JUNB 14, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



217 



not had a bloom for two years. What 

 is the matter I What can we do for 

 them to make them bloom? W. G. T. 



T am not acquainted with this variety 

 of rose. If it is a tea it would flower 

 in six months. We can only account for 

 its not flowering by having too much 

 root room and growing too vigorously, 

 and that is the reverse of flowering with 

 most roses, or any other perennial plant. 



W. S. 



GROUND OR RAISED BEDS. 



Will roses do as well on the ground 

 floor as on a bed raised eighteen to 

 thirty inches? The location is in Texas. 

 ^ G. W. T. 



The question is one on which there is 

 considerable difference of opinion and 

 much will depend on the style of houses 

 and arrangement of heating pipes, as 

 well as the soil beneath your beds. We 

 know of one successful man in central 

 New York who plows the natural soil, 

 or floor, over which his greenhouses arc 

 built, working in lots of manure and 

 on that putting up a 6-inch board for 

 L-e edge of the" bed and filling in with a 

 good yellow loam. He is eminently suc- 

 cessful. His houses are six or seven in 

 a block, equal span, having no partition 

 between the houses. Had we such a sur- 

 face soil we should be tempted to try 

 the plan, for there is an immense saving 

 in bench building, repairs, etc. 



Yet it is safest to adhere to the old 

 plan, by which so many millions of fine 

 roses have been grown, viz., legs of 

 about eighteen inches, with 2x4 joists 

 every four feet and cypress floor of 2x6 

 boards. There is better all around light 

 when the bench is two feet above the 

 floor and a better circulation of heat 

 and air, and for the majority of winter 

 months when roses and carnations bring 

 their best prices the raised wooden bench 

 is all you desire. In the writer's opin- 

 ion the semi-solid bed is near the ideal, 

 reference to which is made in last week's 

 Review. Beds on the floor are more 

 undesirable for carnations than roses. 



W. S. 



ILEX CRENATA. 



As a neat growing hardy evergreen 

 shrub this little Japanese member of the 

 holly family is certainly less known than 

 it should be, and for gardens of limited 

 extent, where vigorous growing subjects 

 would soon outgrow their allotted space 

 it can be recommended, says the Gar- 

 deners' Magazine. In appearance it is 

 widely removed from the generally ac- 

 cepted idea of a holly, being, in fact, 

 more like box. It has a close, much- 

 branched habit of growth, and the some- 

 what spreading shoots are clothed with 

 narrow, pointed, spineless leaves about 

 three-quarters of an inch long, and 

 slightly toothed. In color they are of a 

 very dark green, against which back- 

 ground the rich golden splashes of the 

 variety variegata show up most con- 

 spicuously. A second variety, Fortunei, 

 or major, has larger and rounder leaves 

 than those of the type, while the growth 

 is also more robust. 



A very noticeable feature of Hex 

 crcnata is the readiness with which it 

 can be raised from cuttings, for hollies, 

 as a class, are seldom increased in this 

 way. Even with these desirable features 

 It is not met with to any great extent 

 in nurseries, the great drawback to it, 



Standing Wreath of Queen Beatrice Rose by F. H. Kramer, Washington, D. C 



from a commercial point of view, being 

 its slow rate of progress, as it takes a 

 long time to attain a salable size. In 

 Japan it is a favorite subject for top- 

 iary work, as the box is with us. 



Concerning this pretty little member 

 of the holly family, Professor Sargent, 

 in his "Forest Flora of Japan," says: 

 "Ilex crenata is the most widely di.s- 

 tributed and the most common of the 

 Japanese hollies, with persistent leaves; 

 I encountered it in nearly every part of 

 the empire which I visited. It is usu- 

 ally a low, much-branched, rigid shrub, 

 three or four feet high; but in cultiva- 

 tion it not infrequently rises to the 

 height of twenty feet, and, assuming the 

 habit of a tree, is n6t unlike the box 

 in general appearance. The leaves, which 

 are light green and very lustrous, vary 

 considerably in size and shape, although 

 they are rarely more than an inch long, 

 and are usually ovate acute, with sligiit- 

 ly crenate toothed margins. The black 

 fruit is produced in great profusion, and 

 in the autumn adds materially to the 

 beauty of the plant, this is the most 

 popular of all the hollies with the .Tapan- 

 ese; and a plant, usually cut into a 

 fantastic shape, is found in nearly every 

 garden. Varieties with variegated leaves 

 are common, and apparently much es- 

 teemed. Ilex crenata and several of its 

 varieties with variegated foliage were 

 introduced into western gardens many 

 years ago, and are occasionally culti- 

 vated, although the value of this plant 

 as an under shrub appears to be hardly 

 known or appreciated outside of Japan. ' ' 



A NEW TROUBLE. 



It is reported from England that a 

 florist and gardener has appeared before 

 the Cheshire county council with an ap- 

 plication for the payment of damages 

 because his place was rendered unten- 

 able for business by dust raised by pass- 

 ing automobiles. 



IBERIS SNOWFLAKE. 



The iberis, or perennial candytufts, 

 include several very useful and beauti- 

 ful spring flowering plants, but for gen- 

 eral cultivation I. sempervirens and its 

 varieties are perhaps the best on account 

 of their excellent constitution and free 

 flowering qualities. For clothing good 

 spaces in the rock-garden or planting on 

 the front of the flower borders, few 

 ])lants surpass them; they are easily cul- 

 tivated in almost any soil, and their 

 evergreen character is also an advantage. 

 The variety Snowflake has not been in 

 commerce many years, and it is but little 

 known at present; its merits, however, 

 entitle it to a place in all collections. 

 The flowers are individually large, of the 

 purest white, and produced with great 

 freedom, so that when a plant has be- 

 come established a fine mass of bloom 

 results, the purity of the flowers sur- 

 passing anything with which I am ac- 

 quainted. Cuttings are easily rooted if 

 taken off at any time during the summer 

 and kept close for a few days in a 

 frame. Where effective spring bedding 

 has to be carried out this plan should 

 prove of great value on account of the 



