548 



HORTICULTURE 



October 26, 19..I7 



BULBOUS PLANTS AND TUBER- 

 OUS ROOTED PERENNIALS. 



^Continued from pagt' 5-/7J 



sional. These amateurs, however, do 



not cover a very wide range ot bulbs. 



Bulb Enthusiasts. 



Unless a person has seen the late 

 Peter Hanson holding a bulb in his 

 hand, rapt in blissful contemplation, 

 slowly telling the wants of the bulb 

 in cultivation, describing its habit and 

 Its flower minutely, he has no idea of 

 what a hold on the affection a bulb 

 could exert. Mr. Hanson's time and 

 devotion were expended on the lily- 

 He over-estimated its necessities. As I 

 have always found, if you can get a 

 bulb growing you can dispense with 

 many of the directions for growing, 

 but Mr. Hanson, no doubt, took as 

 much pleasure in catering to the 

 growth of bulbs as he did in seeing 

 their flowers. 



Mr. Huttelen is the most skilful and 

 successful raiser of Lilium tenuifo- 

 llum from the seed I have ever seen. 

 I think his product exceeded for many 

 years over 30.000 bulbs, of which we 

 bought vearly. during that time, at 

 least 20,000 bulbs at $15 a hundred— 

 rg.ther good pin-money for an amateur 

 on so little known a variety. 



I think it is now about time I got 

 down to the subject of bulbs and bul- 

 bous plants. I well know that a paper 

 of this kind to a man who does not 

 raise bulbous plants in a commercial 

 way or as an amateur is positively 

 without interest. Of course, any one 

 knows that a person could talk all 

 day on one class of bulbs, but I pro- 

 pose to skim the subject very lightly. 



The Most Valuable Roots. 

 The most useful, valuable and gen- 

 erally raised classes of bulbs, to my 

 mind, are as follows; their relative 

 ■ proportion of value is indicated by the 

 order in which they are named: 



Gladioli; Lilies; Freesias; Peonies 

 (at present a highly worked fad) ; 

 Tuberoses, for garden and export; and 

 Iris, the Japanese and German, the 

 forcing Irises, and many beautiful 

 species. 



Professionally speaking, the intro- 

 duction of so important a plant as the 

 Freesia — useful and beautiful as it is, 

 so easily kept and readily flowered by 

 both the amateur and the professional 

 — was a fiasco, in the sense that no 

 particular person or firm was responsi- 

 ble for its introduction, and no con- 

 siderable amount was made by any one 

 with this plant, that is so generally 

 used. 



The Amaryllis, to me, has always 

 been an important family. The habits 

 of most varieties can be so changed 

 that they will flower outside in sum- 

 mer or inside in winter. I much re- 

 gret that this plant is not more large- 

 ly grown in this country. The tuber- 

 ous-rooted begonias have taken their 

 place as summer-flowering bulbs, as 

 well as winter-flowering. 



Caladium esculentum is rather 

 largely used as a summer foliage 

 plant. 



Cannas are the most important rhi- 

 zomatous class of plants. Every one 

 knows a good deal about this class ot 

 plants. A Canna Society has even 

 been suggested. 



The Cinnamon Vine (Dioscori Bata- 

 tas) has some value, particularly to 



the person who sells the bulbs. It is 

 a clean, hardy vine, and one peculiari- 

 ty is that the root grows deeper and 

 deeper in the ground, the older it gets. 



Hyacinthus candicans first attracted 

 attention in this country at the Phila- 

 delphia Centennial. 



Incarvillea is a coming plant, par- 

 ticularly as a garden flower, and un- 

 doubtedly can be forced. It has a 

 large, fleshy, good-keeping root; fol- 

 iage rampant, growth somewhat re- 

 sembling a fern; immense spikes of 

 gloxinia-like flowers. If you plant 

 five hundred strong roots, the flowers 

 will absolutely come in bloom the 

 same day. It is claimed by some that 

 the roots are hardy. 



Madeira Vine bulbs keep almost in- 

 definitely and are, therefore, a good 

 bulb for store trade. 



Montbretias. Why this plant is so 

 neglected, I cannot tell. It has many 

 good qualities, is easier to raise, easier 

 to keep and will continue in flower 

 much longer, than the gladiolus. The 

 sprays are exceedingly graceful and 

 beautiful. The newer varieties are 

 very striking. The bulbs are nearly 

 hardy. 



Oxalis. The summer-flowering varie- 

 ties of this bulb are largely planted 

 and have some merit, while the winter- 

 blooming sorts, as Lutea, Bowiei and 

 the so-called Bermuda Buttercup, are 

 among the best of the winter-flowering 

 plants. 



Peonies. Can I tell the members of 

 the Peony Society anything about this 

 plant? I think not; but, by the way. 

 it just occurs to me to say that I have 

 bought the past three or four years, 

 from the most reliable firms who raise 

 peonies, some twelve or fifteen of the 

 best varieties, several plants ot each 

 kind, for my private garden. When 

 they bloomed this year, should you 

 take out four of the best colors there 

 would be nothing worth speaking of 

 left. Marie I^moine is what I call a 

 good peony. 



Some Mistakes of Dealers. 



There are two points I wish to bring 

 to the attention of the profession and 

 the vendors of products. 



We all catalogue the different kinds 

 of bulbs as though they were ready for 

 delivery at the same time, and in most 

 cases we try to deliver them. Is it 

 not about time we should state after 

 the description of certain bulbs that 

 they can only be delivered at such and 

 such times? And should not the buy- 

 ers be taught to wait until the bulbs 

 are in condition to deliver, instead of 

 insisting that they all be delivered at 

 once? Is it not about time that relia- 

 ble firms should state that such and 

 such varieties will never bloom, or. 

 if in a very rare case they do bloom, 

 that they are not good for anything? 

 Millions of Anomatheca cruenta have 

 been sold. Should five out of a hun- 

 dred of these bloom, as poor as the 

 flower is, it would be a large percen- 

 tage. Seedling gladiolus has been sent 

 to this country for this plant. 



How many people here have seen 

 Lilium Humboldtii and Washing- 

 toniannm and parvum bloora? I 

 have never seen twelve spikes of these 

 varieties of lilies outside of California, 

 and I have sold tons of thousands of 

 the bulbs, and exported a number each 

 year. This will serve for an evening- 

 up process. Lilium pardalinum from 



California is a good-keeping, free and 

 sure-flowering lily. Ninety-flve per 

 cent, of the bulbs should bloom. 

 Lilium Parryii is a very handsome 

 yellow variety from California and is 

 not difficult to bloom. The California 

 bulbs, like Calochortus, Brodiiea, Ery- 

 thronium, Comassias. are all beautiful 

 things and really can be flowered if 

 their requirements of cultivation are 

 met. 



On the line of Lilium Humboldtii. I 

 will ask what is the use of selling 

 l.iliuin candidmn in the spring, and 

 yet many do it. 



The Most Useful Lilies. 



I suppose it would be well to men- 

 tion what I consider the most valua- 

 ble varieties, or species, of lilies. The 

 auratums and varieties are a magni- 

 ficent class and very popular with 

 most amateurs. You may as well say 

 that the bulbs of the auratum cannot 

 be grown in this country but are im- 

 ported each year. The varieties of 

 speciosurii I consider among the most 

 reliable sorts for the amateur to plant. 



Double Tiger and Single Tiger and 

 our native lilies, canadense and su- 

 perbum, are being used in greater 

 quantities each year, on large estates 

 and in gardens of all kinds. They are 

 low in price, reliable bloomers and 

 very graceful, particularly canadense. 

 The elegans, or umbellatum, or Thun- 

 bergianuiii. are very reliable bloom- 

 ers, bulbs easy growers and good 

 keepers, and many varieties are very 

 handsome. Of course we could easily 

 talk all day on the Lilium family, but 

 we shall have to stop somewhere, 

 (milium candidum. and what is known 

 as the Bermuda Easter Lily, are the 

 most important ones for florists' use. 

 Lilium candidum should be planted 

 outside, the latter part of September. 

 To me, it is a more beautiful lily than 

 the Bermuda Easter Lily. There are 

 several varieties of candidum, but the 

 broad scale, large bulb variety raised 

 in the north of France, is the only one 

 worth forcing. There has been more 

 said, and more can be said, on the 

 Bermuda Easter Lily than ten such 

 papers as this would contain. I think 

 the subject has been pretty well 

 threshed out up to the present time. 



Many varieties of lilies have been 

 dropped from the lists of late years, 

 which is probably a good thing. Many 

 sorts could be furnished in good con- 

 dition if the purchaser were willing to 

 pay for the necessary trouble, and 

 take and plant the bulbs at the proper 

 time. Lilium Philadelphicum has al- 

 most disappeared from our lists. It 

 can be grown and flowered, but the 

 bulb is so small and the scales so 

 open, that not one in a thousand will 

 bloom. Lilium Catesbaei and Grayii, 

 also native lilies, are seldom seen 

 except in botanical collections. 



Fallacies in Cultivation. 

 There are some fallacies in cultiva- 

 tion. Many directions for growing 

 different varieties of plants were put 

 in type a number of years ago, when 

 things were thought to require very 

 careful and necessary cultivation. 

 There is a lot ot this type that seems 

 to be set up at the present time. 

 I will take as an illustration Iris 

 Kaempferi. In 1S7S, we bought Pro- 

 fessor Pringle's entire stock of this 

 plant. There were many very fine 



