IRISH GARDENING. 



29 



Panama Pacific Exhibition. 



Notable Irish Success. 



Messrs. Hugh Dickson, Ltd., Royal Nurseries, 

 Belfast, have received official intimation that 

 they have been awarded the 1,000 dols. trophy 

 at the Panama Exhibition for the best new rose 

 not yet in commerce. This u,nique international 

 award has been won under the most strenuous 

 competition and after the most searching trial 

 ever conducted at an international exhibition. 

 The Exhibition authorities invited all the Rose 

 hybridists of the world to send for trial the best 

 of their seedlings, the plants to be grown in 

 a specially prepared garden in the Exhibition 

 grounds, and there grown for a year before the 

 Exhibition opened, so that they woiUd be thor- 

 oughly acclimatised and established before the 

 test of judging was undertaken. The response 

 was world-wide, and we are informed that prac- 

 tically every country in the world was repre- 

 sented by tile best products of their hybridists. 

 The method of judging was most exacting. Each 

 variety grown under number only was judged 

 every month of the period of the Exhibition by a 

 grovip of the leading Rose growers of America, 

 who awarded points to each Rose competing, 

 the set of judges being different on each occasion. 

 At the end of the test the total points were 

 counted, with the result of a bx'illiant success for 

 our Irish firm, who are to be heartily congratu- 

 lated. The governors of the Exhibition reserve 

 the right to name the new rose in commemora- 

 tion of the great engineering feat which the Exhi- 

 l)ition was to inaugurate, and IVlessrs. Dickson 

 and tile pul)lic generally will wait witli paticmce 

 to hear what name this famous Rose is to bear. — 

 The Irish Times.'^ 



A Timely Hint on Sweet Pea Growing* 



By GuNNEi! .T. Cussex. R.F.A., Head Gardener 

 "to W. Verschoyle, Esq.. .l.P.. Woodley, 

 Dundrum . 



The first thing to do is make a sowing as soon as 

 possible after this date. Collect all three-inch pots 

 and place four seeds in each ])ot. chi])ping all 

 dark seeds. The next thing is, do not buy all 

 novelties, for very often thes*^ are not equal to 

 the old varieties. Twelve of the best are : — ^King 

 Manoel, Hercules, R. F. Pelton, Marks Ley, 

 Margret Atlee, Mrs. Ciithbertson, Constance 

 Hinton, Paradise Crimson, Mrs. C. Breadmore, 

 Paradise Carmine, Paradise Primrose, Mrs. R. 

 Hallam, and one novelty — Jean Ireland. 



Having sown the seed, place in a close frame 

 until' germination takes })lace, then throw off the 

 lights altogether, using them only during heavy 

 rain and frosty weather. 



Trenching, if possible, ought to be done in 

 November, and the deeper the trenching is done 

 the finer and longer will the blooming season be. 

 The Sweet Peas here treated in this way are in 

 bloom still. The trenches ought to be at least 

 three feet deep and three feet wide, with well 

 rotted manure in the second spit and no manure 

 of any kind in the first spit, only jilenty of soot. 



All the above are tremendous strong growers. 

 Leave four shoots to each plant, and ])lant them 

 at least one foot apart, and success will be yours. 



* TJnavoidablv held over. 



The Utilisation of Ferns in Carniola. 



The common bracken (Pteris aquilina) is very 

 plentiful in Carniola, where it often dominates 

 sunny, slopes and is gathered in the autumn for 

 litter. _ In damp places, ferns of the genera 

 Aspidium and Nephrodium are very common, 

 especially the male fern, from the roots of which 

 fllicine is prepared ; these plants are, however, 

 only collected to a limited extent. The gathering 

 of another fern has developed into a real industry, 

 greatly to the advantage of the owners of the 

 wood, the gatherers and the trade. This fern 

 (Aspidium aculeatum Sw., in its sub-species 

 lobatum Sw. with 8 forms and angulare W. with 

 numerous variations) is gathered in large quanti- 

 ties for decoration. Permission to cut it is given 

 by the owners on payment of a farthing or more 

 per acre. The ferns are collected by men, 

 women and children from the end of October to 

 Ai)ril, according to the season ; fronds are cut just 

 above the roots and tied up in packets of 50 ; 

 a thousand perfect fronds fetch lOd. or even 

 Is. Id. in dry years, and one person can pick 

 three or four thousand in a day. The agents, of 

 whom there is a special society at Upper Laybach, 

 store the ferns in cellars and despatch them to 

 order, i^acked damp in cardboard boxes, to all 

 l)arts of the world ; the chief centres of consump- 

 tion are Berlin, Paris, London, Constantinople 

 and New York. Several million boxes are sent 

 annually at the rate (without postage or packing 

 expenses) of Is. 9d. to 2s. 2d. i)er thousand, or 

 Is. 7d. [)er Ih.— Monthly Bulletin of Agrienltnral 

 Intelligence and Plant Diseases, July, 1915. 



Saxifraga crassifoHa* 



This handsome broad-leaved Saxifrage has been 

 flowering remarkably freely for some weeks in 

 common with many other hardy plants, and is this 

 year vei-y early. It is a plant "that can be put to 

 many uses in gardens, and is equally at home on 

 the rock garden or in the herbaceous border ; 

 also it seems indifferent to sun or shade, flourishing 

 under either condition. Groups planted about 

 the borders are very effective all winter with their 

 large shining.leaves, accompanied now by panicles 

 of pink flowers. Planted freely about the less 

 choice parts of the rock garden, it imi)arts a 

 cheerful well-furnished ai)pearance during the 

 months when the other smaller plants, or those 

 which die down, are less conspicuous. S. crassi- 

 folia is a native of Siberia, and has been in 

 cultivation for one hundix^d and fifty years. 



Iris sibirica Snow Queen. 



In our December issue this beautiful variety was 

 illustrated, from a group growing in the gardens 

 at Harristown House, Kildare, as I. sibirica, 

 without reference to the variety. A correspon- 

 dent has pointed out that in the variety Snow 

 Queen the large beatitiful white flowers are pro- 

 duced at or about the height of the leaves, and 

 not well above them, as in the typical forms. 

 Snow Queen itself is really a form of I. sibirica 

 orientalis which some authorities are inclined to 

 regard as a species. There is a blue counterpart 

 of Snow Queen known as Blue King. Both have 

 been frequently alluded to in this journal, and 

 a re* really fine hardy plants for rich moist soil. 



