370 



HORTICULTUEE 



March 1&, 1913 



be an exception ? In the accompanying picture of Cattle- 

 ya Trianse, one of the most useful and popular of all 

 orchids, a number of variations can be seen; there are 

 good ones and poor ones, considering shape, color aiid 

 substance. Now if there is such a marked difference in 

 a small group like this, wliat will it be in a lot of 5,000 

 plants or more ? There must and will be quite a number 

 among them which are not worth the bench-room they 

 occupy and if those plants were discarded after their 

 first flowering and the room and time thus gained given 

 over to the remainder that are good it would be for the 

 benefit of all concerned; there would be more satisfied 

 customers, less kicking and better prices. All cattleyas 

 vary moie or less, some species more so than others, and 

 this is true of all other orchids to a considerable extent. 

 Take Odontoglossum crispum, for instance. What beau- 

 tiful flowers one finds among an importation and on the 

 other hand what miserable insignificant little flowers 

 some of them turn out to be on their first flowering! 

 Rubbish ; nothing but rubbish, compared to tlie good vari- 

 eties. What will the grower do with these? He natur- 

 ally thinks of their first cost and tries to get his money 

 back; the poor flowers are marketed together with the 

 good ones, thereby decreasing the value of the latter and 

 getting little or nothing for the former. Would it not 

 have been better to throw these poor things away at once 

 in order to keep up a good price as well as the grower's 

 good reputation? The grower cannot help it that there 

 are poor varieties amongst all imported or home-raised 



orchids, but he can discard the poor ones and grow only 

 tliose that come up to the standard and I am sure that 

 this would pay best in the end. A poor variety of any 

 orchid will always be a poor one, no matter how skilful 

 the cultivation may be ; on the other hand a good variety ' 

 will remain good as long as the plant receives proper 

 treament. Should a plant deteriorate through wrong 

 or careless treatment, it will soon sliow the effect by pro- 

 ducing fewer and smaller -flowers of less substance, and, 

 once a plant has gone back, it will take a long time to 

 restore it to health again if ever. 



Eternal vigilenee should ■ be the watchword here as 

 with all other flowers. The rose grower who will neglect 

 a house of roses for one day cannot expect to get the 

 best results; neither can the orchid grower afford to 

 neglect his orcliids for a day, for if he does he will surely 

 have occasion to regret it. Not that orchids are harder 

 to grow than roses. No indeed; the majority of them 

 are much easier to grow than roses. But, as in growing 

 roses, strict attention must be paid to all the little de- 

 tails, such as watering, ventilating, cleaning, potting, 

 etc., and wherever this is done orchids will be found to 

 do well and to be a good paying proposition ; not a drug 

 on the market but a leader in high grade products of the 

 American florist. 



Naiigatnck, Conn. 



Two Plants Valuable for Summer Cut Flowers 



Anchusa Italica 



The pure bright blue color is one of the most precious 

 hues in flower gardens. The fact that it is compara- 

 tively rare naturally strengthens the desire for clear 



Anciusa italica Dkopmore 



blue. Among annuals tlie flowers of Centaurea cyanus 

 represent this shade to perfection. Salvia patens, the 

 blue sage, possesses it too, but I never saw plants bloom 



profusely enough for modern mass effects. Turning to 

 hardy perennials we notice similar conditions. Pale blue 

 and the dark purple shades we meet frequently with, but 

 the pure bright blue color remains scarce. We treasure 

 it at present most in the tall stately spikes of some of 

 the new large-flowering Delphinium hybridum varieties. 

 It is that blue, which in combination with the white ol 

 Lilium candidum and the clear primrose yellow of 

 Oenothera fruticosa Youngi enables us to produce vivid 

 and harmonious late spring and early summer effects in 

 herbaceous gardens. The same intense ultra-marine 

 blue is the striking attribute of the blossoms of the new 

 Anchusa italica Dropmore. Anchusas are hardy peren- 

 nials with strong, fleshy rootstocks, forming large, freely 

 branching buslies of from 5 to (5 feet in lieight. Their 

 flowering time begins early in June, to continue for over 

 a month. The genuine Dropmore variety, from the first 

 day of its coming into full bloom, has been an object of 

 keen interest and steadily growing admiration wherever 

 it was showir to perfection. Its color, free habit and 

 long florescense, according to my observation, meet with 

 popular favor. Tlie same may be said of Perry's Variety, 

 a more vigorous growing type of the Dropnrore form. 

 Anchusa italica Opal resembles the former in habit, but 

 its flowers are light blue. In gardens I have been plant- 

 ing anchusas 3V4 to 4 feet apart, interspersing clumps 

 of aconitums, Pyrethrum uliginosum or Lilium speci- 

 osum for succeetling autumn display between. It should 

 be the constant aim in planning and planting perennial 

 flower gardens to avoid bareness and unsightly spots at 

 any time of the season. 



For the benefit of those of my readers desiring to grow 

 their own stock I mention that anchusas can be easily 



