July 7, 190G 



HORTICULTURE 



PLANT NOTES AT MEDFORD, 

 MASS. 



1 spent a very pleasant afternoon re- 

 cently with my old friend Mr. Keith, 

 gardener to Gen. Lawrence, Medford, 

 Mass. What struck us most on enter- 

 ing the place was the immense speci- 

 mens ot Hydrangea Otaksa. It is a 

 wonderful piece ot work to keep such 

 large plants in good trim for many 

 years. The tubs are so large that it 

 takes eight men to lift some of them. 

 They are six feet through and eight 

 feet high. Considerable skill is shown 

 training them so as to evenly cover 

 the plants with bloom, making them 

 into perfect globes. 



We were also much pleased with 

 some combination baskets for piazza 

 work. In some a fuchsia occupies the 

 centre, with Kenilworth Ivy (Linaria 

 t!yrabalaria) hanging from the outside 

 — a beautiful drapery. Others, a 

 fuchsia and German ivy (Mikania 

 scanriens). The fuchsias used were 

 Monarch and Trailing Queen — not ex- 

 actly trailing but drooping. The old 

 fashioned Clerodendron Balfourianum 

 was exceedingly well flowered, and it 

 is a unique and most beautiful plant 

 for decorative purposes. 



It is surprising to see the ease with 

 which poinsettias root here. They are 

 taken soft, with a heel, and put in a 

 closed frame without heat, and hardly 

 one misses. Euphobia splendens is 

 here in large quantities. They root 

 quite freely in boxes near the glass in 

 a close house. They are then hardened 

 off, and put 10 or 12 in a six-inch pot, 

 and grown in an old hotbed frame for 

 the summer. Thus they are kept dwarf 

 and make very pretty plants for fall 

 decoration. A hybrid calceolaria raised 

 here promises to be a good thing. The 

 object was to get a large-flowered form 

 of the old-fashioned shrubby yellow; a 

 great many seedlings were raised, and 

 one appears to be just what was de- 

 sired. The old-fashioned Kalosanthus 

 coccinea is here grown to large speci- 

 mens. There is a trick in this. It re- 

 quires two years to get a good plant. 

 Cuttings are put into a pan quite thick- 

 ly, and grown for one year without 

 blooming; next season, after a natural 

 rest, it is pushed along, and ted well. 

 The specimen we saw was nearly four 

 feet in diameter and covered with its 

 deep red flowers. It is unfortunate 

 nothing is exhibited from here. If 

 shown in Horticultural Hall it would 

 be a revelation, and a novelty to a 

 great many people. 



Some dipladenia seedlings show how 

 much these beautiful climbers vary. 

 Some were a charming pink, others 

 yellow with a white throat. They are 

 grown in light material, with plenty 

 of feed during the growing season. In 

 winter they are rested at about 45 Fah. 

 and given plenty of sunshine in sum- 

 mer. 



We found the winter storage house 

 a model for its work. Light, and heated 

 enough to keep out frost, with a trav- 

 eling hoist for loading. 



Mr. Keith has an able and indis- 

 pensable assistant in his foreman, Mr. 

 Stewart. 



T. D. HATFIELD. 



A VISIT TO WM. SIM'S GREENHOUSES AT CLIFTONDALE, MASS. 



On .Tune MO, a party of members of 

 the Gardeners' and Florists' Club of 

 Boston with ladies, visited the green- 

 houses of Wm. Sim at Cliftondale, 

 Mass. This place is already widely 

 known for the high character of its 

 product, especially the sweet peas and 

 violets which have created a sensa- 

 tion wherever shown. The visitors 

 found the houses filled mostly with 

 tomatoes, — melons and cucumbers oc- 

 cupying a small part — and the same 

 cultural skill which has placed Mr. 

 Sim on the pinnacle of renown with his 

 sweet peas equally in evidence with the 

 tomato crop. The variety grown is 

 Comet. There are 25,000 plants in the 

 houses and 25,000 in frames and field. 

 All of the latter are already carrying 

 fruit of good size the calculation being 

 lo finish the crop before the farmers' 

 produce is ready. From the green- 

 house stock Mr. Sim picked on one 

 day 136 bushels of No. 1 fruit and the 

 entire indoor crop is estimated at 13 

 tons. The plants, indoor and outdoor 

 are all grown on a uniform plan, a 

 single stem trained to a stake, and 

 the outside plants are stopped at a 

 height of about three feet which gives 

 about five tiers of fruit. 



The Princess violets which Mr. Sim 

 is advertising in HORTICULTURE are 

 the finest plants the writer has ever 

 seen offered, 200.000 are being planted 

 out in the field for his own use. 

 These will be housed as soon as the 

 tomato and cucumber crops are over. 

 Mr. Sim finds the single violet, when 

 well-grown, far ahead of the double 

 in popularity. Its keeping quality is 

 certainly far superior. Our especial 

 reason for calling particular atten- 

 tion to this— one of the best-kept and 

 most progressive commercial establish- 

 ments in America — is to emphasize 

 the fact that no part of Mr. Sim's 

 glass is ever permitted to spend an 

 idle day. As soon as each house of 

 sweet peas or violets was emptied, the 

 tomatoes and melons were all ready 

 to take immediate possession. Frames 

 which had held violets all winter 

 were immediately planted with toma- 

 toes which will bring a fancy price 

 during the weeks that are devoid of 

 any income in many establishments. 

 No wonder Mr. Sim can build ranges 

 of 30x3G0 houses ad libitum. The 

 visitors were treated to a generous 

 collation and all had a most instruc- 

 tive anjj enjoyable time. 



A MISPLACED LINE. 



In Mr. N. B. AVhife's communication, 

 page 793, issue of June 23, the line at 

 the top of the third column should 

 have appeared at the foot. 



