December 10, 1910 



HORTICULTURE 



805 



TroIIius 



The amateur flower grower or garden owner and even 

 quite a number of learned gardeners when today facing 

 the necessity of selecting plant material for a new 

 herbaceous border are usually under the impression that 



A plant genus of the beauty of the globe flower nat- 

 urally inspires the hybridizer. As«the result of work in 

 this line a strain of mixed hybrids and a number of dis- 

 tinct new varieties have sprung up, which are now part- 

 ly undergoing trial and partly are in the course of dis- 



Trollius europahus 



the task before them is a very easy one. Confronted 

 with the long lists, especially of spring flowering species 

 and varieties, matters change. With the ever increasing 

 importance of hardy perennials lai'ge and richly assorted 

 collections are offered, calculated to meet the different 

 climatic conditions as well as the various tastes and fan- 

 cies of customers. The wide-awake grower knows that 

 the introduction of novelties of merit always has a stim- 

 ulating effect on trade and is bound to prove a benefit to 

 the garden. Among those spring-flowering herbaceous 

 plants which are very apt to become a source of pleasure 

 to their respective purchasers we may count the trollius, 

 or globe flowers. They represent a first-class material 

 for the mixed border, when grouped together in clumps 

 of from ten to twenty-five plants. In European gardens 

 we find trollius quite freely used as a bedding plant on 

 the open lawn, or part of formal flower parterres. A 

 light sandy loam, properly enriched, is the kind of soil 

 they thrive best in. In our country, throughout the 

 northern states, an open sunny exposure is preferable, 

 while for the middle Atlantic and central part, a semi- 

 shady position may be of better advantage. 



Best known and most widely distributed is the variety 

 Trollius europajus. Habit of growth and the loose glob- 

 ular shape of the flowers is shown in our illustration. 

 The height of the plant is one and a half feet and the 

 diameter of the bright deep sulphur-yellow flowers two 

 inches. For mass effect, shape and color is perfect. As 

 cut flowers they have lasted from three to four days. 

 The varieties Trollius asiaticus and T. caucasicus I 

 have rarely met with in American gardens and T. 

 americanus, a native of the northwestern part of our 

 continent, is also seldom found outside of botanical gar- 

 dens or large collections. Better known to us is the Jap- 

 anese representative of the globe flower. The variety 

 Trollius japonicus Excelsior is of strong growth 

 reaching a height of from 3 to 3i/o feet. Its deep 

 orange flowers in bright sunlight possess a high degree 

 of intensity, which is essential for distant effects. 



Trollius japonicus Excelsior 

 semination. As one of the foremost originators of a 

 number of meritorious novelties I mention the well 

 known firm of Goos & Koenemaun in Nieder Walluf in 

 Germany, their last catalogue listing as many as ten 

 new debutantes of globular and semi-globular shape, in 

 yellow and bright orange-red colors. 



The trollius is propagated by division, or raised from 

 seed. Seed very often requires a full j-ear's time for 

 germination. 



-5d^MyCuui-^at£(zy 



Northeast Harbor, Maine. 



Amasonia punicea 



It is somewhat strange that so beautiful a plant as 

 Amasonia punicea is not more widely grown than it is. 

 It has been known to botanists for more than a century, 

 but even in European gardens it was not known very 

 widely until about 1885, the Messrs. Veitch some years 

 previous to that date having obtained an importation 

 through one of their collectors who found it in British 

 Guiana, but it has been found growing all over equa- 

 torial America. As a bract-producing plant A. punicea 

 deserves a place along side the popular Euphorbia Poin- 

 settia pulcherrima, and, although it is not so fast a grow- 

 er as Poinsettia, it retains its foliage much better than 

 that plant and lasts much longer. We cut some here at 

 Thanksgiving which had been showing their bracts for 

 three montlis, and they looked then as if they might have 

 lasted on the plant until Christmas. A. punicea is 

 described by an authority in the following manner : "A 

 low suffruticose shrub, with erect stems furnished with 

 spreading foliage, the leaves, which are elliptic-lanceo- 

 late, having serrate margins and are about a foot long; 

 the inflorescence is terminal, the crimson peduncle about 

 as long as the leaves and slightly nodding." 



A. punicea is not difficult to grow. We cut our old 

 plants back in June, and inserted the cuttings in sand 



