42 



HORTICULTURE 



July 9, 1910 



similarly protected. A piece of swamp 

 land has been excavated and trans- 

 formed into a running stream and 

 aquatic pond with rustic bridge and 

 fringed with waterside shrubbery. A 

 rose garden of considerable extent has 

 been installed, and although this is its 

 first year, gives promise of soon be- 

 coming a great attraction. The sec- 

 tion about Buzzards Bay and Narra- 

 gansett Bay is known as the best 

 adapted for garden roses on the entire 

 Atlantic coast. Other features are a 

 flower garden, peony garden and a 

 range of conservatories comprising 

 plant, grape and melon houses. A 

 house of grapes in its second year, 

 well-fruited with big bunches, bears 

 good evidence of Mr. Roy's versatility 

 in gardening skill. With the rate of 

 progress shown for the past year this 

 estate will very soon become one of 

 the principal show places of the famed 

 New England coast resorts. 



HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 



Paper read by C. S. Harrison of York, 



Neb., before the National Nurserymen's 



ronvention In Denver, Colo. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladles and Gentle- 

 men: I should have an hour or two 

 for my subject, but as I am confined 

 to a narrower space of time I must 

 throw out my thoughts in chunks and 

 let you masticate and digest them at 

 your leisure. 



There is a forward movement all 

 around us, you can feel it in the air 

 and hear it on the earth. Utility is 

 giving way to refinement and beauty. 

 Farm and home adornment are coming 

 to the front. The whole land is in the 

 throes of a new birth when symmetry 

 Is going to take the place of deformity. 

 Too often the home has been an un- 

 sightly carbuncle on the face of nature 

 instead of a fair picture in harmonious 

 frame work matching the splendor of 

 the sky. the freshness of the forest, 

 field, and the lake which flashes like 

 diamonds pinned to the bosom of 

 Mother Earth. The whole world be- 

 gins to feel like the little girl who 

 went from the unkempt, unadorned 

 farm home to visit some friends who 

 lived in a fine house with a spacious 

 lawn hemmed in with charming trees, 

 with attractive flower beds and every- 

 where there was a touch of taste and 

 refinement. These things woke up the 

 soul within her and when she got 

 home and was saying her evening 

 prayer she added, "Oh, Lord, can't 

 you give us a little more style?" And 

 that simple prayer has broadened out 

 into a mighty importunity which is 

 reaching to heaven and bringing 

 answers down to earth. 



It is strange when the mission of 

 the nurserymen Is to proclaim through 

 all the land the evangel of beauty, you 

 will find him lagging in the rear. He 

 does not keep up with the procession 

 or keep step with the age or with 

 God. He doesn't raise choice flowers 

 and plants and fine ornamentals. He 

 says there is no call for them. He is 

 mistaken. The calls last spring took 

 most of the stock and what is left 

 doubled in value. It there was no call 

 it is his business to make one. That 

 Is what he is here for. 



It is a shame to let the average Tom, 

 Dick and. Harry run the nursery busi- 

 ness and set the pace for the grandest 

 calling on earth and raise only what 

 they call for. Horticulture should have 

 a higher mission than to secure the 



dollar, and yet there are dollars In 

 decency, refinement and improvement. 

 Let your motto be, "Beauty is 

 Wealth," therefore raise a lot of it and 

 be rich. 



Don't be the tail of the kite. Be the 

 kite itself and let others do the wag- 

 ging to keep up with you. 



Too often the nurseryman waits for 

 others to write things up and create 

 an interest. Then after awhile he fol- 

 lows on to reap where others have 

 sown, often buying the cheapest and 

 selling at prices which belong to the 

 best. 



Seedsmen and florists are often at 

 fault. I know of one firm who buy 

 peonies at from five to ten cents apiece 

 and then push them up to $1.00, the 

 price for choice ones. 



On the grounds of every nursery in 

 these day of progress there should be 

 the finest collection of ornamentals and 

 perennials the world affords which are 

 adapted to the soil and climatic con- 

 ditions. The nurseryman should stay 

 with them, get acquainted with them 

 himself, have his salesmen understand 

 them. They should be grown where 

 the visiting neighbors can see them. 



Perennials 



have come to stay. We, in spring time, 

 find the West is located at the busy 

 end of the world. We are in the 

 center of a maelstrom where tre- 

 mendous activities are surging around 

 us. We cannot bother with annuals. 

 We must have perennials — something 

 that will stay planted. 



Providence has kindly marshalled 

 for us a procession of beauty reach- 

 ing from early spring until the hard 

 frosts of Autumn. The tired wife can 

 rest herself every day in companion- 

 ship with the finest behaved and best 

 dressed company the earth affords. 

 She can take a vacation in an elysium 

 of her own which is far better and 

 cheaper than a vacation in an asylum, 

 or a longer one in the cemetery. The 

 soul of a woman is starving for com- 

 munion with beauty. Let her have it. 

 Don't defraud her of her own. 



I cannot go into details over propa- 

 gation and cultivation as we have 

 manuals which give needed informa- 

 tion. 



First come the Crocus, Narcissus, 

 Tulips and Hyacinths, harbingers of 

 coming splendor. There is the lovely 

 family of Columbines.- These use all 

 the tints of the rainbow in making 

 their garments. The Coorulea, state 

 flower of Colorado, is a photograph of 

 the fleecy clouds and the intense blue 

 of the mountain skies. The Chrysan- 

 tha is a flower of pure gold from the 

 Yellowstone Park. There are fifty na- 

 tive sorts with hundreds of hybrids. 

 many of which surpass the parents. It 

 is hard to find a more beautiful spec- 

 tacle than a great blend of color in a 

 mass of Columbines. Why don't peo- 

 ple plant in abundance and so match 

 God's great out-of-doors. It is a shame 

 to expect two or three little flowers to 

 adorn a farm or home. 



People spend thousands on their 

 dwellings but when they step out-ot- 

 doors they are stricken with a stingi- 

 ness which fairly withers them. If 

 they have to pay more than a quarter 

 for anything to adorn the yard they 

 are terribly abused. A thousand-dollar 

 picture in a ten-cent frame seems to 

 be their ideal. 



Oriental poppies are like flames flash- 



ing in the sunlight. A bed of them 'is 

 like a miniature sea of fire. They will 

 bloom from the same plant for twenty 

 years. Take a single flower, look with- 

 in and see the delicate skill bestowed 

 on that great seed ball and the tremu- 

 lous stamens that guard it — all done 

 up in jet. 



Here are the glorious peonies. While 

 at their best they are peerless. There 

 is nothing to match them. Here are 

 50,000 in hundreds of varieties. You 

 go out and visit them. You are wel- 

 comed like a God. You wade in bil- 

 lows of fragrance that float all around 

 them. Now they are making their 

 toilet. Never a beautiful maiden pre- 

 paring for her nuptials put on fairer 

 garments. Tens of thousands smile 

 upon you vieing with each other to 

 please you. How winsome the lure of 

 these beautiful flowers! While they 

 last you want to be with them. And 

 here are thousands of seedlings, some 

 of them of superior beauty which will 

 have a future. 



Here are Pyrethrums. None but the 

 Divine Artist could paint those delicate 

 petals. 



The Boltonias have their place In 

 late summer when most needed. 



Polygonums and Bocconias have their 

 place in some background but don't 

 give them much leeway, for they want 

 the earth if they can get it. 



The Platycodons, the white, blue 

 and double are among the hardiest of 

 our perennials and are very satisfac- 

 tory. 



The Gaillardias, Stokesias, Asters, Di- 

 gitalis and Shasta Daisies are fine, but 

 they need especial winter protection. 

 The Lupinus would be superb but it 

 will damp off badly. 



The great family of Phloxes reach 

 from early spring until late in the fall. 

 The Subulata or creeping phlox covers 

 the ground with bloom early in the 

 spring. The Suffruticosa comes next 

 with the stately Miss Lingard in the 

 lead, but in the main this family is 

 not satisfactory. 



Then comes the Paniculata, often 

 called Decussata. This great family is 

 the real thing. They are natives of 

 America. Growing and thriving in the 

 wild like a robust Indian maiden they 

 were taken to Europe and underwent 

 such a transformation that they came 

 back to us in garments fit for the 

 courts of kings. 



In the early stages of transformation 

 there is a tendency to reversion. The 

 progeny want to get back to their par- 

 ents, reminding us of the song, "But 

 she is young and can't leave her 

 mother." But age makes a great dif- 

 ference. Now these flowers, like the 

 Dahlia, have wandered so far from the 

 originals they break out in a riot of 

 voluptuous beauty. And here is where 

 you come in. We are just beginning 

 to find the possibilities of this flower. 

 For years we have produced new ones 

 of great hardiness and you will flnd in 

 the Phlox Manual, which has the kind- 

 liest endorsements from the highest 

 authority, the simple process by which 

 a child can evolve new and charming 

 varieties. 



The Iris has been rather late in com- 

 ing into notice, but it has come to 

 stay. The different varieties bloom 

 from March until August. There are 

 170 native sorts and the hybrids reach 

 probably into the thousands. I found 

 an undescribed one in the Black Hills 

 last August growing on stony bluffs, 



