358 



GARDENING. 



Aug. /s, 



this year that the English climate and 

 ours have very different effects on color. 



Here in this set are the Prince of Wales 

 and Colonist. At four feet distance we 

 cannot tell them apart. Both are a bright 

 rose after the order of Her Majesty. The 

 Eckford description of Colonist is "a soft 

 lilac overlaid with bright rose," which I 

 have no doubt the English climate made 

 very beautiful. But grown on even an 

 ideal soil, such as some of our growers 

 have, Colonist and Prince of Wales would 

 puzzle me to distinguish them. < >ur 

 climate, I suppose, emphasizes the bright 

 rose. It is evident that we can attach 

 but little value to any but the decided 

 self colors. Then there are two "orange" 

 varieties in this set. Chancellor is the 

 most decided orange, and is the best one 

 of the set. Lady Mary Currie seems but 

 a repetition of Penzance. The supposed 

 shade of rosy lilac in the Currie disap- 

 pears in our climate. Duchess of Suther- 

 land, a pearl white, has the misfortune ot 

 being so near like two ot the Burpee set 

 that it can hold no place. Duke of Suth- 

 erland, which is doubtless made out of 

 Monarch, can be duplicated by well grown 

 stock of the latter. Black Knight, of which 

 I well remember seeing a magnificent row 

 at Wem, while perhaps being a little 

 deeper in color than Stanley, will practi- 

 cally be only a rejuvenation of the latter, 

 and it will be as easy to hold one up in 

 size as it will the other. 



And I ought here to revert to last 

 year's set of Eckford's. It is a disap- 

 pointment throughout. We have Cali- 

 fornia grown stock of them, so that they 

 ought to show up well. They practically 

 give us nothing new. Queen Victoria, 

 although it has a black seed, gives us 

 only a weak primrose tint. Lady Xina 

 Balfour, instead of having a more deli- 

 cate color than the true Radnor, comes 

 very badly. The American strain of 

 Radnor, called New Countess, is very fine 

 in color, and must hold the place as a 

 delicate lavender. Countess of Powis is 

 crowded out by Burpee's Oriental. 

 Salopian does have a richer shading of 

 blood-red than Mars, but does not give 

 us that novel shading towards dark 

 cherry which 1 saw at Wem. Neither do 

 we get from Shazada as dark an effect as 

 we expected. And Triumph is nothing. 

 Prince Edward of York is perhaps 

 brighter than the old Princess Victoria, 

 but hardly better. 



All this is an injustice to Mr. Eckford. 

 He is not to blame for ourcliinate. If our 

 American climate registered no tempera- 

 ture higher than 85 and we had a moist 

 ocean air instead of our inland dryness 

 we could duplicate the delicate shadings 

 seen at Wem, and our blossoms would 

 answer to the Eckford description. 



Turning to the American novelties our 

 enthusiasm is kept alive, certainly not 

 by all that are being offered on this side 

 of the water, but by the best of them. 

 Probably in some localities the best 

 Burpee novelty this year is Stella Morse, 

 a beautiful light buff cream. Put in this 

 section the best one is Lottie Hutchins. 

 It at once attracts admiration. I am 

 happily disappointed in it. Its yellowish, 

 cream ground sets off the soft rose stripes 

 and flakes very prettily. Oriental is a 

 splendid orange salmon and has only 

 Chancellor to complete with. Modesty 

 bouquets beautifully, and there is no 

 question about its deserving a place. As 

 toSensation.it is unfortunate just now 

 to have so many sorts just bordering on 

 white crowded upon us. Duchess of 

 Sutherland, Sensation and Coum 

 Aberdeen are not needed, if we retain 

 .Modesty. Dolly Varden and Wa 



add no value to the set. The former 

 probably owes its peculiarity of color to 

 the run out condition of the old Butterfly 

 stock, and the mauve stripe of Wawona 

 we have had more or less of in our vari- 

 ous Radnor stock. Pink Cupid is a 

 decided improvement on the white, but 

 it refused to germinate well with me in 

 a border, doing well enough in pots. The 

 Burpee Earliest-of-All strain of Blanche 

 Perry vindicates its name. 



I speak with some diffidence of the 

 Walker novelties, being somewhat preju- 

 diced against the introduction of 

 striped sorts, and preferring that the 

 recognition of Mr. Walker as a novelty 

 maker should depend on a wider endorse- 

 ment than my personal interest in him. 

 This he is having, and I think his con- 

 scientious work deserves it. He has 

 favorable Oregon conditions and for 

 seven years has been in close correspond- 

 ence with me. He is working his way 

 patiently, lacking the Eckford prestige, 

 and his name as yet carrying no such 

 warrant as the great seed house that is 

 giving us Morse's finest selections from 

 an immense acreage, and that is able to 

 introduce a set of novelties on the largest 

 scale. If a man gets out a catalogue, and 

 there is any merit in his work, so that 

 his introductions appear in our shows, 

 we must recognize him. Bertie Hamilton 

 has a more fixed type than I had thought, 

 the fine wavy markings being of ox-blood 

 red. Mrs. S. T. Walker gives us one-half 

 about like Countess of Aberdeen, and the 

 other half a pretty, faint rosy tinge 

 which I take to be the type of the variety. 

 Minnehaha is simply a good flower of 

 very fine pink veining, and Light Gaiety 

 is of the same order. Of course Mikado 

 breaks up into almost everything of this 

 sort, and altogether these red and rose 

 veined sorts make our rows look as if we 

 have too much of it. The valuable novel- 

 ins are not along this striped line. If 

 we have good stock of Gray Friar we do 

 not want Dawn. 



Among the trial sorts sent I find some 

 excellent things. The new blue which the 

 Sunset Co. mark "A" is the best blue yet 

 introduced, and is quite original. The 

 new orange of Burpee's called Gorgeous 

 is grand. Pink Friar is also very pretty. 

 I see no advance made in yellow except 

 as the buff cream of the Stella Morse 

 gives us a richer effect. The buff cream 

 ground shading into soft rose is one of 

 the new trials. One or two odd things, 

 selected apparently from Laxton's Etna 

 are noticeable. It is useless for us to fol- 

 low the idea of giving minute details of 

 shading or form, for all that can be relied 

 upon is pronounced color and good vigor 

 of habit. The battle now-a-days to get 

 them into bloom and hold them up till 

 show time is too much of an anxious sus- 

 pense for us to care much for the art 

 shadings, or the subtle overlaying of one 

 color on another. The first hot wave 

 that catches us after we get the vines 

 into bloom, makes us wonder where our 

 exhibition flowers are coming from. I am 

 waiting to hear how the others fare since 

 our recent spell of 100° in the shade. 



Massachusetts. W. T. Hutchins. 



flftRDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 



Looking over our herbaceous border 

 we notice the following plants in flower 

 during the week ending July 23. Achillea 

 The Pearl which we have been cutting for 

 the past three weeks. All growers should 

 have a good patch of this most useful 

 plant. It is entirely hardy, exceptionally 

 free flowering, and the flat open heads of 

 pure white double flowers last a long 

 time when cut, and associate well with 



other flowers. Although a free spreader 

 it can be kept in bounds by running a 

 spade around the clumps, or space allotted 

 to it. Anthemis tinctoria is a little gone 

 by but is still making a good show. This 

 should be cut back as soon as the flowers 

 are over; another crop of flowers in Sep- 

 tember will be the result. If allowed to 

 seed it will soon become a bad weed. Aster 

 acris, a native of Southern Europe is just 

 commencing to bloom; the individual 

 flower heads are rather ragged looking; 

 white suffused with lilac. Astilbe Chinen- 

 sis is past its best, but the foliage will be 

 handsome till frost. For a damp place 

 this is very fine, and although the flowers 

 are not very bright (pale pink), the long 

 graceful spikes are distinctive and attract- 

 ive, especially on large, established plants. 

 Campanula Carpathica, blue and white, 

 are very pretty now, and the large blue 

 and white bells of Campanula (Platyco- 

 don) grandidora varieties are showing 

 up finely. 



Cephalaria alpina, sometimes cata- 

 logued as Scahiosa alata, has been very 

 beautiful for the last three weeks, and 

 seems likely to last in beauty for some 

 time. The clear sulphur flowers are very 

 distinct. C. Tartarica seems to be iden- 

 tical with C. alpina. Cimicifuga race- 

 mosa, closely allied to the acta'as has 

 very handsome foliage and racemes of 

 feathery white flowers. When well estab- 

 lished, the plant when in flower is three 

 to four feet high and the foliage spreads 

 to about the same width. Like the 

 astilbes this requires a moist place. Core- 

 opsis grandiflora is another plant that 

 should be cut back before seeding, so 

 as to secure another crop of flowers later 

 in the season. We consider this the best 

 of the family for cutting. 



Delphinium Chinensis varieties have 

 been flowering for the last three weeks, 

 and will continue to do so till frost, if not 

 allowed to seed. There are white, light 

 blue, dark blue and some intermediate 

 shades. Eryngium amethystinum is still 

 very fine, and with several plants there is 

 generally a succession of flower spikes from 

 July 1 till frost. The stems as well as the 

 flower heads are of a beautiful metallic 

 blue. Euphorbia corolla ta is a very dis- 

 tinct looking plant; it will continue to 

 flower until frost. The white flowers are 

 arranged in whorls and work in well 

 with others. Echinops ruthenica Ritro, 

 the globe thistle, has very distinctive 

 round heads of metallic blue flowers, 

 which last a long time when cut if kept 

 dry. Gypsophila paniculata is very fine 

 now; a large plant several feet in diame- 

 ter makes a pretty background for sonic 

 of the dwarfer plants. G. acutifolia, just 

 commencing to flower, is good for cut- 

 ting, but hardly showy enough for the 

 border. The flowers are larger than 

 those of G. paniculatahut more scattered. 



Helenium Boulanderii is beginning to 

 make a good show; it is not so stiff in 

 habit as H. autumnale, and the flower 

 heads have very distinct dark brown 

 disks. Heliojisis la?vis is in flower and 

 will continue to make a good show for 

 several weeks with its golden yellow 

 flower heads; it should not be allowed to 

 seed, or it will become a bad weed. H. 

 Pitchcrii with us is not distinct enough 

 to make it worth while to have both on 

 the border. Hemerocallis disticha H. pi 

 we consider the best of the double hemer- 

 ocallis; the flowers are terra cotta, shad- 

 ing to fawn, and are several shades 

 brighter than the other double varieties 

 H. Thunbergii is very fine; its pale Itmon 

 j'ellow, sweet scented flowers make a dis- 

 tinct feature in the border. Lychnis res 

 pcrlina ti. pi. is still makingagood show- 



