36 THE GARDEN 



NEW YEAR'S AND LENTEN ROSES 



(Helleborus; Ord. Ranunuiacae) . 



These peculiar plants are also frequently called Christmas Roses. 



While the Helleborus niger (as the botanists name this plant) is not, 

 strictly speaking, a bulbous plant, yet it is one of the favorites handled by 

 the florists. 



So easy is the Helleborus niger of culture that almost every country 

 home has its cherished specimen. One of the great values of this plant is 

 the fact that the flowers are produced early in spring, if not just around 

 the Christmas season. The plant is unusually hardy, is a perennial, can 

 be grown indoors or outdoors. 



The root stock is short, thick and jet black (from which the name), 

 the flower stem simple or branched; leaves evergreen, leathery, irregularly 

 lobed, with long petioles, or stems. The flowers are five petaled, white, 

 of a leathery texture, two or three inches across. Sometimes the white 

 petals are flushed with purple. 



The whole plant is rather odd, both on account of its black jet root 

 stock, its leaves springing directly from the root, the red-dotted leaf stems 

 and the curiously inturned sepals forming two-lipped tubes of nectar. 



It may be grown in our gardens as an ornamental plant, blooming 

 in mild seasons from December to March outdoors, with a little protection. 

 Even in cold weather, when not zero, bloom occurs. Indeed, the same 

 weather that will permit the lowly chickweed to open its wee corollas will 

 also serve to coax the snowy Christmas Rose. 



The best time to plant is September, the roots being planted a foot 

 apart. 



When in flower, the blossoms should be protected from rainstorms, 

 which often occur in early spring, and storms of sleet, because they are 

 rather easily injured. 



Fresh stock is obtained by division after flowering. This is always 

 a delicate operation, since the old roots dislike any disturbing. 



Madame Foucarde is the famous St. Brigid's Christmas rose, an 

 excellent variety for amateurs, as also is the lovely snowy Juverna. 



THE TUBEROSE 



"The tuberose," according to Harriet L. Keeler, is a plant that may 

 be said to have experienced in its many changes, "the slings and arrows 

 of outrageous fortune." 



Once borne upon the very crest of fashion, associated with the 

 camelia in the most aristocratic period of that flower's social reign, yet It 

 has so fallen that there are few who now do it honor, either in house or 

 garden. 



Two causes have contributed to bring about this downfall, namely, 

 its heavy odor, and its funereal associations. Then, too, gardeners' ideals 

 have changed, and the stiff, clumsy stalk, laden with stiff, heavy blossoms, 

 does not and cannot harmonize with the tousled beauties whose sway is 

 now unquestioned. As a matter of fact, the double tuberose never did 

 harmonize with any other flower; never was it anything else but a lump 

 of cloying sweetness among our garden flowers. 



However one may agree or not agree with Harriet Keeler, whose 

 opinions are not to be questioned, nevertheless, there may be those who 

 disagree most decidedly on this matter. 



The tuberose is a delicately beautiful plant. The flower stems rise to 

 the height of ten, twelve, or eighteen inches, bearing at th ends many 

 double rosettes of a creamy-white waxiness that no other flower possesses. 

 These rosettes measure often four or five inches across, and exhale a 



