70 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



A cream white delphinium of Blackmore and Langdon's has 

 been attracting much attention at EngHsh shows lately, Mrs. 

 Christie Miller. This is a tall plant, and seed of it may be got 

 from this firm at a shilling a packet. Some of the best varieties 

 of delphiniums which have been special favorites of my own, 

 in the past, are now ungettable because of the quarantine, and 

 also because of the fact that they do not seed; these are Capri, 

 J. S. Brunton and Moerheimei. As for Gibson's delphiniums, 

 some few spikes of which are before me in an old Venetian 

 goblet as I write (spikes taken from first blooms, therefore not 

 really representative), two inches seems to be the smallest 

 measurement of the individual florets. Faint mauves with pale 

 sky blues, the blue of a Parisian sky in which are purples against 

 sapphire blue, one of the paler colored ones with great "bees" 

 in the centre of each flower — all the range of larkspur color is 

 reflected in these flowers. They will be a glorious addition to 

 our garden subjects. These are said to be the very finest of their 

 kind, yet after this superlative is used, here are others of these 

 flowers, the Wrexham delphiniums which bid fair to surpass all 

 thus far known. Mr. Samuel of King's Mills House, Wrexham, 

 England, is growing and showing these now. He means to do 

 away entirely with the stiff and tightly packed spike, to lengthen 

 it to four feet of bloom, and to get the large flowers held well 

 away from the stalks. The lower flowers will be three to four 

 inches in diameter, and the inner petals of these are to be frilled. 

 So much of all this has been accomplished, so magnificent are 

 the results already seen and known, that all who are interested 

 in gardens should be on the watch for these new and glorious 

 things. "An American," says the Rev. Joseph Jacob, "wrote 

 of some second-quality seed that Mr. Samuel had sold him, *If 

 your second-quality seed produces such flowers as it has given 

 me, what on earth must the results of your first quality be like? ' " 



