76 



HORTICULTURE 



July 26, 1919 



MORE WORDS FOR THE SHOWS. 



In my first paper tolling of how 

 much value the exhibitions at Horti- 

 cultural Hall had been to us in the 

 starting of Hillcrest Farm. I asked 

 that they be continued and encour- 

 aged through next summer, giving 

 them as formerly every Saturday and 

 Sunday from the middle of May into 

 September. 



Since then features of especial in- 

 terest for the different months have 

 occurred to me. In May we sent from 

 Hillcrest Farm to Horticultural Hall a 

 miniature wild garden on a board 

 twenty-seven inches wide and about 

 three feet deep. This garden received 

 a first prize as an exhibition of wild 

 flowers from the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society and on Monday when 

 the exhibition was over it was taken 

 to the Children's Museum in Jamaica 

 Plain where it remained for several 

 weeks. The interest taken in this 

 garden was shown by the following 

 letter from the director of the Mu- 

 seum, Miss Delia I. Griffin, who wrote: 

 "I can hardly tell you how much de- 

 lighted I was on reaching the Museum, 

 Saturday, to find this charming nature 

 garden from Hillcrest Farm. I have 

 never seen anything more perfect in 

 its construction, and I hope you will 

 not only accept my thanks but will 

 convey them, with my great apprecia- 

 tion to the gardener who did this 

 work. 



"The garden has attracted a great 

 deal of attention and the visitors have 

 been much interested in noting the 

 varieties of violets and other flowers. 

 The ladies' slippers look fresh as if 

 they were still in the woods. We are 

 taking every care of the garden and 

 hope to preserve its beauty for some 

 time." 



If this small garden was enjoyed 

 last spring, why could not one on a 

 much larger scale be shown in Horti- 

 cultural Hall next May? People are 

 becoming more and more interested in 

 rock gardens and alpine flowers. In 

 Horticultural Hall we could show how 

 best to lay the stones for such a gar- 

 den, and the use of pine needles and 

 of spagnum moss in protecting the 

 tender roots of these dainty little 

 plants. It would also be a good oppor- 

 tunity to show the wonderful beauty 



of the native springtide flora of New 

 England. One enthusiastic commi 

 on our miniature garden was thai ii 

 showed what anyone could do with 

 stones, seedling pines and wild flowers 

 when properly combined. 



This rock garden for May is only a 

 suggestion. In June we want to show 

 roses. Not only to show them, but to 

 help people to grow them. The first 

 roses to bloom after the Hugonis has 

 dropped its yellow petals are the 

 Scotch and Austrian briers. These 

 need especial care and attention, for 

 they are rampant growers. So 1 

 would suggest that on the first Satur- 

 day in June besides having a special 

 exhibition of brier roses, that a talk- 

 be given in the upper hall on the best 

 way to grow them. Next come the 

 beautiful hybrid teas; everyone with 

 a garden wishes to know how to 

 plant and to prune them. So why not 

 have a display of them the second 

 Saturday in June with instructions 

 about them? Next to the hybrid teas 

 come the hybrid perpetuals with their 

 beautiful great blooms, and these are 

 followed by the ram'blers. This espe- 

 cial attention given to roses through 

 June need in no way prevent the iris, 

 peonies and other flowers from being 

 shown. 



In July the tall flowers like lark- 

 spur, campanulas and thalictrum 

 bloom in our gardens. If given plenty 

 of fertilizer these plants may need 

 no help in holding up their heads. 

 But how often our gardens lose in 

 beauty by having these tall flowers 

 scraggle over their beds or else they 

 are awkwardly tied! In Horticultural 

 Hall samples of good support and ty- 

 ing could be shown. 



With August come the peaches. 

 Much attention is now being given to 

 the best packing of apples — why can 

 we not next August in the small hall 

 show how the more tender peaches 

 can be harvested and packed? 



Grapes come with September. Would 

 it not be well to bring a few vines into 

 the hall and show the best way of ty- 

 ing them to wires and to trellises? 

 Besides displaying varieties of grape 

 juice and of jellies. 



With October comes the apple, to 

 which so much attention is now being 

 paid that it is a story in itself. This 

 little paper is just to start a few sug- 

 gestions which others more experi- 

 enced may follow with their ideas as 



to how Horticultural Hall can be used 

 in an enjoyable and instructive way 

 from .May through September without 

 in any way interfering with the four 

 large exhibitions which the trustees 

 have planned. M. R. Cask. 



Hillcrest Farm. July 17, 1919. 



THE ARALIA FAMILY. 



The Aralia family furnishes the 

 Arnold Arboretum with three hand- 

 some trees which flower in late sum- 

 mer and early autumn. They are 

 Acanthopanax ricinifolium, Aralia spi- 

 nosa and A. chinensis and its varieties. 

 The Acanthopanax is a tree which is 

 common in the forests of northern 

 Japan, Korea and China where it is 

 often seventy or eighty feet high with 

 a massive trunk and great wide-spread- 

 ing branches armed, like the stems of 

 young trees, with many stout prickles. 

 The leaves hang down on long stalks 

 and are nearly circular, five or seven- 

 lobed and often fifteen or sixteen 

 inches in diameter. The small white 

 flowers are produced in compact, long- 

 stalked clusters which form a flat 

 compound. terminal panicle from 

 twelve to eighteen inches across and 

 are followed late in the autumn by 

 shining black fruits which do not fall 

 until after the beginning of winter. 

 This tree is perfectly hardy in the 

 Arboretum where it has been growing 

 for twenty-four years and where it has 

 flowered and ripened its seeds now for 

 several seasons. It is one of the most 

 interesting trees in the collection and. 

 because it is so unlike other trees of 

 the northern hemisphere, it is often 

 said to resemble a tree of the tropics. 



Aralia spinosa, the so-called Her- 

 cules' Club of the southern states 

 where it is a common inhabitant of the 

 borders of woods and the banks of 

 streams, is a tree often thirty feet high 

 with a tall trunk and wide-spreading 

 branches covered with stout orange- 

 colored prickles. The leaves, which 

 are borne at the ends of the branches, 

 are long-stalked, twice pinnate, and 

 from three to four feet long and two 

 and one-half feet wide. The small 

 white flowers are arranged in com- 

 pound clusters which rise singly or 

 two or three together above the leaves 

 and are three to four feet long. The 

 fruit is black, rather less than a quar- 

 ter of an inch in diameter, and ripens 

 in early autumn. It is now well estab- 

 lished on the slope at the northern 



