FLOWER AND PLANT LORE 



BY the time this issue of The Horticul- 

 turist is in the hands of the reader, 

 the " Season of Brown leaves " will be close 

 to us ; many of our garden beauties will 

 have put off their summer dress, and be pre- 

 paring themselves for their winter sleep, 

 but in some favorite places may be seen the 

 hydrangea, rudbeckia and dahlia. 



HYDRANGEA, OR CHINESE GILDER ROSE. 



This flower was brought from China by 

 Sir Joseph Banks, and presented by him to 

 the Royal Gardens at Kew, 1790. The color 

 is green when young, but turns to a beauti- 

 ful rose color when in perfection. Soon 

 after its introduction it was observed that 

 some of the plants produced flowers of a 

 fine blue color, and it was some time before 

 this could be accounted for ; but Mr. 

 Phillips says he remembers seeing a fine 

 plant of this description, with beautiful blue 

 flowers, in a cottage on a common in Hamp- 

 shire where no one would have expected to 

 see it. The owner of the plant refused 10 

 guineas for it, as it was the only one that 

 had been seen, and the circumstances of a 

 poor cottager having refused so large a sum 

 for a plant, excited great curiosity, and 



EDWARD TYRRELIv, TORONTO. 



brought numbers to see it. The poor 

 woman, although she • did not like to 

 part with the plant that had been raised 

 by a child she had lost, sold cuttings 

 to those who would buy them ; but when 

 the cuttings blossomed they produced flow- 

 ers of the original rose color. After in- 

 vestigation it was learned that the poor 

 woman's plant had been reared from the 

 ordinary rose colored variety, but owing to 

 its being planted in the heathy soil of the 

 common mixed with a portion of turf ashes, 

 produced a blue flower, whilst those who ob- 

 tained cuttings planted them in garden soil, 

 which only gave the original color. Anoth- 

 er plant was tried with the same result when 

 planted in a pot of earth taken from Wim- 

 bledon Common. This plant was exhibited 

 at the London Horticultural Show. 



Rudbeckia, Golden glow. — Native of this 

 continent, named by Linnaeus after Bishop 

 Rudbeck of Sweden, who was mainly in- 

 strumental in compiling the . Swedish Bible 

 of Gustavus Adolphus, 161 8 ; also in recog- 

 nition of his efforts in estabUshing a 

 Botanical Garden and introducing and 

 acclimatizing many northern specimens. 



GERMAN ASPARAGUS CULTURE 



U. S. CONSUL H. W. HARRIS, MANNHEIM, GERMANY. 



THE raising of asparagus for export, as 

 well as for domestic use, is an industry 

 of considerable importance in parts of Ger- 

 many. It is confined chiefly to certain 

 localities of North Germany and parts of 

 Baden. In Baden much attention is given 

 to the industry, and the asparagus is said 

 to be superior in quality to that grown in 

 Other parts of the Empire. 



The soil in which asparagus is raised in 

 Baden is the sandy loam common in the 

 upper Rhine Valley. For asparagus rais- 



ing the land is first very thoroughly man- 

 ured and the roots are planted at intervals 

 of 4 to 5 feet in rows about the same dis- 

 tance apart. For the first three or four 

 years no crop is harvested ; the land is kept 

 clear of weeds and well cultivated, and is 

 fertilized with stable manure in preference 

 to commercial fertilizers, although these are 

 used to some extent. During these three 

 or four years the ground is kept hilled up 

 around the plants with a hoe, and the shoots 

 are cut back until a considerable bunch of 



* Extract from a recent consular report. 



441 



