6 3 6 



Garden and Forest. 



[DECEMBER 31, 189O. 



suitable sized pots, using the same soil as heretofore advised. 

 Peat should never be used when leaf-soil can be obtained ; 

 but whatever materials are used they must be open and light, 

 so that water will quickly pass away. With small pots little 

 drainage is required. When potting the soil must not be 

 pressed close. One or two taps on the bench is sufficient, 

 especially for the single varieties. In potting the bulbs into 

 rive-inch or six-inch pots the tubers should first be barely cov- 

 ered with soil, and they should be placed as near the glass as 

 possible. If plants for exhibition are desired they will need 

 larger pots, and the shift should be made as soon as the roots 

 touch the sides of the pots, for it is of prime importance that 

 the plants do not become pot-bound ; nor should they be 

 allowed to become dry at the bottom, and if this condition 

 should happen a thorough soaking should be given by dip- 

 ping the pots into a bucket of water. The soil for a shift into 

 seven or eight-inch pots should be heavier than that first used 

 — that is, it should contain a little more loam, to which may be 

 added a little well decayed hot-bed manure. The compost 

 must not be sifted, but used coarse, but well mixed. Nothing 

 like a rank manure must be used. The soil should be made 

 moderately firm. Loose potting and rich soils coi.duce to a 

 soft and rapid growth which will not flower as well until it has 

 become hardened and matured. It should be always under- 

 stood that it is of little use to pot plants that have reached their 

 blooming stage. This work must be done before their roots 

 have become matted round the pots. 



Any plants required to form large specimens should have a 

 vigorous growth encouraged from the start until they occupy 

 their flowering-pots. They need light, rich soil, with a fair 

 amount of heat and a moist air, with careful ventilation; but a 

 stuffy atmosphere must at all times be avoided, as this will not 

 permit the solid growth which alone gives flowers of the 

 greatest substance and quality. When plants are showing 

 their flowers in the greenhouse they should have a position 

 where the air is constantly passing under and among them, 

 otherwise they will decay or damp off in dull or wet weather. It 

 will be of great benefit to the plants to get once a week a little 

 weak sheep-manure water. When the plants have done flow- 

 ering, which will be about the middle of October or the begin- 

 ning of November, water should be withheld entirely so as to 

 ripen the tubers, and this can be easily done by placing the 

 pots on their sides under the stages or some other place out of 

 the reach of frost, where they can remain until they are re- 

 quired again next year. The bulbs will require larger pots to 

 start in by reason of their increased size. 



As a bedding plant these tuberous Begonias have no rival. 

 Easy culture, freedom of bloom and neatness of habit com- 

 mend them to every one. For garden decoration the resting 

 tubers should be procured about the end of March in different 

 colors — crimson, scarlet, rose, pink, yellow and white, or 

 mixed if preferred. The bulbs are best started in small pots 

 in a cold-frame, or they can be started in boxes in windows, 

 giving sufficient ventilation to avoid a spindly growth, and 

 gradually hardened to the outside temperature. When they 

 have formed two or three leaves and are well rooted they are 

 ready for their summer quarters, which will be about the 1st 

 of June. The beds should be prepared as for Geraniums or 

 Coleus. When the plants are set they should for a few days be 

 given a slight shading. A watering with a sprinkler should be 

 given, and repeated often at evening during the dry summer 

 months. A few stakes or light wood branches may be used 

 to support them, as frequently the great weight of the flowers 

 will carry the stems to the ground, and thus disfigure them. 

 Neither rains nor dry, sunny weather affect their abundant 

 bloom, which will continue until frost, when the tubers should 

 be carefully lifted, slightly dried, and placed away in the cellar 

 or on shelves in boxes like Dahlias until required the follow- 

 ing season. Year after year they will increase in size and 

 strength, producing finer flowers in greater abundance. The 

 single Begonias can now be obtained at a very moderate price. 

 Good double ones are still dear. rr 



New Rocheiic, N. Y. Henry Mc Crowe. 



Brodiaeas. 



THE range of this genus is almost as wide as that of Ca- 

 lochortus. California has most of the species ; Oregon, 

 Nevada and Utah have some representatives ; northern Cali- 

 fornia is the home of the greater number. A few of the 

 Brodiaeas are sometimes found in sandy soil. B. terrestris 

 always is, B. ixioides occasionally and B. laxa in depauperate 

 specimens. I have also received bulbs of some Brodiaeas un- 

 known to me from the Sage-brush sand of Nevada and Utah. 

 B. capitata and B. {Brevoortia) coccinea luxuriate in the debris 



of loose rock and mould on the hill-sides, and the remaining 

 species are natives of clay soils from light to heavy; B. stellaris, 

 B. congesta, B. multijlora in lighter, and B. grandiflora, B. 

 minor, B. laxa, B. ixioides and B. lactea on rich clay or "wash"' 

 soils. B. pednncularis is found in the sand and mould in the 

 beds and along the sides of living streams. All Brodiaeas are 

 lovers of water, while the last named species grows in situa- 

 tions where water is standing or dropping continually during 

 the winter. The finest growth of B. grandiflora or B. ixioides 

 I have ever seen was where winter streams broke over ledges 

 of large loose rocks. The bulbs were in the rich mould in the 

 interstices and catches, and subject to a drip of water until the 

 blooming season, and after that became dry. On the sunny 

 sides of the deep precipitous canons, where the loose soil rock 

 and leaves have slid down to the bottom of the slope, often 

 growing on low underbrush, which its flower-stalks overtop,, 

 B. coccinea, the Vegetable Fire Cracker, grows most luxuriantly. 

 In such situations stalks five feet high, and bearing from fifteeu 

 to thirty blossoms, are not unusual. B. capitata delights in 

 similar soil, but in a sunny exposure. Stropholirion Californi- 

 cicm, or B. volubilis, a singular species in which the flower- 

 stalks twine around any supporting object, delights in a soil 

 like that suited to B. capitata in underbrush. 



So much for natural conditions. I have perfect success with 

 Brodiaeas in shallow boxes, the same as described for Calochor- 

 tus. For a covering I use clay and chip soil. With B. grandi- 

 flora, B. capitata, B. coccinea and B. stellaris rich soil scraped 

 from a wood-yard proves excellent covering. With others 

 clay loam, with various mixtures, with chip soil, have been 

 tried, and the bulbs thrive in all of them. In boxes one- 

 will hardly use too much water until the blooming season, 

 when moderate moisture only is required, after which the 

 plants should be dried off. They should be planted shallow — 

 four inches is deep enough — and they need abundant sunlight. 

 Here all are perfectly hardy, and I am satisfied that with slight 

 winter protection they will prove so in the eastern states. 

 Ukiab, Cai. Carl Pnrdy. 



Hardy Plant Notes. 



T T NT1L the end of November Trollius Europceics and T.. 

 *~^ Asiaticns were both flowering and maturing seed in the 

 open border, a fact which should be noted. A perfectly hardy 

 plant that produces useful cut flowers for seven months in the 

 open border, and that only requires a moist soil to make it 

 succeed perfectly, stands a good chance of becoming popular 

 if merit commands success. There is another Trollius that is 

 a good garden plant, but its flowering season is short. This 

 is T. Japonicus, the flowers of which are of a bright orange 

 and most distinct. Its season of flowering is in early summer 

 along with our native T> laxus, which is the T. Americanns of 

 European lists and gardens, though it is a pity the name, T. 

 Americanns, does not possess priority, since we have T. Eicro- 

 pceus, T. Asiaticns, T. Japonicus and T. Caucasicus. The 7. 

 laxus has very little to recommend it as a garden plant. It 

 also has a very short flowering season and then dies down 

 until spring again. There is said to be a white form which 

 occurs rarely, but I have never seen it and cannot say anything 

 as to its merits. Trollius Europceus and 71 Asiaticus are very 

 similar in many respects, the principal distinction to an un- 

 botanical eye being that while T. Asiaticus has stems usually 

 unbranched, those of T. Ettropceus are often branched, with 

 several flowers to a stem. The easiest way to get up a stock 

 of Trollius is from seed, which must be sown at once so that 

 it may be treated to a good freezing in a cold frame. Every 

 seed will come up in spring, but if not subjected to the freez- 

 ing seeds of this genus will remain dormant for years, as I 

 have proved several times. 



Delphinium Zalil is a most distinct yellow Larkspur. I had 

 well nigh given up in despair of ever having living plants 

 from seed, when I happened upon a fine lot of plants that were 

 raised from seeds in a Massachusetts garden, and this set me 

 thinking, and, thanks to Herr Max Leichtlin, I am now the for- 

 tunate possessor of a fine lot of plants raised from seed that 

 germinated in three weeks from the time of sowing. We learn 

 from Herr Leichtlin that seeds of this plant, if not sown at once 

 after being gathered, take a long time to germinate. Seeds of 

 this description, even if they possess vitality when sown, have 

 to run many chances before they germinate. What with over- 

 watering, or the reverse, the washing over of seeds, thegrowth 

 of moss on the surface of seed-pans, but few seeds germinate, 

 and snails or slugs, with their unerring instinct for pans that 

 contain the choicest plants, often make short work of these; 

 and a season's watching and care are lost. It appears that 

 Monsieur Benary, of Erfurt, has purchased the stock of Herr 



