GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



OF AMERICA 



THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF 

 THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 



Devoted to the Science of rioriculture and Horticulture. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PARK SUPERINTENDENTS. 



Devoted to Park Development and Recreational Facilities. 



X'ol. XIX. 



Al"GL'ST. 19i; 



\... S. 



Things and Thoughts of the Garden 



By The Onlooker 



1 cannot get a\va_\- from tlicin — they crowd in upon my 

 mind, those Sweet Peas of Newport. There is only one 

 Newport when Sweet Peas are spoken of. B.it the gal- 

 lant men of Rhode Island's fashionable watering place 

 were snowed nnder, or snuffed out or fogged out, which? 

 No need to ask the Newportians ; they would shout like 

 thunder, "It was the fog." Mvcn on the eve of the exhi- 

 bition, wdiich took place July 13 and 16. the streets 

 around the harbor were dim and misty as the penetrating 

 chilly curtain of vapor, ghost-like, stole in and around 

 the street corners. That such su|.ierlative Sweet Peas 

 were produced under these very trying conditions was 

 greath- to the credit of the local growers. They were 

 beaten b\ the men of Lenox, but with honor. 



Giant strides have been made in two short seasons. 

 It may be safe to say that in 1913 the Sweet Peas at our 

 exhibitions were what would have been considered sec- 

 ond rate among the growers of the inner circles of the 

 Sweet Pea cult in England. Today we can load the 

 tables with blooms of the highest quality, on stems 16 in.. 

 17 in.. 18 in. long, bearing threes and fours every time, 

 blooms laig, heavy, bright and clear in color, unblemished 

 by the weather or by insects, something to look at and 

 admire, which make we lesser combatants of the ring- 

 stand in awe of. Hurrah, then, for Jenkins, and if, in 

 some garden at present unknown, an equally unknown 

 combatant sits planning and dreaming of high and mighty 

 conquests, not upon fields of liattle, but in the jileasant 

 exhibition halls, and if in the not far distant future he 

 comes forth and triumplis over the redoubtables of today, 

 thev and all of us will laud and welcome him, for health- 

 ful competition and the zest that accompanies striving, 

 would decline and pass away but for tlie "new man," the 

 black horse of the race, the runner up in the game. 



^ ^ ^ 



This Sweet Pea showing, what is it?' "I'm not a Sweet 

 Pea crank yet," said a friend lo me at Newport on the 

 morning of the exhibition, and Init for the fact that he 

 was certainlv a more cajjable and ardent gardener in 

 manv other lines. I would have had to feel ])ity for him. 

 We cannot all raise a love for a given llower. even for 

 such a trnlv charming one as our dainty Sweet Pea. 

 Rather fancy, too, he had a soft spot in his heart for 

 Roses and Gardenias, not to mention his house of Cat- 

 tleyas in superl) condition, and a collection of Adiantum 

 P'arleyense, which the present writer has never seen 

 e(|uallcd in point of health, symmetry and general beauty. 

 Pach plant was a beautiful specimen, some in big pots, 

 some in liule ones, the big ones raised well al)ove the 



stage, which was covered with sphagnum and kej)! damp, 

 the lesser ones on the stage. Ves, let us each have some 

 choice specialty : one can hardly make a "specialty" of 

 everything, and indeed specialism obviously implies con- 

 centration. ( )ne man cultivates Chrysanthemums, or Car- 

 nations, or Roses, (jr 1 'hakenopsis, or Grapes, or vege- 

 tables better than his neighbors, and once he earns fame 

 in some one direction he does not relish being beaten. So 

 the standard of cidtivation is upheld. ( )ne man's achieve- 

 ments [loint the way for others and e.xhiliit the ])0ssi- 

 bilities of the particular subject in which he excels. Cntil 

 Roland grew his huge Acacias and exhibited them, it is 

 safe to say that few among us valued thoii or api)re- 

 ciated their merits sufficiently. Have Bieschke's IIv- 

 drangeas (Ilortensis type) not >hown r.s just what this 

 noble plant is capal)le of? A dozen other things might 

 be mentioned — a crop of ( irapes, a plot of \'egetables, a 

 superb Amaryllis, a group of Callas, a table of PrimiUas, 

 a pot of Plaster Lilies with sixteen flowers on one stem, 

 giant .Mignonette or spikes of double Stocks better 

 than an\- other body's — these are the things that inspire 

 and please us, and make floriculture the art it is. There- 

 fore, health and power to the sjiecialist. 



Our specialist, however, would not be a worthy gar- 

 dener were he to neglect the other sections of his charge. 

 Tt depends on the man himself. Some men do neglect 

 other parts of the garden or other plants in their eager- 

 ness to attend to every detail of one or two pet things. 

 Not a great man\' do this, and I make bold to say that no 

 gardener would pursue the cultivation of a given subject 

 against the wishes, or without the encouragement in some 

 degree, of the owner of the garden or the jjcrson or 

 family to whose ])leasure .and economy he ailministers. 

 The fact is a gardener usually begins in a quiet way on 

 a specialty for any one of a dozen reasons. His success 

 leads him on. In the meantime, the garden owner takes 

 notice of lii^ work, nine times out of ten enjoys the re- 

 sults, enters into the spirit of it, encourages it, and if ex- 

 hibiting is the climax, shall we <loubt that he or she does 

 not feel pleasure in being a winner? (Happily the names 

 of non-winners need not be disclosed.) That is wdiere 

 the gardener suits himself as to what his s])ecialty sliall 

 be. But if the owner is not only a patron of gardening, 

 but is also the "boss," knowing plants, their needs, their 

 ways, their merits, and having decided tastes, such a one 

 will choose the specialty and say wdiat it will be. 'I'bis 

 is riglit and proper. If the gardener objects, hangs back, 

 makes a botch of what it 's desired should be specially 

 well attended to there can ^)nlv be one solution in the 



