Mat 8, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



839 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Hardy Vines. 



There is a marked improvement in the 

 taste for ornamental gardening among 

 our people all along the line, and climb- 

 ers and vines, as they are often called 

 now, enter largely into our customers' 

 Trants. They want them for verandas, 

 fences, and perhaps for a screen to hide 

 some neighbor's kitchen windows. It's 

 perhaps a little late to speak of perma- 

 nent vines but as most of these are han- 

 dled from pots there is time yet for 

 several weeks to plant them. 



Of all climbers there is of course 

 nothing for clinging to a wall without 

 support equal to the Ampelopsis Veit- 

 chii, alias Boston ivy, alias Japan ivy. 

 It will grow on and adhere to glass as 

 well as a brick wall. It should always 

 be planted close to the wall but a cubic 

 foot or so of good soil prepared for it. 

 Dormant plants should always be plant- 

 ed, for any growth made under glass 

 will be injured by late frosts. The root 

 can be strong but all growth that will 

 be of any use must start from the bot- 

 tom and do its own climbing. It's a 

 little slow the first year and sometimes 

 brings a growl from a customer, but 

 from that on its progress is rapid. Mil- 

 lions are planted and cover mansions 

 and cottages and churches throughout 

 the land and millions more will be 

 planted. 



Our native Ampelopsis quinquefolia 

 or Virginia Creeper is often used for 

 the same purpose but I am sure there 

 are two varieties of this. One that does 

 stick close and the other but poorly. 

 Their place is for an arbor or fence 

 or to cover the stump of an old tree 

 that has been left standing on the lawn. 

 For the roof of a summer house the 

 Aristolochia Sipho is almost unequalled. 

 Its beautiful large leaves look cool and 

 it's a grand grower. 



Bignonia (Trumpet Creeper) is a fine 

 plant for the pillar of verandas, or if 

 supported on some frame makes a most 

 decorative clump for the lawn. For 

 verandas, or in fact anywhere that a 

 climber is desirable the honeysuckle 

 should be used. What is known as 

 Hall 's Evergreen is one of the best. 



The graceful wistaria is no more than 

 hardy in this latitude and difficult to 

 get started. Yet you do see occasion- 

 ally a beautiful specimen that has be- 

 come firmly established and bearing 

 hundreds of its laburnum-like lavender 

 flowers. It should be more often seen 

 and is worth protecting for the first 

 few years. 



Actinidia polygama is spoken of high- 

 ly. Its flowers and fruit are both beau- 

 tiful but I am not certain of its hardi- 

 ness as far north as this. However, it 

 is a Japanese plant and that says a good 

 deal for its hardiness. 



I have left to the last a most beauti- 

 ful genus of our flowering climbers, the 

 clematis. I think in this city there are 

 as many fine masses of C. Jackmani as 

 will be seen in any city, and what is 

 there more gorgeous? Yet for the thou- 



sands that are planted but few succeed. 

 The Holland plants that we import have 

 an enormous bunch of roots and plenty 

 of top but from some cause or other 

 they have a nasty way of going dead 

 after being planted a few months and 

 often the second year. Cut away or 

 thin out at least half the roots and 

 spread the remainder well out when 

 planting. C. Jackmani is the best of 

 its color and C. Henryi is the best 

 white. But there are many other beau- 

 tiful varieties of this large-flowered 

 clematis which are known as the lanu- 

 ginosa or Jackmani type. With less 

 brilliant flowers, but qiute as valuable 

 as decorative plants, are other species 

 of clematis and of them all I place 

 C. paniculata ahead. It is ^o absolutely 

 hardy and free to grow and in August 

 and September it would take a real poet 

 to do its beauty justice. It is like a 

 wreath of snow blown in fantastic shape 

 and clinging to the veranda or fence. 

 C. coccinea is very distinct, not so ram- 

 pant a grower but very desirable, and 

 so distinct from all others of its genus. 

 C. flammula. though modest in flower 

 beside the Jackmani type, is most use- 

 ful where a free growth and lots of vine 

 is needed. 



I meant to say in connection with 

 the Clematis Jackmani and its varieties 

 that the home-grown American stock 

 is much better to plant than the large 

 roots from Holland and Belgium. They 

 may not make as much show at the start 

 but the chances of permanent success 

 with them are much greater. 



I don't pretend to have exhausted the 

 list of hardy vines but those mentioned 

 are among the best, and my object in 

 this brief article on them is for the rea- 

 son that the florist who does a retail 

 business at his greenhouse, even if he 

 makes no pretention to plant a hedge 

 or supply shrubs, will be sure to be 

 asked repeatedly for them. They can, 

 be purchased of our leading nursery- 

 men, and afford you a good profit, and 

 it takes but little room to keep a stock 

 of a few hundred assorted climbers. 

 What you don't sell this spring can be 

 kept in pots and plunged out of doors, 

 and stored away in cold frames next 

 winter and are then the best of stock 

 for another year. Plants that you han- 

 dle by the thousand or tens of thousands 

 such as geraniums, eoleus and cannas, 

 ets., you know all about. It is the more 

 permanent and less familiar plants that 

 you need a little education on. 



Annual Vines. 



There is also a good demand for the 

 tender or annual vines. If not all an- 

 nual we treat them largely as such. The 

 Coba;a scandens is perhaps the freest 

 growing of all. Hope you have a good 

 lot just now in 3 or -1-inch pots just 

 beginning to climb, and don't neglect 

 to give a slender stake of 2 feet, or they 

 will get so mixed up you can never un- 

 tangle them. 



A less-known beautiful climber or 

 twiner or runner is Pilogyne suavis, now 



I believe, called the Minnesota vine. 

 Might as well call it the Sioux City 

 Cyclone, for it is cyclonic in its growth 

 when it once starts. Plants even propa- 

 gated now are in plenty of time. Do 

 not expect it to grow over 10 feet in 

 height, but I know of nothing that will 

 form so perfect a veil of growth. Its 

 flower is insignificant. Its foUage is aJI 

 you want, and when brushed against or 

 disturbed it has a faint but agreeable 

 musk odor. This is a difficult plant to 

 winter and although not a seasonable 

 hint it is worth recording that although 

 growing it for 20 years we found out 

 by accident more about how to winter 

 it last year than ever before. A very 

 few plants in 5-inch pots grown last 

 summer were cut off a foot or so from 

 the pot and placed under a carnation 

 bench where they may have got a drop 

 or two of water during winter, but I 

 think not. Middle of March they were 

 very dry but shovv-ing signs of growth. 

 Being given light and water they started 

 to send out their slender growths at a 

 great rate and gave us all the cuttings 

 we wanted, which root like the proverbial 

 weed. It simply won't grow in the win- 

 ter and wants to rest. (We have none 

 to sell.) 



For very tall arbors or trellises there 

 is nothing more beautiful than the moon 

 flower. You should be supplied with 

 plenty of healthy young plants, for they 

 are sure to be called for. 



Lophospermum is a good summer vine 

 of not too rampant a growth, and the 

 tall-growing nasturtiums, particularly 

 the Lobbianum varieties, are very de- 

 sirable. 



The Cypress vine, Balloon vine, con- 

 volvulus, etc., are usually raised from 

 seed, and our customers can manage 

 those things themselves. 



Fire Heat. 



It occurs to me just at this date to 

 remind those who have had but a lim- 

 ited experience, or those who know bet- 

 ter but are foolishly economical over 

 their coal bill, that for the next three 

 weeks or really to the end of this month, 

 the very poorest economy is to try to do 

 without some fire heat. I was rather 

 surprised to hear Mr. J. A. Valentine of 

 Denver, say this winter that they never 

 let their fire out, and that is a city of 

 brightest sun, but the nights are cool. 

 There are many plants, and important 

 ones, that need no fire nor have they 

 perhaps for two or three weeks past. 

 Carnations I will cite as the best ex- 

 ample, providing you left air on, and 

 some of our soft-wooded plants, gera- 

 niums for instance, if with a clear glass 

 ovar them and air on all damp days and 

 nights may do very well. But the very 

 worst conditions for most of our plants 

 is a close, damp, cold atmosphere. 



If you stop your fire heat just now 

 jrour eoleus will stand still, and worse, 

 your begonias will rot ; your cannas will 

 cease to grow; even your fuchsias will 

 be stunted, and there will be a state of 

 arrested development in the whole estab- 

 lishment. You must remember that most 

 of the plants we grow in the green- 

 house are either of tropical or subtrop- 

 ical origin and from the genial warmth 

 and circulation of air which a little 

 heat and a little ventilation produces, 

 to the cold dampness of a shut up and 

 fireless house is most disastrous. 



I won't enter here into the big ques- 

 tion of roses without heat at this time 

 of year but the man who would attempt 



