. The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade. Floriculture; Florists. I^IO. The American Florist. 479 great improvement being made annu- ally in size of flowers, brilliancy of color and altogether new shades. The efforts to produce a strain better adapted to the trying conditions of the American climate, which called for petals of greater substance were very successful. Another fault of many of the early introductions, as for example Alphonse Bouvier, was the drooping head, another feature corrected by later hybridizers. Still further advance was made in the breeding of more dwarf v
. The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade. Floriculture; Florists. I^IO. The American Florist. 479 great improvement being made annu- ally in size of flowers, brilliancy of color and altogether new shades. The efforts to produce a strain better adapted to the trying conditions of the American climate, which called for petals of greater substance were very successful. Another fault of many of the early introductions, as for example Alphonse Bouvier, was the drooping head, another feature corrected by later hybridizers. Still further advance was made in the breeding of more dwarf varieties of good habit and free blooming qualities, better adapted for planting in small gardens. Prominent among these dwarf varieties were Niagara, Butter- cup, Triumph and others. Another line of work was developing flowers of new colors on the bronze leaved types, the efforts of hybridizers being directed toward producing flowers of lighter shade on darker foliage. A new canna of great merit, origi- nated about this time by John A. Kemp, was Pennsylvania, an example of one of the most remarkable achievements and greatest breaks in canna hybridizing. This was produced by crossing Duke of Marlboro with one of the orchid flowering varieties, thus producing the first solid red in this class. A good example of the perse- verance and patience required in canna breeders is exemplified in the production of the then nearest white canna, Mont Blanc, which is the re- sult of cross breeding extending over eight years, having for its progenitor, Alsace, which always had the disad- vantage of very narrow petals. This was in 1903. Many who attended the Louisiana Purchase exposition, held at St. Louis in 1904, will long remember the re- markable display of cannas there shown by the leading firms of this country, one firm alone having beds extending over a space of four and a half acres, with no less than 50 kinds, many of them made up in beds of a solid color, and perhaps the most prominen
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectfloriculture, bookyea
