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On January 29, 1940, a representative of the W. Atlee Burpee Seed Company appeared at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to promote his company’s latest flower innovation. In a presentation to horticulturalists and amateur gardeners, the plant breeder Burr Robinson described the Tetra Marigold, a deep orange flower with blossoms four inches across. His boss David Burpee had earlier hailed the plant as the “first new flower ever created by the use of a chemical.” 1 For home gardeners wishing to know more, the 1940 Burpee Catalog explained the chemical process behind the marigold’s production and its desirable traits,“Colchicine, the powerful chemical made from the fall crocus, was applied to Guinea Gold Marigold. It caused the doubling up of the cell contents and this new marigold is consequently big and strong growing. It is a ‘Tetraploid.’” 2 In its 1940 promotional activities and in the catalogs and advertisements of subsequent years, the Burpee company consistently emphasized to its customers the chemical origins of the Tetra marigold, often to an extent that overshadowed its other qualities. Nor was the Guinea Gold marigold the only plant to receive such treatment. Over the next decade, the Burpee company would introduce a range of colchicine-treated tetraploid varieties, from snapdragons to zinnias to phlox, applying colchicine in a variety of ways to produce changes in its flowers. 3 The Burpee company was not alone in its interest in the use of colchicine to improve plant varieties. Two years before the Burpee company placed splashy images of giant tetraploid marigolds in its advertisements, a drier set of tetraploid marigold …