136 



Garden and Forest. 



I Number 371. 



Cultural Department. 



Some Flowering Plants lor Easter. 



MOST private greenhouses are called upon for flowering 

 plants for church, house or conservatory decorations at 

 Easter-time. This year the date is later tlian for several sea- 

 sons past, and a good deal of forethought and judgment is 

 required to have some varieties in flower at the right time. 

 Easter Lilies are the most important crop, and one of the most 

 difficult to have in condition at a required time. As a rule, if 

 the buds just begin to show wlien Lent begins the flowers will 

 be on time without forcing the plants unduly. By hard forcing 

 we have had plants flower in March, even when the buds were 

 only seen four weeks before Easter. If brought on in an ordi- 

 nary greenhouse temperature, six weeks is not too long a time to 

 allow, even if the plants are not needed until the middle of 

 April. Lilium longiflorum requires fully a week longer to 

 develop than L. Harrisi ; L. candidum taking about the same 

 time as the last named. We use eight-inch potsf or Lilies. 

 The largest bulbs are grown singly, while the small ones are 

 placed three in a pot. The average product of the larger 

 bulbs is from eleven to fifteen flowers, while the smaller ones 

 produce from six to nine flowers. 



The herbaceous Spirajas are indispensable Easter plants. 

 They should be allowed from eight to ten weeks for flowering 

 after they are potted. Spiraja Japonica is still more largely 

 grown than any 'other variety, but its variety, Grandiflora, now 

 that it is Ijecoming cheaper, will largely supersede the older 

 plant. When well grown, it makes a beautiful pot-plant. S. 

 astilboides forces very readily, but it has not the compact habit 

 of the other two varieties, it grows much taller, and is worth 

 growing for variety. S. palmata we do not find satisfactory. 

 Spirfeas should be removed from the house or stood on the floor 

 and covered with paper while the place is fumigated, as the 

 foliage is very easily scorched, and large numbers of plants are 

 ruined every year through neglect of this precaution. 



ffydrangeas, especially H. Otaksa, make admirable Easter 

 plants. We began to force our plants at Christmas, and the 

 flower-heads will be well expanded early in April. Cut- 

 tings inserted early in February and potted off when rooted, if 

 planted out-of-doors toward the end of May, and watered 

 during droughty weather, will be fit for eight-inch pots in Sep- 

 tember. Such plants give from eight to twelve good panicles 

 each, and cuttings rooted later in the season will flower well. 

 Plants grown in pots all the season and plunged in a bed of 

 ashes have not proved as successful with us as those planted out. 



Azaleas are among the most popularof Easter plants. Owing 

 to the lateness of Easter this year, it is impossible to hold 

 back some varieties, notably the beautiful double kind, Ver- 

 vEeniana, but A. Borsig, double white ; Imperatrice des Indes, 

 double rose, edged with white ; Sigismund Rucker, rose- 

 pink, bordered white, dark blotch ; the magnificent Madame 

 Van der Cruyssen, rose, with spot on upper petals, and one or 

 two other kinds will be in season if held in a house with a 

 northern exposure or in a cold frame until a few weeks before 

 they are needed. Plants of A. mollis are among the best forc- 

 ing plants, and a few of these are always a welcome addition 

 at Easter. 



Cytisus, in six to eight inch pots, which have been clipped 

 into shape during the growing season, and held back in a cold 

 house, make excellent Easter plants. Cytisus racemosus is 

 much superior fo the older C. Canariensis. Some kinds of 

 more recent introduction have much larger racemes, notably 

 C. elegans. The flowers, however, are produced less freely 

 than on the older sorts. 



White Marguerites, or Paris Daisies, are very useful for 

 church or conservatory decorations, and cuttings inserted in 

 October, if grown along in an ordinary greenhouse, will make 

 fine bushy plants in eight-inch pots by Easter-time. The 

 variety Maximum is the most serviceable ; the yellow-flower- 

 ing varieties, Comte de Chambord and Etoile d'Or, flower un- 

 satisfactorily, and are rather straggling in habit. 



Deutzia gracilis is one of the best forcing shrubs and can 

 be quickly pushed along at this season. Cuttings of soft wood 

 strike very freely, and make nice plants if planted out for two 

 years. The plants, when of sufficient size, should be grown 

 along in pots all the time and plunged during summer in a 

 bed of ashes. Plants dug out of the ground, potted and 

 forced, yield plenty of bloom, but the quality of the flowers is 

 inferior to that of pot-grown plants. 



Calias are always in large demand for Easter, and the old 

 Richardia /Ethiopica is still altogether the best. The variety, 

 Little Gem, so loudly praised, can hardly be called a success as 

 a winter bloomer. Until the middle of February our plants 



hardly showed a flower, and while it is now blooming fairly 

 well it does not equal the old variety in its free-flowering quali- 

 ties. Many growers have become discouraged with Little 

 Gem and have discarded it entirely, but a few plants well flow- 

 ered are quite effective in decorations. 



Some of the Begonias, especially the Manicata section, will 

 be in good bloom for Easter this year, and are certainly beau- 

 tiful when well flowered. B. semperflorens gigantea, with its 

 brilliant carmine-red flowers, borne in large panicles, is one of 

 the finest of its class. From cuttings inserted now large bushy 

 plants can be had for next winter. Planted out in a partially 

 shaded border, all the fibrous-rooted Begonias do well in the 

 summer, and if carefully lifted and potted in September sus- 

 tain very little check. 



Easter generally comes too early for the flowering of fancy 

 Pelargoniums, or Lady Washington Geraniums, as they are 

 commonly called. This year a number of our plants promise 

 to be in good bloom. No soft-wooded plant equals in beauty 

 a well-flowered Pelargonium, and it is satisfactory to note that 

 they are gradually coming into popular favor again. Cuttings 

 rooted in September and potted and grown along in an ordi- 

 nary greenhouse, make good plants in six-inch pots at this 

 season ; older plants cut back are, however, preferable. Good 

 varieties are Volonte Nationale allja, Mrs. R.Sandifordand Prin- 

 cess Teck for white ; Madame Thibaut, a beautiful rosy pink, 

 and Kingston Beauty, white, with maroon blotch. 



Cannas, potted in the fall when the roots are lifted from the 

 beds, are capital winter-flowering plants and make a brilliant 

 show at Easter. We grow our plants in eight or ten inch pots 

 in a moderately warm greenhouse. Madame Crozy is still the 

 best of this family as a pot-plant ; Alphonse Bouvier and 

 Charles Henderson are good of their color, the first-named 

 being the most satisfactory winter bloomer here. Florence 

 Vaughan, although not a free winter bloomer, is now in full 

 flower. 



Cinerarias will be mostly spent before Easter-time, but her- 

 baceous Calceolarias more than make good this deficiency, 

 and well-grown plants are liighly decorative. White Stocks are 

 useful plants, and for decorations we use the kind known as 

 Boston Florist. Antirrhinums make good pot-plants and can 

 always be had in flower for Easter. Bulbous plants, such as 

 Hyacinths, Tulips and Narcissus are always popular, and very 

 little forcing will be needed this year to have them in flower. 

 Two of the most useful Orchids at Easter-time, Cattleya Tri- 

 anaa and Coelogyne cristata, are now on the wane. I^lenty of 

 material is available among Odontoglossums, Cattleyas and 

 La?lias, to say nothing of other genera of Orchids, to make a 

 Sfood display, where these plants are grown. , „ . 



^TaLmton,Mass: ^ PV. N. Craig. 



Japanese Anemones. 



THEI^E is no more suitable plant for piazza, porch or hall 

 decoration than the Japanese Anemone. As a pot-plant it 

 is unexcelled, and fully repays any extra attention given to it. 

 Though generally grown as a hardy perennial, it is not entirely 

 successful as such. The flowering crowns are frequently 

 destroyed during severe winters ; but, as every piece of root 

 develops adventitious buds in the same way as our native 

 Anemone Pennsylvanica, the plants are seldom killed out- 

 right, and will shoot up again later in the season, but generally 

 too late to make strong blooming crowns before frost. By 

 storing our plants in a cool cellar we avoid this drawback ; 

 and as they do not lift well when planted out, we find it better 

 to repot them every year. We shall overhaul our plants in a 

 few days, potting them in good heavy loam and well-decayed 

 manure in the proportion of one-third of the latter. We use 

 twelve-inch pots, as our clumps are large, containing eight to 

 ten crowns. Small plants, such as are obtained from the deal- 

 ers, might be put three together in eight-inch pots, making 

 effective plants by the autumn, and these would be large 

 enough for twelve-inch size next season. It will be found in 

 repotting old plants that they have in the course of the previous 

 season made a number of fleshy underground stems. These 

 had better be trimmed off, for if left they will grow and fill up 

 the pot with a lot of useless growth, impoverishing the soil. 

 These stem-like roots develop plantlets from every bit, and 

 so, if any stock be required, it would be well to make a thin 

 layer of them in boxes, with a covering of sandy loam. This 

 is the way the dealers obtain their stock. If, after being potted, 

 the plants are put into cold frames and encouraged by hus- 

 banding a little sun-heat the latter part of the day, and slight 

 protection at night, they will make some growth, which will 

 place them two or three weeks in advance of their natural sea- 

 son of blooming. We get ours into bloom early in August, 

 and they continue to flower until November. Having started 



