HOETICULTUKE 



January 4, 191S 



Perennial Helianthus 



To intimate observers of the early spring florescence 

 of hardy herbaceous gardens the predominance of soft 

 colors, especially in white, blue and pink shades is plain- 

 ly evident. During summer we enjoy being regaled with 

 a lavish abundance of strong tints, fully exhausting the 

 entire floral color scale. As a distinct feature of the 

 passing summer and early fall aspect we notice a great 

 volume of yellow passing before our eyes — the golden 

 waves of the rudbeckia, solidago, helenium, and helian- 

 thus varieties, gently swaying in a light breeze; hues 

 vieing with the coloring golden fruit of field and 

 orchard, their intensity lending a certain element of 

 visionary warmth to tlie cooler atmosphere of the season. 

 It is the rich golden tone of nature, intensified in radi- 

 ance in our garden. To absorb those beautiful pictures 

 of billows of floral gold and to study the plant species 

 producing them with a horticultural eye has been one 

 of the delights of your writer during his busy years 

 along the northern part of the New England coast. 

 Characteristics of the best types of hardy helianthus are 

 flower forms of a beautiful regularity in build. Espe- 

 cially the single vaiielies such as Heliaiitlins niultiflorus 

 maximus, mollis, orgyalis and the popular H. rigidus 

 Miss Mellish, leave a lasting impression. In stateliness 

 of growth and in the production of that abundance of 

 color indispensible for floral mass-eSects, hardy helian- 

 tini^es ]irovi.i ]iiglily satij^lactmy. 



This is perhaps an assertion arousing the scepticism 

 of some of my readers. (Jranted. Iiardy sunflowers a? 

 natives of this northern hemisphere certainly do not 

 need a great amount of care. Nevertheless, if we in- 

 terpret this in such a way as to plant them anywhere 

 and in any kind of soil, to simply leave them to their 

 fate, then we cannot expect more than under the primi- 

 tive eondirioiis jjrovided by Nature for tlieir wild growth. 

 To bring about effects as shown in our illustration 

 means to cultivate Iiardy lielianthus; that is, to provide 

 improved soil conditions and give the adequate care to 

 plantations. The first result is likely to be a rapid 

 spreading and the danger of smothering out nearby 

 plants of a less rambling rootgrowth. For this reason 

 I advise leaving helianthus out of the mixed herbaceous 

 border. I always place them in a separate space, where 

 they are easily kept in desired limits. Being of tall 

 growth they require less tieing up when given protec- 

 tion from violent winds and heavy rain storms. High 

 woods or buildings, back, in the direction where the 

 most storms come from are safeguards. In agreeable 

 contrast with a solid background the effect is infinitely 

 superior to a plain outline against the sky. In such 

 positions the golden wave of color gains in volume and 



brilliancy in the clear sunlight of the early fall days. We 

 watch the interesting spectacle of myriads of singular 

 flowers following with their faces the moving sun, until, 

 at night, their heads bend in an angle that the petals 

 may protect the center. 



Perennial sunflowers can be most freely propagated 

 by divisions of the rambling roots and, as a rule, need 

 little or no winter protection, except along the northern 

 boundaries. 



Riverton, N. J. 



-^djtAyCUul-^<t(AAJ 



Red Spider 



Bed spider (Tetranychus telarius) is one of the most 

 insidious foes that the gardener or florist has to contend 

 with, for, be he ever so wary or careful it has frequently 

 gotten a foothold and done some damage before the 

 grower is aware of its presence. I think it a very safe 

 generalization to say that a man's ability as a grower 

 may be measured by his success or non-success in keep- 

 ing his plants free of spider. 



Ked spider will attack the plants in stove-house tem- 

 perature and right down the Une of temperatures to the 

 violets growing at 45-50 degrees, thick leaves or thin, 

 grapes or peaches, roses or carnations; in fact anything 

 and everything is acceptable to this pestilential creature. 

 Nor does it confine its attacks to greenhouse plants, for 

 the writer has seen large ehn trees (whose foliage has 

 turned yellow and dropped off early in August) and 

 coniferous hedges nearly ruined by its attacks. 



The above may be, and is, probably well known to all 

 readers of Horticdltuee, but "Error, sir! damnable 

 error" is the burden of my story, and this error in com- 

 mon witli its kind is most long-lived — yes ! even to being 

 something more than a centenarian — and has been (also 

 in common with its kind) productive of lots of evil con- 

 sequences. Who has not heard in the j'ears whilst learn- 

 ing their trade "damp the floors well," "keep a moist 

 atmosphere, 'twill keep down spider" ? Well ! it won't; 

 not a bit of it ! Not any more than if you played them 

 a tune on a tin-whistle (the said tune to be for the 

 benefit of either the plants or the spider). This was 

 proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to me by the fol- 

 lowing instance. In an aquatic house where nearly all 

 the floor space was taken up by a tank devoted to the 

 growing of Victoria Regia and various other aquatics 

 and where the atmosphere was at all times kept near the 

 saturation point owing to the heating pipes under water, 

 spider flourished, and particularly on some Cyperus al- 

 ternif olius which stood around the edge of the tank with 

 their pots partly immersed in the water, and some of 

 the leaves whose stems were bent were half in and half 

 out of the water, too. Owing to its being an aquatic 

 house very little syringing was done and the cyperus 

 above referred to were literally swarming with spider 

 after being some two or three months over this steaming 

 tank. Now, is it not as plain as a pikestaff, that if mois- 

 ture has any virtue in checking or keeping down spider 

 it should have done so in the case cited where there was 

 "Water, water everywhere." The writer knows very well 

 that what is revelation to one man is not such to another, 

 nor does he wish any of the readers to take the above in- 

 stance as a final test, but rather would suggest to all 

 and sundry that they make a fair test for themselves, as 

 the proof or disproof of any statement which is demon- 

 strated to us by actual experiment is worth a ton of 

 theory, and generally will be remembered for life. 



Oranfcd then, that the time-worn moisture theory is 

 forever untenable, to what shall we turn? And the 



