December, 1910 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



281 



^^^bion, is a gem. Climbing Mrs. W. J. 

 ^^^Erant (H. T.) will give several crops of 

 ^^Hbloom during the summer. Helene, a 

 ^^Hsingle flowered climber with a lavender 

 tinge through it. Hiawatha, a brilliant 

 red with white eye and large yellow sta- 

 mens, is one of the most showy. White 

 Dorothy, a sport from Dorothy Perkins 

 and Gardenia, the best yellow Wicburi- 

 ana, will make a dozen, that will fill your 

 waistcoat with pride every time you look 

 at them during the summer. 



One of the finest sights I saw in Toron- 

 to last summer was on West Roxborough 

 Street, where half a dozen houses had 

 Tausendchon, Dorothy Perkins and Crim- 

 son Rambler in bloom on their front ver- 

 andas. Just imagine what a beautiful 

 spot Toronto would be if every house had 

 its climbing rose over the door or veran- 

 da. If you cannot get what you want lo- 

 cally, try Mr. H. Walsh Woods, Hole, 

 Mass., who has a dozen or two of the 

 best climbers on the market. 



HOW TO MAKE A BED 



Dig the ground 18 inches deep and put 

 in one-third well rotted cow manure if 

 you can get it. If the soil is very heavy 

 clay dig in one-third sand and turn it 

 twice. Plant H. T. Roses fifteen inches 

 apart ; H. R. Roses 24 inches in rwo rows 

 with a 24 inch grass walk between the 

 beds. The rose is a gross feeder and 

 will make away with large portions ol 

 well rotted manure, bone meal or liquid 

 manure. 



Rose growing is the most delightful 

 and beneficial of exercises. It chases the 

 cobwebs out of the brain of the tired city 

 worker ; it helps keep the heart young, 

 and once started it holds one's interest 

 to the end. It's a game you can play 



at whether you are twenty-five or acventy- 

 five years of age, and you can enjoy it so 

 long as you have eyes to see or a nose 

 to smell with. 



"If you love your city, town or village ; 

 if you want to be helpful to yourself, your 

 fellow citizen and to posterity, there is no 

 better way of expressing it than to plant 

 roses that will gladden the eye. brighten 

 the lives and warm the hearts of your 

 families, your friends and your fellow 

 citizens, and those who will take our 

 places as the years roll round." 



Paeonies not Blooming 



What is the matter with my paeonies. 

 They never bloom. I have taken them up 

 and divided them. They grow luxuriantly, 

 but do not blcom?— W. E. J. 



The data you give is not sufficient to 

 make a positive explanation possible. 

 The only known diseases of the paeony 

 are "leaf-drying fungus," "root-gall," 

 and "urmiitodes. " These three diseases 

 are rare, especially the first and second. 



The effect of urmatodes, which are 

 indicated by the growth of small nodules 

 on the tuber, is to stunt the growth of the 

 plant and cause it to be unthrifty and 

 unproductive of bloom. Plants so 

 affected usually recover a healthy con- 

 dition by a division of the tubers and re- 

 planting in fresh soil. It does not seem 

 likely that your plants have any of these 

 diseases. 



There is good ground for believing that 

 some plants are degenerate. There are 

 degenerate specimens in the animal king- 

 dom, in both the human and the brute 

 divisions. Doubtless there are "No 

 Good" specimens in the plant kingdom 



also. In the writer's paeony plot there 

 is one variety of some hundreds of plants 

 which show some half a dozen speciniens 

 that are "no good." These will be con- 

 signed to the rubbish-dump. 



There are few plants so free from 

 disease and from the ravages of insect 

 enemies as the paeony. You may rely 

 on this, that given a division of from 

 three to five strong, well-developed eyes 

 of a healthy tuber, planted in September 

 in soil that would yield a good crop of 

 corn or potatoes, and mulched with 

 manure to prevent heaving by frost you 

 will have some bloom in the following 

 June. In the second year you will have 

 better bloom than in the first year after 

 planting, and in the third year you will 

 have an abundance of normal bloom of 

 the variety. Such a plant, if given an 

 annual dressing of manure, will continue 

 to flourish and increase in the number of 

 stems and blooms for eight to ten years, 

 after which it should be divided and re- 

 planted. — John Cavers, Oakville, Ont. 



The Gardens of England* 



Mrs. Allen Bainet, Toronto, Ont. 



In the October issue of The Canadian 

 Horticulturist I stated that I would 

 endeavor to forward a photograph of the 

 schizanthus mentioned in my letter. The 

 one I am sending is not clear, but will 

 show the size and the wonderful mass 

 of bloom, though the delicate and dainty 

 tints of mauve and gold and pink and 

 white must be left to the imagination. 



Mr. Symes has been so successful in 

 growing them that his method is worth 

 noting. His main object is to avoid all 

 unnecessary disturbance of root during 

 growth. He therefore sows three or 

 four seeds in three inch pots filled with 

 a compost of three parts loam to two 

 parts leaf mould, enriched with bone 

 flour in the proportion of a six inch pot 

 full to a barrow full of soil. 



When some real leaves have been 

 made, he thins these plants out to the 

 strongest in each pot, and leaves these 

 untouched until their roots have filled 

 the pot. He then shifts them into six 

 inch flowering pots and keeps them in a 

 temperature of 55 degrees Fahr. 



One corner of his greenhouse was 

 filled with a fine group of hybrid single 

 geraniums in shades of deep rose, blush 

 pink, carmine and many soft warm tints 

 of red. In each of these the truss was 

 full and the individual flowers were of a 

 size approaching that of the fancy pelar- 

 gonium. In all of them the centre of the 

 corolla and the ba.se of each petal was 

 white, which radiated and melted into 

 the color of the flower. 



Here are some of the names of these : 

 Lady Curzon, Lady Chesterfield, Phyllis, 



• Continued from October isHiie. 



