260 



GARDENING. 



May 15, 



with common sense — both safe teachers — 

 the former to be easily reached and the 

 latter found occasionally. It is wonder- 

 ful how much the frame has to do with 

 the picture, in fact becomes a part of 

 the picture. Those who have seen groups 

 of foxgloves and other plants of strong 

 growth planted in the edges of woods, as 

 Mr. Falconer planted them at Schenley 

 Park last j-ear, or who have seen the 

 goldenrods and asters fringing some 

 country road half hiding an old stone 

 wall draped with clematis and shaded 

 with crimson fruited barberries, will 

 understand what is meant by effective 

 planting. While it is undoubtedly true 

 that most of our hardy plants are worth 

 growing for themselves alone, yet there 

 is a beauty above and beyond the indi- 

 vidual which the gardener must consider 

 — the beauty of combination of form and 

 color and which should guide him in the 

 selection of plants for a given place or 

 purpose 



Well, what I started out to say is this: 

 The question is frequently asked of me 

 (and this will answer two recent corre- 

 spondents), "When shall I begin to work 

 up a collection of hardy herbaceous 

 plants?" And I answer, now. It makes 

 no difference what time of year the 

 question is asked, the answer is always 

 the same — begin now. For most plants 

 which are propagated by division early 

 spring is the best time. At this season of 

 the year the members of the plants are 

 full of good impulses, and a little piece 

 that would wither and die if taken off 

 later in the spring or at the approach of 

 winter, will now start oft* as though noth- 

 ing had happened and make a good 

 sturdy plant for another season or in the 

 case of some species, for the present sum- 

 mer. 



If they are to be propagated from seed, 

 many are better sown in the spring than 

 later, and the rest may be sown as soon 

 as mature seed of the present season's 

 growth can be obtained. There are a few 

 species that would become unmanageable 

 if sown in early spring, but the majority 

 will make far more satisfactory plants 

 for next year if sown now. 



John F. Cowell. 



SWEET PEA NOTES. 



Blessings on your valuable columns for 

 every encouragement given to the sweet 

 pea. We hope that this royal flower will 

 long hold her court at Springfield, Mass., 

 and surely she is preparing to do s< > again 

 this year. We never need to thresh over 

 old straw to get something worth writing 

 about this flower. 



Our Hampden County Horticultural 

 Annual is out, and it is little else than a 

 sweet pea report and schedule of our 1898 

 sweet pea show. With us there is less 

 encouragement for a chrysanthemum 

 show than for one of our popular 

 annual, and so our county society has 

 planned for the latter only. Our Spring- 

 field Amateur Horticultural Society, 

 which is the real working society of this 

 city, usually gives a June and a fall show. 

 This latter society had phenomenal suc- 

 cess last June in the matter of drawing a 

 crowd, and, indeed, being an amateur 

 society, we devise every way to keep our 

 work near the hearts of the people. 



The schedule for the sweet pea show 

 grows more interesting every year. The 

 Eckford challenge cup, which was filtered 

 for the first time last year, is open to 

 competition again. It must be won twice 

 to lie permanently owned. Mr. C. M. 

 Ilartzell, of Holyoke, Mass., tool; it last 

 year. I have just been looking over his 



rows as planted March 17, and they bid 

 fair to crowd the other fellows hard. I 

 see that he uses level culture, planting 

 two inches deep. Even the Eckford sealed 

 packets he puts right into the ground, 

 and they have germinated finely. I can 

 not do that in my soil. It was peculiar 

 that while Mr. Hartzell's vines last year 

 were spoiled for the time by the fifteen 

 inches of rain that we had in July, they 

 rallied so that he made a fine showing in 

 August; most people suffered total dis- 

 aster. 



The experience of W. J. Eldred, another 

 close competitor, goes to show how all 

 our self-flattered efforts at scientific work 

 are sometimes as unreliable as the whims 

 of a coquette. He planted one-half his 

 stock at home where it would have every 

 attention, and where it did splendidly the 

 year before, and the other half up in the 

 country where it had to take its chances. 

 When blooming time came a man was 

 never rewarded with a meaner mongrel 

 mass than those home rows showed, 

 while a magnificent showing came to the 

 exhibition from the up-country rows. 

 For some occult reason, in spite of intelli- 

 gent work, the peculiar season destroyed 

 the identity of almost every variety, 

 while the same seed up in the country, 

 where it came later into bloom, gave 

 blossoms true to a dot. 



We find it very difficult to fix a satis- 

 factory date for our sweet pea show. 

 I'sually our best growers are ready by 

 the second week in July, but two weeks 

 are generally allowed for the tardy ones, 

 a generous concession made by the former 

 at the expense of their exhibit. This year 

 we have put the date July 20 and 21. 



At the last show a committee of three 

 excellent judges consisting of 0. H. Dick- 

 inson, L. D. Robinson and W. J. Eldred 

 was appointed to select a list of sweet 

 peas most desirable for general culture. 

 They named the list in three sections of a 

 dozen each. On the whole it is an admir- 

 able choice, but cannot be expected to 

 tally with everybody's judgment. The 

 first dozen are: Aurora, Blanche Burpee, 

 Blanche Ferry, Burpee's New Countess, 

 Firefly, Golden Gleam, Her Majesty, 

 Lovely, Maid of Honor, Royal Rose, 

 Stanley and Venus. The second dozen 

 are: America, Captivation, Countess of 

 Aberdeen, Dorothy Tennant, Katherine 

 Tracy, Lady Penzance, Mikado, Mrs. 

 Eckford, Prima Donna, Ramona, Waverly 

 and Gray Friar. The third dozen are; 

 Apple Blossom, Brilliant, Coquette, Cap- 

 tain of the Blues, Duke of Clarence, Emily 

 Lynch, Lottie Eckford, Meteor, Mrs. 

 Joseph Chamberlain, Mars, Ovid and 

 Senator. 



It is unfortunate that Mr. Eckford's 

 recent introductions do not keep pace 

 with the growing interest. Last year's 

 advance list will probably show better 

 form this year, but almost no novelty in 

 color. This year's set will put us a little 

 further along in three popular colors, the 

 bright rose, the orange and the deep 

 maroon. I am sorry to find that Chan- 

 cellor, the new bright orange, is a poor 

 germinator. 



The California novelties give us more 

 originality. The creamy buff shades of 

 the Burpee set and the dark prune blue 

 of one ot the Sunset Co.'s novelties are 

 excellent. Mr. Walker is on the road to 

 novelty production, but not there yet. I 

 object to cluttering up the list with 

 striped sorts unless they are of decided 

 merit. We shall bring discredit on the 

 novelty business unless the stripes are 

 given a decidedly inferior value to the self 

 colors. The shifting nature of all the 

 stripes almost debars them from a title to 



rank with named varieties. I wish they 

 might go under the name.of the selfs to 

 which they belong with the prefix 

 "striped." Otherwise we double the 

 list of names. Of course anything that can 

 win a certificate should have its own name. 



It is too early yet to tell whether the 

 American Sweet Pea Society will take 

 shape this year. Probably an attempt 

 will be made at Springfield in July to 

 launch it on its history. My already 

 busy life forbids that I should be enthus- 

 iastic about this organization, but I sin- 

 cerely hope that we now have a sufficient 

 working force on this flower to push it 

 into the dignitj' of a national society. 

 When such a section of the country as 

 that lying between Rochester, Ithaca and 

 Ehnira, N. V., shows an enthusiasm in 

 any flower we may- be sure it is a flower 

 that has a future. Both Cohocton and 

 Elmira are stirred in preparation for 

 sweet pea shows this year. 



Our Springfield schedule shows one en- 

 couraging feature, that the prize money 

 on which such a show must depend comes 

 in good measure from the seedsmen. This 

 is more likely to become a permanent 

 feature than other methods of raising 

 money. The large growers in California 

 also offer generous assistance which does 

 not appear on our schedule. 



Until within a few days my plans were 

 made to again visit C. C. Morse & Co., 

 Santa Clara, Cal., this year, but their 

 latest word reports such a disastrous 

 drought that it will probably be better to 

 postpone the visit till another year. Their 

 novelty work was what I had been in- 

 vited to come and look over, and I was 

 expecting a rich treat. Unless they had 

 two inches more rain before May 1 the 

 outlook was very disheartening. It would 

 now seem inevitable that there will be a 

 great shortage in all seed crops. In the 

 one item of sweet peas the contracts made 

 led to the planting of a large acreage, but 

 the last advices from there report the 

 shriveling vines as past redemption unless 

 a two-inch rainfall comes to their relief. 

 It was Mr. Burpee's plan also to be there. 

 In my last trip to that state nothing im- 

 pressed me as more beautiful and grand 

 than the immense blanket of seed stock in 

 different stages of growth, blocked into 

 all shades of green, and lit up with great 

 sheets of color. It is a sight that well 

 pays for the long journey. 



But while drought is afflicting them, 

 there is no drought in the east. We are 

 longing for the daily drizzle to cease and 

 the sun to again shine forth. A kind 

 providence favored us with a phenomenal 

 March. I planted my sweet peas the 15th 

 of March, a date earlier than I could ever 

 plant before. But we have had our 

 March in April. W. T. Hitchins. 



Massachusetts. 



An article in the Gardening World 

 (English) gives an account of an in- 

 teresting experiment in grafting chry- 

 santhemums. With an idea of chang- 

 ing the character of the flowers, the 

 top of a plant of one variety was 

 cut off and the bottom grafted into 

 a plant of another kind, both being 

 planted in one pot, the result being to 

 produce a stem of one variety supported 

 by short stems of two varieties, and 

 nourished by two distinct sets of roots. 

 The experiment, so far as it influenced 

 the character of the flowers was a fail- 

 ure, but it was noted that the plant was 

 much strengthened and the size of flowers 

 increased. It seems quite likely that this 

 process may prove of value in growing 

 exhibition blooms, especially of weak 

 g wing varieties. 



