for September, 1920 



315 



Departments of Foreign Exchange and Book Reviews | 



-Wti.' Roses lit Biigatcllc. — We have already announced (June 

 19,) the fact that the Gold Medal at the Bagatelle trial of new 

 Roses this year was awarded to Rose Frances Gaunt, and we 

 now have particulars of the other awards. Certificates of Merit 

 were given to President Parmentier, sent by Sauvageot, a cross 

 between Colonel Lcclerc and Le Progres, pinkish Apricot color 

 very strong and free-growing; Le France Viclorieuse, an H.T. 

 hybrid sent by the Rosary of L'Hay, pale pink with a slightly 

 deeper heart, very large petals ; Comicsse de Cassagne, another 

 H.T. from the firm of Guillot, petals ivorj'-yellow outside, 

 lightly suffused with pink inside, very strong in growth and 

 with a long season of flowering; and Mermaid, an interesting 

 hybrid obtained by crossing 7?. bractcata with an unnamed Tea 

 Rose, the large flowers are pale-yellow. 



I am not surprised to heart that Rosa Frances Gaunt won the 

 premier award at the Rose trials at Bagatelle. It is one of the 

 best of the new varieties. The habit of growth is all that could 

 be desired ; vigorous, carrying the blossoms erect on stout stems, 

 which renders it ail the more useful for garden decorations. The 

 color is deep apricot. — The Gardeners' Chronicle of London. 



Rose Competition at Bagatelle. — The new roses sent out in 

 1919 have been very numerous, in spite of the difficulties of all 

 sorts, and many of them are very beautiful. The choosings for 

 the Gold Medal and for the certificates have been very difficult. 



SotiiH'nir de Claudius Fernet. — The Gold Medal — is a grand 

 rose of pure chrome yellow held up on a stiff stem. The bush 

 is very vigorous and extremely floriferous. The name was given 

 by Mons. Pernet-Ducher to perpetuate the memorj- of his eldest 

 son gloriously fallen on the field of battle. Its vigor and the 

 color, a pure yellow and the good form make it very remarkable. 



In the competition of next year we shall find an admirable 

 rose bearing the name of the second son whom the war has 

 taken away from this unfortunate father. 



Another yellow rose of Mons. Pernet-Ducher, Benedicfc Scguin, 

 with large petals, very beautiful in the bud was noteworthy; 

 its color, very different, is golden yellow; the beautiful foliage 

 is dark, the stem stout and very long; it is more of a H.T. 

 than a Pernetiana ; it has moreover the delicate and penetrating 

 perfume of the hybrid teas, a quality deserving to be noted in 

 a yellow rose, especially in one so strongly colored as is this. 

 (First-class Certificate), 



The Gold Medal for roses of foreign origin was assigned to 

 Frances Gaunt, of .^lec. Dickson. — Le lardin. 



PAPAVER SHIRLEIENSE. 



If it were my fate (as in these days I could almost wish it 

 were), to be Crusoed on the Island of Juan Fernandez, and did 

 the power that marooned me leave me but a single flower to 

 solace my captivity, I should say: "Give me then, tyrant, a 

 pinch of Shirley Poppy seed" ; and the first phrase I should teach 

 my parrot would be, "Hurrah for Wilks and Liberty!" With 

 Orchids and Roses, Tulips and Passion Flowers, Dahlias and 

 Delphiniums to choose from, il may seem a curious lack of 

 discrimination to single out the "harmless necessary" Poppy, 

 th's Ii,ghtly held, unconsidered annual, hut yesterday a memtier 

 of the despised proletariat of weeds, exposed to the harrow- 

 ing persecutions and objurgations of farmers and their hinds — 

 to choose this field .^rab for the sole ornament and glory of 

 my Pacific island; this surely, if only in the interests of sanity, 

 would stand in need of justification. To begin with, if I am 

 to have but one flower, it must needs be a flower likely to be 

 in evidence throughout a large part of the twelve months — 

 seven or eight months of the iwclve at least. Xc.xt I choose 

 these Poppies as giving the minimum of trouble and anxiety; 

 no nursing or coddling, no strapping and wrapping and swad- 

 dling in Sphagnum as if they were babies or Orchids, no striking, 

 or .grafting, or budding or layering as if they were Roses or 

 Carnations, no truck w-ith tul)crs as if they were Dahlias, no 

 lifting and repianting of bulbs as if ihcy were Tulips or Daflfo- 

 dils. No! none of these troublesome operations! Just fling 

 your pinch of seed broadcast on the wind, and there you are! 

 T dare say that the Poppy is not aver.se to rich diet, though it 

 thrives none the better for battening on the fat regimen of 

 Kroccolis or Dahlias. I have no doubt it would take to a 

 nitrogenous diet as readily as a beggar to pate de foie gras.' 

 but it is not the better for it. On over rich food the Poppy 

 tends to become gross and obese, with a susceptibility to dropsy 

 or gout. In s'lort, the Poppy dees itself more credit on a me- 



dium soil ; if light and gravelly, perhaps, all the better. Fling 

 it on any spot where Chickweed is happy (and where is not 

 Chickweed happy?), and the Poppy will spring into life, and 

 grow space, and flower in flamboyant splendor, and produce 

 seed a thousandfold and die, and rot, and, in response to the 

 first shower after its decease, will spring into new life and a 

 gjorious re-incarnation. There are only three troubles with 

 this Poppy, the thinning, the staking and the gathering, but 

 these, especially the last, are greater than the inexperienced 

 would be ready to believe. 



The Shirley Poppy is, I understand, descended in direct line 

 from the Poppy of the field, Papaver Rliaras. Most people sup- 

 pose they are familiar with the Field Poppy, and probably they 

 are with a Field Poppy. But P. Rhoeas is a protean species 

 Long before the Shirley Poppy was known to English gardens, 

 this extreme variability of ihe Field Poppy was noied by scien- 

 tific writers. In a w'ork written in 1857 I find the following 

 remark made about P. Rhaas: "By cultivation many beautiful 

 varieties of this species are obtained, both double and semi- 

 double, and of various shades, from rose color to white, and not 

 unfrequenlly variegated" — which is not a bad description of the 

 Shirle}- Poppy as we know it now. The Shirley Poppy does 

 not owe its origin, as some possibly suppose, to John Wilkes, 

 who was member for Middlesex and a Mayor of London in 

 the eighteenth century. John Wilkes, by all accounts the most 

 charming man of his time, did not so far as I know, concern 

 himself much with flowers, except indeed, with the Flowers 

 of Rhetoric, to w-hich he gave assiduous attention and which he 

 cultivated with notable success, his Hyperboles, in particular, 

 being of such a robust and vigorous strain, though coarse, as 

 to make quite a sensation at Westminster and Windsor. He 

 had, however, nothing to do with the Shirley Poppy, the origina- 

 tion of which unquestioned tradition ascribes to the Reverend 

 (which the editor of the North Briton certainly was not), Wil- 

 liam (not John), Wilks (not Wilkes). The story goes that 

 Mr. Wilks, Vicar of Shirley, who was secretary to a well 

 known horticultural society, and felt, besides, a genuine in- 

 terest in horticulture, found one day in his garden what he 

 considered an e.xceptionally fine specimen of the Field Poppy, 

 Papaver Rha-as. that he proceeded to segre.gate this plant and 

 pay it the attention it seemed to deserve as the possible progeni- 

 tor of a desirable posterity; that by saving the seed and select- 

 ing for several generations, he at length evolved the present 

 glorious race of flowers which, from its place of origin, is 

 named Shirley. 



.As to the cultivation of the Shirley Poppy there is something 

 to be said, but not a great deal. The necessary counsel is 

 fourfold: (1) Sow in Autumn (September or early O.tober); 

 (2) thin unsparingly; (3) stake firmly; (4) and gather assidu- 

 ously. 1 do not say that soil is of no consequence. Like other 

 things, this Poppy '.vill flourish most vigorously and supply 

 flowers of the best quality where the soil is in reasonably good 

 heart. Soil, for instance, that will grow good carrots and 

 turnips will also grow good Poppies. But more important than 

 the richness of the soil are its mechanical properties, a fairly 

 light soil I)ein.g the more congenial, at least in the early stages. 

 The Shirlev Poppy (and probably all Poppies, certainly the 

 Orien'.al, (^pium and Iceland Poppies), opens its flowers only 

 in the earlv hours of the mornin.g. However brilliant the sun- 

 shine, no Peppy flowers will expand during the daytime, that 

 is, af'er the sun is well up in the sky, say from 8 a. m. on- 

 wards, nor do they open during the dark hours of the night. 

 (father all your Poppies before breakfast today, and you will 

 have no more blossoms till five oclock or thereabouts to-mor- 

 row morning. One of the chief features of interest in the 

 Poppy i-; it strict adherence to times and seasons, not merely 

 t'e seasons of the year, but even the hour of the day. Shirley 

 Poppies sown in .\ututr.n may be expected to come into flower 

 in late May or early June, and to be at their best about the 

 Summer solstice, that is, when the days arc long and warm. 

 The most convenient way of growing Poppies for purposes 

 of observation is. I think, in the form of a hedge, like a row 

 of Peas, and staked much in the same way. — The Garden. 



COLOR AND CHEER. 



The heritage of Autumn beauty ought to be ours just as much 

 as that of any other season such as Spring or Summer, 

 and although its reign is such a short one it is worth ij-hile 



