TRAILING ARBUTUS FROM SEED. 



The idea of obtaining trailing arbutus plants from seed 

 instead of by the often attempted and usually unsuccessful 

 method of transplanting from the woods, was first suggested 

 to me by Mr. Frederick \'. Coville, of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. I was much pleased by his 

 beautifully blooming pots which I saw in April, 19 13, in the 

 Department greenhouses at Washington. Mr. Coville gave 

 me full cultural directions, and my subsequent partial success 

 with arbutus has been the result of his advice. The follow- 

 ing notes are a summary of the steps in its culture. 



July 9th, 1913, a small quantity of arbutus seed, obtained 

 after much searching from the white, fleshy berry of wild 

 plants in New Jersey, was planted in soil composed of two 

 parts peat to one of white sand. About August 13th the first 

 minute seedlings appeared. They were wintered in a shady 

 corner of a rose greenhouse. In February, 1914, fifty plants 

 ranging from one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch in diam- 

 eter were transplanted to two-inch pots in soil composed of 

 nine parts peat, one part sand and three parts broken crock. 

 By July, 1914, the plants were just beginning to send out side 

 shoots and were shifted to three-inch pots. They spent that 

 summer and the following winter plunged in the ground in a 

 shady, outdoor spot. In July. 1915, they had reached suffi- 

 cient size to be put into five-inch bulb pots, and in the fall of 

 1915 many of the plants, though not all, set flower buds. 

 After thorough freezing, two or three pots as an experiment 

 were brought into a cool, shaded greenhouse. On 'Fehrna.ry 

 22nd, 1916. one plant with four flower clusters was in bloom, 

 after having been in the greenhouse just two weeks. Others 

 bloomed later, according to the treatment they received. The 

 sensation of smelling real arbutus in pots in midwinter fully 

 repaid for the two and a half years of waiting and watering. 



Anna D. White. 

 Lansdownt: , Pa., J/av Qth , iqt6. 



