HORTl CU LTU RE 



October 14, 1905 



Echoes From England 



THE DAHLIA IN ENGLAND. 



The cUilili;!,, like most other important flowers, has its 

 own special society here ; in fact, there are two societies 

 which devote themselves to its welfare. One is called 

 the National Dahlia Society, and the other is the Lon- 

 den Dahlia Union. There is no doubt that these special 

 societies help to popularize the flower in whose interest 

 they exist and encourage its improvement. At the an- 

 nual exhibition of the London Dahlia Union, held in 

 London a few days ago, no less than one hundred and 

 fifteen varieties of new dahlias were exhibited by vari- 

 ous growers before the special committee sitting to 

 award certificates to new meritorious varieties, but, of 

 this large number of flowers sent up, only sixteen gained 

 the first-class certificate, most of these being cactus va- 

 rieties. The cactus dahlia is in the highest favor now, 

 and has quite replaced the old show and fancy sorts in the 

 public mind. The single varieties still enjoy a large 

 measure of popularity, and deservedly so, for they are 

 very beautiful flowers, valuable in the garden, and per- 

 haps even more so for floral decoration when cut. The 

 pompon dahlias are still great favorites with some, but 

 they are not so largely grown as the cactus and single 

 sorts. For my own part I think they are delightful little 

 flowers. Some of the newer ones are very beautiful and 

 the color shades so pleasing. I will not attempt to give 

 you any dahlia names, for the new varieties seem innum- 

 erable. At the last meeting of a Joint committee of the 

 National Dahlia Society and the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety, seventeen new dahlias were given awards of merit. 

 Including those certificated at the National Dahlia 

 Show some ten days ago, no less than forty-eight new 

 varieties have been honored with one or another of the 

 special awards, a first class certificate, or an award of 

 merit within three weeks. 



A NEW RACE OF DAHLIAS. 



Quite a distinct race of dahlias was exhibited at the 

 London Dahlia Exhibition last week by Hobbies Lim- 

 ited, Dereham, Norfolk. They are termed poeony-flow- 

 cred dahlias, and the appellation is not by any means 

 inapt, for the large semi-double flowers, with bunches 

 of rich yellow stamens showing prominently, remind 

 one a good deal of the herbaceous pseony. These new 

 dahlias are of Dutch origin, but I believe that Hobbies 

 Limited will distribute them in this country. Botli for 

 the garden border and for vase decoration, they ought 

 to prove useful, for the flowers are l)nld and linndsoine 

 and supported by strong stems. 



AN AUTUMN ROSIi SHOW. 



The rose has always been looked upon as a summer 

 flower, and poets from time immemorial have sung of 

 June as the month of ro.«es. During the past ten or so 

 years, however, the rose has changed tremendously, and 

 today it is possible to liavo almost as many roses in Sep- 

 tember as formerly in June. The old livbrid porpetu- 



als (so called) which flower in summer only, have given 

 way to a large extent to the teas and hybrid teas, some 

 of which are more beautiful now than in the height of 

 summer. So much had been said of the value of autumn 

 roses, that last year the National Rose Society inaugu- 

 rated an autumn show in addition to its summer ones, 

 which are always held early in July. It was not, how- 

 ever, a great success. A second is open in Loudon at 

 present writing. This is a magnificent show, equal in 

 many respects to that held in July. Many of the 

 roses are fresher and brighter, and altogeth<n' the ex- 

 hibition is a most delightful one. The display? of so- 

 called "garden" or decorative roses, a term applied to 

 any very free-flowering varieties which do not produce 

 exhibition blooms, were very fine and one of the feat- 

 ures of the show. The National Rose Society awards a 

 gold medal to any new rose shown that may be consid- 

 ered worthy of the honor, and a card of commendation 

 to any new one not thought good enough to receive the 

 gold medal. 



NEW ROSES. 



Two roses were deemed of sufficient merit for the gold 

 medal, namely, Irish Elegance and Countess of Gosford. 

 Iri.sh Elegance is a beautiful single rose; the buds and 

 half-opened flowers are richly tinted with red and apri- 

 cot coloring, while the fully open flowers are a soft sal- 

 mon-pink. This was raised by A. Dickson, Newtown- 

 ards, Ireland, a firm that has placed many new roses on 

 the market within recent years. Countess of Gosford 

 is a hybrid tea rose, with blooms of excellent form, some- 

 thing after the style of Killarney, of a distinct deep 

 salmon-pink color. This was raised by S. McCi'cedy & 

 Son, Portadown, so that both the gold medal roses were 

 shown by Irish growers. Dorothy Page Roberts is the 

 name of the variety that received the card of commenda- 

 tion. It, too, is a hybrid tea, a large flower with re- 

 flexed petal edges ; the color is rich rose pink, fading to a 

 lighter shade as the flowers age. This was shown by A.- 

 Dickson. 



TUBEROUS BEGONIAS. 



There is probably no other plant so indispensable to 

 the gardener for the purpose of making a rich and bril- 

 liant mass of color in the garden during the summer 

 time as the tuberous begonia. No other plant that I 

 know makes such a wonderful display; when one sees a 

 field of these plants, simply one mass of color, it is in- 

 deed a sight to remember, it is as the bulb fields of Hol- 

 land in spring time. The field of tuberous begonias to 

 which I refer, belongs to T. S. Ware, Ltd., whose chief 

 nurseries are at Feltham. Wlien we saw it the other 

 day, the plants were about at their best. They have 

 been flowering ever since early July and will continue to 

 do so until cut down by frost. Each color is kept sepa- 

 rate ; the singles are on one side of the path which runs 

 down the centre of the field, the doubles are on the 

 other side. Each color is represented by a large mass of 

 plants, so that looking down the field from one end, the 

 glorioiij? coloring of the begonia farm can be imagined. 



