June 2, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



705 



Trachelospermum jasminoides 



This plant is better known as Rhyncospermum jas- 

 minoides; it fuither enjoys like most plants an 

 additional synonym, Parechites jasminoides. Syno- 

 iiwii- arc quite fashionable of recent years. Whether 

 this sort of thing is beneficial and edifying to tin- craft 

 each reader has to determine for himself. 



The plant in question belongs to a small genus of four 

 species, according to some authorities, and hails from 

 China. It easily ranks with the choices! of greenhouse 

 trellis plants, and no establishment of any consequence 

 should be without one or more specimens of this exquis- 

 itely fragrant white-flowered vine. It is very accommodat- 

 ing and easily managed as it makes itself at home in 

 the stove, greenhouse, cool-greenhouse, or even in a sub- 

 stantial pit, where it can be wintered all right. The 

 pit or cool greenhouse treatmenl suits it best, as there it 

 is more abundantly floriferous and lasts longer in 

 flower. 



One moderately large plant is sufficient!] fragrant 

 to add character and choiceness to a whole collection of 

 flowering plants at this season of the year, provided the 

 cool treatment has been adopted: but to realize the 

 charming capabilities of this plant from a floral effecl 

 standpoint, a number of them must be grown and 

 flowered at the same time; the larger the plants, as a 

 matter of course, the grander and more imposing the 

 show. 



Any one who can recall — and that is not remote — 

 the dozen or thereabouts of the magnificent specimi □ 

 plants shown at the opening of Boston's new Horticul- 

 tural Hall, commonly known as "Prof. Sargent's 

 Show," will not. methinks, begrudge all the praise that 

 1 can bestow on it. Some of those were trained on 

 trellises eight or more feel high, and from four feet up 

 in diameter, completely obscuring all traces of the frame 

 work with their ample growth and leathery dark-green 

 leaves, surmounted with their snowy-white flowers. 



If I, by thus reminding my fellow-craftsmen through 

 the medium of your journal, can establish the true 

 worth of this plant, to the point of stimulating a 

 desire on their part to take up its cultivation, however 

 limited, 1 will deem my mission in this connection not 

 amiss. It can he varioii-l\ used to advantage, on trel- 

 lises on the roof of a green house, for clothing pillars 

 and other bare objects; hut for best results on formal 

 trellises in pots or tubs, the Latter method being prefer- 

 able as the plants can be shifted to any desired place at 

 will like any other plant. When piazza decoration is in 

 practice — and it is but few places of any importance 

 nowaday that doesn't maintain a floral display on then- 

 piazzas at some one season of the year at least — the 

 subject of tins note is especially fitted to lend charm and 

 grace to such floral displays. 



As stated at the beginning of this note it is easily 

 managed, not requiring any special admixtures of soil 

 to ensure success, other than what suits most plants. In 

 the growing season it enjoys copious watering as well 

 as frequent overhead syringings! To obtain large 



plants in a given parr of time planting-out in rich, 

 friable soil is to be recommended. Care, however, in 

 tin- practice, is to he given to the lifting in the fall, 

 as insufficiencv of a bale of earth at lifting may prove 

 disastrous thereafter. While it can be rooted from old 

 wood, semi-young wood is the most appropriate, as roots 

 are emitted from sueb wood much more quickly than 

 from the former. There is a variegated form of this 

 type that is less satisfactory as it is generally less 

 floriferous, otherwise it makes a very line plant when 

 grown to a large size. 



Rockeries or Rock Gardens 



Why is it that this branch of the gardener's art re- 

 ceives such scant attention on this side of the Atlantic? 

 Most own estate of any magnitude contains a nook or 

 corner suited for the construction of one, and as a rule 

 the situation mosi suitable for a rockery is hardly 

 adapted for any other purpose. When one considers 

 the multitude of gems that flourish in only such posi- 

 tion^ and when it is taken into consideration what a 

 treat it is to stumble onto one, after seeing large areas 

 of smooth lawn, symmetrical roadways, the everlasting 

 wavy line of shrubbery, etc., it is surprising that they 

 are not more in \ ogue. 



In most of the botanic gardens and many private es- 

 tates on the other side the rockery is one of the spots 

 most frequented b\ sightseers. At any season of the 

 year it is attractive, whether in early spring when the 

 fern fronds are unfurling in graceful coils in the shady 

 crannies and many alpines are flowering on the more 

 exposed situations, or summer and autumn when the 

 ferns have full} developed their fronds and show their 

 great diversity of formation, from the broad leathery 

 looking scolopendrums to the fine feathery fronds of 

 the lastreas, etc., and the noble osmundas, to the small, 

 but nevertheless interesting adiantums and aspleniums. 



Many of the rarer and beautiful alpines require to 

 he lifted in fall and potted up and kept in a cool bouse, 

 as it is somewhat difficult to shelter them properly, as 

 the pockets in which they love to be placed fill with 

 rain or melted snow, and freeze solid, frequently killing 

 them outright, or else crippling them to such an extent 

 that they seldom recover. 



The general idea of a rockery is a heap of soil and 

 stones, pyramidal or otherwise. We are not advocating 

 the construction of any such thing. The idea one 

 should try to follow in building a rockery is that of a 

 rocky glen in miniature. The rougher in outline the 

 better, making as many pockets in all kinds of places 

 as possible. The introduction of water for cascades 

 and pools will lend an added charm and will make it 

 possible to introduce many species of both plants and 

 ferns that otherwise would not succeed. 



Field stone of rough exterior, tree butts, large clin- 

 kers such as can be had at smelting concerns, etc., are 

 amongsl tin mosi suitable articles for construction, and 

 with the careful use of cement it is surprising what 

 effect may be produced. In making the pockets always 

 try to provide adequate drainage. 



C-^Casi^/m*) 



