I82 



• • • GARDENING. 



Mar. /, 



piazza they will grow better and even on 

 the piazza if not much darkened by vines 

 they will do nicely. The size of the plants 

 will depend on the age and size of the 

 "bulbs," the number used in a pot, the 

 size of the pot, and the general treatment. 

 We have had very pretty stocky plants 2 

 to 3 feet high in 5 or 6-inch pots, and 

 specimens 3 to 5 feet high in 12-inch pots 

 or small tubs. Planted out in abed in the 

 garden in thin shade and where sheltered 

 from strong wind they grow ver\- nicely. 

 What handsome plants they are. In 

 Dreer's catalogue we find 50 distinct 

 kinds offered for $10; Saul, Vanghan and 

 others too offer them. 



PITC«ER PLANTS. 



{^Nepenthes) . 



These are among the most interesting 

 and striking of tropical plants, easily 

 grown in our hothouses, and always 

 attract attention. They are mostly 

 indigenous in the Indian Archipelago, 

 with headquarters in the mountains of 

 Borneo. But many of our finest varieties 

 are h vbrids of garden origin, America lead- 

 ing in this direction. Some twenty to t wen- 

 tv-five years ago in Mr. Such's nurseries at 

 South Amboy, N. J., the late Mr. Taplin 

 succeeded in hybridizing several species, 

 getting seed from them and raising a 

 multitude of these hybrid seedlings. A 

 good many of these were sold to Euro- 

 pean nurserymen, who in time propa- 

 gated them, named them, and "sent them 

 out." 



In all prominent conservatories and 

 hothouses we now find pitcher plants 

 grown in considerable numbers. They 

 occupy wooden cabin-baskets and are 

 suspended from the roof after the manner 

 of orchids, every leaf tipped with a 

 pendent pitcher, they are also grown as 

 pot plants, their stems tied up to a stake 

 and their pitchers hanging down all 

 about them. Not unfrequently some 

 varieties as .V. distillatoria, in warm, 

 moist greenhouses are trained along under 

 the roof as vines. 



The plants like a compost of fibrous 

 peat and sphagnum moss, and good 

 drainage. Nauchroot room is unnecessary 

 for they are not liberal rooting plants. 

 Their roots are black or dark colored, and 

 to an untrained eye look more dead than 

 alive, they require the most careful han- 

 dling though, for they are very sensitive 

 to injury. The nepenthes are moisture 

 loving plants, they like lots of water at 

 the root, and daily syringings overhead, 

 and a moist atmosphere at all times. 

 Shade them from sunshine, at the same 

 time grow them up as near to the shaded 

 glass as practicable, for they love thecon 

 densed light, and such treatment makes 

 them short jointed and many leaved, 

 which in all well grown plants means 

 many pitchered, every leaf carrying a 

 pitcher. A night temperature of 65° in 

 winter suits them admirably. 



After the shoots are over a year old if 

 they are getting too long to look neat, or 

 too long jointed, or miss pitchering satis- 

 factorily we generally cut them back and 

 give the younger growths the room. 



The pitchers should not be mistaken for 

 flowers, they are simply ornamental 

 appendages to the leaves, the flowers are 

 small, greenish and inconspicuous, and 

 are borne on racemes near the end of the 

 shoots. 



All of the pitcher plants are insectivor- 

 ous, or rather they are insect traps. The 

 pitchers secrete a sweetish fluid, and as 

 soon as they are full grown their lids open 

 and insects enter and partake of the 

 ii|uid, and become stupified and fall into 



it and die. And the hairs inside of the 

 pitchers are arranged in such a way, that 

 while it is easy enough for an insect enter 

 and sip it cannot back out, it has got to 

 stay there and perish. But the idea that 

 these insects are necessary in anyway to 

 the life of the plant is all nonsense; the 

 cleaner we keep the pitchers and the freer 

 from insects the longer they will last in 

 perfection, on the other hand the more 

 insects that enter the pitcher and die 

 there, the sooner the pitcher itself decays. 



Our illustration shows a young speci- 

 men of Nepenthes Masteriana, and was 

 engraved from a photograph taken at 

 Dosoris two years ago. This pitcher 

 plant is a hybrid obtained by Veitch of 

 London from crossing N. sanguinea with 

 N. distillatoria, and we believe as its " 

 raisers claim that "this is indisputably 

 the finest hybrid nepenthes yetobtained." 

 Our picture shows the most striking 

 young pitcher plant of any kind we ever 

 saw. Its pitchers, of a deep red color, 

 were exceedingly large, a foot rule 

 dropped into them showed the smallest 

 one to be 7 inches and the largest one 

 nearly 11 inches deep. 



Lest critics may turn to Veitch 's cata- 

 logue, where this hybrid is shown with 

 shorter and wider pitchers and a pair of 

 deeply serrated wings, tnen look at our 

 picture with its long handsome wingless 

 pitchers, and regard them as totally dif- 

 ferent plants we would say: No, they are 

 the same thing, Veitch's figure is that of 

 a pitcher from a short leaf from a bud 

 near the ground, ours of characteristic 

 leaves of the plant when it had assumed 

 vigorous growth, and ours are by far the 

 finest. As regards this point Mr. William 

 Robinson of the great Ames Gardens, 

 North Easton, Mass., and who has the 

 choicest collection of these plants in the 

 country writes: 



"The basal pitchers vary much in their 

 structure from those of stem leaves, and, 

 this is why Veitch's picture (of a basal 

 pitcher) is so very different from the one 

 I send you [identical with those of the 

 Dosoris specimen. — Ed.] by this mail." 



GREENHOUSES IN NEW ORLEANS. 



I am a practical gardener and have lived 

 here a good many years, and lean assure 

 you that we not only have permanent 

 greenhouses but use them to the extent 

 that we consider them indispensable. In 

 some of the nurseries about the city 

 where they have lean-to structures covered 

 with moveable sash, the sash is taken off in 

 summer. But the greenhouses proper, full 

 span, three-quarter, and conservator}' of 

 which there are many in New Orleans, 

 are permanent structures with fixed 

 glazed roofs, and many of them have been 

 here for twentj' years. They are built of 

 all kinds of material, but the best is first- 

 class cypress and double-thick or ground 

 glass. Unfortunately many of our city 

 greenhouses have been built to conform 

 with the architecture of the dwelling 

 house and with no heed to the cultiva- 

 tion of plants, an evil often apparent 

 when the house carpenter or architect, 

 rather than the professional greenhouse 

 builder or gardener, has the planning of 

 such structures. 



We have a light frame set about IS 

 inches or 2 feet above the glass, this is to 

 support a canvas, cotton, or linen shad- 

 ing fixed on rollers and which can be 

 raised or lowered by means of light pul- 

 leys and a rope. This shading admits 

 plenty light and allows a current of air 

 to pass through between it and the glass; 

 thus helping to reduce the temperature in 

 the greenhouse in hot summer weather. 



[The same thing is in use in the northern 

 states in the case ofgreenhouses filled 

 with odontoglossums, masdevallias and 

 other cool orchids, for which it is so 

 desirable to have the temperature as low 

 as possible during the hot weather.— Ed] 

 It may also be lowered in winter to keep 

 out frost. We likewise use a coat of 

 whitewash shading on the glass in sum- 

 mer, renewing it from time to time. 01 

 course a large number of our greenhouse 

 plants are set out of doors in summer, 

 still we keep our greenhouses pretty full 

 all the time, having ferns, variegated 

 leaved and other plants in them, and all 

 grow beautifully. C. R. Pantek. 



Greenhouse Door Freezing Tight. — 

 E. O. N. writes: My two outside doors 

 to greenhouse fit tight and in freezing 

 weather, especially at night, the con- 

 densed water runs on the inside and 

 freezes the door fast to the sill and is 

 almost impossible to open. How can I 

 manage this? 



Ans. — As your doors now are you can- 

 not prevent the freezing. Having two 

 doors to your greenhouse let one of them 

 be shut up tight for the winter; to the 

 other build a little porch or vestibule 

 entrance, say -tx-i feet, with a door in 

 front, both doors opening to the inside. 

 As the vestibule will not be heated there 

 will be no condensed moisture to run 

 down on the inside to get frozen to the 

 sill, hence the door will be always free 

 and easv to open; and if the vestibule is 

 tight no ice vi'ill ever form at the sill of 

 the inner door, and you will never expe- 

 rience any trouble. The pathway of the 

 greenhouse should slope gently back to 

 the inside from the sill, and never, as we 

 often find it, from the inside forward to 

 the sill. The vestibule maj' be made of 

 boards altogether, or with glazed sides 

 as one may chose; we prefer it with 

 glazed sides and a glazed roof, just like 

 a part of the greenhouse. 



Snapdragons in Winter.— Your note 

 about these, page 155, reminds me of m^- 

 old pit greenhouse in which I used to 

 grow a number of snapdragons, also 

 bleeding heart and Deutzia gracilis, all of 

 which forced well in it, and I had only a 

 coal oil lamp to heat it in very cold 

 weather. Oh, me! if I had only had Gar- 

 dening in my young days would not my 

 flowers have been gorgeous. 



L G. Chrisman. 



Orchids. 



ORCHID NOTES. 



The proper way of ventilating orchid 

 houses is of very much importance. .\ 

 supply of pure air is necessary, but cold 

 draughts are injurious and must he 

 guarded against. A good wa\' to venti- 

 late is when the thermometer in the cool 

 house indicates 55°; in the intermediate 

 house, where the majority ofthe cattleyas 

 are grown, 65°, and when it rises to 70° 

 in the stove or warmest house, raise the 

 top ventilators one inch, and, if the tern 

 perature continues to increase, gradually 

 raise the ventilators till by noon, if it is 

 not too windy, they may be raised to 

 four inches at this time of the year- 

 March. Gradually close them up again 

 till by 3 o'clock or earlier they should be 

 shut tight. In very cold and windy 

 weather a chink to allow the impure air 

 to escape is all that is necessary. 



