i8g6. 



• GARDENING. 



117 



THE MANY FLOWERED TORCH LILY 



fined and elegant, and though it blooms 

 with me too late to perfect seed, I yet 

 each year plant a stretch of some 500 

 feet for the enjoyment received from them. 

 One point which has not been made 

 prominent, but which should be, is that 

 if a piece of the vine in bloom is cut off 

 with undeveloped buds and taken into 

 the house and put in water, thebuds will 

 develop and open up daily as though 

 growing on the vine. This enables one 

 to produce a beautiful efl'ect by twining 

 the cuttings around pictures or small 

 statuary, cabinet mantels, etc. Another 

 point in its favor is that it opens about 

 8 o'clock in the morning and continues 

 open until about 3 to 4- in the afternoon. 

 Throughout it is both elegant and 

 charming. A. W. Smith. 



.\merieus, Georgia, Nov. 7. 



THE MflNY FLOWERED TORCH LILY. 



{Kmphiit'ux nioiiles var. floribunda). 



How keeping trace of these botanical 

 names does bother one! We used to give 

 this species Tritoma Uvaria for a botani- 

 cal name, and "fiery poker" for an Eng- 

 lish one. Well, you all know how good a 

 plant the old tritoma is. and I can assure 

 you that the variety of it called fforibundu 

 is very much better than its parent. 



It is an accidental seedling that origi- 

 nated in my garden a few years ago. I 

 used to grow a good many clumps of the 

 old Tritoma Uvaria and they did moder- 

 ately well with me, living out of doors 

 over winter under a mulch of leaves and 

 growing nicely ;ind blooming fairly well 

 in summer. One day 1 noticed a distinct 

 appearing little plant unusually full of 

 rising flower scapes, near an old clump 

 and marked it, and early the following 

 spring lifted, divided and replanted it, 

 keeping it by itself. It has proven so 

 much better and more floriferous than 

 the old form that I have discarded all of 

 my old plants, retaining only this new 

 v.iriety to which I have given the nameof 

 HuribuiiJa. 



It is such a free bloomer that the small- 

 est piee. planted out in spring will bloom 



the same year. Established plants begin 

 flowering very early and keep in blossom 

 more or less till frost destroys them in 

 November. We cut our first out of door 

 flowers of it last summer on Decoration 

 Day; the blossoms stand 7° or 8° of irost 

 in fall before they show signs of injury. 

 The large plant shown in the picture had 

 forty-nine flower spikes on it during last 

 summer. A noticeable point about this 

 variety is, that while the old Uvaria used 

 to seed freely with me, I have never 

 found a good seed pod on the fjoribiinda. 

 It is also hardier than the old sort, stand- 

 ing our winters here without any protec- 

 teetion, but of course, a mulching of 

 leaves for it always advisable. 

 Auburn, N. Y. J. Elletson. 



HIBISCUS-CflNNflS. 



Where can I buy large single flowered 

 hibiscus bushes? What are the best 

 variety of dwarf cannas and where can 

 they be had? Edgemoor. 



Oconomowoc, Wis. 



1. Dropanote toj. C. Vaughan, F. R. 

 Pitrson Co., Henry A. Dreer, or Pitcher 

 & Manda, whose advertisenientsyou will 

 find in Gardeni.ng, telling them what you 

 want, and the size and number of the 

 plants. But there are lots of large single 

 flowered kindsof hibiscus, the commonest 

 being H. rosa-sinensis, a tender shrub 

 with large red. scarlet or crimson flowers; 

 it is grown in the greenhouse in winter 

 and may be kept in a pot or''tub, or 

 planted out in summer. What we call 

 altha;a, a hardy shrub (may get killed to 

 the snow or mulch line with you) that 

 blooms in July and August, is Hibiscus 

 Syriacus. The single pure white is a 

 beautiful shrub, but the other singles are 

 in less demand than the doubles. In 

 ground where the growth would be hard 

 and well ripened this shrub will live bet- 

 ter than in rich soil where the young 

 growth would be sappy. A very common 

 and beautiful hardy hibiscus with large 

 pink or white blossoms is the eastern 

 swamp rose mallow {Hibiscus Mos- 



cbeutos). It is a herbaceous plant, and 

 not a shrub, that is it dies down to the 

 ground every year as a phlox or larkspur 

 does, but on account ot its bold, vigorous 

 growth it is often classed among shrubs. 

 Although native in our brackish swamps 

 i'. thrives in common inland garden soil 

 just as well as any other plant, and is a 

 most desirable plant to have. Get a 

 dozen or so of it, give it good somewhat 

 moist soil to grow in, throwan arm'ulor 

 two of tree leaves about thecrowns of the 

 plants in winter, and don't be disap- 

 pointed if they don't blooom till the 

 second year. They live for many years, 

 flower very generously, and ripen lots of 

 seeds; then you can raise any quantity of 

 young plants from your own saved seeds. 

 2. Get Madame "Crozy, crimson-scarlet 

 edged with yellow; Queen Charlotte, 

 crimson broadly banded with yellow; 

 Alphonse Bouvier, brilliant crimson; 

 Columbia, crimson, largetrusses; Charles 

 Henderson, rich crimson, compact spike; 

 and Eldorado a fine, large yellow flower 

 spotted a little. While these are excellent 

 tried sorts each, one having a distinct ad- 

 vantage of its own, get a dozen or so of 

 the newer varieties (any of the dealers 

 mentioned above can supply them) and 

 plant them out in a border "or even in a 

 row in the vegetable garden, four feet 

 apart, in deeply dug, well manured ground 

 and give them their full freedom. In them 

 you will have both interest and pleasure. 



FIVE MONTHS OF CflRNflTIONS. 



From the last week of. May t If the first 

 of November 1 IhinU tlicie was not a day 

 when we could not gather at least a little 

 bunch of the spicy carnations from our 

 garden. And this is the way we raise 

 them. Sow early in spring seeds of the 

 Grenadin, Early Vienna, and English 

 border carnations. Transplant about a 

 foot apart, or farther if you have plentv 

 of room, and keep them in vigorous 

 growth through the season. They are 

 hardy in pretty cold climates. They are 

 mostly double and yield flowers of many 

 colors and shades, some of them large 



