562 



HORTICULTURE 



June 14, 1919 



SUNDAY CLOSING APPROVED. 

 Kansas City, Mo. 



Gentlemen: — I am heartily in favor 

 of Sunday closing and for shorter 

 hours. On July 1st, we will open at 

 8 a. m. and close at 5 p. m. until Oc- 

 tober 1st. The only drawback to Sun- 

 days is the funeral work. If they 

 would do as I believe they do in Chi- 

 cago, no funerals on Sundays, I would 

 close my shop on Sunday at once. I 

 am in favor of all the goods things for 

 myself and associates which we are 

 entitled to while passing through this 

 planet. It is but a long breath at best, 



but it is not how long we live but how 

 well. The great thing is good think- 

 ing, a healthy, pure mind. 

 Sincerely, 



Sam Murray. 



CANADA TAKES THE LEAD. 

 While florists in the states have 

 been discussing the matter of early 

 closing, some of those in the Dominion 

 have taken the bull by the horns and 

 made the announcement that they 

 would shut down on Saturday after- 

 noons during July and August. Prob- 



ably the first public announcement of 

 this policy to be made was by Dun- 

 lop's at Toronto. In fact, it is asserted 

 that this was the first florist on the 

 continent to start the Saturday after- 

 noon closing plan. Some other To- 

 ronto florists have followed suit. Tidy 

 & Son, H. G. Dillmuth and J. J. Hig- 

 gins being among them. In some 

 stores a plan is being considered 

 which will give each employee one 

 afternoon each week, although not nec- 

 essarily Saturday. The entering wedge 

 has been made and the movement will 

 certainly spread. 



THE FUTURE OF RHODODENDRONS IN AMERICA 



In the current bulletin of the Arnold 

 Arboretum Prof. Sargent has some im- 

 portant observations on rhododen- 

 drons. He says: 



Of the species of evergreen Rhodo- 

 dendrons only the eastern American 

 R. maximum, R. catawbiense, R. caro- 

 linianum, the mountain form of R. 

 minus, the Caucasian R. Smirnovii and 

 R. caucasicum, at least in some of its 

 forms, are truly hardy in Massachu- 

 setts. The two species of the European 

 Alps, R. hirsutum and R. ferrugineum 

 can live here sometimes for a number 

 of years but they are usually short- 

 lived and unsatisfactory plants in this 

 climate. The Japanese R. brachycar- 

 pum formerly lived in Massachusetts 

 gardens for many years and longer 

 trials will probably show that it can be 

 successfully cultivated in this climate. 

 Including this still doubtful Japanese 

 species and the two little European 

 species, there are only nine species of 

 this great genus of several hundred 

 species hardy in this climate, and 

 there is little hope that another 

 species able to support this climate 

 will be found. The poverty of our 

 gardens in these plants appears when 

 the Arboretum collection is compared 

 with that in a garden in Cornwall in 

 England, in which some three hundred 

 and sixty species of these plants are 

 growing and in which on a day in May 

 of this year sixty-five species were in 

 flower. Such a collection, and per- 

 haps even a better one, can be made in 

 a garden in the neighborhood of Port- 

 land, Oregon, or in some favorable 

 place on the shores of Puget Sound, 

 but the sooner it is realized that north- 

 eastern North America is not a good 

 Rhododendron country in any broad 

 sense the better it will be for the gard- 

 ens in this part of the United States. 

 For the last seventy years a large 

 amount of thought, labor and money 

 have been expended in attempts to cul- 

 tivate these plants in the New England 

 and Middle States; during this time 



many hundreds of thousands of these 

 plants, principally hybrids of the 

 American R. catawbiense, have been 

 imported from Europe but the collec- 

 tions of Rhododendrons in the eastern 

 states at all satisfactory or compre- 

 hensive can be counted on the fingers 

 of one hand. In this climate unfortu- 

 nately only a few of the Catawbiense 

 hybrids, which are the popular Rhodo- 

 dendrons here, can be grown. The 

 American parent of these hybrids is 

 perfectly hardy, but the influence of 

 the tender Himalayan species with 

 which it has been crossed has made 

 most of the varieties of this hybrid un- 

 suited to this climate,. The influence 

 of the tender R. ponticum, the stock on 

 which these plants have been almost 

 universally grafted in European nur- 

 series may account in part for the fact 

 that plants of these hybrids which 

 have lived here for thirty or forty 

 years have then died without any 

 other apparent cause. If evergreen 

 Rhododendrons are ever to become 

 hardy and permanent features of east- 

 ern gardens we must give up trying to 

 make European-grown plants success- 

 ful here, and confine our- efforts to the 

 few species which are hardy here and 

 to crossing these among themselves in 

 the hope of obtaining hybrids which 

 will be able to grow here permanently. 

 Something can perhaps be accom- 

 plished by the selection of seedlings. 

 For example the flowers of R. cataw- 

 biense are of a peculiar shade of mag- 

 enta which does not harmonize with 

 any other color but white. Compara- 

 tively few seedlings, however, of R. 

 catawbiense have ever been raised and 

 probably not much attention has ever 

 been paid to selecting from among the 

 plants growing on the high Appala- 

 chian peaks individuals with flowers 

 of unusual colors. R. catawbiense is 

 perhaps the hardiest here of all Rhodo- 

 dendrons; the habit is excellent and 

 the leaves are handsomer than those 

 of the other hardy species. Improve- 



ment in the color of the flower is all 

 that is needed to make it a first-rate 

 plant for this climate. It is doubtful 

 if this can be accomplished by cross- 

 ing it with other species, but through 

 patient selection it may be improved 

 and possibly a white-flowered form dis- 

 covered. Hybrid Rhododendrons are 

 hardier or less hardy than their par- 

 ents. The few hybrids which have 

 been made between R. catawbiense 

 and R. maximum, the hardiest of all 

 Rhododendrons here, are less hardy 

 than their parents; and only a few of 

 the hybrids of R. catawbiense with R. 

 arboreum and other Himalayan 

 species are hardy. On the other hand 

 by crossing some of the Catawbiense 

 hybrids with R Metternichii, a deli- 

 cate Japanese shrub, a race of hybrids 

 has been produced in England which 

 is quite hardy in the Arboretum; and 

 the hybrids of the two species of the 

 European Alps crossed with one of the 

 forms of the American R. minus are 

 excellent dwarf garden plants here. In 

 this country the breeding of Rhododen- 

 drons for American gardens has never 

 been systematically undertaken with 

 full knowledge of the species available 

 for the purpose. The field is an in- 

 viting one, for these plants and other 

 hardy broad-leaved evergreens are 

 greatly needed in American gardens. 



The Scotch Roses. 

 Some of the varieties of the Scotch 

 Rose (R. spinosissima) are distinct 

 and beautiful garden plante. The 

 handsomest, perhaps, are the variety 

 altaica, also sometimes called var. 

 grandiflora, with petals faintly tinged 

 with yellow toward their base, the 

 varieties hispida and lutea with yellow 

 flowers, and the variety fulgens with 

 pale pink flowers. Like most single 

 Rose-flowers, the flowers of these 

 Scotch Roses last only a few days, but 

 during these few days they are de- 

 lightful additions to the Rose-garden, 



