September 9, 1905 



H ORTI CULTURE 



Novelties at Riverton this Season 



When we say Riverton, at course 

 we mean Dreer's. There is always 

 something interesting at this up-to- 

 date establishment, but more especially 

 now, when the latest aspirants in 

 flowers and plants have had their full 

 season's innings and can be sized up 



The hybrid delphiniums are \eii 

 fine just now, and present a glorious 

 expanse of blue, as if a big section ct 

 the sky had dropped down on the Rn 

 erton meadows. Of the well-Know n 

 formosum there is a big expanse but 

 the new gold medal hybrids surpass it 

 These have great spikes two to thiee 

 feet long, mostly in shades of light 

 blue. They came originally from Buo 

 land, the fringed, big, handsome flow 

 ers that gorge you with color and 

 glorious variations, and singles scarce 

 ly second in their immense dimen 

 sions, with bursts of crimson and blue 

 and purple and white. Our photo- 

 graph gives a glimpse of a section of 

 one of the fields where the men are 

 busy saving the seeds for next season's 

 demand. The selecting and hybridiz- 

 ing goes on every year with the most 

 painstaking effort until Dreer has now 

 the best record for petunias in the 

 country, although, of course, the Euro- 

 pean specialists furnished the basis to 

 commence on, and are still carefully 

 watched. In this connection "the 

 glorious climate of California" must 

 not be forgotten, as a number of very 

 good selections have developed there. 

 and have been incorporated with the 

 others. 



Can you fancy one hundred thou- 

 sand plants of hardy phlox in full 

 bloom? Let me tell you it is worth 

 seeing. Here they are, brilliant and 

 shining in the afternoon sun, a feast! 

 From the pure white of Jeanne d'Arc 

 to the fiery scarlet of Coquelicot every 

 color except yellow is represented and 

 the result — magnificent. We noted as 



extra distinct: Eclaireur, a dark 

 crimson with white margin; Champs 

 d'Elysee, a very fine rich dark crim- 

 son; Aquillon, salmon with crimson 

 eye; Moliere, salmon rose, deep rose 

 eye; Pantheon, deep salmon rose; 

 Beranger, white with red eye; Eugene 

 Danzanvillier. lilac edged with white; 

 Bridesmaid, pure white with crimson 

 center; Semiramis, magenta; Profes- 

 sor Schlieman. salmon with red eye. 

 Those who remember the fine Dreer 

 displays made at the Buffalo and St. 

 Louis expositions of this plant need 

 not be told how splendid a thing it 

 is for summer bedding, and this fact 

 is being more and more recognized by 

 the general public. These phloxes 

 succeed in almost any kind of soil, are 

 perfectly hardy, improve from year to 

 year, and are in bloom from early 

 summer to late in the fall. 



Among the newer cannas not men- 

 tioned m our recent article on . the 

 canna (see issue of Aug. 12) we noted 

 as specially fine here: Dr. Robert 



Saving Petunia Seed. 



Funckfe. a bright red, with very large 

 flowers; a grand free blooming sort, 

 not very tall, green foliage, erect 

 habit. President Meyer, light carmine 

 with immense trusses of flowers, up 

 front among the reds with bronze 

 foliage; Miss Berthine Brunner, pure 

 yellow slightly sprinkled with scarlet, 

 a large well-opened flower; Rubin, 

 dwarf, ruby crimson, might be called 

 a dark leaved Duke of Marlborough, 

 the flowers not extra large but are very 

 freely produced; West Virginia, scarlet 

 with yellow margin identical with 

 Souvenir d'Antoine Crozy. but more 

 uniform and a better grower. Mr. 

 Eisele still sticks to Egandale and 

 Alphonse Bouvier, but in our opinion 

 these are both surpassed in their class 

 now by Brandywine and Pillar of 

 Fire. But exigencies of the trade 

 sometimes call for the keeping of 

 varieties longer than seems necessary 

 to the casual observer. Taking it al- 

 together the Dreer collection of 

 cannas is excellent and contains the 

 cream of the many hundreds of varie- 

 ties now in commerce. 



We noted a nice lot of young plants 

 of Abelia rupestris grandiflora. We 

 recall a fine specimen of this six feet 

 in diameter and about the same in 

 height at the Botanic Gardens in 

 Washington. It is covered with ter- 

 minal trusses of pure white bell-shaped 

 flowers slightly fragrant. Mr. Clark, 

 the assistant superintendent, assured 

 us that it was perfectly hardy, bloomed 

 all summer, and that its fine, bright, 

 clean foliage looked well even in win- 

 ter. Ho also told us that Mr. Smith 

 should be credited with taking it out 

 of the category of greenhouse plants. 

 .Jno. .Saul catalogued it first and made 

 money out of it forty years ago. It 

 should be better known and is worthy 

 of liein.g pushed prominently by our 

 catalogue men. 



Queen Alexandra, the double Paris 

 Daisy introduced this season, is rather 

 attractive, not unlike an anemone- 

 flowered chysanthemum, but only 

 comes about .50 per cent, double. We 

 think there is a future before it. 



G. C. W. 



