Evening star., 1950-01-01
Petunia Is Chosen
For 1850 With
2 Vegetables


Fire Chief Petunia. actually
spectrum red and with the glow
of scarlet, is the only flower to
achieve All-America Selection
honors for 1850. 1t merits the
first gold medal award for flowers,
since 1888 brought forth the first
red morning glory, Scarlett
O'Hara.
Home gardeners, as well as seed
men and greenhouse growers,
have for years wanted a real red
petunia, rich and vivid in color.
Plant breeders have crossed, Sc
lected, selfed, back-crossed and
otherwise worked with this most
popular of all annual flowers to
create a red. It has velvet depth
and brilliant warmth.
Fire Chief grows about IL inches
tall and wide, covering itself with
large, plain-petaled flowers from
early summer until killing frosts.
Indoors it lives through the winter.
Petunias are, after all, tender per-
ennials although treated and
grown as hardy ANIMALS over most
Of America and Canada.
The plant holds a uniform bushy
shape instead of dividing and
sprawling. Fire Chief thus is ideal
for bedding. low borders, edging
beds, walks and drives. For potting
and window or porch boxes. the
everblooming, glowing mass of red
is striking against q white or
light-colored house or background.
It's use gives life to stone and
brick; compliments masses of
green. 1t is ideal for flower ar
ranging, having long stems.
Two New Vegetables.
Uconn squash and Topcrop snap
bean merited gold medal awards,
the highest recommendation pos
sible for q new variety to achieve
In the all-America selections for
1850.
Uconn is q true bush form Of
the popular Acorn or Table Queen
type squash. There is no waste.
It is used early in the season as
a summer squash and surplus
fruits are left for maturity and
stored for winter use.
Developed by DR.. L. c. Curtis,
while with the University of Con-
necticut Experiment Station, from
crossing Acorn with the 1888 sill
yer medal winning, Early Prolific
Straightneck variety, Uconn has
the shape, green skin color and
buttery consistency and flavor of
Acorn along with the bush form,
earliness and heavy production of
the Straightneck.
With bush form, Uconn fits into
the garden and is easily culti-
waited, occupying only by 8 feet,
instead Of having the runners or
vines.
Topcrop bush snapbean was
created by DR.. w. j. Zaumeyer,
at the Plant Industry Station of
the Agriculture Department at
Beltsville. Md. Topcrop is of high
est eating quality. green. round
podded, stringless and fiberless.
It is a heavy bearer.
Topcrop has several distinct ad-
vantages over the 1888 gold medal
winning Tendergreen. It has al
most doubled the yield of Ten
dergreen in the bean sections.
Most important. it seems entirely
immune to the common bean
mosaic and to greasy-pod or
shiny-pod virus disease, which ef-
feet plant growth and the pro-
duction Of edible pods.
Tendergreen's outstanding quail
ity made 1t the most widely plant
ed variety in America, with some
40 per cent of all snapbeans pro-
duced. Keystonian, Longreen and
Supergreen were improved selec-
tions out of Tendergreen, for
longer pods. They are good varie-
ties, but most all snapbeans are
losing in yields because of dis
eases.
| Except for the 1949 introduc-
ton. ,Caserta squash, these two
new 1850 winners are the only
vegetables meriting gold medals
since 1885. A variety must be
an outstanding achievement to
obtain gold medal distinction
from its behavior In comparison
with other similar varieties in the
20 all-American trial grounds
over the United States and Can
ada.
New Watermelon Variety.
Although not q 1850 all-Amer-
ican selection, the Congo water
melon has shown sufficient merit
in regional, trials to win q tenn
porary bronze medal award and
will be released to growers before
completing the two-year trial.
Congo. an early-maturing va
riety. is Of Importance because of
resistance to the anthracnose dis
ease, and because it is less sub
ject to malformation-gourdneck
Moreover. 1t has a tough skin and
can Withstand hail damage and
the bruising of shipment better
than the common varieties. These
desirable characteristics coupled
with good quality and flavor indi-
cate a possible higher rating atI
the end Of the trials.
Glover Stands Hurt
By Heavy Mulch