September 24, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



269 



NOTES ON SOME OLD PLANTS. 



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OMMELINA CCELESTIS is a plant now 

 but seldom met with in gardens. It is not 

 showy, and wiU not sustain the epithet mag- 

 nificent, yet it is very beautiful in its own 

 quiet way, and is altogether a more attrac- 

 tive subject than most people are aware of. 



In many books and catalogues it is de- 

 scribed as a stove plant, but this is not 

 correct, or is so only to a certain extent ; for 

 although it does well under stove treatment, 

 it does stiU better when grown as a half-hardy tuberous- 

 rooted perennial, which in reality it is, like the Dahlia 

 and Salvia patens. 



The best way to get up a stock is to sow in heat early 

 in spring ; and as the seed germinates very freely, a 

 hundred or so of plants will be the outcome of a shilling 

 packet of seed. These, either potted-off three in a pot 

 or pricked into boxes, gradually hardened, and planted- 

 out in May, will begin to bloom early in July. They do 

 not, however, as a rule, flower very profusely the first 

 year, but the second their capability in that way is some- 

 thing not to be complained of. They are most suitable 

 for planting in a mixed herbaceous border light and 

 sunny, in clumps of three or four, and they seldom require 

 stakes. Their tripetaled flowers are of a peculiar silky 

 glossy texture, and the colour, as the name implies, is a 

 light sky-blue of a tint nearly unique amongst flowers. 

 They are easily damaged by rain, but a day's sunshine 

 brings out more in abundance from the curious little 

 pouches or spathes in which they are enclosed. There 

 is a white variety, but it is not nearly so well worth 

 cultivating. 



About the Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis .Talapa), there is 

 nothing specially marvellous, except that, being such a 

 sportive plant, we should have no better varieties of it 

 than we have, although as it is it gives us a great variety 

 of colours. How it got its big name it is not easy to 

 guess. Pizarro and his interesting ragamufiins certainly 

 nnearthed greater wonders than this in that once-wonder- 

 ful country (Peru), and probably the recollections of these 

 influenced the introducers of this pretty flower ; or more 

 likely its extreme variability of colour both in flowers 

 and leaves might in these days be deemed something 

 miraculous. 



It may be raised in the same way as Commelina, but 

 in Scotland it requires a warmer and more sheltered 

 border. I find it succeeds best when treated in the 

 following manner: — Having procured the tubers, pot 

 them singly into C-inch pots, and start them in gentle 

 heat not earlier than the beginning of March. If small, 

 two or three may be put into each pot. By the middle 

 or end of May throw out pits 10 or 12 inches deep in 

 the border where they are to be planted. Into each of 

 these put an inverted 9-inch pot at such a depth that its 

 bottom will be only an inch or so below the surface of 

 the ground, and put a plant on each side of and close 

 to the pot. Thus managed the temperature of the ad- 

 No. 7M.— Vol. XXvn., New Sbbies. 



joining soil is raised to an appreciable extent. This 

 simple plan can also be used with advantage in the case 

 of many other tender plants. 



When cut down by the frost, the roots are lifted and 

 treated as Dahlias. 



It may be here remarked that one of the elements 

 of success in growing large numbers of half-hardy plants 

 which require their roots to be protected during winter, 

 is the grouping together of such as are found to agree 

 with a somewhat similar treatment. It may be diflicult 

 to suit exactly the tastes of each, for flowers, like mortal 

 men and women, have queer likes and dislikes; but a 

 little experience soon enables the observant cultivator 

 to treat each group in a way that is best for it as a whole, 

 although the subjects composing it might be individually 

 better cared for if time and room permitted. Thus, who- 

 ever grows Dahlias — and who does not? — may keep a 

 whole host of other good things going in the same track. 



There is another old plant well worth calling attention 

 to, not so much on account of its beauty as of its season 

 of bloom, which, beginning with September, extends well 

 into the following month. This is Lobelia syphilitica, 

 with light blue spikes, from 2 to 3 feet high. It is not 

 so showy as plants of the Lobelia fulgens or splendens 

 class, but it has the advantage of being perfectly hardy, 

 which these are not. If raised from seed sown in shght 

 heat in March it will bloom the same season, and it may 

 afterwards be propagated by offsets in the same way as 

 fulgens. A bed of it edged with something brighter and 

 more decided in colour has a soft and pleasing appear- 

 ance, and being of a robust habit it stands the autumn 

 storms well. 



In looking over lists of hardy herbaceous Lobelias in 

 some of our standard books, it has often struck me that 

 either many of the sorts there enumerated are now lost, 

 or that many of the names are synonymous, or that — 

 which is the most likely supposition — my acquaintance 

 with them is very limited. I have before me a list ot 

 upwards of twenty, two-thirds of which I rather think 

 nine gardeners out of ten have never seen. Perhaps 

 some correspondent of the .Journal would kindly call the 

 roll that we may know what we have, what we have 

 lost, and what we never had. — R. D. Taylor. 



ANNUAL RENEWAL OF STRAWBERRY BEDS. 

 The observations on this by " W. R." in last week's .Jour- 

 nal contain a remark to wliich I as a Strawben-y-grower 

 for many years take exception. He says, alluding to the 

 annual renewal of the beds, that it is " only resorted to 

 by those who do not properly prepare their ground in the 

 first instance, and know very little about Strawberry 

 growing," &c. For my own part I have always recom- 

 mended annual renewal, because I find it answer best ; 

 and that the older the beds are, the crop deteriorates in 

 the same ratio ; besides, several plants die every year, 

 which does not improve the appearance of the beds. 

 I have also repeatedly in this Journal stated how the 

 beds are prepared. Then as to results : I have taken 



No. 1S56.— Vol. LIl, Old Ssbies. 



