February 16, 1907 



HORTICULTURE, 



193 



SWEET PEAS AND DAHLIAS AS A 

 WINTER CROP. 



The extent to which the early flower- 

 ing qualities of Blanche Ferry sweet 

 pea has been developed is shown quite 

 plainly by comparison, at the plant of 

 W. C. Ward at Wollaston, Mass. A 

 row of Burpee's Reselected Earliest of 

 All, which was sent out by Burpee last 

 season, as a type possessing a distinct 

 gain in time of flowering, over all 

 other sent out by that firm, was 

 planted next to the wall entirely 

 around the house. A row of seed sent 

 out by Burpee two or three years ago, 

 as Extreme Earliest of All, was sown 

 in each side bench next to the walk. 

 Across the middle bench rows of 

 Zvolanek's Christmas pea were planted 

 also one row of Extra Early. A heavy 

 coat of manure was applied and worked 

 in thoroughly, the seeds being sown 

 about August 20. Reselected and Christ- 

 mas both commenced to flower about 

 December 10. Extreme Earliest of All 

 grew tall without showing bud and 

 was cut back. Extreme Early made a 

 luxuriant growth of vine with no buds 

 in sight the middle of January. Re- 

 selected threw a slightly superior 

 flower. Christmas made a fine healthy 

 stocky vine with marked tendencies 

 of adaptation to forcing conditions. 

 The long unbroken spell of dark, 

 cloudy weather made a kind of treat- 

 ment, much out of the ordinary line, 

 necessary. Fires were banked a good 

 part of the time and a temperature 

 of 40 deg. at night and 45 during the 

 day was as high as it was deemed safe 

 to go, as a few degrees more of arti- 

 ficial heat would have induced a soft 

 growth that would never mature into 

 flowering wood, but wilt and droop 

 upon the first appearance of the sun. 

 When the sun did come out the tem- 

 perature was allowed to run up and 

 when this has occurred it went above 

 80 degrees for awhile. Under this 

 treatment Christmas and Reselected 

 threw a few fiowers and Extreme 

 Earliest of All made a slow growth 

 but had to be cut back, — in some 

 places the second time. If the weather 

 should become bright and sunny and 

 a temperature of 45 to 50 at night 

 and 70 to 80 during the day be allow- 

 able, the last named would probably 

 flower in ten or twelve days. Extra 

 Early has made so much vine with 

 such indefinite prospects of flowering 

 that it will probably be pulled up. 



Under favorable weather conditions, 

 Mr. Ward thinks he might have had 

 flowers by Thanksgiving, but even 

 with this early flowering capacity de- 

 veloped, and making all due allowances 

 for the unfavorable weather conditions 

 prevailing the present season, he finds 

 nothing to show that sweet peas 

 grown from seed sown in the bench 

 in August and given the entire space, 

 will pay their way through December 

 and January, with the high prices 

 prevailing for carnations and roses this 

 winter. $1.50 per hundred for peas 

 seemed to be the limit. With an 

 easier market for other standard 

 flowers $1.00 would probably be the 

 average and there is no reason to 

 think they would throw flowers enough 

 at these prices to prevent their being 

 in debt the first of February. Earlier 

 in the history of forcing this flower, 

 seed were sown in pots in January 

 and later planted out in the bench 

 vacated by some other crop, and re- 



sults obtained were satisfactory. 

 Planted in the carnation houses and 

 trained to the posts, also sown in 

 violet houses in rows the right dis- 

 tance apart, so that they will be brought 

 into flower when violets begin to grow 

 poor, the short time required by Christ- 

 mas and Reselected from seed to 

 flower gives them a value beyond any- 

 thing yet offered, but a house of peas 

 grown as a house of carnations or 

 roses is grown would enter into the 

 late winter months, when they do be- 

 gin to flower in paying quantities, with 

 too much of a deficit to make the 

 average for the season a reasonably 

 profitable one. 



Dahlias have also failed to fulfil 

 promises as a winter flower at this 

 place. Storm King threw a good crop 

 for a while, then came small and 

 single, then blind, and finally refused 

 to grow at all. Kreimhilde, which 

 looked exceedingly promising, during 

 the middle fall, threw three or four 

 marketable flowers to a plant and 

 then stood still. They were both cut 

 back to two buds the first of January, 

 but as they have not started to grow 

 again will probably be dug up, sweet 

 peas having been planted between the 

 rows. Compared with chrysanthe- 

 mums they paid well for a late fall 

 crop, but failed to give encouragement 

 as a dependence for the full winter 

 season. Possibly with more sunlight 

 and a higher temperature, placed in 

 raised benches, where they would be 

 free from the chill and dampness which 

 works up through the soil to some 

 extent in the solid bench, a different 

 result might have been shown, but 

 if dahlias do possess winter flowering 

 qualities it is a proposition as yet un- 

 proven at this plant in Wollaston. 

 G. H. HIGGINS. 



PETUNIA THE QUEEN. 



The illustration herewith shows the 

 character of this superb double petunia 

 better than any description we can 



give. The variety originated with the 

 Yates Floral Co.. Canajoharie, N. Y., 

 and will be distributed by that firm 

 and the Scranton Florists' Supply Com- 

 pany jointly. 



MOVEMENTS OF GARDENERS. 



Robert Purshall has left Newport to 

 assume charge of "Bookolt." Mrs. 0. 

 H. P. Belmont's place on Long Island, 

 and Charles Philpot, lately assistant 

 to Bruce Butterton at the "Elms." has 

 been appointed Mr. Purshall's succes- 

 sor at "ilarble House" and "Belcourt." 



SAN FRANCISCO NOTES. 



In time of storm a few weeks ago, 

 while passing a refugee camp of shacks 

 built for earthquake and fire sufferers 

 with funds sent here by great-hearted 

 philanthropists of the Eastern states, 

 I took shelter in a shanty occupied by 

 a landscape gardener of my acquaint- 

 ance and found there two others of 

 like trade. It was interesting to hear 

 those scientists in* gardeners' attire 

 talk, and I made some mental notes of 

 what they said, and this is a sample: 



"American cities have found it profit- 

 able to learn from the example of 

 Paris. Many of them have expended 

 vast sums to make themselves attrac- 

 tive by the planting of trees and palms 

 and shrubs and flowers, and all that 

 have done so have reaped financial re- 

 wards while gratifying the civic pride 

 and the love of the beautiful of their 

 inhabitants. Among California cities, 

 Los Angeles was first to realize the 

 value of attractiveness as a commer- 

 cial asset, and her people, actuated by 

 wisdom as well as a broad spirit of 

 local patriotism, have voted bond issue 

 after bond issue to beautify with trees 

 and flowers their attractive streets and 

 parks. They have proved that it pays 

 to improve and beautify, and they are 

 reaping a reward that they have justly 

 earned by their enterprise and public 

 spirit. The freshest example of this 

 philanthropic spirit is just over the 

 bay in Oakland. They have a city 

 mayor over there who is not under five 

 indictments for serious wrong-doing, 

 as is the case with San Francisco's 

 mayor. Frank K. Mott is his name, a 

 thorough gentleman whose expansive 

 home gardens are one of the beautiful 

 sights of Oakland. I have helped to 

 make it so, and I know Mayor Mott 

 very well. As mayor he won recently 

 a good fight in which he actively p'ar- 

 ticipated, the result being a vote of his 

 people, five to one in favor of a mil- 

 lion dollar issue of bonds to beautify 

 his city with additional parks." 



AZALEA PHARAILDE MATHILDE. 

 Editor of HORTICULTURE: 



Dear Sir: — In your esteemed paper 

 of January 19th, page S.3, I read, under 

 the heading "New Plants," that Aza- 

 lea Vervaeneana gifted the trade with 

 a fine new sport — a snow white, except 

 the upper quarter, that is sprinkled 

 with crimson, called Prohilda Ma- 

 thilde. I wish to inform your readers 

 that the so-called novelty is nothing 

 else than the variety Pharailde Ma- 

 thilde, which is in existence since 

 twenty years; it won the gold medal in 

 1887. Its originator was Mr. Jos. Ver- 

 vaene, who got the .unsurpassed Ver- 

 vaeneana. and it was from the very 

 same Pharailde Mathilde that Ver- 

 vaeneana sported. 



Hoping that you will give these few 

 lines a little corner in your much-liked 

 paper, I am, dear sir. 



Yours very sincerely, 



AUGUST HAERENS. 



Somergem, Belgium. 



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