70 



GARDENING. 



Not 



ers propagate the vital strength out of the 

 stock bv trying to do too much. 



I bought quite a number ot this sea- 

 son's novelties, and many of them 

 scarcely had roots on at all. Philadel- 

 phia, for instance, vs-as scarcely rooted at 

 all- the consequence was I had hard work 

 to get it to live, and have only dared to 

 allow one bud to remain on the plant. 



I have two promising seedlings that I 

 will send vou blooms irom as soon as 

 thev are in condition, which will be some 

 time next month; they may possess no 

 commercial value, do not expect they 

 will, but they are very beautiful. 



I expect to rebuild my warm greenhouse 

 the coming spring, and think if I raise my 

 own cuttings of chrysanthemums they 

 will have more vigor than sonie pur- 

 chased. I feel that I know nothing, but 

 am desirous of learning, and hope in time 

 to be able to produce something that is 

 good. It seems as though 



Gardening is better and better each 

 issue that comes; I take three other simi- 

 lar publications, but get more practical 

 knowledge from Gardening than from all 

 the others put together. 



C. W. Redfern. 



Michigan, Oct ober 22, '95 . 



NEW CHRYSflNTHEMUMS. 



During a recent visit to Castlewood.the 

 residence of Mr. T. H. Spaulding, at Or- 

 ange N J., I saw thousands of seedlings 

 and hundreds of named varieties being 

 grown and tested. The greatest atten- 

 tion is given to weeding out the kinds 

 that are worthless and preserving only 

 what is good. Varieties are rarely sent 

 out before their third season. All who 

 have raised chrysanthemum seedlings are 

 aware that sometimes a seedhng is better 

 the first year than ever afterwards; while 

 some improve with their second or third 

 season. ,^ , 



The most striking novelty, and one 

 which is going to be sent out next year, 

 is Marion Cleveland. It is a stout 

 stemmed beauty, with incurved white 

 with creamy center flowers. I measured 

 a bloom ofit that was 12 inches across, 

 including depth and diameter It is not 

 "built up high," or It would be a record 

 breaker in measurement, as it is it is a 

 bouquet in itself. Its habit is vigorous. 



Yellow Wm. Falconer is similar in 

 every respect to that fine hairy variety 

 except in color. , , ^ 



Amon°- the newest and best varieties I 

 noted Sam Weller, a very fine large pink; 

 Double Walter W. Coles, like that fine 

 old variety without the eye; Fred Walz, 

 fine lilac pink on stiff stems; Philadelphia, 

 lemon yellow, a genera! favorite,- and 

 New York, a white sister of the last; 

 Zulinda, fine incurved pink; Mane Louise, 

 very fine white; Jayne, a fine incurved, 

 well built up flower of a dark rose color; 

 Esther Heacock, a globular bright yellow 

 soort from Ada Spaulding; Camille 

 D'Arville a reflexed, white flower of 

 spherical form; Dr. W. A.Wakely, distinct 

 chrome bronze with inner petals sufi'used 

 with crimson; Ethel Addison, immense, 

 purplish pink; Wickham Jones, large, in- 

 curved, creamy white; Miss Louise D. 

 Black, a medium sized, incurved, deep, 

 golden variety of great excellence; Mrs. 

 H F Spaulding, incurved, white; Bonnie 

 Marjorie, creamy white, fine; Howard 

 Reineck, lemon yellow, reflexed; Her 

 Majesty, distinct, creamy white, center 

 suffused with pink; Garza, a fine white 

 anemone; Mrs. F. Gordon Dexter, single 

 and perhaps the most fantastic of the 

 anemones, but the habit of the plant is 

 straggling; Columbine, globular bronze; 

 Riverside, the best large early reflexed 



yellow; Dragon's Blood, dark crimson; 

 Yoshiike, good, creamy white; T. H. 

 Reichman, early. globular, golden yellow; 

 Mrs. T. D. Hatfield, a solid incurved ytl- 

 low of the type of Mrs. L. C. Madeira, 

 but the plant is more vigorous; Clarence, 

 a good pink; Amber Ada Spaulding, a 

 sport that originated in California. 



Trilby is a white and very desirable 

 variety; Mrs. W. H. Hurley, a fine 

 bronze; Tasmania, an odd variety, 

 striped dull purple and white; Louise 

 Seivers, yellflw, Kioto type; Mrs. M. R. 

 Parker, Jr., a valuable early deep pink, 

 now being grown in quantity for market; 

 Mrs. Potter Palmer, a fine pink of good 

 substance; Dorothy Shea, an English 

 variety after the pattern of W. W. Coles; 

 Mayflower, tasseled, white, and Mrs. H. 

 E. Wiedersheini, a fine early white. 



A very fine variety is here named Prin- 

 cess Victoria, it is a combination of pur- 

 ple and silver, after the pattern of Mrs. 

 Wm. Barr. Nathan Smith described in 

 his catalogue of this year Princess Vic- 

 toria as "creamy white, reflexed." Jean- 

 nie Falconer is of the finest lemon yellow 

 flowers. As its root action is not vigor- 

 ous, the plants are grown in shallow soil. 

 C. Shrimpton, crimson and gold, is extra 

 fine. And Wm. Seward, a fine dark 

 crimson reflexes as it opens, forming a 

 ball. Wm. Fitzwilli^m. 



Orchids. 



ORCHID NOTES. 



As soon as Cattlera Bowringiaim, C. 

 labiata, and Lxlia Perrini are out of 

 flower remove them from the display 

 house and place them in a house where 

 thev may rest, having a minimum tem- 

 perature of say 50° at night. As regards 

 theterm "rest" let meexplain: No orchids, 

 unless such as are deciduous, like calanthes 

 and cyrtopodium, need absolute rest. The 

 pseudo-bulbs of cattleyas and Ijelias 

 should never be allowed to dry and 

 shrivel; and such as ha veno pseudo-bulbs, 

 like phaUenopsis and arides,must always 

 be kept moist. "Rest" simply means 

 freedom from excitement— keeping the 

 plants from growing before their time; 

 prematurelj' forced orchids never flower 

 well and soon give out. During clear 

 frosty weather, when the fires are going 

 strongly, damp the floors and benches 

 well in'the evening to create a moist at- 

 mosphere. A hygrometer in the orchid 

 house to show the humidity of the atmos- 

 phere is a very useful little instrument. 



The following orchids are in bloom on 

 this place (Oct. 28) in addition to the 

 orchids mentioned, page 40, and which 

 are nearly all in bloom still; these are in 

 flower, Cattleya maxima superba, Cypri- 

 pedium Spicerianum, and some seedlings, 

 Pleione lagenaria, and some plants of 

 the easily grown and free flowering Vanda 

 cccruica' Wm. Fitzwilliam. 



ORCHIDS FOR WINTER. 



Many of the readers of Gardening are 

 interested in orchids and cultivate them; 

 others would grow them were it not that 

 they have a feehng that orchids must be 

 constantly coddled, but this is a mistake, 

 coddling them injures them. Orchids are 

 a family of plants that really requires a 

 minimum amount of care compared with 

 other greenhouse plants to give great 

 results, in fact if a few easy rules are 

 established and acted up to there will be 

 no trouble whatever in growing these 

 plants satisfactorily. In my own green 



houses I grovv several other kinds of 

 plants — common commercial stock— 

 which were I to neglect as much as I do 

 my orchids sometimes they would be 

 completelj' ruined, whereas the orchids 

 show no ill effects whatever. There are 

 some orchids I admit that have a tend- 

 ency to fail after three or four years' cap- 

 tivity, but during this time they generally 

 give far more blooms than enough to pay 

 for themselves and care. But the stand- 

 ard sorts are not only longlived but they 

 increase in size andfloriferousness as they 

 advance in years. At the head of this list 

 I place the gorgeous cattleyas, then 

 Odontoglossum crispum and O. Pesca- 

 torei, Vanda ccerulea, cyripedium in 

 endless variety, Dendrobium Wardianum, 

 D. nobile. D. Pbalxnopsis Schroderw. 

 This latter plant is a wonderful flower, 

 with proper care it blooms freelj' from 

 both the newgrowthsandtheold pseudo- 

 bulbs. A course of cool and dry treat- 

 ment in winter, and moisture and warmth 

 in summer insure a heavy crop of flowers 

 in the fall. 



Cj'pripediums are growing in favor fast 

 for cut flowers. Many critical flower 

 lovers were wont to say "what a queer 

 flower," and but few of the blooms were 

 sold; nowadays, however, the most 

 aesthetic people order them by the basket, 

 and they are being sought after more and 

 more everj' season. 



The old and somewhat neglected 

 Ccelogyne cristata when well grown is 

 most lavish of its blossoms, and when in 

 bloom is a valuable plant to the amateur. 

 And by the way both this plant and 

 Cypripedium insigne do finely out of 

 doors in summer, giving them lots of 

 water and a little shade from midday 

 sunshine; this treatment improves their 

 health and strength, and consequently 

 increases their crop of flowers. 



Plants of Cattleya Triatix are now 

 pushing their flower buds through their 

 sheaths and should be carefully watered 

 and given a brisk even temperature with 

 a slight shade till the flowers are cut, 

 when there should be a little reduction of 

 heat, say to 50° or 55° at night, till the 

 season of growth commences again. 

 Keep the plants a little on the dry side, 

 and water sparingly in the pot in order 

 to keep the roots aHve and well, so that 

 they will have something to start with 

 when spring comes. 



To prevent scale keep a good supply of 

 fresh Havana tobacco stems on the hot 

 water or steam heating pipes, moistening 

 them daily so that they may exhale the 

 pungent vapor that is so deadly to insect 

 vermin; and once in a while sprinkle a 

 little sulphur among the stems and you 

 need not trouble about the scale, which 

 is the worst of all insect pests on cattleyas 

 especially and on other orchids. It used 

 to cost me many dollars a year to keep 

 my orchids free from this pest, but now 

 with the tobacco treatment I do not have 

 any trouble in that line. Just as soon as 

 the tobacco begins to get stale remove it 

 and replace with fresh stems. 



Plenty of atmospheric moisture is also 

 in order when you are firing hard in cold 

 weather; if you do not attend to this 

 your flowers will be poor in quality and 

 substance, for you must remember under 

 diflerent conditions the quality of the 

 flowers is apt to be diflerent. Do not 

 heat your houses unduly with the view 

 of getting better results in growth or 

 blossoms, for parching artificial heat is 

 often disastrous to the members of this 

 family of plants. Many fine specimens of 

 orchids are killed every year by wasting. 

 .■Mthough they may come from hot 

 climates they arc plentifully supplied 



