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THE GARDENER'S HON TEL y 



[November, 



tribe to oblivion, I think the interests of horti- 

 culture would have been better served. 



I have the good fortune to live in the neigh- 

 borhood of the superb collection of Mr. Hunne- 

 well, and I think that any one visiting that 

 gentleman's grounds in the Rhododendron bloom- 

 ing season, if they had tried to grow them and 

 failed, would attribute their failure, not to the 

 "want of hardiness in the plants, but to want of 

 skill or attention in their management. 



Mr. Hovey who writes somewhat in the same 

 despairing style as your other correspondents, 

 seems to have got himself, or his words rather, a 

 little mixed, when he says : " The Indian blood 

 which carries color, also carries with it a perfect 

 bar to hardihood, of white, pink, rose, rosy lilac, 

 rosy purple, rosy crimson." Now where 

 did we get all these crimson tints if not from 

 Indian blood? And if it carries a "perfect 

 bar to hardihood," what is the use of hy- 

 bridizers attempting an impossibility? How 

 was one of the very kinds recommended as 

 hardy by your other correspondent, X, (Roseum 

 grandiflorum) produced if not by a cross with 

 ArboreumandCatawbiense? We all know that the 

 latter is purpli.sh lilac, and where could the rose 

 color have originated otherwise than by hybri- 

 dization or (more properly) impregnation with a 

 variety possessing the crimson color so much de- 

 sired. I am glad to find that you as Editor of 

 the Monthly take the same view of thi.s subject 

 as I do, when you say that nothing is more de- 

 lightful than Rhododendron culture intelligently 

 pursued. I have been deeply interested in it for 

 the past 35 years, and if my practice and views 

 will be of service to your readers, I shall be glad 

 to give them at any time you may wish to open 

 your columns. 



[Our readers will be glad to hear from Mr. 

 Moore at any time. — Ed. G. ]\r.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Drying White Flowers. — Mr. Werniig's in- 

 structions, published in The Gardev, from lime 

 to time, in reference to drying flowers and 

 Grasses, have so much pleased me that I am 

 induced to ask a few questions respecting the 

 preservation of white flowers. In some cases I 

 have succeeded very well with these ; but, in 

 others, I have failed. The floral leaves, or rather 

 petals soon curl and turn yellow, especially those 

 of Roses, when dried in sand. Is there any 



chemical agent which could be used to bleach 

 them after being dried ? By what process can I 

 preserve white Camellias, Tuberoses, Pinks, 

 Roses, &c., so that they will retain their original 

 whiteness and form ? I have failed to dry white 

 Camellias without being spotted. In drying the 

 Immortelle with borax ought the flowers to be 

 bleached first, or remain in their natural yellow 

 color? — L. F. Sanderson, River Bank Nursery, San 

 Jose, California. 



[To the foregoing Mr. Gustave Wermig, to 

 whom this letter has been sent, furnishes the 

 following reply : — If Mrs. Sanderson did not suc- 

 ceed in preserving white Camellias, white Roses, 

 Tuberoses, and similar flowers, she has not had 

 a worse result than the most experienced pre- 

 servers of flowers have. Up to this time I do 

 not know a single instance in which I have seen 

 a dried specimen of the above-mentioned flow- 

 ers, and of many others — as, for instance, all the 

 Orchids, and most flowers of Monocotyledonous 

 plants. Wliite flowers, especially, are very diffi- 

 cult to manage, as they nearly always become 

 .s{)otted with a shade of j'ellow, which gives them 

 a rather dirty appearance. The only flowers 

 which arc pure white in bouquets of Everlastings 

 are to be found among the true Everlastings, viz., 

 the pretty little Ammobium alatum, white Im- 

 mortelles, Xeranthemum aniuuim album, &c. 

 How to preserve these well, I described in my 

 former articles. Even among dried white Asters, 

 although much used and, if well done, pretty 

 looking, I never could find one which was pure 

 white; every one had, more or less, a shade of 

 yellow. It may be that, with the aid of chem- 

 istry by-and-by. we may succeed in preserving 

 a greater number of flowers in their natural 

 colors; but, up till now, we must be contented 

 with a limited number. Referring to the other 

 question in the above letter about the coloring 

 with borax, Mrs. Sanderson may, without hesita- 

 tion, take the Immortelles in their natural state; 

 yellow as they are, they turn to a beautiful scar- 

 let if managed in accordance with the directions 

 which I gave in a former number of The Garden. 

 I must add, however, that floAvers colored with 

 borax become paler in the course of time, espe- 

 cially if exposed to the sun ; while those colored 

 by aniline keep their color much longer. Borax, 

 however, is cheaper, and gives the finest scarlet. 

 —The Garden.] 



• 



Standard Cupheas. — Admirers of the old- 

 fashioned but extremely pretty Cuphea platycen- 



