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352 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



July 6, 1905. 



a gardener shudder. A privet hedge 

 should be broad at the base, tapering 

 on both sides to the top and slightly 

 rounded; in fact, about the shape of a 

 thimble. Alas, how often you see them 

 the very reverse. 



If the hedge has made a strong 

 growth, trim it back now. We can 

 stand a few formal lines in ornamental 

 gardening, but only a few. Some go 

 80 far in their imitation of nature that 

 they would have no such thing as the 

 abnormal in color or straight lines in 

 their ornamental gardening, but perhaps 

 they have not seen the microscopic shells 

 that inhabited the ancient oceans the 

 forms of which are as formal and 

 straight as the spokes of a wheel, and 

 a greater author than man was there 

 to direct the designing. 



Bougainvillea. 



Bougainvillea glabra Sanderiana is 

 now a popular Easter plant. Large 

 plants are very decorative and B. glabra 

 is best for this. Medium-size plants of 

 the variety Sanderiana are in best de- 

 mand. Cuttings rooted in March or 

 April should now be in 4-inch or 5-inch 

 pots and growing vigorously. Shift as 

 they need it. They should have the full- 

 est light and will delight in the high 

 temperature under glass, but need a 

 copious supply of water. If their pots 

 can be plunged in some material on the 

 benches it will save labor and the plants 

 will thrive all the better. This treat- 

 ment can be continued until the growth 

 shows signs of ripening and by October 

 a slight drying off can be begun, but not 

 suddenly. 



Hollyhocks. 



Two years ago, believing that the 

 dreaded fungus disease had left us, we 

 struggled with a batch of seedlings, but 

 with no success, although we gave them 

 syringings of Bonleaux mixture from their 

 infancy. Seeing them growing, healthy 

 and vigorous, in the gardens of the city, 

 we shall try again, for there is no more 

 stately or picturesque plant. In more 

 favored climes they can be planted in 

 the fall, where they are to flower the 

 following summer. lu our severe winters 

 we prefer to winter them in a cold frame, 

 where they can be protected by glass. 

 Sow now. It is well to get the best 

 strain of seed you can and sow in colors, 

 for you are asked in spring for yellow, 

 pink, criniFon, etc. If sown now and 

 transplanted, when large enough, to a 

 cold frame, they will be strong plants be- 

 fore severe weather sets in. The disease 

 may not be in your neighborhood, but 

 whether or not, it is well to dip the 

 plants, when large enough to handle, in 

 Bordeaux mixture or, what good authori- 

 ties say is better, the copper carbonate 

 solution. 



Rambler Roses. 

 Here is a suggestion, by no means orig- 

 inal, but what all florists with a garden 

 should do: plant" a row of each kind of 

 rambler roses. I should cultivate them 

 juflt as the grape growers do their vines 

 in the field. Set some cedar posts twelve 

 feet apart and run three strong wires 

 between the posts, the first wire about 

 one foot from the ground, one three feet 

 and the other one five feet. With the 

 roses planted four or five feet apart, what 

 thousands of sprays could be cut? And 

 even the whole stem could be cut away, 

 and what possibly can be more deeo- 

 rativet We have seeil of late how valu- 

 hble thev would be. This is not the 



time to begin, but you can lay plans for 

 it. You can get strong plants in the 

 fall and by cutting them down, get vig- 

 orous canes the following summer, and 

 the next summer and every following one, 

 a crop of flowers. If we had planted 

 them last spring we should be cutting 

 next summer. 



I said you could cut whole stems and 

 that I think you could do and benefit the 

 plant, for strong young growths start 

 from the base of the plant every year. 

 I should plant a row of Crimson Eam- 

 bler. The Farquhar, the Philadelphia va- 

 riety, Dorothy Perkins and any other 

 that was a variation in color. The rows 

 ought to be at least six feet apart and 

 run north and south. If you did not cut 

 all the beautiful sprays you would be 

 repaid by their beauty and glory. 



William Scott. 



A HNE ERYTHRONIUM. 



Outside of Victoria, B. C, and the 

 immediate neighborhood the beauty of 

 Erythronium revolutum Watsoni is but 

 little known. Here it goes under the 

 local name of "wild Easter lily." It is 

 ubiquitous. The earliest flowers appear 

 in the woods and among copses of scrub 

 oak. The latest and best are in the 

 meadows. It is found wild with from 

 one to three flowers on a stem. Culti- 

 vated in gardens, it has produced as 

 many as six flowers to the stem. It 

 grows from one to two feet high, with 

 a pair of beautifully mottled leaves at 

 the base of the flower stem. 



The flowers are revolute, white, some- 

 times tinged pink on the back of the 



segments. This only occurs in full sun. 

 The base of each segment has a brown- 

 ish blotch, which gives the flower the ap- 

 pearance of having a zone of this color 

 around the throat and greatly enhances 

 its beauty. The illustration on page 

 351 does it justice. Some idea of the 

 size of the flowers may be formed from 

 the measurement of the jardiniere, 

 which was five inches high. 



Note that these flowers have all been 

 pulled up Avith the base leaves attached 

 to the stem. This is the end of each 

 bulb so treated. The park at Victoria 

 was once carpeted by thousands of these 

 lovely blossoms in the spring. Now it 

 is a hard matter to find one. So much 

 is this flower prized by residents that it 

 is rapidly becoming exterminated within 

 walking distance, so much so that the 

 Natural History Society of Victoria ap- 

 pealed to the people to be careful in 

 picking the flowers and not to pull them 

 up vpith the leaves attached. It in- 

 creases readily from seed and we have 

 reseeded the park and hope to conserve 

 this ornament to our wild flora. 



Whether this bulb would be hardy in 

 the east, I cannot say. I do not know 

 of its occurring in any locality where 

 the thermometer goes much below zero. 

 It is at least as hardy as its Californian 

 congeners and as a florist's flower far 

 more useful. I could have shown Ger- 

 trude Blair vases and table decorations 

 this spring, by some of our ladies, that 

 would have satisfied even that arbitrary 

 critic. So graceful is the flower that 

 it falls into position of its own accord 

 and it is almost impossible to make an 

 inelegant arrangement. 



Eovr. Alex. Wallace. 



SOME ROSEBUDS. 



The beautiful group of roses with 

 Grandpa Peter Crowe and his two 

 sweet little granddaughters are the 

 same roses that captured the first prize 

 w'hen the Americati Eose Society held 

 it3 convention and exhibition at the 

 famous Waldorf-Astoria in New York. 

 They were mostly Bridesmaid and 

 Bride. The writer has seen these won- 

 derful roses, or similar ones, many 

 times, both on the plants and in the 

 cool cellar. With all his success in 

 raising these magnificent flowers in 

 his own peculiar style, it is easy to 

 guess that there are two rosebuds in 

 the Crowe establishment cherished and 

 loved above all American Beauties, but 

 American beauties they are, "of purest 

 ray serene." These two dear little 

 girls are the daughters of William .T. 



Crowe, the only son and child of Mx. 

 and Mrs. Peter Crowe, who to the great 

 grief of all who knew him, succumbed 

 to consumption in the city of Denver 

 in the early fall of 1902. 



Without Mr. Crowe's permission, I 

 want to say a word about his method 

 of growing roses, for in these days, 

 when some will have nothing but a 

 raised wooden bench and others ad- 

 vocate semi-solid beds of one of several 

 different plans of construction, it may 

 be of interest to know that these roses 

 are grown in an absolutely solid bed. 

 Mr. Crowe had a block of six houses, 

 each 18x150 feet. This was one block, 

 besides others larger. The ground on 

 which the houses are to be built is 

 graded level, or with a slight fall either 

 way. Then it is ploughed deeply, work- 

 ing in lots of manure. Then the houses 

 go up. They are heated by steam, the 

 pipes being all on the posts supporting 

 the gutters, there being no dividing 

 partitions between the houses. A 6- 

 inch board set on the ground is the side 

 of a bed and to this depth is filled in 

 with good compost. The soil is a yel- 



