142 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[March 2, 1912. 



KEW NOTES, 



LOMCERA FRAGRANTISSIMA AND 



L. STANDISHII. 



flowering -hrubs. 



The mild winter has been favourable to early- 

 Prominent amongst these at 

 Kew, Lonicera fragrantissima and L. Standishii, 

 two Chinese Honeysuckles, introduced by Robert 

 Fortune, have flowered especially well. From 

 a superficial examination there appears to 

 be very little, if any, difference between the two 

 species, but growers familiar with both plants 

 distinguish them as follows :— L. fragrantissima, 

 semi-evergreen, except in very severe winters, 

 leaves short and round in comparison, mature 

 leaves glabrous, flowers slightly larger and a 

 little later in flowering; L. Standishii, deciduous, 

 leaves ovate-lanceolate, very hairy beneath, 

 flowers in December and January. 



Although comparatively small the flowers of 

 both species are freely produced and deliriously 

 fra^rsnt. They are creamy-white, with a faint 

 tinge of lilac on the outside. 



A sunny, sheltered spot should be selected for 

 the plants, which, although perfectly hardy, 

 are benefited by a little protection in very severe 

 weather. 



H. Wilson has sent home from China 



named lancifolia. 



Mr. E. 



a variety of L. Standishii, 

 This plant also has flowered this season in Kew 

 Gardens. It has narrower, more pointed leaves 

 than the type, and appears to be partly ever- 

 green. A. U. 



SCOTLAND. 



SANQUHAR HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. J. Milligan has been appointed secretary 

 of this society in succession to Mr. T. C. Salmon, 

 who has resigned. 



EDINBURGH CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW. 



The Chrysanthemum Exhibition of the Scottish 

 Horticultural Association will be held in the 

 Waverley Market on Thursday, Friday and 

 Saturday. November 14, 15 and 16. The heating 

 and proper ventilation of the market having en- 

 tailed a considerable expense, the rent of the 

 building for the show has been increased. 



THE ARBUTUS IN SOUTH SCOTLAND. 



Arbutus Unedo is not quite hardy in the 

 South of Scotland. In some places, it is 

 true, it is only killed to the ground in severe 

 winters, and makes fresh growth from the 

 base, whilst in a very few gardens it is satis- 

 factory, and then the ivory-white flowers and 

 scarlet fruits are welcome indeed. The writer 

 has not found the fine A. U. Croomei any hardier 

 than the type, but it is such a fine thing that it 

 is worthy of cultivation, even though eubject 

 to being killed to the ground in severe winters. 



HYMENANTHERA CRASSIFOLIA. 



This neat little trailing shrub from New Zea- 

 land fruits but irregularly here, yet it is a useful 

 subject for a little slope in the rock garden. It 

 owes its value to its rigid, trailing, ash-coloured 

 branches, with their small, leathery leaves. The 

 violet-coloured flowers are small and scarcely 

 visible a little distance from the plant. The 

 berries are white, but with me they are not 

 borne freely enough to be effective. Possibly 

 my cultivation is at fault, but my plants are in 

 light, peaty soil, and they have been hardy for 

 several years. 



GRANT FOR POTATO-GROWING 



EXPERIMENTS. 



Tke Development Commissioners have agreed 

 to give a grant of £20 to Miss E. C. Dudgeon, 

 Lincluden, Dumfries, towards the expenses of her 

 experiments in the growing of Potatos by elec- 

 tricity. They will be continued at Lincluden 

 Mains Farm, Dumfries. Miss Dudgeon's experi- 

 ments with the Cooper-Hewett lamp on plants 

 under glass are still in progress 



PRINCES STREET GARDENS, 



EDINBURGH. 



The Parks Committee has adopted the 

 report of the sub-committee appointed to con- 

 sider the proposed alterations at Princes Street 

 Gardens, Edinburgh. The additional entrances 

 will not be constructed for the present, as it is 

 considered that the railings may be removed 

 from their present position. 



A FORESTER'S RUBY WEDDING. 



Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm M'Gregor, Arden 

 Cottages, Arden, have just celebrated their ruby 

 wedding. Mr. M'Gregor, who has thus cele- 

 brated the sixty-fifth year of married life, and 

 his wife, are both in their ninety-second year. 

 He is still able to attend to his work as a 

 forester. 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 



(The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents.) 



Proliferous Hyacinth.— I am sending, for 



your inspection, a photograph of the pink 

 Hyacinth Moreno grown in a glass. The 

 buib produced six inflorescences, the flowers 

 being all expanded at the same time, and 

 there is still another spike developing. The 

 spikes are from 5 to 5^ inches in length, covered 

 with flowers, and the individual blossoms are 

 large and full. I am interested to know if my 

 specimen is a unique one. The growth of the 

 bulb was curious from the start, as six of the 

 spikes came out together (not one after the other 

 as is usual) and the foliage came up intermixed 

 with the flower-spikes. The w T hole had the ap- 

 pearance of a vase of cut flowers arranged with 

 leaves. The bulb had to be secured to the glass 

 and the flowers tied to each other as they were 

 too heavy to support themselves. I have grown 

 this specimen and others very successfully in 

 glass vases without a glass-house. I put them ■ 

 at the end of September in a dark wardrobe, then 

 after some six weeks they were brought into a 

 cold room to grow slowly, and later stood in a 

 warm room where the blossoms developed. I have 

 another bulb with three flower spikes (Admiral 

 de Ruyter), but the growth is not unusual. 

 M. C. Mawson, 7, Upper Park Road, H amp- 

 stead. 



Spraying for Big Bud. — I am always pleased 



to read the remarks of A Southern Grower, they 

 are so eminently practical, and it would give me 

 great pleasure at some time to make his acquaint- 

 ance and to visit his plantations. As I have had 

 a somewhat heavy correspondence during the 

 past week upon this subject, I think I cannot 

 do better than follow out his suggestion to re- 

 write briefly in your columns the treatment I 

 have used for Black Currant mite. I use 

 quassia and soft soap, 4 ounces of the former and 

 2 ounces of soap to the gallon of water, applied 

 with a fountain sprayer, the best implement I 

 know for the purpose, and I commence to spray as 

 soon as the buds unfold and spray at intervals of 

 10 days until the first week in June. As your cor- 

 respondent says this covers a period of at least 

 nine weeks and means half a dozen sprayings, 

 which is rather a tall order when the plantation 

 extends to 27 acres. I have never had to deal 

 with an area of this size, the most I have sprayed 

 would be three or four acres. I am careful to 

 point out to correspondents that one or two 

 sprayings are not of much use, for, although they 

 may destroy countless mites, there are multi- 

 tudes more to take the places of the slain, and 

 they are migrating from the end of March till 

 the beginning of June (varying, of course, with 

 the season) ; in a favourable season for spraying, 

 that is, when storms of wind and rain do not 

 prevent the work being done with regularity, the 

 pest ought to be practically got rid of in one year, 

 but if the trees are very badly infested, or the 

 number of sprayings much reduced by bad 

 w T eather, a second season may be needed to effect 

 a cure. I quite agree with A Southern 

 Grower that it is a wise practice to pick off any 

 big buds which may be seen at this time of the 

 year where thev are not too numerous, but I 

 have seen gardens in Nottinghamshire and 

 plantations in Sussex where this would entail 



picking off nearly all the buds, an even greater 

 labour than spraying. There may be much excuse 

 for a grower with large plantations studying the 

 cost of getting rid of this pest, but surely in 

 private gardens the owner should either attempt 

 to clean his trees or destroy them, as there can 

 be no doubt that his trees are likely to spread 

 the mite to his neighbour's gardens. If one ex- 

 amines the mites with a powerful glass on a 

 warm day they appear to be standing on their 

 heads with feelers sticking up in the air, and I 

 believe they attach themselves to any bees or 

 other insects visiting the bushes, and are thus 

 carried to fresh fields and pastures new. I fear 

 the above description is not very scientific, but 

 I hope it will be sufficient to call the attention 

 of amateurs to an obvious duty, which is to en- 

 deavour to stamp out this pest. May I in con- 

 clusion ask if any of your readers who have tried 

 this remedy during the past eight years will be 

 good enough to relate their experiences? A. H. 

 Pearson. 



Larkspurs and Antirrhinums (see p. 91).— 

 The general use of the Antirrhinum as a summer 

 bedding plant synchronised with the appearance 

 — for a like purpose — of the Larkspur. Each 

 plant has many good qualities in common, and 

 they may successfully be employed in combina- 

 tion. They are suitable for furnishing large beds 

 where a blaze of colour is desired, and there are 

 but few other subjects which will give such satis- 

 factory results in this respect. Particularly effec- 

 tive last season were several large crescent- 

 shaped beds planted with the violet-coloured 

 Larkspur Victoria, with Antirrhinum Fire-King 

 freely intermixed, the beds being finished off with 

 a broad edging of Pelargonium Flower of Spring. 

 Other beds of rose-coloured Larkspur, inter- 

 mingled with white Antirrhinum, were scarcely 

 less effective. Other combinations will suggest 

 themselves according to individual taste. The 

 taller-growing varieties of these popular plants 

 should be selected. Fred. W. Jeffery, Woodend 

 Gardens, Renfrewshire. 



Solanum jasminoides. — I have only seen 

 this plant winter well in South Wales, Minehead, 

 Weston-super-Mare, and' similar western and sea- 

 side places, with the exception of one fine plant 

 reaching the eaves of a house at Englefield Green, 

 Surrey. I should like to know the experience of 

 gardeners in inland places in the South ana 

 Lower Midlands with respect to the plant's hardi- 

 ness. Harold Evans, Llanishen, Cardiff. 



Leptospermum bullatum. — This shrub 

 is probably hardier than Mr. Fitzherbert's in- 

 teresting account (see Gard. Chron., Feb- 

 ruary 17, p. 100) of it would indicate, for I 

 have seen fine bushes of it smothered with 

 flowers in North Wales. It has not been my 

 good fortune to meet with specimens as large as 

 those mentioned by Mr. Fitzherbert, but even 

 the smaller examples I met with in Corn- 

 wall were decidedly ornamental. In colder 

 districts it is very interesting to watch tins 

 shrub on the approach of spring. All through 

 the winter the leaves and stems present a 

 dry, withered appearance, and the flower -buas 

 look very like hard seed vessels. To the un- 

 initiated the plants seem doomed, and doubts 

 arise as to its ability to make any fresh gT° wtn " 

 But even a few days of genial weather have a 



wonderful effect; the leaves become fu " er , a ^ 

 lose their shrivelled appearance, the flower -bu 

 show more green colouring matter, and in* 

 incredibly short time the erstwhile dying shruo 

 becomes starred with white flowers, the vej 

 picture of health and beauty. To hope for suc- 

 cess with Leptospermum bullatum outside v 

 Riviera districts of our islands, a warm, ^ 

 drained position is essential, and I am decicieai 

 of the opinion that comparative dryness at w 

 roots during cold weather is most necessa y 

 This, of course, means that water must 





regularlv given 

 A. C. Bartlett. 



during the summer 



months 



Leptospermum scoparium (pee p. 



105). 



rdens 



Leptospermum scoparium is hardy in ^e ? ar 

 of Sir Herbert Maxwell, at Monreith, VV ig*° 

 shire, where it has attained considerable prup 

 tions, and flowers freely, although not > V™ 1 

 against a wall. The climate at Monreith is j I 

 mild, but others may well try the plant ouj^ 

 doors in places which enjoy a mild 

 S. Arnott. 





