Re: The "Geranium Records"
- Subject: Re: The "Geranium Records"
- From: "Roth, Barry" B*@BROBECK.COM
- Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 15:49:33 -0700
As I wrote earlier, the quotation from Charles Piper Smith that Sandy gave
us is fascinating. There is also a special poignancy.
Dr. Smith (a botanist who published important works on lupine) reports
raising, or at least sowing, nearly 150 crosses of poinsettia-flowered
zonals. This report must date from no earlier than 1954, because he cites
the 195 Holmes Miller catalogue. I was going to point out that none of the
150 seemed to have yielded varieties that made it into commerce. Then I
remembered from earlier research that Smith died in 1955. Thus, this
quotation probably records an unfinished experiment.
Other points in the post of potential interest to hybridizers are the
indication of the scale that these breeders worked on at the time (I assume
Smith's seedling "No. 5303" is the third seedling of 1953, not one of more
than five thousand), and the fact that the zonal 'Mertes White' was one of
the parents used. 'Mertes White' also figured importantly in other
crossings by Miller (see H.V.P. Wilson, "The Joy of Geraniums"). Does
anyone know whether 'Mertes White' is commercially available anywhere? As
sometimes happens in plant breeding, it seems to have been more significant
as a parent than as a plant in its own right.
Barry
-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Connerley [s*@SURFARI.NET]
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 8:15 PM
To: IGSROBIN@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: The "Geranium Records"
Hello,
While reading these back issues of GATW, I have found an interesting
short article on cactus flowered hortorums by Charles Piper Smith in
Saratoga, California, in Volume III, Number 1. No date and I should go
upstairs and see where it is in the stream of time.
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