AUGUST 1965

I am printing this new catalog sole because the supply of my previous one (dated 1960) is exhausted. I am adding this one page of new information. I am also adding four hybrids

Audrey (last listed in 1942), Nos. 16209 and 16234, and Frances (No. 8167); and withdrawing few.

Since I am issuming this new list , however, I shall take the opportunity for one final bird's-eye view of my father's work with plants:

1. In the years 1920-27, before he introduced any hyhrids, father brought out several new seedlings strictly of the albiflora group: Grace Loomis, Matilda Lewis, Emmy Swan, Louise and Silvia Saunders were on show tables for some years. Two or three were available from other nurseries, but almost all have been pushed off the stage by the many finer kinds that now jostle for first places in catalog, in shows and in our gardens.

2. Of historic interest are two other plants, both fine in their day: a pure whhite phlox, Mary Louise, and a pure white iris. White Knight (1916). Long-ago customers and friends might still find these in their gardens; but they are no longer in the trade-lists.

3. The 120 Herbaceous and the 75 Lutea Hybrids that we have long offered, make up the bulk of this catalog. Many are still available here (tho' not all every year) and should so be in future from the various nurseries whose names I have listed on page 1.

4. Hybrids of the Future: The Saunders Hybrids, mostly 1^st generation, are just now passing into Honored Ancestorhood: new hybrids, of the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th generations, are appearing, not by this nursery, but I am happy to say, by six or eight new, and young, and serious hybridists who have miraculously entered the scene within the past ten years.

My father found that Testing for pollen-viability was to save him years of time and labor. Chromosome Counts are today's indicators of possible fruitful avenues of work. So 40 or 50 of our hybrids are being counted. I shall not incumber this catalog with the counts; they are being published from time to time in the American Peony Society's Bulletin.

Besides the men working on the Herbaceous Hybrids, there is William Gratwick at his great Tree Peony Nursery in Pavilion. New York. He and his partner, Nassos Daphnis, have, after 20 years' work together, broken thru the near-complete sterility of the 1^st -generation hybrids, and new lines, with highly complex parentages, are now in existence and should be appearing on the stage before long.