February 24, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE, 



117 



away the single-flowered seedlings, as they used 

 to throw away the single-flowered Dahlias and 



dry, therefore it is well to water between the 

 rows. After the bloom has passed away and the 

 leaves have taken on the vellow tinge of decay 



this Rose is very similar to that of Juliet, which of these single forms. The modern florists throw 

 in other respects it much resembles, the outside 



of the petals being yellow and the inside a red- ^ _ ^ .„„„„ WA »« „ 



dish tint, not quite so pink as those of Juliet. Chrysanthemums. They were more tasteful dig the tubers up at once/ and lay them out to 

 Down to the present I have not seen quite such florists in the seventeenth century. When 

 well-formed flowers as Juliet can produce, but 

 then I have not seen so many of them. 



began to cultivate the Ranunculus I read up the 

 culture of it in the Floricultural 



Tip Top, Poly. Pom., is orange-yellow, edged 

 carmine. The weakness of most of the dwarf 

 Polyanthas, except those of the Cecil Brunner 

 type, is a deficiency of form in the flowers. The 



special point of this Rose is that each flower April and May it did not give them much 

 makes a perfectly-formed little Rose. It is 

 dwarf and suitable for edging or bedding. 



m tne Floricultural Cabinet, 

 Gossip for the Garden, and other books of the 

 mid- Victorian Era. I found planting was ad- 

 vised at various periods from October to March, 

 and considering that the Ranunculus flowers in 



very 



Walter Speed, H.T. — This is a lemon-vellow 

 Rose, and has often been well shown. It seems 

 likely to make a fair garden Rose, often giving a 

 flower for exhibition. 



White Killarney, H.T. — This is a white 

 sport from Killarney, which it resembles in habit 

 of growth and freedom of flowering. The colour 

 is a creamy white, and one that shows up well 

 from distant parts of the garden. It is fragrant, 

 and seems to do well both in pots under glass 

 and in the open garden. White Rose. 



chance if not planted till March. Rea gave the 

 best advice. He says : " Set them towards the 

 end of December or early in January, the roots 

 may be parted and set 6 inches asunder and three 

 fingers deep." The fact is the leaves show 

 above ground in March. Although the tubers 

 were sent over from the Continent in the first 



dry in a cool, airy place. 



The Ranunculus may easily be raised from 

 seeds, but the best flowers should be set apart for 

 this purpose, and sticks be placed to all the 

 flowers intended to produce seed. The seed may 

 be sown when ripe, any time in the autumn, 

 and it will germinate in a month in a cold 

 frame or greenhouse. The tubers will all flower 

 well the second season. The seed should be 

 sown thinly and the small tubers should be re- 

 moved from the seed pans as soon as the leaves 

 decay, which may be in July. They must after 

 this be treated like the full-sized tubers. 

 Do not throw all the single-flowered varieties on 

 the rubbish heap. Jas. Douglas. 



FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



THE RANUNCULUS. 



Ranunculus 



is one of the most 

 esteemed for its 



ASIATICUS, 



charming garden flowers, 

 dazzling beauty and so well cultivated in every 

 garden half a century ago. Thomas Hogg, 

 who cultivated most of the old florists' flowers, 

 early in the last century, writes thus of the 

 Ranunculus : " If you are fortunate enough to 

 meet with a bed of the choicest sorts, growing in 

 full health and vigour and bearing a profusion 

 of splendid blossoms of all colours, you will be 

 forced to admit that it is an admirable sight, 

 and one of the grandest displays of Nature in 

 vegetable life. A bed of Ranunculus is 

 esteemed by many in no degree inferior to a bed 

 of the richest Tulips.* ' A Dutch gardener, of 

 Leyden, Henry Van Oosten, writing early in the 

 eighteenth century, says : " This flower is ad- 

 mired for its beautiful and lively colours, which 

 dazzle the sight when the sun shines upon 

 them." He gives minute directions for culture, 

 which are excellent, except in so far as he recom- 

 mends too much manure, and that his advice as 

 to the time of planting (October) does not suit 

 our English climate. The instructions as to cul- 

 ture given by 



elaborate and 

 injurious. It 

 history of the 



the florists of 50 years ago are 



if not 



Fig. 51. — anthemis cupaniana: flowers white. 



unnecessary 

 is unnecessary to go 

 Ranunculus. It is sufficient foi 



positively 

 into the 



our purpose to note that it is an old-established 

 favourite and that numerous single and double- 

 flowered varieties were 

 middle of the seventeenth century. 

 Rea gives the best account of them in his Flora. 

 There were several shades of yellow with both 

 single and double flowers. The double red had 



place, the flower itself was brought up to the 

 highest point of perfection in England. A. W. 

 Joseph Tyso, of Wallingford, made a speciality 

 of this flower, and raised many beautiful varie- 

 cultivated about the ties, many of them of colours the most uncom- 



THE ALPINE GARDEN. 



ANTHEMIS CUPANIANA. 

 The subject illustrated in fig. 51 is not in 



Mr. John nion, and the flowers of the perfect form of a the least a choice or a particularly interesting 



small pompon Dahlia. This type of the Ranun- plant, but it is certainly a useful and attractive 



cuius, like some others of the family, prefers a 

 moist medium clayey loam, and a moist climate 



flower stems a foot high, and Rea adds : M There rather than a dry one. My florist friends in 

 are several other nobler sorts of Ranunculus of Lancashire and Yorkshire could get better re- 

 Asia with gallant double flowers much excelling suits with less trouble than I could in Essex. 



one. Anthemis Cupaniana forms enormous 

 recumbent masses of aromatic Ferny-grey foliage, 

 from which all the summer through spring singly 

 large white Marguerites on stems of about 

 8 inches. The whole growth of the plant is 



the old kind described, the which we will insert The tubers are very small, and some care is luscious and rank, so that its value (and the 



_ a ^ a. fa Bfcj _ ah *■ a A A m b 



mense 



under those names received, distinguished and 

 known by." About 24 single and double varie- 

 ties are named and described ; the names reveal 

 their foreign origin, even if we had not been in- 

 formed that they came from Paris and Flanders. 

 One named the Great Monster of Rome had im- 



double scarlet flowers. The prevailing 

 colours were scarlet and yellow, scarlet striped 

 yellow, &c. But the greater variety of colour was in 

 the single-flowered varieties. Aurora deep yellow 

 marked on the outside with scarlet; Rosa friz 

 white within and rose without ; Pass Rose, white 

 within and damask rose and white without: 

 Nihdore, pale Isabella within and crimson bor- 

 dered with Isabella without. 

 Sidonian 



value is very great) is specially for clothing high 

 points and bare uplands of the rockwork in a 

 spreading galaxy of stars. Its reputation, 

 aided by its weak and succulent texture, leads 

 one to suspect that its hardiness is not beyond 

 doubt; even here, however, in three w r inters it 

 has taken no harm, and now, with 24° of 

 frost persisting, it flops, indeed, but obviously 

 tubers may be 3 inches apart, and a little sand retains its vitality unimpaired. In any case the 



The 



necessary in planting, though for the preparation 

 of the soil nothing is necessary beyond moderately 

 rich garden soil that will grow good Cabbages. 

 The bed may be marked out, and the surface 

 made quite level, all stones being raked off. 

 Draw drills about 3 inches deep by 6 inches 

 asunder, place some white sand in the bottom of 

 the drills and on this set the small tubers. The 



dropped on the crowns aids to keep them clean smallest cutting roots profusely. 



photo- 



and healthy. The leaves in their progress to the graph shows A. Cupaniana hanging from a ledge 



red without. 



is buff within and 



marked with 

 There are many others described 



light will lift the soil with them ; but it is easily 

 shaken off with the fingers ; at the same time the 

 young plant may require to be pressed into the 

 ground. Some manure well decayed may be 

 placed on the surface between the rows. The 

 plants have a tendency to flag if the soil is rather Farrer. 



on the Cliff, in such a position, of course, as 

 prevents it from making the vast show and 

 spread that it does on level open plots. But 

 some idea can be gained of the plant's appear- 

 ance and its prodigality of blossom. Reginald 



