34 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



February, 1911 



should be kept a little on the dry side 

 until sign.s of new shoots appear usually 

 dose to the wounds. 



THE BED SPIDER 



All plants liable to the attacks of red 

 spider, such as palms, rubber plants, 

 roses, calla lilies, etc., should receive 



more and more frequent sprayings on 

 the under side of the leaves as the sun- 

 shine gets stronger. An old throat ato- 

 mizer is a splendid thing for this pur- 

 pose. With it plants can be well spray- 

 ed close to lace curtains without the cur- 

 tains being damaged. 



Some Gardens and Gardeners in the Old Land 



Miss M. E. Blacklock, Toronto, Ont. 



THE next garden to be visited was 

 Anne Hathaway 's at Shottery, 

 where dear, old-fashioned things 

 such as Madonna Lilies, hollyhocks and 

 other old-time favorites, still grow in ar- 

 tistic confusion, as they are supposed to 

 have grown when Shakespeare was mak- 

 ing love to her. And then Shakespeare's 

 garden, where representatives of all the 

 flowers he mentions in his writings are 

 to be seen. To be frank, I must say 

 that they do not look as if they were 

 tended by a hand that loved them, but 

 perhaps I am mistaken. 



KEW GARDENS 



Kew is the objective point of garden- 

 ers, and, in truth, it is a delightful place. 

 The rock garden there lies in a little val- 

 ley with sloping banks of rocks so placed 

 as to give all varieties of exposure, and 

 filled in with soil with requisite charac- 

 teristics for the particular plant it con- 

 tains. Everything one ever heard or 

 read of in Alpines one finds there, sooner 

 or later. 



My first visit was on the 27th of May. 

 The lilacs were nearly over, but the haw- 

 thorns were in perfection, a small weep- 

 ing one (Crataegus oxyacanthoides, var. 

 flore puniceo), a lovely single deep rose, 

 was a perfect fountain of bloom. Wis- 

 taria draped an arbor-like building with 

 its long racemes of mauve flowers. 

 Irises,, great beds of them, were just 

 beginning to bloom and the rock garden 

 was entrancing. Notes were made of 

 everything in bloom, to get an idea as 

 to how the succession was kept up. 



.-\nother visit a week later, on the 

 3rd of June, found rhododendrons the 

 great attraction. Large beds, each of 

 one variety only, made wonderful mass- 

 es of color, the one named "Mrs. Wil- 

 liam .Agnew," an exquisite pale pink, 

 with edges of petals deepening into rose 

 and no hint of magenta about it, seemed 

 the most beautiful and was quite as effec- 

 tive in the distance as it was close to. 



A FORMAL GARDEN 



The formal beds were arranged rather 

 more tastefully than usual. For instance, 

 a bed of tall mauve tulips grew out of 

 a mass of blue forget-me-nots. Another 

 of brilliant crimson tulips had a white 

 saxifrage (Saxifraga Wallacei) as a 

 carpet, and so on. Later in the season, 

 a bed of Statice latifolia, blooming over 

 some small pink flowered Wedding plant 

 — what it was has slipped my memory — 



had a pretty veil-like effect. Kew is the 

 spot to straighten out one's difficulties 

 in nomenclature, though even Kew is 

 not quite infallible. The Botanic Gar- 

 den, however, is a very interesting spot 

 and one can spend many hours there pro- 

 fitably studying the different species of 

 one's pet plants. 



ROSES AT WISLEY 



The Royal Horticultural Society's 

 Gardens at Wisley are delightful. They 

 should be seen in early spring when the 

 Japanese Primroses (Primula Sieboldii) 

 are out. They grow there like weeds, 

 down by the water garden and in the 

 damp ground beyond it, where they are 

 shaded by trees and shrubs. TJiese 

 grounds are laid out naturally and are 

 very attractive. 



On each side of a broad driveway, as 

 you enter, there are wide beds of roses, 

 backed by climbing varieties trained to 

 poles, placed tripod fashion. It was 

 mid July when I was there and there was 

 a splendid show of bloom. Three of the 

 showiest of the climbing ones were Ard's 



Pillar and Ard's Rover, two lovely crim- 

 sons, the former strongly perfumed, the 

 latter perhaps the handsomer, but not so 

 sweet, and Mrs. W. Grant, an exquisite 

 glowing pink, tea .scented. 



IRIS IN WATER 



There is a charming wild garden, 

 which well repays a visit, and below it 

 is the water garden, consisting of a ra- 

 ther sluggish stream., which widens here 

 and there into pools on which water 

 lilies float lazily, great golden-hearted 

 flowers of many lovely tints. Clumps of 

 Japanese Iris (Iris laevigata, syn. Kaem- 

 pferi), Sagittaria and many other water- 

 side plants grew, partly in and partly 

 out of the water, as their habit is when 

 they are allowed to do as they please. 

 As one looked up the stream, a one 

 clump of firs, with a magnificently color- 

 ed Colorado Blue Spruce in the fore- 

 ground and a Gunnera with its colossal 

 leaves bending over the water, made a 

 picture well worth a journey to see. A 

 wide perennial border and many charm- 

 ing little bits of shrubbery, trial beds of 

 phlox, sweet peas and a particularly fine 

 lot of the various species of campanulas 

 made a two days' visit all too short. 



STUDENTS AT KEW 



Not the least interesting part of one's 

 stay is the coming in contact now an<i 

 again, as one wanders around, with the 

 students. Two of these with whom 1 

 fraternized were charming young men, 

 enthusiastic botanists and lovers of 

 flowers. They were most gentlemanly, 

 and gave me any help or information I 



The Ltwa and Flowtr B«d< at the Grand Trank Station, Hamilton, Ont. 



Gradually Canadians are beginning to pay more attention to the improvement of our public 

 places. In this movement our two leading railway companies are taking a prominent part. 

 Imagine what this station would be like were it not for this garden spot. The planting of 

 trees along the street to the left would effect a marked improvement by shutting off the 

 view from passing trains of the cheap buildings there to be seen. 



