1890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



31 



I should like to have you try the Freesia 

 for winter bloom. It is by all odds the finest 

 of winter bulbs. It needs, however, more 

 care than our bulb catalogues generally 

 specify. There should not be over five 

 bulbs to a five inch pot, and the soil should 

 be made rich with easily available food. 



The potting may be done till November, 

 but it is far better to do it in August. The 

 best results come from early planting. The 

 flower is of fine substance and color, and 

 deliciously sweet. I class it among the 

 health-giving flowers, whereas Hyacinths 

 are really unfit for 

 house bloom, because 

 they emit a sickening 

 odor. 



Mr. Thorpe, who is 

 one of the best-skilled 

 and instructive of our 

 florists, tells us to use 

 as soil for Freesias sandy 

 loam, and a quart of 

 bone flower to every 

 half bushel of dirt. In 

 this way he secures 

 strong flower stalks 

 about as large as those 

 of the slender varieties 

 of the Gladiolus. 



dance of flowers." My own opinion of these 

 Christmas Roses is that they are a most 

 welcome addition to our cut flowers and 

 particularly valuable as they come in when 

 variety as well as quantity is limited. 



As pot-plants I have a high opinion of the 

 Lenten Roses, but they have got to be 

 strong-flowered and well grown. 



Neither the Christmas nor the Lenten 

 Roses can be grown perfectly or advan- 

 tageously as outdoor hardy perennials. 

 They have got to be grown in cool green- 

 house and frame. The Christmas Roses 



Helleborus for Flor- 

 ists' Uses. 



BY W. FALCONER. 



We have two sets of 

 Helleborus, namely 



Christmas and Lenten 

 Roses. The Christmas 

 Rose belongs to Helle- 

 borus Nigra, and its 

 variety has large white 

 flowers in November 

 and December. 



The Lenten Roses are 

 represented by Helle- 

 borus Olympicus, H. 

 Colchicus, and H. Ori- 

 entalis, and have purple 

 flowers, and some of 

 their varieties and hy- 

 brids have white, purple, 

 and spotted flowers and 

 they come in bloom be- 

 tween Janu'y and April. 



Christmas Roses are useful as cut flowers, 

 also good planted in pots, and if in bloom 

 are excellent for house decoration. The 

 Lenten Roses are useful only as pot-plants. 

 Both are more fancy than staple articles. 



Florists who have got a good local trade 

 can use Helleborus to good advantage, but 

 I would not advise florists who grow flowers 

 for the wholesale merchants, to handle 

 them. For cut flowers, H. Nigra Max, is 

 the best, but the blossoms have got to be 

 cut just as wanted for use for they have no 

 great lasting qualities. One of our leading 

 Boston florists who has raised these flowers, 

 writes me " I am a little in doubt about 

 their value as cut flowers. Those I had last 

 winter did not come up to my hopes and 

 expectations in keeping qualities, being in- 

 clined to hang and droop their heads too 

 much. As pot-plants they will give much 

 better satisfaction. The demand at first 

 will be limited and grow slowly, still it is a 

 flower that it will pay to grow as a desirable 

 variety." A New York florist writes me: 

 " There is no doubt that H. Nigra Max, and 

 the larger-flowered varieties of H. Nigra 

 would be profitable for cut flowers if large 

 established plants were planted out in a cool 

 greenhouse or a well-protected cold frame. 



The great difficulty, however, lies in the 

 first cost of this large plant, and second, 

 that as a rule a florist wants to get immedi- 

 ate returns for his investment and wUl not 

 wait for four or flve years or until his plants 

 become large enough to produce an abun- 



GROUP OF WHITE PHLOXES. Re-engraved from Gardening lUuetrated. 



should be planted out firmly and for this 

 reason I prefer them in cold frames. As the 

 Lenten Roses are a pot-plant, they may be 

 planted outside in a cold frame in summer 

 and brought indoors in the winter, or if 

 they are wanted for late, kept out in the 

 frame till they show signs of flowering and 

 then brought indoors. 



They all prefer a well-drained loamy soil 

 with a loose surface and somewhat shady 

 place in summer. A frame up against a 

 north or northeasterly facing wall of a 

 building is a good place for them. Or give 

 them under a raised lath or brush shading 

 such as it used over forest tree seed beds. I 

 mulch the ground about them with half 

 wilted leaves and finely chopped sphagnum, 

 and this keeps it cool and loose and moist 

 all the season. 



About the Hardy Phloxes. 



CHARLES L, EVANS, TIOGA CO., PA. 



I quite agree with the position Popular 

 Gardeninc; takes that if we are to have a 

 national flower, let it by all means be the 

 Phlox. It is remarkable, that this one 

 genus of North American plants, should 

 have produced what may be regarded as the 

 most widely popular annual both in Europe 

 and America, and well nigh the most use- 

 ful perennials of our gardens. But my 

 object is not so much to speak of the Phlox 

 as a family as to give some cultural notes 

 about the summer-flowering hardy division, 

 which is now attracting increased attention. 



But while Phloxes will live and bloom in 

 almost any soil, I do not know another 

 garden flower, not even the Hollyhock, 

 which repays rich feeding and a deep soil 

 better than do they. With good treatment 

 they will develop gorgeous flowers and 

 spikes. When the whole bed cannot be dug 

 deep and be heavily manured, the place oc- 

 cupied by each plant should thus be treated. 

 Coming in bloom during the period when 

 drouth is liable to prevail, it is well to help 

 them over any dryness by mulching about 

 them with half decayed stable manure, and 

 soaking the soil at the 

 roots at intervals with 

 manure water. 



A faulty course in 

 growing Phloxes is to 

 allow the plants to go 

 on growing in size from 

 year to year without di- 

 viding, the certain result 

 of which is that the 

 bloom and spikes be- 

 come smaller every 

 year. The case is other- 

 wise when the plants 

 are taken up every 

 second or third year, 

 divided into from four 

 to eight parts and reset, 

 or else replaced by 

 young plants otherwise 

 propagated. 



Undoubtedly to divide 

 the roots is the most 

 natural method of pro- 

 viding new Phlox 

 plants, and the one that 

 will usually be prac- 

 ticed. Still those who 

 pride themselves on 

 plants of the most per- 

 fect strength and beauty 

 should resort to one of 

 several other ways of 

 increasing the stock. 



The first method of 

 which I shall speak is 

 propagation by cuttings. 

 This is done by taking 

 the young shoots in the 

 spring when they have 

 reached a length of two 

 or three inches, potting them singly in good 

 soil, in small pots and plunging them in earth 

 or sand in a hot-bed. The cuttings will .soon 

 root and form niceyoungplants, which will, 

 with proper encouragement, flower the same 

 season, either if grown in pots or bedded 

 out. For pot bloom each plant should 

 occupy a flve or six inch pot. After the 

 flowers are past the plants may be set into 

 the border, and in the next season will reach 

 the height of their beauty. 



Perennial Phloxes seed more or less freely. 

 An easy way to get up a stock of good plants 

 is to save seed from the best varieties in the 

 fall, and sow it the following February in 

 pots or pans filled with soil in gentle heat 

 The seeds germinate quickly. When the 

 seedlings have attained a size that will 

 admit of easy handling, they should be 

 pricked out into boxes of good soil, having 

 the plants three or four inches apart. Then 

 they can be placed in a mild hot-bed and 

 later into a cold frame to harden them for 

 planting out. In May they may be trans- 

 planted to a bed of well-prepared soil in the 

 garden, to stand a foot apart both ways. 

 Nearly all such plants will produce fine 

 spikes of bloom by September. 



It is found in thus raising seedlings, that 

 many of them will be about as good as the 

 parents, and rarely one may even surpass 

 them. Those who pride themseves on their 

 success with this flower, usually provide a 

 succession of young plants, removing the 

 old ones after the third year. 



