January 6, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



Echoes from England 



THE BEST MARKET CHRYSANTHEMUMS 



The National Chrysanthemum Society held an exhi- 

 bition of market chrysanthemums recently and many of 

 the market growers exhibited. You may be interested 

 to have a note of some of the best sorts in each color. 

 Among whites three of the best were Mine. Th. 

 Panckoucke, a large flower with broad flat petals: 

 Western King a favorite market white, a roundish 

 bloom with somewhat loose, broad white petals; Mrs. 

 J. Thompson, Japanese incurved, a very attractive 

 flower. The most beautiful among the pinks was 

 Framfield Pink, a charming reftexed flower, of rose pink 

 coloring. Mine. L. Charvet, a globular bloom with 

 reflexing petals, silvery white in the centre, the outer 

 petals being deep rose-pink. Of crimsons Exmouth 

 Crimson, deep crimson-red with bronze reverse to the 

 broad petals, was one of the best. Among so-called 

 bronze flowers Tuxedo was the favorite. The petal- of 

 this variety are notched, giving a curiously quaint ap- 

 pearance to the blooms. One of the finest yellows was 

 Negoya, a beautiful Japanese with drooping rich yellow 

 petals. Most of the blooms were arranged in market 

 bunches, plenty, of space being allowed between each 

 flower. They were somewhat stilt' in appearance per- 

 haps, but nevertheless the individual blooms showed 

 in excellent advantage. The finest new market chrys- 

 anthemum shown on tins occasion was Golden Thomp- 

 son, a sport from Yellow Mrs. Thompson. It is a Jap- 

 anese incurved, with petals whose coloring was described 

 by the exhibitor as terra-cotta bronze, really a light 

 bronze. The flowers were of good size and the plant 

 was said to be very free flowering. A large silver medal 

 was awarded to this variety. 



A small silver medal was given to the new chrys- 

 anthemum Old (told, a handsome reflexed Japanese. 

 The coloring in the center of the large and rather flat 

 bloom is old gold, or almost bronze, fading to yellow 

 towards the margin. It is a very beautiful flower. It 

 was exhibited by Messrs. Wells and Co., Merstham, Sur- 

 rey, who have introduced many good sorts. Another 

 new variety that received a bronze medal is Miss Hilda 

 Weekes, a sport from Xiveus. This is a medium sized. 

 full flower, with rather loose, white petals. The blooms 

 are produced so freely as to form quite' a mass at the 

 end of the stems. 



A NEW TREE CARNATION 



The carnation shown in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion is a new one called Aurora which obtained an 

 award of merit from the Royal Horticultural Society 



recently. It is a yellow gr td fancy, the scarlet 



flakes being both clear and well defined. This new 

 carnation serves to show that we ma\ -non expect as 

 much variety among the tree or winter-flowering sorts 

 as we now have among the border carnations which are 

 so popular here as summer flowers. All the best win- 

 ter-flowering carnations are at present self-colored as 





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< \\ i:\atiox Aurora 



for instance nearly all those of American introduction: 

 therefore the now scarlet and yellow Aurora is sure of a 

 warm welcome. Soon we shall look forward to having 

 almost as many carnations in winter as in summer, and 

 the carnation is a flower that everyone admits we can 

 have none too many of. An award of merit was given 

 yesterday (December 19) to Fair Maid, one that has 

 been familiar at our exhibitions for some months past. 

 This and Enchantress are the two finest pink varieties. 



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Dracaenas (Cordyline) 



Although many years ago colored-leafed draeaenas 

 represented almost exclusively by Dracaena terminalis, 

 were extensively grown by commercial men. it is only 

 within the last few years that draeaenas in variety of 



choice sorts have 1 n largely grown for the market in 



this country. Dracaena terminalis b] reason of its long 

 service, and many good points, is not Likely to be discard- 

 ed yet a while, but still it cannot be domed that in 

 beauty of foliage, grace and rapidity of growth, il is out- 

 classed entirely by Lord Wolesley and the wonder is 

 that this latter variety was so long in gi ng recogni- 

 tion. Dracaena terminalis was grow-n in the past chiefly 

 for the beauty of its foliage. Lord Wolesley has still 

 more beautiful foliage and though it may sound strange 

 to some, it is nevertheless a fact, that under proper con- 

 ditions it i> a more rapid grower and as easy of culture 

 as terminalis, besides being less inclined to flower when 

 pot-hound than the older variety. Th se remarks on 

 the comparative work of the newer variety are not in- 

 tended as an attempt at the depreciation of the old 

 vonte, but to remove an impression prevailing that the 



