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GARDENING. 



197 



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CRIMSON RAMBLER ROSE 



beauU'. Not one in a liundrid will open 

 well. Madame Bravy, except under the 

 most favorable conditions, i& a disap- 

 pointment, and Etoile de Lyon mildews 

 so badly as to destroy its value almost 

 entirely. The hybrid teas while giving 

 us the best roses extant hive in their 

 number some not worth standing room. 

 Michael Saunders will not open its buds 

 and Puritan gets so sick from mildew as 

 to be utterly worthless. Even the grand 

 old Bourbon Souvenir de la Malmaison 

 needs the kindly shade of a picket fence 

 or something of the kind to shield it from 

 the ardent gaze of the midday sun or the 

 buds will burn. Many other sorts that 

 have a good reputation elsevi-here do but 

 indifferently here. Verily it is not more 

 important to know what to plant than 

 what not to plant, especiallv where space 

 is limited. 



Most of us grow roses for the pleasure 

 and satisfaction they afford. Hence we 

 loyallj- adhere to some we learned to love 

 in auld lang syne, which is well. Beyond 

 these we may as well have the best. In a 

 future article I hope to give a list of sorts 

 that ma3- be relied upon to give satisfac- 

 tory results here, but can not answer for 

 their conduct elsewhere. H. (i. I'k.xtt. 



Fruitvale, Cal. 



CRIMSON RAMBLER ROSE. 



In (t.\ri)ENIXG, August 1 last, ])agc372, 

 we gave the history of this rose. It is a 

 Japanese rose of the Polyantha class, and 



was introduced to this country by waj' 

 of England, where it is a wonderlul suc- 

 cess. It is a vigorous grower and can be 

 used as a trellis or pillar rose or as a 

 bush plant, and we have every reason to 

 expect that it will be perfectly hardy here. 

 Its flowers are quite small but double, 

 crimson in color, and produced in termi- 

 nal clusters or panicles, and verj' pretty. 

 It is so little known among us that we 

 don't know what its faults are, if it has 

 any. Mr. W. C. Egan says it mildews 

 with him. With us Polyantha roses in 

 general are not subject to mildew, but 

 they grow well, keep well and bloom well, 

 unfortunately, however, the rose bugs 

 seems to have a great fondness for them. 

 In defiance of all this, however, we must 

 have the Crimson Rambler. 



We are indebted to the courtesy of 

 Messrs. Ellwanger & Barry for our illus- 

 tration of this rose, they had it engraved 

 from a photograph of a spray in bloom in 

 their own nursery. They say of it: Its 

 color "is of the brightest crimson, and 

 which remains undimmed to the end. 

 showing none of the objectionable pur- 

 plish tint so common in crimson roses. 

 The flowers are produced in great pyra- 

 midal panicles or trusses, each carrying 

 from thirty to forty blooms, the indi- 

 vidual flowers measuring about one to 

 one and a half inches in diameter and 

 remainingpcrfect on the plant for upwards 

 of two weeks withthcir freshness of color 



Greenhouse and Window. 



THE GRBBNflOUSB. 



Our conservatories should now be gay 

 with a great variety of flowers. Among 

 these are Chinese and obconica primroses, 

 belated cyclamen, cinerarias in their 

 greatest glory, marguerites, carnations, 

 nasturtiums, heliotrope, eallas, sweet 

 alyssura, geraniums, oxalis of various 

 kinds and colors, speciosa fuchsias and 

 Zanzibar balsams. Add to these many 

 begonias as rubra, Paul Bruant, odor- 

 ata, manicata, lucbsioides, and the like. 

 Forced bulbs add greatly to the display, 

 for example hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, 

 frecsi.is, ixias, seillas. ranimculus and 

 lily of the valley. Amateurs who love 

 variety can have it by growing a number 

 of annuals, as Swan River daisy, Vir- 

 ginian stock, mulleins, candytuft, bal- 

 sams, nasturtiums, dwarf corn flower, 

 Dnnnmond's coreopsis, Gypsophila ele- 

 .£,'.i/).s, tifjcrcd mimulus,^ single petunias, 

 Drummond phlox, schfzanthus, and so 

 on. But these annuals are more for con- 

 servatory decoration than for use for cut 

 flowers; while many of them cut well 

 enough, there is hardly body enough to 

 them. B; sides all of these we have the 

 showy azaleas, golden genistas, airy 

 acacias, elegant plumbagos, fragrant tox- 

 icophljea, stiff camellias, fragrant olive, 

 changing colored irancisceas, bright 

 hibiscus, and a good many other hard 

 wooded plants. Forced shrubs from now 

 on should also be a feature of our con- 

 servatories. Deutzia gracilis is the most 

 accommodating and generally grown, but 

 any of the early spiraeas as Thunhergii, 

 Cantonensis, Van Houttei or Media will 

 force nicely if you bring them in slow. 

 Dwarf lilacs are in good bloom now. 

 Charles X. purple, and Marie Le Graye 

 (when you get it true), white, are fine for 

 this purpose. The Japanese Toringa crab 

 apples, Colchican bladder nut, and most 

 any shrub that blooms early naturally 

 can be had in flower in March or April in 

 the greenhouse. 



Temperature.— Use less fire heat and 

 more sun heat, but do not let the temper- 

 ature get as low as the winter average. 

 The plants have started to grow and need 

 a little more warmth, say 50° to 55° at 

 night for a cool greenhouse, and 65° for 

 a warm one. With sun heat in the day 

 time they may run 10° or even 20° higher. 



Vextilate.'— Don't ventilate till the 

 house warms up a little in the morning, 

 then open the ventilators a little to begin 

 with, and in an hour or so some more, 

 and so on, humoring the ventilation ac- 

 cording to the weather. Begin to shut 

 upearlv in the afternoon to economise 

 fire heat. 



Watering.— Let no growing plant 

 suffer for want of water. When one gets 

 quite dry water it two or three times till 

 the water runs through out of the bot- 

 tom of the pot. Syringe the cool houses 

 in the morning, the warm ones in the 

 morning and early in the afternoon. 

 Don't syringe the plants in bloom in the 

 conservatorv overhead. 



Potting.— We like to have all the pot- 

 ting that can be done in winter finished 

 before this, so as not to delay us in our 

 spring work. But don't delay it anj' 

 longer. See that every plant is in good 

 condition at the roots,'that there are no 

 worms in the soil, that the drainage is 

 perfect, and the earth is not sodden, 

 past}' or sour. It repotting is necessary, 

 attend to it at once. When you turn the 

 plants out of their pots pick away the 

 loose dirt and old drainage, and repot 



