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Bizarres, Flakes and Picotees 1999

By Roy Tolley

Picotees, Bizarres and Flakes were perhaps the queens of Border Carnations at the end of the last century. However, their popularity was on the wane by the end of the Great War, and at the end of W.W.2 flakes and bizarres had virtually disappeared, and the picotee was fast following them. Three or four old pre-war Picotees were still available, but apart from ‘Eva Humphries’ no new varieties were introduced, until, in the period starting from the early 70’s, a band of dedicated Border Carnation enthusiasts, Messrs: Bowers, Dunn, Galbally, Knight, Russell and others, working quite separately, have produced beautiful new Picotees from strong healthy plants.

These in turn, when cross-fertilised, may well produce further generations of Picotees, possibly with a range of ground colours undreamt of now. The one or two pinkish-based blooms will, no doubt, acquire a stronger, more definite colour in time either by further crossing or even by sporting, and so further progress can be made.

The Picotee has thus attained new life and its future, once doubtful, now seems assured. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that commercial firms involved do not seem to have taken up these cultivars. Decreasing vigour of the older sorts and increased popularity of the newer ones amongst those growers who can obtain and show them will probably remedy that.

The story of flakes and bizarres is a less happy one. I believe there are no catalogues published today that include them in their lists and there are no classes for them at shows. B.N.C.S. Rules for Judging do not refer to them in their classifications.

Building on the successful reinvigoration of the Picotee, is it not a challenge to resuscitate and re-introduce bizarres and fakes? I am well aware that many fancy Borders have stripes and even wedges of colour on their petals, but they do not meet the standards of excellence laid down by growers more than a century ago. These required flakes to have pure white petals, unshaed and without blemish, each and every petal having stripes of one clear and distinct colour, namely pink, purple, or scarlet.

Bizarres also had to have unblemished white petals with two distinct colours placed longitudinally on them, broad at the edge of the petal and tapering towards the centre of the flower, being classified according to the dominant colour e.g. Scarlet bizarres were scarlet and maroon, Crimson were crimson and purple, and Pink were pink and purple. These coloured stripes were evenly distributed over the petals. In all other respects the standards for bizarres and flakes were similar to those for other Border Carnations – form, size etc,

Many of them were long-lived and quite hardy, being cultivated in Scotland and the North of England as well as elsewhere. Some of the best the late James Douglas ever saw were grown in cottage gardens in the Tyne Valley. The variety Admiral Curzon, a scarlet bizarre, was raised in 1844 and was judged the premier bloom in the bizarre carnations at the National Carnation and Picotee Society’s show in 1909, and was still going strong more than 65 years after its raising. This was probably exceptional, but the average life was of the order of twenty years or so. Bizarres and flakes died out because growers were unable to produce new varieties of sufficiently high standard, and eventually the existing plants aged and suffered debilita¬tion and the loss of constitution due to continuous inbreeding.

The modern Border Carnation has proved itself to be a strong, healthy, and hardy plant, and a fresh breeding programme from, say, suitable white ground fancy varieties could obviate the dangers of the earlier inbreeding. Perhaps a seedling in a batch produced by one of the hybridists working away today with other aims in view – Picotees for instance will exhibit some of the characteristics of a flake or bizarre which could be developed in the course of time to the old standards of excellence. There may even be a plant still growing in a garden somewhere in the country, appreciated but unrecognised for what it is.

What an achievement it would be if someone, by whatever means, could bring back these delightful 19th century flowers only known to us through stylised paintings and drawings in old books and florists catalogues, into the 21st century and so allow us to admire and take pleasure in what our fore-bearers thought so highly of. You might easily say, dear reader, ‘Well what are you doing about it?’ In the course of time I have learnt that not only is skill, patience, and fortitude required, but so too is sheer good fortune – particularly, I think, the latter having tried for years to produce a really worthwhile picotee to rival ‘Eva Humphries’ with, needless to say, no success. Like all the others I keep on trying ever hopeful of what the next season will be bring, In the meantime I grow and admire other men’s flowers.