H O R T I C U L T U R i: 



September 30, 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. 



Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora is 



A desirable ^vell worth)' of all the popularity it 



shrub enjoys but there is something about the 



plain paniculata which places it, as a 



lawn shrub, in the estimation of many, away above the 



grandiflora with its more conspicuous heads of bloom. 



The flower heads are of little value for cutting for 



florists' use but the contour and expression of the plant 



taken as a whole make it boldly effective as an isolated 



specimeik in garden adornment and its good qualities 



should be better known than they are. 



Last season we made bold to say a good 

 Richmond -tt-ord for the new forcing rose Eichmond. 

 Rose Nothing has transpired since to change 

 our opinion as to its value. It is far in 

 the lead over all crimsons thus far introduced and bids 

 fair to do to Liberty what Liberty did to Meteor. It has 

 all the good qualities including rich perfume. With 

 Eichmond, Killarney, Wellesley, La Detroit, Chatenay 

 and several other aspirants of more or less prominence 

 it would seem that commercial rose growing for cut 

 flowers is slowly but surely getting ready to break away 

 from the "rule of three," — Beauty, Bride and Brides- 

 maid. 



In another column we publish the 

 American program for the sessions of the Amer- 

 Civic Association ican Civic Association at its first an- 

 nual meeting, which is to be held at 

 Cleveland, Oliio, next week. It is a noble and beneficent 

 work which this organization seeks to do. In the mak- 

 ing of cleaner cities, happier homes, better children and 

 better citizens, practical horticulture, with its refining 

 influence, is perhaps the most indispensable factor, and 

 those who find their life work among trees, fruits, flow- 

 ers and verdure have a vital interest in the purposes and 

 labors of the American Civic Association. May its ses- 

 sions draw a large attendance and every feature of the 

 meeting at the beautiful Forest City by the lake conduce 

 to a successful prosecution of the great mission to which 

 it has pledged itself. 



Commenting upon the comparative free- 

 Roses and (Jom from mildew of the hybrid tea roses 

 mildew produced by M. Pernet Ducher, a writer 



in The Garden attributes this desirable 

 immunity to the fact that these varieties have very shiny 

 leaves. He instances Mme. Abel Chatenay and Souve- 

 nir de Mme. Eugene Verdier as the two most addicted to 

 mildew and calls attention to the lack of shiny foliage in 

 each case. Observant forcers of greenhouse roses have 

 not overlooked this little point so essential in their work. 

 Shiny foliage is sure to be thick and hard — the reverse 

 soft and thin. It is not always a question of varieties as 

 the product of different growers varies on a given variety 

 and the careful grower always aims to get hard glossy 

 foliage on his plants. There is, of course, a great dif- 

 ference in varieties — the hybrid teas as a rule having 

 the best of it. In hybridizing for new varieties the wise 

 experimenter will take this into consideration in select- 

 ing parents. 



A subscriber calls our attention to an 

 The golden article on "The Golden Privet" pub- 

 privet lished recently in The Horticultural 

 Advertiser and" suggests the value of this 

 plant as a decorative shrub. A strong sentiment pre- 

 vails in some quarters against the use of any and all 

 trees and shrubs of abnormal color. This prejudice we 

 do not think is justified although recognizing that there 

 are many so-called variegated things far inferior to the 

 green types in effectiveness and also that instances of 

 the misuse and over use of such material are not infre- 

 quent. As to the privet in question the writer quoted 

 does not specify the species. If it is the well-known 

 beautiful ovalifolium or "California" privet of which 

 a very brilliant and improved form of the golden varie- 

 gated type has been recently disseminated we should hes- 

 itate about advising its use outside, anywhere north of 

 New York City, as ovalifolium has too often proved 

 unreliable in that latitude. For florists' use, however, 

 in balcony boxes and similar places where absolute hardi- 

 ness is a minor consideration this bright-foliaged shrub 

 should prove most desirable. 



Eecognizing that a flower garden is 

 Annuals in essentially artificial, no matter how 

 the border informally it may be arranged, the 

 problem to be solved is, in many 

 instances, how to most closely approach a natural aspect 

 without at the same time giving an impression of jum- 

 bled disorder or neglect. For this purpose annual flow- 

 ers are pre-eminently well adapted. Some of them 

 seem to have almost an instinct for fitting themselves 

 into places in such a manner as to produce pleasing 

 results which give the desired impression of the absence 

 of human intent in their planting and training, without 

 any suggestion of inappropriateness as part of a picture 

 in which human agency is otherwise strongly apparent. 

 How admirably a colony of coreopsis seedlings will fit 

 itself into the garden vista ! Clumps of portulacca find 

 lodgment on hot stony spots year after year when once 

 the seed has been distributed in the neighborliood and 

 he is indeed a merciless gardener who will disturb them. 

 Sweet alyssum, lobelia, rudbeckias and a score of such 

 self-seeders are constantly appearing in the mixed border 

 and it is remarkable how seldom they appear out of place 

 to the artistic eye. Nicotiana Sanderre promises to add . 

 another gem to this group of spontaneous visitors and if 

 it should thus supplant some of the ill-fitting material 

 with which our flower borders have been overdecorated 

 in the past, garden beauty will not suffer in consequence. ■ 



