For distinguished achievement in horticulture” is the bold line across JL the top of a parchment citation which was bestowed upon Hulda Klager of Woodland, Washington, by the Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs at its annual convention in Bend, Oregon, on June 18, 1947.
Mrs. Klager, just past her 84th birthday, could not make the trip to receive the citation, but her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Mills, was present to accept it.
No more appropriate representative could have been present, for Mrs. Mills, trained by her mother in the technique of hybridizing, has 20 years of work on the rhododendron to her credit already and is carrying on the family tradition splendidly.
The Success of Klager’s Hybrid Lilacs
“The Lilac Lady” is the name by which Mrs. Klager is known to northwestern folk because of her outstanding work in hybridizing Syringa vulgaris.
But her work with the lilac, while it has attracted more interest than her other activities, is only part of the work she has carried on for a long lifetime.
The broom, the tree peony, and various fruit trees are among the other materials she has worked on and produced new contributions to horticultural material.
Mrs. Klager’s Approach To Hybridizing
When she was a child in Wisconsin, Hulda Klager saw her first lilac bloom and thought it was the most beautiful flower she had ever seen.
After she married and came west, a period of poor health drove her to extensive reading, and before long, she came upon a copy of a book by Luther Burbank. Thereupon, she decided to do some hybridizing.
Lilac was the first thing she decided to work with. She sent East for stock of the lilacs Ludwig Spaeth, President Grevy, and a double blue—and she began her work with these.
In the late twenties, her plantings of hybrid lilacs began to attract attention. In recent years, the Klager farm at Woodland, Washington, has been the focal point of pilgrimages by garden-minded folk from all over the Northwest.
These mass visits are usually made during Mrs. Klager’s birthday week, the first part of May—when the lilacs are at their best.
Large Lilac Florets
Her latest achievement is the result of a six-year project of hand pollination based on previous hybrid creations she had developed. This work has resulted in a plant with an immense, loose truss made up of florets of truly exceptional size.
“Much larger than any I have seen before,” Mrs. Klager says. “Florets two inches in circumference,” enthusiastic visitors to the lilac farm declare.
The average of the Klager lilac florets is around 1/2″ inch in circumference or 1/2 inch in diameter. Her seedlings give a wide range of color variations.
Many of her creations have been lost simply because Mrs. Klager never went in very enthusiastically for commercial propagation—being too interested in new crosses.
However, the sale of her creations has “sneaked up” on her due to the insistence of people who come to the farm. They see something they want and insist on buying it right away.
The Beginning of the Hybridizing Journey
After a plant leaves the farm, its fate is up to whatever catch-as-catch can propagate the new owner may go in for.
Mrs. Klager does not consider hybridizing a “magic” formula—just a matter of time, persistence, patience, and selection!
In the beginning, she says she carried the lilac floret around on a saucer in her pollinating. And she still follows the same methods with lilac and other materials.
“You start with what you have. You cross this and that, save the best, and cross again. You keep on doing this over and over, and after years and years, you begin to be able to know in advance—before you pollinate—just about what you are going to get.
“It’s only in the last few years that I could see clearly where I was going in lilacs and how to get there. But there is a lot to do and little time to do it.”
On her 83rd birthday, showing a visitor over the plantation, she said, “We have gone about as far as we can with this strain. I guess I’ll have to go back and start again with species.”
“On your 83rd birthday, you say that?” gasped the visitor.
“No matter if I don’t live to finish it,” she said with a smile. “Someone else will take up where I have to leave off and carry it through.”
Some years ago, Mrs. Klager ran one line of hybridizing into a blind alley when she produced the lilac she calls “My Favorite.” It is a richly-trussed, wine-colored, double variety but is sterile.
Immense rows of the hybrid broom are another thing that has made visitors catch their breath at Woodland. There seems to be no limit to the variations in the type of flower and color combinations she has achieved.
However, she has never bothered to propagate her hybrid broom commercially, and her new creations are continually going away to private homes instead of being spread through the nursery trade.
Tree peonies under her hands have followed similar lines of development. Almost a generation ago, some of her apple hybrids were popular in the northwestern market, but she has not followed through on these fruits.
Now—in addition to planning to “go back and start again with species” of lilac—she has started hybridizing magnolia.
Her daughter may in the future carry on the lines she has developed, even if age compels Mrs. Klager to relax her effort, and probably, the Klager lilacs will become more fully available to the world.
Impact of Natural Disasters
It is distressing to relate, however, that not all of Mrs. Klager’s lilac originations will be available for propagation because some of them at least were destroyed by the disastrous floods that visited the Northwest this spring.
The farm was submerged in 6’ feet of water, and when the flood had subsided, it was found that the top growth of most lilacs had been killed.
The immediate hope is that lilacs sent to gardens and grounds in various parts of the Northwest may be located and propagated.
Dr. C. W. Smith of Oregon State College looked over the flood area and expressed the opinion that some of the lilacs may recover from the roots next season, although there has been little evidence of top growth thus far.
Many plants may recover in the show garden near the house, although they suffered badly from the flood.
They are not seedlings, however, but ancestors of the magnificent seedlings that have not yet shown much sign of coming back.
Preserving and Propagating Klager’s Lilacs
Mrs. Klager did not disseminate her creations on a large scale, her interest being in the production of new lilacs rather than in merchandising those already developed.
A few years ago, she sent some to the Arnold Arboretum and some to John Wister to be planted on the grounds of Swarthmore College.
Garden organizations and horticultural groups in Oregon are now planning a project to locate and recover, for purposes of greater propagation, some of the lilacs that have gone into private grounds and gardens in the Northwest.
If this project carries through, a score or more of Mrs. Klager’s fairly recent creations may be preserved, even if the planting at the home grounds in Woodland completely fails.
The citation awarded by the Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs is the fourth annual citation for outstanding work in Oregon horticulture.
The award was set up in 1944 to encourage gathering information and biographical material to become a part of a cumulative record of horticultural work of exceptional character in Oregon country.
44659 by Dean Collins