OUR DEBT TO SPECIALISTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20418, 26 May 1928, Page 3

OUR DEBT TO SPECIALISTS.

(From the Garden!) In whatever department of horticulture one’s interest lies, it will be found ,that the best achievements are due to the painstaking and long continued work of the specialist, who, in many instances, works upon a plant of insignificant origin until he has produced, perhaps after several years’ labour, something praiseworthy and quite superior to anything that has preceded it. When people take/ exception to what appear to be enhanced prices for new varieties of plants when first they are offered for sale, it is doubtful whether thought is ever given to the many failures -and disappointments the raiser had to encounter in the casting aside of plants which, on blooming, were’ found to bo but commonplace, before he was able to evolve something that was really meritorious. . j-. Much has been said in the last,/few years about the absence of scenf from many:*modern roses, and, there fs tfuth in it; but if one compares roses to-day with those grown, say, 50 years ago, it is only right that the matter should be regarded all round. It must be admitted that, some of the oldest varieties possess much sweetness, an attribute not found in a number of those introduced the last 20 years or so; but surely w« have enough roses valued for their perfume to enable us to admire a Frau Karl Druschki, whose peerless white blooms are so beautiful, though lacking scent. The old growers knew scarcely anything about hybrid teas with their delightful colourings and shapely buds, and teas were looked upon and treated as indoor subjects mostly. They understand more about the hybrid perpetuals, and, in particular, such sorts as John Hopper, Baronqss Rothschild, Dr Andry, and Glolre dc Dijon, that never approached the charm and grace of a Betty Pprichard, a Mabel Morse, a Golden Emblem, or Ophelia. If, as has been stated on more than one occasion, it is true that raisers of ndw rdses are more concerned about form and colour than with perfume—an indictment with which we do not agree—one can afford to be charitable when it is realised what is due to these specialists for the feast of beauty they have provided for the lover of the queen of flowers! When one is inclined to review some of the good old things of the past, and Imagine that something of value has been lost, it is well to sit down and peruse a catalogue of a firm of seed growers and raisers, as there is nothing calculated to dissipate prejudice more .quickly, if only the subject is approached with an open mind. A few examples will demonstrate what we mean.

What has the specialist done for un in the case of wallflowers? He has gwen us Sutton’s Fire King, Vulcan, Orange Bedder, Eastern Queen (a blending of colours of apricot and carmine), Faerie Queen (primrose), Purple Queen, Cloth of Gold, and Giant Blood Pod, much superior to any old form. Of these it can be said that no charge, can bo made against them that they arc lacking in sweetness. The chrysanthemum is a witness to the work of the. specialist, too. We remember when, for the most part, it was only as a garden flower that it was known, our earliest recollection, being of Cottage Maid, a ragged pink, and pompons of deep red and yellow. A garden plant which blooms in late spring and early summer is the sweet william.- Tin- ni l florists made much of it, and rightly so, but it has been left to modern specialists to bring to our borders such superb sorts as Pink Beauty and Scarlet Beauty. The lupin is another old-timer of the cottage garden renresented by blue and white. This plant has been vaised from a position of comparative obscurity by reason rf the work of the specialist. The Michaelmas daisy is another that was for years represented only by one or two f^rros—a slate-blue, a purple, and a whiD. lacking in purity. Now we have rich blues and indigos, rosy purples, and brilliant pinks, along with dainty members of the cricoides section, almost as fine as heather itself: some tall and imposing, others dwarf and of dainty habit. Mention need only be made of the improvements in other wellknown garden plants, like antirrhinums, clarkias, godetins, aquilegias, sweet peas, and dahlias. The same progress is manifest among greenhouse flowering plants. One thinks of primulas, cinerarias, with their dainty stollnta forms, and also of the strides which have been made in begonias and cyclamen. Among vegetables the work of evolving better varieties has been going on steadily for years. This is demonstrated in peas and beans; in lettuce and onions; in tomatoes and potatoes. All along the line it is the work of the specialist which has told for good, and because of his work we have no longings for the varieties of n past generation.