56 



HORTICULTUEE 



July 20, 1918 



five to go across a bench with four rows of plants. All 

 other roses will do better on stakes where the plants 

 have to be handled by common help. We have g-rown 

 Teas very successfully on wires, but it requires a little 

 different handling, care in cuttin/r and so on. Have 

 good braces to start with, and see that the wires are in 

 good condition. If not, repair them well before making 

 any attempt at stretching them, as they will only break 

 and hurt someone besides doing a whole lot of damage 

 to the plants, as the loose ends suddenly tear through. 

 See that the wires for Beauties are not too high above 

 the plants. The higher the first wires are, the more 

 hard wood there will be between the roots and the grow- 

 ing top of the plant, making it harder for the sap to 

 flow and thus more or less hindering the plants and 

 keeping wood from setting. Never should the first 

 wire be higher than twelve inches above the level of the 

 soil in the bench. It should not be any lower either 

 though, for if it were put lower it would stop the cir- 

 culation of the air among the plants more or less, this 



meaning spot, and if there is any disease more trouble- 

 some to Beauties than spot, we do not Imow of it. As 

 soon as the first wires are strung proceed with the tying, 

 using white string for the first work both on Teas and 

 on Beauties. Old carnation string will be as good as 

 anything if it is not too far gone. Be careful not to 

 tie the Beauty plants straight up. If they had been 

 allowed to lie around at all they will be incUned to lean 

 on one side or another, and that is the way to tie them. 

 Try however to bend them in all directions except south, 

 southwest and southeast. This of course taking for 

 granted the houses run east and west. The bottom of 

 the plants will have a chance to get more sun this way 

 and it will be better for them as they will break far more 

 freely. Tie quite tight and yet not tight enough to 

 cut and choke the plants, being careful to put the string 

 around the wire once or twice to keep the plants where 

 you want them, otherwise they will slide when they are 

 syringed and this will cause a lot of annoyance to say 

 the least.' 



PHILADELPHUS. 



Among the shrubs which give 

 beauty to northern gardens in early 

 summer Philadelphus, or as it is pop- 

 ularly called Syringa and Mock Or- 

 ange, is perhaps only surpassed in 

 interest and value by the Rose and the 

 Laurel (Kalmia). The plants are na- 

 tives of eastern and western North 

 America, Japan, China, the Himal- 

 ayas and southeastern Europe. In the 

 Arnold Arboretum collection there are 

 some thirty species, several distinct 

 varieties of some of the species, and a 

 large number of hybrids tor in few 

 genera of plants has the hybridizer 

 been, more successful in producing 

 new and valuable forms. Plants In 

 this group are in bloom during fully 

 six weeks, the earliest being a form 

 of Philadelphus Schneckii named va- 

 riety Jackii for Mr. J. G. Jack, who 

 discovered it in Korea, which in or- 

 dinary seasons opens its flower-buds 

 during the last week of May and the 

 latest, or almost the latest, the hy- 

 brid P. insignis, which does not flower 

 before the middle of July. Among the 

 species which seem best worth a place 

 in the garden is the European species 

 P. coronariiis, the Mock Orange of old 

 gardens, which was cultivated in Eng- 

 land before the end of the sixteenth 

 century and was probably one of the 

 first shrubs brought to America by the 

 English. It is a large and hardy 

 shrub and is chiefly valuable for the 

 fragrance of its flowers which are 

 faintly tinged with yellow. Among 

 the American species which should 

 find a place in all collections of hardy 

 shrubs are P. inodorus, P. pubescens 

 and P. microphyllus. The first is a 

 medium-sized plant with arching 

 branches and large solitary, pure 



white, cup-shaped, scentless flowers 

 and by many persons considered the 

 most beautiful of the whole genus. P. 

 pubescens, sometimes called P. lati- 

 foliiis and P. grandiflorus, and known 

 in gardens under various other names. 

 Is a native of the southern Appala- 

 chian region and a shrub sometimes 

 twenty feet high with stout erect 

 stems and branches, broad leaves, and 

 large, slightly fragrant flowers ar- 

 ranged in erect, from five to ten- 

 flowered racemes. P. microphyllus is 

 a Rocky Mountain species with leaves 

 less than an inch long, and small, in- 

 tensely fragrant flowers. This is a 

 compact and hardy shrub, growing 

 here in the Arboretum about three 

 feet high and broad. 



The most distinct and the handsom- 

 est of the Asiatic species which flowers 

 here is Philadelphus purpurascens, 

 discovered by Wilson in western 

 China. It is a shrub with long arch- 

 ing stems from which rise numerous 

 branchlets from four to six inches 

 long and spreading at wide angles. 

 On these branchlets the flowers are 

 borne from base to apex on drooping 

 stalks; they are an inch and a halt 

 long with a bright purple calyx and 

 pure white petals which do not spread 

 as they do on most of the species but 

 form a bell-shaped corolla, and are 

 exceedingly fragrant. This is one of 

 the handsomest of the ishrubs brought 

 from western China to the Arboretum. 

 Philadelphus Magdalenae from central 

 China is another handsome plant well 

 worth general cultivation. It is a 

 broad, tall shrub with arching stems, 

 small, dark green, finely toothed 

 leaves and pure white fragrant flow- 

 ers an inch and a quarter in diameter 

 and arranged in drooping, leafy, 

 many-flowered panicles from six to 

 ten inches in length. Philadelphus 



pekinensis from northern China and 

 Mongolia is a stout bush rather 

 broader than high which every year 

 produces great quantities of small 

 flowers tinged with yellow and is weil 

 worth a place in the garden. Another 

 interesting garden plant, P. Falcon- 

 erii, which is certainly Asiatic and 

 probably Japanese, has narrow, lan- 

 ceolate leaves and fragrant flowers In 

 from one to six-flowered racemes, and 

 is distinct in the shape of its leaves 

 and its long narrow petals. This 

 plant was sent to the Arboretum 

 many years ago by the Parsons Nurs- 

 ery at Flushing, Long Island, but 

 nothing more is known of its origin 

 or history. 



By crossing P. coronarius with P. 

 ■microphyllus the French hybridizer 

 Lemoine obtained many years ago a 

 new race to which the name Philadel- 

 phus Lemoinei was given. The type 

 of- this race is a perfectly hardy shrub 

 four or five feet high and broad, with 

 slender stems which are now bent 

 down by the weight of Innumerable 

 flowers. These are intermediate in 

 size between those of the two parents 

 and retain the strong perfume of the 

 flowers of the Rocky Mountain plant. 

 A number of forms of this hybrid, 

 varying in the size and habit of the 

 plant and in the size and shape of the 

 flowers, were produced by Lemoine, 

 and they are all good plants of great 

 beauty and interest. Indeed this 

 group must be considered one of the 

 great contributions made by man to 

 gardens in the last fifty years. Le- 

 moine produced other hybrids like 

 Conquete, Nu^e Blanche, Rosea and 

 Perle Blanche of rather uncertain ori- 

 gin. They are all interesting but per- 

 haps less beautiful than some of the 

 forms of P. Lemoinei. — Arnold Arbore- 

 turn Bulletin. 



