April 2, 1914. 



The Florists' Revkw 



55 



M 



•2f?-'i^->- 



:; .- ;•,«■'• -i^-". »'Jv' ■^'» 



•:v'** 



-•<"% 



<!«tii*< 











'^^^^•.. 



.-: ih^ 



^ >y' 



."^ 



.■"i^ 



-^ 



'^ ^2^' 



Chionanthus Retusa, the Chinese White Fringet in Bloom in the Public Park at Rochester, N. Y. 



formation of blooms by Memorial day? 

 How can geraniums be kept in healthy, 

 growing condition when they are pot- 

 bound? I ask this question because, 

 owing to lack of room, I shall have to 

 keep several hundred in 3 1^ -inch pots 

 for at least six to eight weeks. These 

 plants are potbound at present. 



H. A. K. 



If you pinch the plants back at this 

 late date they will not flower satisfac- 

 torily for Memorial day. If they had 

 been properly pinched two months ago 

 and not kept too crowded on the 

 benches, they should now be in good 

 condition. I think most of your trou- 

 ble has arisen from growing your plants 

 too close together. This has given them a 

 legginess which will not be easy to over- 

 come. Give the plants more space, so 

 that they will not crowd each other, 

 and, as they develop, give an occasional 

 fresh stand. Keep any decaying leaves 

 and weeds carefully removed, give full 

 sunshine and an abundance of fresh 

 air, and keep a somewhat dry atmos- 

 phere, with a night temperature ot 45 

 to 50 degrees. In order to keep the 

 plants in a healthy condition, some feed- 

 ing will be necessary. Use liquid 

 manure once a week. If some black 

 soot, from soft coal, is added, it will 

 help to keep the foliage a dark color. 



C. W. 



A BABE SHBUB. 



It seems remarkable that the Chinese 

 fringe tree, Chinese white fringe or 

 Chionanthus retusa, a handsome speci- 

 men of which is shown in the illustration, 

 is still a rare plant in European and 

 American parks and gardens, though it 

 was introduced to cultivation from China 



by Eobert Fortune in 1850. At that time 

 Mr. Fortune found it growing in a gar- 

 den at Foochow, but he never saw it in 

 a wild state. So far as I am able to 

 ascertain, it practically disappeared 

 from cultivation. It was introduced 

 again from China about twenty-five 

 years ago by Maries, the collector for 

 James Veitch & Sons, of London, Eng- 

 land, and the plants in cultivation today 

 in Europe and America have been mostly 

 distributed by this firm. The species 

 has been found growing by later col- 

 lectors and botanists in the neighbor- 

 hood of Pekin and in central and south- 

 ern China. 



In the spring of 1892 we, the officers of 

 the park system of Rochester, N. Y., re- 

 ceived three plants from James Veitch 

 & Sons, and they were placed in the nurs- 

 ery. Two years later, when arranging 

 the collections of trees and shrubs, I 

 moved two of them to the positions 

 where they properly belonged ; but it oc- 

 curred to me, as this species was a rare 

 subject and nothing was known about its 

 sensitiveness to root disturbances in 

 transplanting when it had attained con- 

 siderable 8iz6, that it might be a wise 

 precaution to leave one of the three 

 where it stood in the nursery row, which 

 I did. The two plants which were moved 

 eventually died, but the one that was 

 left undisturbed is now a spreading 

 shrub, eleven feet high, fifteen feet in 

 its greatest spread of branches and 

 thirteen feet in its narrowest spread. 

 The main stem is five to six inches in 

 diameter at the base, and it branches 

 nine inches above the ground into three 

 stout stems. The branching habit is 

 thin, irregular and dichotomous. The 

 bark is dull chestnut brown, and on the 

 older stems, toward the base, the old 



bark hangs loosely, somewhat after the 

 habit of a red birch. It is this one sur- 

 viving specimen that is shown in the il- 

 lustration. 



In the normal or average season it is 

 in bloom about May 30, and it flowers 

 about a week ahead of the American va- 

 riety, Chionanthus Virginica. The pure 

 white blossoms, in panicles of ten to 

 twenty-five flowers, are produced from 

 all the axillary and terminal buds of 

 the preceding year's wood, and the petals 

 are from one inch to one and one-n)urth 

 inches long. The petals are not nearly so 

 long as they are in the flowers of the 

 American species, but they are produced 

 in such extraordinary profusion that 

 the half-unfolded leaves are almost en- 

 tirely hidden, as may be observed in the 

 illustration, and the shrub is an object 

 of great beauty when in bloom. It re- 

 ceives no special protection, but is grow- 

 ing at the foot of a gentle slope, in warm 

 and naturally well-drained, light soil, 

 facing south. 



E. H. Wilson, the distinguished Chi- 

 nese explorer and botanist, who spent 

 two days with me here on the eve of his 

 departure on one of his expeditions, was 

 much surprised on seeing this specimen 

 of the Chinese fringe tree in Highland 

 park. Mr. Wilson said it was much 

 larger than any he had seen in a wild 

 state in China, or in cultivation. If any 

 readers of The Review are growing this 

 rare and noteworthy shrub, it would be 

 interesting if they would state what 

 size the specimens have attained and 

 how they have succeeded generally. 

 From such information as I have already 

 secured, I infer that it is difficult to 

 start the plant into growth, and I am 

 of the opinion that it is a lover of lime- 

 stone soil. John Dunbar. 



