HORTICULTURE 



September 23, 1905 



horticulture: 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 

 DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON. MASS. 



Telephone. Oxford 292, 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



The best results with single-flowered 



Dahlias from dahlias are now obtained by treating 



seed them as annuals, sowing seed every 



spring. Many growers are pursuing 



this method and never try to save over any roots. The 



seed is saved from the largest and most perfect flowers 



and the colors and markings of the progeny are in no 



way inferior to the named varieties. 



The days have come when sheets and 

 Protecting covers of all kinds are pressed into 

 out-door bloom service on frosty nights in order to se- 

 cure a few days or weeks more of 

 garden bloom. Occasionally it pays for the effort, but 

 more often it does not. The florist who can thus tide 

 over a cold spell and hold his dahlias so that he can get a 

 couple of weeks' more flowering from them will reap a 

 . good profit. 



A wide variance is noted in 



A suggestion the flowering time of Clema- 



about Clematis paniculata tis paniculata. At present 



writing some plants are al- 

 ready out of bloom ; others have not yet opened a flower. 

 Some are deliciously fragrant, some are odorous but 

 not sweet, and still others are as devoid of perfume as a 

 hydrangea. Again, we find a great difference in size of 

 flower and form of panicle, some throwing long stream- 

 er? of flowers, others producing flat heads of bloom. 

 The degrees of whiteness runs from snow to cream and 

 the foliage varies greatly in form and texture. It is 

 rather strange that nursery men raising this clematis 

 from seed have not yet taken ad\^antage of the opportuni- 

 ties offered to break it into sections which would greatly 

 extend its flowering period and still further advance its 

 usefulness. 



One result of the revived appreciation for 

 Landscape gardens and tree adorned grounds which 

 art lias developed so rapidly of late is a big 



crop of somewhat pedantic landscape de- 

 signers wliosc most noticeable attribute as seen in their 



work seems to be a facility of imitation. The compo- 

 sition and locating of groups is monotonously alike in 

 places of widely varying aspect and there is much to 

 suggest tliat the controlling impulse is in the line of 

 stereotyped reproduction of the work of others rather 

 than that intelligent striving for harmonious natural 

 effects which should always be the dominating purpose 

 in such work. There is good reason to hope, however, 

 that out of the large number of highly-endowed and 

 earnest young men now studying the theory and practice 

 of landscape adornment there will come eminent mas- 

 ters of this noble art, fit to rank with those who have 

 been its most honored exponents in the past. 



The tables in the wholesale establish- 

 Asters and ments in the great cut flower district of 

 dahlias j^o^ York furnish at this season im- 

 pressive evidence of the remarkable 

 strides being made in the cultivation and popularizing 

 of two flowers — the dahlia and the China aster. The 

 asters of the cut flower markets of today with their big 

 loosely-built flowers and long stems show very little in 

 common with the aster we were accustomed to see a few 

 years ago. It is a pity that the aster growers after buy- 

 ing high-priced seed and working to produce good flow- 

 ers should be so careless and clumsy in bunching and 

 packing them as is evidenced by much of the stock 

 shipped to the wholesalers. Whole wagon loads arrive 

 in a more or less bruised condition. It doesn't pay. As 

 for the dahlias, they should be seen to be appreciated, 

 for no description can convey an adequate idea of the 

 beauty of many of the later introductions in the cactus- 

 flowered section. That they will yet be generally grown 

 in quantity under glass for florists' uses seems inevitable. 

 We have not yet begun to realize their decorative possi- 

 bilities. 



Of florists' designs none are accounted more 

 A floral appropriate as tokens of sympathy in be- 

 sheaf reavement than the wreath and the sheaf — 



the latter suggestive of a ripened life. In 

 the ceaseless hunt for something new many contrivance? 

 have been evolved, most of them, devoid of any merit 

 whatever, but a modification of the sheaf idea seen at 

 Mr. Stumpp's New York store recently impressed us 

 very favorably. It is practicable only with long- 

 stemmed flowers such as American Beauty roses or teas 

 of the highest grades and is adapted for the purse of a 

 customer willing to pay a good price for something out 

 of the ordinary. The stems of the flowers are inserted 

 in a cone-shaped wire base such as is used to spread the 

 base of the conventional wheat sheaf, the longest 

 stemmed being used for the outside. A sash of broad 

 ribbon is tied around the stems and the result is a sheaf 

 of fresh roses which if lacking the sentiment expressed 

 in the conventional dried wheat sheaf, yet has much to 

 recommend it. Tlie design may be enriched by the 

 addition of a cluster of orchids, lily of the valley or other 

 choice material where the ribbon is tied and it can be 

 placed anywhere in a standing or reclining position as 

 required. 



