Arthur E. Curtis likes to give his mother, Anna E. Curtis Goetting, credit for the success he has had as a hybridizer of fine Oriental poppies.
She was an outstanding teacher of botany. One of the best, according to that grand old man of horticulture, Dr. B. O. Dodge.
She was, too, an enthusiastic gardener who had the rare ability to inspire others, including her very young son, with an interest in the plant world.
Each year Anna made her garden, and her son Arthur made his. Together, they carried specimen blooms to the county fair, won prizes with them, and saved their prize money to buy more seeds with which to grow more prize blooms the next year.
Developed Beautiful Poppies
Mr. Curtis’ education also has helped him develop more beautiful poppies. He is a trained artist. Four of the six years he spent at art school were paid for by scholarships awarded him in recognition of his talent.
He did not forsake art. Circumstances, however, led him to earn his living through books instead of pictures. He, with Mr. W. C. Smith, as a partner, established the Byway Press and revived the beautiful old form of printing with a hand press on damp paper.
Later he became interested in old editions, particularly early American history, and traveled the country seeking them out and buying them for his firm.
In his spare time, Mr. Curtis gardened. He tried to breed iris, but his interest in that flower palled. Too many others were breeding iris.
Dark Red Oriental Poppy
Meanwhile, a friend gave him a dark red Oriental Poppy. There was a lovely thing! A flower, too, that other hybridizers had overlooked.
He worked on it, promising himself—since he could not leave a painting behind him—to make a poppy so beautiful that it would live as long as a masterpiece on canvas. He did! Several poppies!
It was not until 1933, however, that Mr. Curtis could devote all of his time to the hobby which became his business and brought him fame.
In 1916
Long before then, in 1916, he had bought a house and begun a garden on two acres of the hillside on Argus Road in Cincinnati. The house is on three levels. The library, bedroom, and bath are on the first floor.
A short flight of steps descends to the second level and dining room, kitchen, and studio. The basement rooms are on the garden level.
The stone steps lead from the house and from the three terraces surrounding what is now a beautiful sunken lawn where, in former years, the poppies gleamed and blazed from May 15 to early June. Thousands of them, from white to palest pink and deepest red! A wonderful sight!
In 1950, Mr. Curtis remarried. Mary Martin Curtis is a charming lady who shares her husband’s love of gardening. She helped him decide to retire recently to spend the rest of his time doing what he enjoys most —developing more lovely poppies.
Fortunately, Mr. Curtis could leave his poppy business in trusted hands as six years ago, encouraged by the increasing popularity of his plants, he had taken Mr. Louis Mattfeld on as a partner.
Mr. Mattfeld had proved most efficient, but the two acres had proved too small for the growing trade and multiplying plants.
When Mr. Curtis retired, Mr. Mattfeld moved the stock to a larger place where, on their roomier acres, the poppies spread and became larger and more beautiful than ever.
Rearranging Argus Road Garden
It took two years to rearrange the Argus Road garden. Now, on one side of the three terraces, there are groups of from three to seven of the 21 large poppies that Mr. Curtis has introduced.
Interplanted with them are tall bearded and Siberian iris, peonies, chrysanthemums, and other perennials.
There are, too, about 400 seedling poppies developed by Mr. Curtis during his more than a quarter-century of hybridizing and saving for one reason or another, as well as 100 standard poppy varieties grown for comparison’s sake.
In the rear of the place are five beds, 50′ feet long, containing newer Curtis seedlings from 1950 to the present.
One section of the garden belongs to Mary Curtis, who specializes in herbs. She grows them, cooks with them, and dries them.
Besides tending his nursery business, Mr. Curtis has been writing for various gardening publications since 1936, telling the world of the beauty and value of the Oriental Poppy in the landscape.
As he approaches his eightieth year, he looks forward to the best season he has ever had. He is planning new flowers and new crosses of old ones with the same ardor he had as a young lad going to win blue ribbons at county fairs with his mother.
Even Queen Elizabeth, who has seen the earth’s finest flowers, stopped beside a planting of Curtis Giant Poppies in the Government House Garden, New Zealand, and wanted to know what country had produced such very beautiful blooms!
Images:
Leaves of magnolia cuttings were clipped in half to save space in the cold frame. This did not hamper rooting. Six half-leaves gave better results than three whole leaves. Magnolia soulangeana, liliiflora nigra, virginiana, and Grandiflora are rooted easily. Grandiflora, the most difficult, should be propagated from softwood early in summer or young laterals made later on.
Dogwood cuttings, placed in a cold frame bathed with a constant fog mist, rooted in 3 or 4 weeks. They were not moved to a hot, dry garden immediately but potted, placed under lath shade, and frequently syringed for a few weeks.
Azalea cuttings started in pearlite (left) and sand and peat (right) and rooted in from 3 to 6 weeks. Under fog mist, cuttings from soft but mature growth of the previous year became as large as year-old cuttings during the first summer.
44659 by Mary Bickmore