June 28, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



615 



JAPANESE CRONES. 

 The tubers of the Japanese Crones 

 or Stachys Sieboldi which were shown 

 at the March exhibition of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society by Hill- 

 crest Farm, Weston, and attracted 

 favorable attention there, were sent to 

 us several years ago from France. 

 The Crones belong to the Labiatae or 

 Mint family, but have not the aromatic 

 fragrance generally found in the 

 leaves of other members of this fam- 

 ily. 



At Hillcrest the Crones were planted 

 early in the spring, as soon as the 

 ground was in workable condition, in 

 furrows. The small tubers were 

 dropped into furrows made by a hoe, 

 three inches deep with twelve inches 

 between the tubers. The furrows 

 were three feet apart. For hand culti- 

 vation the rows could have been much 

 closer. 



The plants soon appeared above the 

 ground and kept growing and spread- 

 ing, forming a dense row about 

 eighteen inches high of attractive 

 dark green foliage till late in the 

 autumn when a hard frost killed 

 them. 



The stems were much branched, 

 square with opposite simple leaves. 

 There were no blossoms. The tubers 

 were formed in the latter part of the 

 summer. Earlier in the season the 

 plants sent out numerous, thick root- 

 like threads about eight inches long 

 which began to thicken at the end and 

 form edible tubers. These are a little 

 more than an inch long, white and 

 with a twisted appearance like a 

 corkscrew. 



There may be various ways of serv- 

 ing them, but we found them delicious 

 as dainty little fritters cooked in a bat- 

 ter and deep fat. 



The Crones are very productive so 

 that a quart or more can be gathered 

 from a single tuber planted in the 

 spring. Dug up late in the autumn 

 they have to be stored in a moist, cool 

 cellar or covered with damp sand. If 

 the air is too dry they will wilt very 

 quickly. If left in the ground through 

 the winter they will grow the follow- 

 ing season. Orders for these tubers 

 can be taken this spring for next 

 year's planting. 



M. R. Case, 

 Hillcrest Farm, Weston, Mass. 



NEW ENGLAND. 



Joseph A. Nolet came through as 

 chief winner of prizes in the peony 

 show of the New Bedford, Mass., Horti- 

 cultural society. 



Louis E. Smith is to erect a large 

 greenhouse at Summerside Garderes, 

 Lee, Mass., and has been in New York 

 making the necessary arrangements. 



ROCHESTER. 



Owing to the heat the rose show had 

 to be called off but a meeting of the 

 Rochester Rose society was held, at 

 which more than a 100 varieties of 

 roses were exhibited. The exhibit 

 showed a sufficient number of flowers 

 to keep up the intense interest in the 

 rose society that had manifested from 

 the start. A discussion included the 

 prospects of a rose show in the fall, 

 when there will be plenty of blooms if 

 the weather is favorable. The society 

 has now more than 100 members and it 

 is said the prospects are that three 

 hundred or four hundred flower lovers 

 will join. All the blossoms were given 

 to the hospitals and other institutions 

 after the exhibit. 



THE ASIATIC DOGWOOD. 



In his current bulletin, Prof Sargent 

 of the Arnold Arboretum, has an in- 

 teresting article about Cornus kousa. 

 He said: 



This is the eastern Asiatic repre- 

 sentative of the Flowering Dogwood 

 of the eastern states (Cornus florida) 

 and of the Flowering Dogwood of the 

 northwest (Cornus Nuttallii). Cornus 

 kousa was one of the Japanese plants 

 which reached the United States in the 

 early years of Japanese plant introduc- 

 tion into this country and although it 

 has never become common in Ameri- 

 can gardens it is occasionally seen in 

 the neighborhood of Boston and New 

 York. The white bracts which sur- 

 round the head of flowers and are the 

 conspicuous feature of the inflore- 

 scence of all the Cornels of this group 

 are narrowed and placed further apart 

 on Cornue kousa than on our eastern 

 Flowering Dogwood, and are long- 

 pointed, and not as in the American 

 plant rounded or emarginate at the 



apex. On the American plant the end 

 of the bract is often discolored, while 

 in the Asiatic plant the bracts are 

 pure white to the tips. The flower- 

 buds of Cornus florida are often killed 

 here at the north in severe winters, 

 but the extreme cold of the winter of 

 1917-18 did not injure those of C. 

 kousa. The Japanese plants bloom 

 several weeks later than Cornus florida 

 and when the leaves are nearly fully 

 grown. In Japan Cornus kousa some- 

 times becomes a small tree with a sin- 

 gle trunk, but in this country so far as 

 we have observed it grows always as a 

 shrub with several erect stems. Cornus 

 kousa was found in central China by 

 Wilson and plants raised from his 

 Chinese seeds are established in the 

 Arboretum. They are handsomer than 

 the Japanese form, with longer and 

 broader floral bracts set closer togeth- 

 er and often overlapping below the 

 middle. On the largest plant in the 

 Arboretum the head of bracts is four 

 inches and a half across, but in China 

 Wilson measured them five inches 

 across. On the Japanese plants the 

 heads of bracts are rarely three inches 

 and a half in diameter. The Chinese 

 plant flowered in the Arboretum for 

 first time two years ago, and the flow- 

 er-buds have never been injured by 

 cold. It is flowering more freely this 

 year than it has before and is now an 

 object of much beauty. Like the Jap- 

 anese plant the Chinese Cornus kousa 

 has grown here as a shrub, but there 

 seems no reason why it cannot be 

 trained into a tree, as in China it is 

 a small tree with a trunk sometimes a 

 foot in diameter. If it fails to produce 

 seed here the Chinese plant can proba- 

 bly be grafted successfully on Cornus 

 florida. Although the Asiatic flower- 

 ing Dogwoods do not make a display 

 of flowers as our American trees, their 

 flower-buds are hardier judging by the 

 effects of the winter of 1917-18, and if 

 the future confirms this they will flow- 

 er further north than Cornus florida. 

 The fact that they bloom when the 

 leaves are nearly fully grown and 

 when the flowering time of most trees 

 is over makes these Asiatic Cornels 

 valuable, and it now seems probable 

 that in the Chinese form of Cornus 

 kousa the northern states have an im- 

 portant ornamental tree. The Jap- 

 anese and Chinese plants are now in 

 bloom, the former on Hickory Path 

 near Centre street and the latter with 

 the other Chinese plants on Bussey 

 Hill. 



