1 3 8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 42 



when they are shaken out to clean all decayed portions away 

 and to rub on a little charcoal-dust if there is any sign of decay. 

 Since we have taken the precaution to place a handful of sand 

 under the tubers at potting-time they h ive almost entirely 

 escaped from the rot that used to give a great deal of trouble 

 at their bases. To be of the most use to us Caladiums must 

 be started early in the season, so that they shall be well grown 

 in the early summer months and the foliage well developed 

 and in a condition to stand exposure at that season. We start 

 them early in the year for this reason, and this makes it possi- 

 ble to store them away under the benches at the time in fall 

 when all plants must be got under glass, and the space occu- 

 pied by a collection of Caladiums is needed for winter-flower- 

 ing plants. This early start, therefore, gives us a twofold 

 advantage. But those who have not a warm house command- 

 ing at least a temperature of sixty-five at night had better wait 

 until later in spring, when it is attainable, for a good brisk heat 

 is necessary to get a free growth of large well-colored foliage. 

 Caladiums like a light rich soil. We add a large proportion of 

 spent mushroom-bed material to a compost of leaf-mold and 

 loam, made porous with plenty of sand, and later in the sea- 

 son, if necessary, liquid stimulant is given. The aim is to pro- 

 duce the greatest leaf-development, and, on the whole, it is 

 easy to accomplish. 



I am glad to find that there is an operator at work in Florida 

 on this family of plants, and we have now in course of trial 

 some two dozen or more varieties raised in that state, where 

 they thrive outdoors with great vigor. It is not too much to 

 expect that we may have in the near future a race of American 

 Caladiums equal to those we have hitherto received from 

 abroad. 



South Lancaster, Mass. £■■ U. Urpet. 



Plants for Conservatory and Window Garden. 



Chorozema ilicifolium. — This elegant leguminous plant bids 

 fair to become one of the most popular of its class. It forms a 

 dwarf, globular bush when well trained, producing numerous 

 few-flowered racemes of bright yellow flowers, tinted red, 

 from March until late in summer. The leaves are about an inch 

 long, dark green and leathery, with wavy, spiny-toothed edges, 

 not unlike Holly leaves, but smaller. The branches are very 

 slender; young plants should, therefore, be well pinched in 

 order to form compact specimens. The variety "nana" is 

 naturally dwarf and compact. The genus contains several 

 other extremely showy and attractive plants, all of which 

 flower later in the season than the preceding kind. One of 

 the most beautiful of these is Chorozema cordatum, a species 

 not uncommon in cultivation ; the flowers are yellow, with 

 reddish keel and produced in great abundance in drooping 

 racemes; the leaves are cordate and spiny-toothed. C. Hench- 

 mannii is a rare scarlet-flowered species with acicular, spiny- 

 pointed leaves. It flowers early in summer. C. diversifolium 

 is a very showy plant with bright orange-colored flowers in 

 numerous nodding racemes late in spring. C. varium has 

 erect racemes of bright red and yellow flowers and cordate, 

 somewhat spiny, leaves. The Chorozemas are easier to grow 

 than most other New Holland plants ; they will thrive in any 

 moderately light and warm greenhouse or conservatory. In 

 the conservatory they may be trained on pillars near the glass, 

 in sunny positions. They are excellent house plants, too, 

 rivaling Cytisus racemosus in usefulness for this purpose. 

 Propagation by means of seeds is the simplest method of in- 

 creasing them. The seeds should be sown as soon as ripe, in 

 shallow boxes, in a compost of sandy loam and leaf-mold, 

 which should be kept in a light but comparatively cool place 

 in summer. The young seedlings must be transplanted early 

 and pinched frequently d iring the first season. Older plants 

 may be plunged in a cool frame in summer in a half-shady 

 position. In potting the soil must be pressed firmly down 

 around the roots, as a loose potting often proves fatal. Water- 

 ing and spraying must be carefully attended to in summer, 

 and the roots must on no account be allowed to become dry. 



Imantophyllum cyrtanthiflorum. — This is a very valuable and 

 floriferous spring-flowering plant of the Amaryllis family. 

 Like the more common Imantophyllum miniatum, it has 

 quite beautiful and attractive foliage, the leaves being long, 

 dirk green, slightly curving and distichous. The flowers are 

 almost bell-shaped, of a very bright salmon color, produced 

 in large, many-flowered corymbs, on scapes from two to three 

 feet high. This is considered a hybrid between Clivia nobilis 

 and the above-mentioned I. miniatum. It is best grown in 

 large pots or tubs in which it is allowed to increase and form 

 large masses of foliage. The compost should consist of rich 

 fibrous loam, with a liberal addition of cow-manure and some 



sand. During the growing season plenty of water is needed, 

 but the plants should never be allowed to dry as much as 

 Hippeastrums, as they are ornamental throughout the year. 

 The roots are fleshy, the plants form no bulbs, but increase 

 readily by means of side-shoots or offsets which may be used 

 for nropagation. All Imantophyllums form ripe seeds if fer- 

 tilized, and they may, therefore, be propagated with the greatest 

 ease by this means. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. H. 



The Climbing Hydrangea. —We often hear complaints that 

 Hydrangea scandens is tardy in starting to grow. The 

 usual way of raising it is by layering. Numerous roots push 

 out wherever the shoots touch the ground, in the same way 

 as they do from the English Ivy, but when the layers are sev- 

 ered from the parent shoots and set out by themselves they 

 scarcely grow at all for a year or two. Its near relative, 

 Schizophragma hydrangeoides, behaves in the same way. It 

 is becoming the practice to pot the layers when taken from the 

 parent plant, and keep them in frames or in a cold greenhouse 

 for a season ; after this they may be set out with more cer- 

 tainty of thriving. Both of these vines are gross feeders, and 

 they should be abundantly supplied with manure, especially 

 when well started. It must not be forgotten that all climbers 

 grow much faster when they are supplied with supports. The 

 Climbing Hydrangea needs a rough surface, and when it once 

 attaches itself it grows rapidly. Decumaria barbara, a closely 

 allied climber, is not at all like the Hydrangeas in habit of 

 growth, but from the start pushes on rapidly. Though a 

 native of our southern states, it is perfectly hardy in Philadel- 

 phia and much farther north. 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Median. 



Correspondence. 



Ericas as Market Plants. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — The festivals of Christmas and Easter are now two 

 events of the first importance to the commercial florists, for 

 at these times the demand for plants and flowers reaches its 

 highest mark. Especially at the latter festival does there seem 

 to be an almost unlimited outlet, especially as then the range 

 of choice is much greater than it is in the dull weather of the 

 early winter. 



Naturally there are many would-be gleaners at the harvest, 

 and every grower at this season exerts himself to produce his 

 specialty in its finest form and greatest abundance. For the 

 modern flower grower for the market is a specialist in very 

 few plants. Competition has driven him to grow only those 

 plants which he best understands andean grow to the greatest 

 perfection or most economically. 



Among the choicest plants grown for the market are the 

 Ericas, or Cape Heaths, but often sold in the city shops as 

 Scotch Heather. Not so many years ago Heaths were driven 

 out of private greenhouses by the Orchids, and those beautiful 

 plants are seldom or never seen in collections. As is well 

 known, they require cultural skill of a high order, and only 

 the softer-wooded kinds are now grown as market plants by a 

 few specialists. Among the best growers of these plants in 

 this locality is Louis Dupuy, a young Frenchman, whose 

 houses are located on a warm southern slope in Whitestone, 

 Long Island. There I found the other day Heaths in all stages, 

 from cuttings to three-year-old plants, the mature ones ready 

 for the Easter market in hundreds and, perhaps, thousands. 

 Judging from the health and thriftiness of the plants here one 

 might suppose them as easily grown as Geraniums if he did 

 not know to the contrary. Like all good growers of plants, 

 Mr. Dupuy has no cultural secrets. Learning his business on 

 the Continent, Mr. Dupuy found, in undertaking the culture of 

 Heaths here, that, like many other plants, they required dif- 

 ferent treatment in their environment, and he has broken 

 away somewhat from the traditional practice so rigidly adhered 

 to abroad. In the first place, they are potted in none of the 

 fancy soil mixtures usually recommended in the books, but 

 ' simply in good light soil, with plenty of sand, the local article, 

 in fact. Of course, the successful culture of Heaths is a matter 

 of careful, unremitting attention as to air and watering. I sup- 

 pose the secret of Mr. Dupuy's success may be summed up 

 in the sympathetic culture of each plant as an individual. I 

 learned, also, that a tight greenhouse is a poor place for Heaths. 

 According to Mr. Dupuy's experience on both sides of the 

 ocean, he gets as much growth from a cutting in one year 

 here as is secured abroad in two, and his two-year-old plants 

 are as large as European ones at three years old. The one- 

 year-old plants here were very bushy and about nine inches 



