite pale pink, and 
 one plant absolutely pure white. I then set myself to 
 change the black central portions of the flowers from 
 black to yellow or white and at last fixed a strain with 
 petals varying in color from the brightest scarlet to pure 
 white with all shades of pink between and all varieties 
 of flakes and dged flowers. The Shirley Poppies have 
 thus been obtained simply by selection and elimination. 
 By 'selection* I mean the saving seed only from se- 
 lected flowers and by 'elimination' the instant and 
 
48 PROPAGATION 
 
 total eradication of any plant that bears inferior flowers. 
 It is rather interesting to reflect that the gardens of the 
 whole world — rich man's and poor man's alike — are 
 today furnished with poppies which are the direct de- 
 scendants of a single capsule of seed raised in the garden 
 of Shirley Vicarage as lately as August, 1880." 
 
 The beautiful purple beech, one of the most stately 
 and desired of lawn trees, sported suddenly, and without 
 any previous suggestion of the change, in two places 
 simultaneously, in Europe. The exquisite double- 
 flowering Bechtel's crab was introduced by a nursery- 
 man near Staunton, 111., about 1888, after it had 
 been wasting its sweetness of perfume and beauty of 
 profuse two-inch flowers in a single-flowering wild crab 
 thicket for forty years, according to old settlers. 
 Another case of a sudden mutation. Peter M. Gideon 
 sowed over a bushel of apple seed, and one seed pro- 
 duced the famous Wealthy apple. He first planted a 
 bushel of apple seeds, and each year thereafter he planted 
 additional seeds for a thousand trees. He lived in Minne- 
 sota and at the end of ten years all his seedlings had 
 perished, except one hard seedling crab. Then a small 
 packet of seeds of apples and crab apples was secured 
 from Maine. There were only about fifty seeds in the 
 packet of crab apple seed, but one of these seeds pro- 
 duced the Wealthy apple. In 1915 on the white 
 gladiolus named "Bride" a single stem bore a flower 
 part red, part white. It is certainly known that this 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 49 
 
 parti-colored flower was the offspring of a pure white 
 one, that had been such for generations. The little 
 bulblet-like offshoots of the corm of this variegated 
 flowering stalk were planted, and one flower stalk of 
 these offsprings bore red and white flowers, while 
 another plant bore red flowers. It follows that the 
 original corm (bulb-like root) must have had some 
 tissue cells in its composition capable of producing red 
 pigment in the flowers. That the vegetable cells 
 having this altered chemical constitution comprised 
 about half of the corm is indicated by the position of the 
 red and white flowers on the stalk. The first double 
 petunia is known to have suddenly and accidentally 
 arisen from ordinary seed in a private garden in Lyons, 
 France, about 1855. From this one plant all double 
 petunias of whatever variety have descended, partly 
 by natural, partly by artificial cross-breeding. In the 
 last thirty-five years the length of canna flowers has 
 been doubled, and the breadth multiplied three times, 
 so that this strikingly handsome flower resembles the 
 best types of lilies and amaryllis. 
 
 Experiments with chemicals introduced into the 
 soil might have interesting, and even valuable results, 
 for botanists regard some color changes as caused by 
 the presence of different chemicals in the soil. In New 
 England the meadow-lily is yellow; in the Middle 
 States it is red. Several flowers in the Swiss alps change 
 their color with location. A bellwort produced white 
 
50 PROPAGATION 
 
 flowers in one soil, blue flowers in a distant soil. 
 Hydrangea Hortensis produces only here and there 
 beautiful and much desired lavender-blue flowers. The 
 writer once saw a thirty foot row of these plants, with 
 deep shades of this color. But no landscape gardener 
 can contract to produce this color, saying go to, now, I 
 will place this color for you in your garden this year. 
 It is popularly believed that the addition of a little 
 alum to the soil will produce the color, if anything will. 
 A vetch found in the Tyrol was yellow; the same species 
 in Hungary was violet. In the central Alps the ane- 
 mone is sulphur yellow, in the eastern Alps it is white, 
 
 A botanist, experimenting with the color changes 
 in flowers, was able to turn yellow, blue, pink and red 
 flowers to green by adding alkali, and turned them back 
 to their original colors by acids. From his experiments 
 he concludes that flowers have but three pigments, red, 
 yellow, and blue, and that from these by various com- 
 binations all the other colors are produced. 
 
 In purple, violet, and blue fruits and flowers the 
 color is diffused through the cell-sap. White flowers 
 are white for the same reason that snow is — light is 
 reflected from a multitude of tiny surfaces. In the 
 flower these surfaces are the walls of empty cells. When 
 the petals of such flowers become water soaked they 
 lose the power to reflect light, and become almost 
 transparent. 
 
OF THE DAHLIA 51 
 
 Many are the disappointments of the would-be 
 breeder of new varieties. This is inevitable, but 
 incidental. The rewards are joyous, sometimes profit- 
 able. Changes of soil, climate, fertilizers, methods of 
 growing, promote changes of plant habit and growth, 
 changes of color, form, profusion or scantiness of 
 flowering. 
 
 Hybridizers distinguish between changes that 
 constitute varieties and the profound, constitutional 
 modification that results in a "break." Seeds sown in 
 the spring produce new varieties of blooms by autumn* 
 Twenty-five or fifty years are required to secure a 
 "break" that is of importance. If the production of a 
 "break" is desired the hybridizer's ambition must 
 first lead him to Mexico. He cannot use any of the 
 gorgeous hybrid dahlias offered in the catalogs to 
 secure a "break." It cannot be brought about that 
 way. He must employ one or more of the eight wild 
 varieties to be found in Mexico today. 
 
 Plant breeding involves endless, minutest study, 
 and the discovery of valuable facts by accidental ob- 
 servation. A writer in The Garden Magazine says of 
 the creator of new dahlias: "He must needs see the 
 blooms under artificial light, for many listless colors 
 under daylight are gems under artificial light. As far 
 as variety of color is concerned the dahlia is in a class by 
 itself; future progress must be along lines than color; 
 the greatest improvement during the past year has been 
 
52 PROPAGATION 
 
 among the whites and reds; with few exceptions the 
 California producers are making that State the cradle 
 of the best American productions." 
 
 Will there ever be a blue dahlia? The breeder of 
 a beautiful blue in this wondrous flower would make his 
 everlasting fame and fortune. At least one nationally 
 known dahlia grower has been trying it upon a con- 
 siderable scale and has reported "encouragement." 
 Other equally competent experts doubt the presence in 
 the dahlia of the requisite constitutional ability to 
 produce the color pigment so desired. If this greatly 
 to be desired result is ever achieved perhaps it may 
 come through the employment of chemicals in the soil 
 to modify cell-growth and cell action in the plant. 
 
 It must be remembered that in all the floral world 
 there is no such thing as a pure green, or a pure blue. 
 There is no blue-green, or green-blue in flowers cor- 
 responding to these exquisite tints in the plumage of 
 birds. At least one competent scientific botanist 
 discourages the hope of ever producing a blue dahlia. 
 Augustin de Gandolle, (born Geneva, 1778), divided 
 flower colors, according to F. Schuyler Mathews, into 
 two classes, which he named zanthic (red, scarlet, 
 orange, gold-orange, yellow, and green-yellow); and 
 cyanic (green-blue, blue, ultramine-violet, violet, purple, 
 and red). He insisted that the flowers of the xanthic 
 series could pass into red or white but never blue, and 
 those of the blue (cyanic) series could pass into red or 
 
O F T H E D A H L I A 53 
 
 white but never into yellow. This theory has been 
 accepted as correct. Both modification and revision, 
 however are possible. 
 
 Hyacinths belong to Candolle's cyanic group, but 
 there are no blue flowers, although there are purple, 
 violet, cyanic red, and modified yellow. Dahlias are 
 scarlet, red, crimson-red, and even pure yellow, but 
 never pure gold-orange, or orange. They belong to 
 Gandolle's xanthic classification of plants that can- 
 not produce blue flowers because of some chemical- 
 constitutional deficiencies. Mathews says "At some 
 time or other in the distant past the law of limitations 
 fixed the range of flower-color. No new law of elas- 
 ticity has since developed to remove the boundaries and 
 thus aid the floriculturist in his ambition to produce 
 what would prove to be a mere novelty." 
 
 The dahlia of the future may be one of the sugar 
 sources of the world. It has long been known that the 
 tubers contained a starch-like substance known as inu- 
 lin, also called dahlin and alantin. It is a white powder, 
 spontaneously deposited when the roots are treated 
 with water. It is soluble in hot water, is colored yellow by 
 iodine, and its chemical properties appear to be inter- 
 mediate between those of sugar and starch. Chemists 
 have succeeded in extracting from this substance a re- 
 markable sugar called fructose or levulose, which is 
 sixty per cent sweeter than cane suger. Dr. R. F. 
 Jackson, of the United States Bureau of Standards 
 
54 PROPAGATION 
 
 has been experimenting to ascertain the best methods 
 for manufacturing this sugar. Mr. R. Vincent, Jr., a 
 famous dahlia grower, and president of The American 
 Dahlia Society, and head of the large greenhouse and 
 nursery business of Richard Vincent, Jr., and Sons Go., 
 White Marsh, Md., has for several years been sending 
 some tons of dahlia roots to an Industrial School, 
 Schenectady, N. Y., and to the chemists in Washington. 
 Extensive experiments have been carried on in both 
 places. A corporation is financially interested, patents 
 are being sought, and when obtained machinery will be 
 built to handle the tuber production from five thousand 
 (5000) acres. Of course, the bud end of the tubers can be 
 used for propagation, and cut flowers can be also sold 
 from the plants. This dahlia sugar can be used by 
 persons suffering from diabetes. At present such 
 sufferers must use saccharin or go without "sweetening." 
 But saccharin, although intensely sweet has a bitter 
 taste, and is unpleasant rather than agreeable. If the 
 new dahlia sugar proves exceedingly palatable, besides 
 being harmless to the human body, it will be one of the 
 great discoveries of the time, and the commercial 
 possibilities of the dahlia will be vastly extended. 
 
 Varieties of dahlias are being tested for the sugar 
 content of their tubers, as it is assumed that, as with 
 sugar beets, some varieties contain more sugar than 
 others. As far as the experiments have progressed this 
 variation in sugar value has been found. 
 
0> THEDAHLIA 55 
 
 What will the dahlia of the future be? Breeders 
 ambitious for new varieties should lay to heart Elbert 
 Hubbard's saying "Convince Nature that a thing is 
 needed and she will produce it." The dahlia of the 
 future will not need stakes, and it may prove to be a 
 tree-like form, perfectly hardy, remaining in the ground 
 the year round, even in northern America. It may have 
 beautifully variegated foliage. Dahlia foliage at the 
 present time has about six times as much variety as that 
 of chrysanthemums. White-edged dahlia foliage, sim- 
 ilar to that of variegated geraniums, abutilons, funkias 
 and euonymus, has more than once made its appearance, 
 but is evidently unstable and difficult to fix. Variegated 
 varieties would be desirable to mix with those of plainer 
 foliage. The future dahlia will have strong, long stems, 
 holding the splendid flowers high above the foliage. It 
 is the queen of the autumn now, but it is going to have 
 a longer blooming season. It is a commonplace of talk 
 that the dahlia is one of the most variable of plants, but 
 we hardly realize how variable this marvel of the floral 
 world really is. When dahlias were first grown as 
 garden ornaments they only bloomed for a period of 
 about ten days before frost. Now it is the easiest thing 
 in the world in regions where potatoes can be planted 
 April 10 to have dahlias in bloom June 25, and early 
 flowering sorts will bloom June 15, and can be kept 
 blooming throughout the season. The dahlia of today 
 
is the largest, most brilliant, most gorgeous flower of the 
 temperate zone. The dahlia of the future may be the 
 largest and most gorgeous flower of any zone. 
 
 "I often think" (Pages From a Garden Note- 
 Book), "in looking at our industrial cities and their 
 people, of that old figure of the warp and woof of life; 
 and if these people, many of them so weary, so worn- 
 looking, make up the warp of town life of our country, 
 it is the sculptors, the poets, architects, and designers 
 who brighten the fabric with threads of silver and of 
 gold; it is the painters, the musicians, the planners of 
 gardens, the growers and hybridizers of flowers who 
 draw through that warp their threads of form and color. 
 I thought of what those growers and hybridizers are 
 doing for the joy of their country. The lovely wares 
 they deal in, the experiments with which they are con- 
 stantly busy; are there any others besides painters, 
 composers, poets, sculptors, who can give to Americans 
 what these are giving? We need flowers. Every man, 
 woman, and child of us is hungry for flowers. No man 
 can grow or even sell flowers successfully unless he 
 values them more than money. But it is the hybridizer, 
 the man or woman of gentleness and patience, of in- 
 telligence, perception, and deep love of the art, that 
 brings into this tapestry of life a lovely curious pattern 
 through their own threads of color, a freshness of 
 design only to be wrought by the creative mind."