This June 29, 1895 Evening Post article by Charles H. Shinn showed up in Burbank's notebook. (It was reachable from FultonHistory.com and is no longer.)
NEW FLOWERS AND FRUITS.
A Private Experiment Farm In California where Marvellous Results Are Obtained—Acres of Hybrid Lilies and Berries.
San Francisco, June 28
I have just returned from a visit to one of the most wonderful private experiment farms in America. I should like to have had a picked group of scientific horticulturists with me. They would have seen more than I saw, and would have understood more completely the astonishing work that is being done year after year in this outdoor garden in which new flowers, fruits, and ornamental plants are being created chiefly for the pleasure of the hybridizer's art—a garden wherein allied species of plants are knit closer or are broken into new forms of vegetable life by the magic of pollen dust and a thousand persuasions of culture.
There is hardly a nurseryman, seedsman, florist, or botanist of reputation in the United States who does not know something of the marvels produced in the gardens of this horticultural
wondersmith, Luther Burbank, who has been toiling for more than twenty years to make new combinations in the vegetable world. He began at the age of sixteen, in his native state of Massachusetts, and his later results, in lilies, gladioli, berries, plums, quinces, and other fruits, are of world-wide fame. Here in California Mr. Burbank is almost unknown, so modest and secluded a life has be lived, apart from men, seeking silence, and avoiding notoriety as though it were a pestilence. He has few visitors, and none who are uninvited ever see his experiment field. Living ten miles from some of his plantations, he is up at daybreak, and out till long after dark overseeing his workmen.
His life is that of the ardent specialist, who never finds time for a moment's rest or recreation.
His most attractive line of work at
present is in lilies, which are now in full bloom. I spent several hours in the
lily field of two acres, containing not less than 100,000 plants of hybrid
lilies, raised from seed. Fully as many small plants are growing in seed-boxes
for planting out this winter. Sixteen years ago Mr. Burbank began to experiment
with the native lilies of the Pacific Coast. He gradually added other species,
gathering the pollen, and cross-fertilizing, until this magnificent collection
is the result, or rather is the beginning of entirely new classes of this
beautiful flower. Mr. Burbank has grown more than a million lily bulbs, and be
plants hybridized seed by the pound every year. Among the leading kinds of
lilies which he has endeavored to unite in countless combinations are all the
Japanese species, such as L. speciosum and L. auratum; the Himalayan lilies,
the European lilies, such as L. candidum; the lovely yellow L. Parryii, the
pretty dwarfs, L. maritimum and L . parvum, and others too many to list here,
but numbering more than forty in all.
This great mass of a hundred thousand lilies in full bloom, on a California hillside, in mid June, surrounded by orchards, wheatfields, snd fringes of forest, is peculiarly enchanting. As one approaches, the golden, orange, and red tints which predominate, mingled with varied shades of green, produce the effect of some huge product of Oriental looms. Little by little, as one draws closer, the colors separate, and widely diverse types of flowers are seen to be growing side by side. One finds lily stems varying In height from Six inches to nine feet, all bearing open flowers. Some plants have many stems, others but one, and a few present stems with distinct branches like the branches of a tree. Flowers, leaves, stems, and roots show every conceivable variation. The biologist would find material for a volume, in this lily field.
line of work at present i s in lilies, which are now in full bloom. I spent several hours In the lily field of two acres, containing not leas than luo.OOO plants of hybrid lilies, raised from seed. Fully us many email plants are growing in seed-boxes for planting out this winter. Sixteen years ago Mr. Burbank began to experiment with the native lilies of the Pacific Coast. He gradually added other species, gathering the pollen, and cross-fertilizing, until this magnificent collection is the result, or rather is the beginning of entirely new classes of this beautiful flower. Mr. Burbank has grown more than a million lily bulbs, and be plants hybridized seed by the pound every year. Among the leading kinds of lilies which he has endeavored t o unite in countless combinations are all the Japanese species, such as L. speoiosum and L. auratum; the Himalaya.! lilies, the European lilies, such as L. candidum; the lovely yellow L. Parryii, the pretty dwarfs, L. maritimum and L . parvum, and others too many to list here, but numbering more than forty in all. This great mass of a hundred thousand lilies in full bloom, on a California hillside, in mid June, surrounded by orchards, wheatfields, snd fringes of forest, is peculiarly enchanting. As one approaches, the golden, orange, and red tints which predominate, mingled with varied shades of green, produce the effect of some huge product of Oriental looms. Little by little, aa one draws closer, the colors separate, and widely diverse types of flowers are seen to be growing side by side. One flnrta, lily stems varying In height from Six inches to n i n e feet, all bearing open flowers. Some plan’s have many stems, ethers but one, and a few present stems with distinct branches like the branches of a tree. Flowers, leaves, stems, and roots show every conceivable variation. The biologist would find material for a volume, in this lily field.line of work at present i s in lilies, which are now in full bloom. I spent several hours In the lily field of two acres, containing not leas than luo.OOO plants of hybrid lilies, raised from seed. Fully us many email plants are growing in seed-boxes for planting out this winter. Sixteen years ago Mr. Burbank began to experiment with the native lilies of the Pacific Coast. He gradually added other species, gathering the pollen, and cross-fertilizing, until this magnificent collection is the result, or rather is the beginning of entirely new classes of this beautiful flower. Mr. Burbank has grown more than a million lily bulbs, and be plants hybridized seed by the pound every year. Among the leading kinds of lilies which he has endeavored t o unite in countless combinations are all the Japanese species, such as L. speoiosum and L. auratum; the Himalaya.! lilies, the European lilies, such as L. candidum; the lovely yellow L. Parryii, the pretty dwarfs, L. maritimum and L . parvum, and others too many to list here, but numbering more than forty in all. This great mass of a hundred thousand lilies in full bloom, on a California hillside, in mid June, surrounded by orchards, wheatfields, snd fringes of forest, is peculiarly enchanting. As one approaches, the golden, orange, and red tints which predominate, mingled with varied shades of green, produce the effect of some huge product of Oriental looms. Little by little, aa one draws closer, the colors separate, and widely diverse types of flowers are seen to be growing side by side. One flnrta, lily stems varying In height from Six inches to n i n e feet, all bearing open flowers. Some plan’s have many stems, ethers but one, and a few present stems with distinct branches like the branches of a tree. Flowers, leaves, stems, and roots show every conceivable variation. The biologist would find material for a volume, in this lily field.
Here are a few notes from my field-book: ’There ia overy shape among the flowers. Some lilies have but one petal, rolled like a cigar, and half open like the broader end of a cypripedium. Others bave two petals spreading apart like wings; others, again, bave three or four or five petals. Tho great bulk, however, have the normal six. The variation in color is extreme, ranging from white to dark-purple, through surprising changes of combinations. The methods of growth are equally curious. Many stems bear all the flowers at the top, almost level, a new system for lilies, and especially useful in garden-grouping. One such plant two and a half feet high carries fifty-six flowers.
“A tall spike of golden-brown lilies of L. Humboldti type carries ninety-one flowers and is four feet high.
“Some crosses of Lilium Parryii on L. Humboldti show an immense improvement in size and dignity over both parents. Many dwarf plants, L. maritimum stock, are especially attractive. These are chiefly crossed with L. pardalinum minor. One small plant has eighty-eight flowers.
“A candelabra-shaped, branching lily, with eight stems coming from one bulb, shows 217 buds and flowers. This is a very remarkable type, new and most attractive. It seems to have the root and leaf characteristics of the hardy white lily of the garden, L. candidum. Many combinations of this general class are found with flowers of different colors. The finest plant has thirty-seven stems, and here the candidum cross shows very plainly.”
In form, sire, color, fragrance, this field of hybridised lily flowers is a revelation. There ‘is certainly nothing like it elsewhere in America, and 1 do not know of any place in Europe where such a collection can be found. We came out of the field yellow and brown from head to feet with lily-pollen.
Lilies do not readily hybridise, or “break” into new lines of development. Comparatively little has been done in the line of producing new lilies anywhere for twenty years past. The attention of hybridizers has been turned elsewhere, because lilies are distinctly difficult subjects. But now, by handling them on so large a scale, under very favorable conditions of soil and climate, Mr. Burbank has not only created a number of fine new varieties worthy of general propagation, and capable of adding unthought-of charms to the hardy-bulb garden; he has also produced an almist limitless mass of promising materials for other hybridizers and florists to work upon. The tendency to break into sports and variations predominates in his lily strain. It ia capable of guidance into new channels; it has only begun to produce varieties worth propagation.
So much for the lilies The berry plantations are oo lees marvellous. Over 70,000 seedlings were once grown here is trying to produce a aeeful cross, and all bat a dosea were destroyed. The best of these, after repeated tests and the introduction of new strains, ia a berry which combine* the rirhasea sttd sweetness of t h i wild California dewberry (RvtniM wrvfea) with some of the charneterlstioa of the best raspberries. This i s mcch like the Loganberry which ins California Bait Station introduced, bat It seems to Among other new berrlea are a blackberry,rich and beautiful,and and fine yellow, white, and The golden May berry, a cross with a wild Japanese berry, ripens a month earlier than the earliest variety before known, Aa with the lilies, success with the berry field i s based upon a superb collection o f varieties aad species of berries from all parts of the world, and t o a s of cross-bred plants are destroyed as worthless. Often the end aimed at proves unattainable, at least under present conditions,snd nature gives some other and totally unexpected gift instead.
“What do you expect to achieve with all this?” 1 ask the eager, busy, faithful master.
“Fairer flowers and better fruits.” be answers. “Fruits and flowers for the homes of America—earlier and later, larger and more highly flavored, hardier and more productive.”
Every day be does the work of two or three ordinary men, and every day be wrestles with problems of life, until be forces answers from the very lips of the Sphinx.
This great mass of a hundred thousand lilies in full bloom, on a California hillside, in mid June, surrounded by orchards, wheatfields, snd fringes of forest, is peculiarly enchanting. As one approaches, the golden, orange, and red tints which predominate, mingled with varied shades of green, produce the effect of some huge product of Oriental looms. Little by little, as one draws closer, the colors separate, and widely diverse types of flowers are seen to be growing side by side. One finds lily stems varying In height from Six inches to nine feet, all bearing open flowers. Some plants have many stems, others but one, and a few present stems with distinct branches like the branches of a tree. Flowers, leaves, stems, and roots show every conceivable variation. The biologist would find material for a volume, in this lily field.
line of work at present i s in lilies, which are now in full bloom. I spent several hours In the lily field of two acres, containing not leas than luo.OOO plants of hybrid lilies, raised from seed. Fully us many email plants are growing in seed-boxes for planting out this winter. Sixteen years ago Mr. Burbank began to experiment with the native lilies of the Pacific Coast. He gradually added other species, gathering the pollen, and cross-fertilizing, until this magnificent collection is the result, or rather is the beginning of entirely new classes of this beautiful flower. Mr. Burbank has grown more than a million lily bulbs, and be plants hybridized seed by the pound every year. Among the leading kinds of lilies which he has endeavored t o unite in countless combinations are all the Japanese species, such as L. speoiosum and L. auratum; the Himalaya.! lilies, the European lilies, such as L. candidum; the lovely yellow L. Parryii, the pretty dwarfs, L. maritimum and L . parvum, and others too many to list here, but numbering more than forty in all. This great mass of a hundred thousand lilies in full bloom, on a California hillside, in mid June, surrounded by orchards, wheatfields, snd fringes of forest, is peculiarly enchanting. As one approaches, the golden, orange, and red tints which predominate, mingled with varied shades of green, produce the effect of some huge product of Oriental looms. Little by little, aa one draws closer, the colors separate, and widely diverse types of flowers are seen to be growing side by side. One flnrta, lily stems varying In height from Six inches to n i n e feet, all bearing open flowers. Some plan’s have many stems, ethers but one, and a few present stems with distinct branches like the branches of a tree. Flowers, leaves, stems, and roots show every conceivable variation. The biologist would find material for a volume, in this lily field.line of work at present i s in lilies, which are now in full bloom. I spent several hours In the lily field of two acres, containing not leas than luo.OOO plants of hybrid lilies, raised from seed. Fully us many email plants are growing in seed-boxes for planting out this winter. Sixteen years ago Mr. Burbank began to experiment with the native lilies of the Pacific Coast. He gradually added other species, gathering the pollen, and cross-fertilizing, until this magnificent collection is the result, or rather is the beginning of entirely new classes of this beautiful flower. Mr. Burbank has grown more than a million lily bulbs, and be plants hybridized seed by the pound every year. Among the leading kinds of lilies which he has endeavored t o unite in countless combinations are all the Japanese species, such as L. speoiosum and L. auratum; the Himalaya.! lilies, the European lilies, such as L. candidum; the lovely yellow L. Parryii, the pretty dwarfs, L. maritimum and L . parvum, and others too many to list here, but numbering more than forty in all. This great mass of a hundred thousand lilies in full bloom, on a California hillside, in mid June, surrounded by orchards, wheatfields, snd fringes of forest, is peculiarly enchanting. As one approaches, the golden, orange, and red tints which predominate, mingled with varied shades of green, produce the effect of some huge product of Oriental looms. Little by little, aa one draws closer, the colors separate, and widely diverse types of flowers are seen to be growing side by side. One flnrta, lily stems varying In height from Six inches to n i n e feet, all bearing open flowers. Some plan’s have many stems, ethers but one, and a few present stems with distinct branches like the branches of a tree. Flowers, leaves, stems, and roots show every conceivable variation. The biologist would find material for a volume, in this lily field.
Here are a few notes from my field-book: ’There ia overy shape among the flowers. Some lilies have but one petal, rolled like a cigar, and half open like the broader end of a cypripedium. Others bave two petals spreading apart like wings; others, again, bave three or four or five petals. Tho great bulk, however, have the normal six. The variation in color is extreme, ranging from white to dark-purple, through surprising changes of combinations. The methods of growth are equally curious. Many stems bear all the flowers at the top, almost level, a new system for lilies, and especially useful in garden-grouping. One such plant two and a half feet high carries fifty-six flowers.
“A tall spike of golden-brown lilies of L. Humboldti type carries ninety-one flowers and is four feet high.
“Some crosses of Lilium Parryii on L. Humboldti show an immense improvement in size and dignity over both parents. Many dwarf plants, L. maritimum stock, are especially attractive. These are chiefly crossed with L. pardalinum minor. One small plant has eighty-eight flowers.
“A candelabra-shaped, branching lily, with eight stems coming from one bulb, shows 217 buds and flowers. This is a very remarkable type, new and most attractive. It seems to have the root and leaf characteristics of the hardy white lily of the garden, L. candidum. Many combinations of this general class are found with flowers of different colors. The finest plant has thirty-seven stems, and here the candidum cross shows very plainly.”
In form, sire, color, fragrance, this field of hybridised lily flowers is a revelation. There ‘is certainly nothing like it elsewhere in America, and 1 do not know of any place in Europe where such a collection can be found. We came out of the field yellow and brown from head to feet with lily-pollen.
Lilies do not readily hybridise, or “break” into new lines of development. Comparatively little has been done in the line of producing new lilies anywhere for twenty years past. The attention of hybridizers has been turned elsewhere, because lilies are distinctly difficult subjects. But now, by handling them on so large a scale, under very favorable conditions of soil and climate, Mr. Burbank has not only created a number of fine new varieties worthy of general propagation, and capable of adding unthought-of charms to the hardy-bulb garden; he has also produced an almist limitless mass of promising materials for other hybridizers and florists to work upon. The tendency to break into sports and variations predominates in his lily strain. It ia capable of guidance into new channels; it has only begun to produce varieties worth propagation.
So much for the lilies The berry plantations are oo lees marvellous. Over 70,000 seedlings were once grown here is trying to produce a aeeful cross, and all bat a dosea were destroyed. The best of these, after repeated tests and the introduction of new strains, ia a berry which combine* the rirhasea sttd sweetness of t h i wild California dewberry (RvtniM wrvfea) with some of the charneterlstioa of the best raspberries. This i s mcch like the Loganberry which ins California Bait Station introduced, bat It seems to Among other new berrlea are a blackberry,rich and beautiful,and and fine yellow, white, and The golden May berry, a cross with a wild Japanese berry, ripens a month earlier than the earliest variety before known, Aa with the lilies, success with the berry field i s based upon a superb collection o f varieties aad species of berries from all parts of the world, and t o a s of cross-bred plants are destroyed as worthless. Often the end aimed at proves unattainable, at least under present conditions,snd nature gives some other and totally unexpected gift instead.
“What do you expect to achieve with all this?” 1 ask the eager, busy, faithful master.
“Fairer flowers and better fruits.” be answers. “Fruits and flowers for the homes of America—earlier and later, larger and more highly flavored, hardier and more productive.”
Every day be does the work of two or three ordinary men, and every day be wrestles with problems of life, until be forces answers from the very lips of the Sphinx.
Charles Howard Shinn.
References for Charles Shinn and Luther Burbank:
- Intensive Horticulture in California, Charles Howard Shinn, Luther Burbank, Carl Purdy, 1901
- Annals of Horticulture in North America for the Years 1889-1893, Volume 4 "A botanic garden for the preservation of California red woods has been established during the year by the donation in trust of 640 acres of red wood timber land in Sonoma county by Col JB Armstrong of Santa Rosa The tract is on the north bank of the Russian river The timber is in a good state of preservation The trustees of the garden are Miss Kate Armstrong daughter of the donor. EJ Wickson Charles H Shinn Luther Burbank and Robert U Johnson."
- Meehans' Monthly: A Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and ..., Volumes 1-2, more on Armstrong, 1892
- Horticultural Development, Chapter XIV, A History of the New California
- Flowers, Luther Burbank, 1921, no lilies, but other flowers
- How Plants are Trained to Work for Man: Flowers, Luther Burbank, 1921
 |
| This line drawing is one side of the endpaper, the flyleaf, in the book, How Plants are Trained to Work for Man: Flowers The other side has a bookplate pasted over it. You can see someone's feet, a pumpkin, and roses peeking out beneath. |
References for the plants
- "Burbank's Hybrid West Coast Lilies", July 2011, Pacific Horticulture,
- Luther Burbank: His Life And Work, Henry Smith Williams, 1915.
- A more recent lily breeder, Leslie Woodruff, the developer of the popular upward facing lily, "The Stargazer", has a section in Amy Stewart's Flower Confidential. Check out the Stargazer and other lilies on the Pacific Bulb Society page.