S22 



HOBTICULTURE 



March 8, 1913 



Primula Auricula 



plants were few. Still, wherever a garden is expected 

 to produce variety beyond the conventional, auriculas 

 will prove very desirable acquisitions. I especially com- 

 mend them to gardeners who have rockeries in their care. 



Biverton, N. J. 



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Primula Auricula 

 Few botanical names sound so beautiful and even- 

 balanced as that of Primula Auricula, the handsome 

 native of the southern slopes of the Alps. Before our 

 vision emerge pictures of old buxus-lined British or 

 German gardens void of color schemes but full of fra- 

 grance. We distinctly recall the auriculas among the 

 many of our elders' sweetly-scented favorites — here in 

 rows near the edge of borders ; there planted together on 

 little beds. The unobtrusive odor of some blossoms of 

 Primula Auricula in a low vase perfumed the atmos- 

 phere of the flower-loving ladies' boudoir. Modest and 

 charming then; old-fashioned and dear to our mem- 

 ory now. Reflections in this direction led your cor- 

 respondent to order some seed of the latest improved 

 large-flowering strain of auricuhi.s offered by seed firm- 

 abroad. Sowed during January in shallow earthen seed 

 pans filled with light sandy soil and placed on the shelf 

 near the glass in a house of 60 degrees average tempera- 

 ture the tiny seedlings were ready to be pricked over into 

 wooden flats in March. In June I planted them out- 

 doors in a cold frame where they were cared for until 

 late in October. By that time I had strong stocky 

 plants which were carefully lifted with balls and set close 

 together in shallow boxes to be wintered over in a light, 

 airy and cool cellar. Auriculas can well stand light 

 frost but they should be kept on the dry side while the 

 growth stops". Removed outdoors again in April my 

 auriculas began to bud and flower during the latter part 

 of May. One soon notices the superiority of the im- 

 proved strain over old varieties of 25 to 30 years ago, but 

 I also realized from the very start their impracticability 

 for use in any modern color-scheme planting. Compara- 

 tively easy is it, however, to find a fitting space in the 

 rock-garden. Employed in such a situation my auricu- 

 las soon commenced to flower freely. Our illustration, 

 showing one of the different plantings made, gives some 

 idea of the effect gained. With yellow as ground-color 

 the varying combinations of vivid tints of red, brown, 

 purple and deep violet reveal charming floral beauty. 

 Lacking the intensity necessary for distant effects the 

 flowers of Primula Auricula, deep, rich and velvety in 

 tone invite intimacy at close range. The present im- 

 proved strain though apt to revive interest in this old- 

 time favorite garden inmate will in my opinion hardly 

 create sufficient demand to make growing in quantities 

 profitable from the commercial point of view. The flow- 

 ers find ready admirers but in my experience orders for 



A Little More About the Bleeding 

 of Grape Vines 



"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 

 To throw perfume upon the violet, . . . 

 Is wasteful and ridiculous excess." 



— Shakespeare. 



Mr. Waite in disagreeing with me about the bleeding 

 of gi-ape vines, says "excessive bleeding of grape vines is 

 injurious and should be avoided." Mr. Waite is right. 

 For is it not axiomatic that anything excessive is harm- 

 ful? Eating and drinking are very good and necessary 

 functions, but carried to excess they are very injurious. 

 Does not the word excessive suggest something exorbi- 

 tant, inordinate, extravagant and immoderate? Is Mr. 

 Waite sure that the shoots which he refers to, dried up 

 because of the vines having bled? Is it not possible 

 that there was some other trouble ? Because I have seen 

 the end slioot on a vine dry up exactly as he describes 

 when no bleeding had taken place. In such eases the next 

 bud or sluiot below takes the lead. Mr. Waite and most 

 other grape growers has seen a similar result when two 

 shoots have started from one spur; after a little while 

 one takes tlie lead and the other becomes stunted, if it 

 does not die outright. If ever grapes were to be injured 

 by bleeding, they should have been in the instance cited 

 in my article, for these bled all the winter. Mr. Waite 

 says that these vines which were injured were pruned 

 too late. When is the right time to prune vines? I have 

 just pruned a house of young vines, but they do not 

 bleed, nor should I worry if they did. Will Mr. Waite 

 define excessive bleeding? Is it a pint or is it a quart, 

 and how are we to know, and what shall we do to stop it 

 when the last drop of styptic lias been used, the potato 

 bin is empty, and that last resort, the hot iron has 

 cooled ? 



Because, in my salad days, I had worried for a long 

 winter about the grapes bleeding, and about the probable 

 subsequent failure, and about what the Boss would say 

 to me when that failure came, and because that anguish 

 of soul was useless and uncalled for — because of all these 

 things I was moved to write that article, setting forth 

 my honest convictions that the idea of injury following 

 the bleeding of grape vines was a fallacy, in the hope that 

 in the future some poor unfortunate mortal may be 

 spared this unnecessary pain and worry, being fortified 

 by the knowledge that if all his other cultural details are 

 of the best, he might ignore the bleeding which in many 

 cases he is heljjless to prevent. 



I sincerely hope that no one will interpret my words as 

 advocating carelessness or slipshod methods either in 

 pruning grape vines or any other detail of cultivation; 

 far from it ! I believe in care and painstaking thor- 

 oughness, first, last, and all the time. 



Lftiox. Mn.^s. 



