5o6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 408. 



varieties and hybrids lately raised and introduced by Ger- 

 man seedsmen, of more or less dwarfish habit, and varying- 

 from white to flesh color, salmon-rose and the deeper 

 shades of pink and crimson. Impatiens Sultani may be 

 grown from cuttings, which can be rooted with ease at any 

 time of the year, or by means of seeds, which grow readily. 

 To form nice winter-flowering specimens the seeds should 

 be sown early in spring, singly, in two-inch pots in rich 

 fibrous soil. The young plants require plenty of light and 

 should be grown in a warm greenhouse as close to the 

 glass as practicable. 



Centropogon Lucyanus. — Showy in color and graceful 

 in habit, this stove-perennial of the Campanula family 

 is one of our best winter-flowering plants. It is a 

 garden hybrid, raised by the French horticulturist, Mon- 

 sieur Desponds, between Centropogon fastuosus and Sipho- 

 campylus betulfefolius. The flowers are curved, tubular, 

 about two inches long, with recurved segments and a very 

 prominent hairy stigma longer than the corolla ; color, 

 bright rosy-carmine. They are produced several together 

 on short side-shoots, and when the plant is in full bloom 

 it is very attractive. The leaves are ovate or oblong-lan- 

 ceolate, serrated, smooth, dull green ; stem slender, grow- 

 ing to the height of four or five feet, and herbaceous. 

 This is a plant for the warm greenhouse ; it should be 

 grown in a half-shady position in well-drained pots, in a 

 mixture of rich loam, leaf-mold and sand, with an addition 

 of some well-rotted horse-manure. During the growing 

 season too much water cannot be given. Old plants may 

 also be planted out in the open air in a moist and half- 

 shady position, where it will grow rapidly and form numer- 

 ous side-shoots. As the flowering during winter depends 

 upon these, the plants should, of course, not be pruned 

 until after it flowers, when they can be dried off slightly 

 and cut down to the ground before being planted out. 

 Plants treated in this way should be lifted early and potted 

 in moderately sized pots. They may also be planted out 

 in a border in the conservatory, where they can be left for 

 years. For ordinary use small plants raised by means of 

 herbaceous cuttings in spring and grown on as rapidly as 

 possible are the best. These will reach a considerable size 

 during the first season, and if grown in pots should be 

 gradually ripened as winter draws near. As this is one of 

 the best plants of its class and suitable for all kinds of win- 

 ter decoration, it is surprising that no enterprising florist 

 has taken it in hand long before this. 



Cultural Department. 



The Selection of Carnation Cuttings. 



THE importance of selecting strong stock from which 

 cuttings are taken if we are to have good plants, is 

 set forth in an article by Mr. Lothrop Wight in a late num- 

 ber of the Florists' Exchange, from which we take the fol- 

 lowing points : 



Individual plants, decidedly better than their neiglibors, 

 should be marked and cuttings from them kept by themselves. 

 This is not to improve the type, but to help keep the stock up 

 to the standard, as plants selected from cuttings at random 

 will show deterioration. Cuttings taken from plants on the 

 outside rows of the benches where the shoots are fully ex- 

 posed to the light will be larger and more stocky than tliose 

 taken from the inner rows. Cuttings will generally be at their 

 best when the flower is fully open, and no cuttings should be 

 taken from a stem which does not have a flower at the end 

 of it. Some varieties give three or lour good cuttings to a 

 stem, and where the stock is limited there is no objection to 

 taking every cutting on the plant, leaving only enough to keep 

 up a supply of flowering shoots. Every available cutting 

 should be taken from plants which show unusual vigor of 

 growth, for the exceptional vigor of the plant extends to all its 

 parts and even to the smaller stems. If set in flats, cuttings 

 can be moved into the sun as they begin to root, for as soon 

 as they are rooted they are plants and should not be kept in 

 sand and shade, which are both unsuitable to plant-growth. 

 Therefore they should be taken out of the sand and put in the 

 sun as soon as possible. Bottom-heat is unnecessary, the usual 



temperature of a Carnation-house being about right. Where 

 cuttings are grown for the trade bottom-lieat is an advantage, 

 because they root more quickly and evenly, but it is question- 

 able if they make as good plants, and when quality is the point 

 sought rather than quantity late-struck cuttings are all right. 

 For abundant bloom large plants from early-struck cuttings 

 are essential. 



Violet Notes. 



THE remarkably open weather which prevailed until the 

 early part of December has made Violets bloom with 

 unusual freedom. I do not recollect to have gathered so many 

 flowers to the plant for several years as I have during October 

 and November just past. Severe weather and heavy snow- 

 falls are, however, likely to come at any time, and frames 

 should by this time be well protected to resist such changes. 

 Dry leaves packed around the sides, with a slanting board laid 

 over them to throw off water will prevent frost from penetrat- 

 ing the sides, while mats and shutters which project two or 

 three inches over the top and bottom of the sashes are used 

 for top-covering. Plants in frames require a great deal of 

 attention during the dark winter months, and light and air 

 must be given on every possible opportunity. It does no harm 

 to leave the frames covered with snow for a couple of days in 

 severe weather, but great damage is done if snow is allowed 

 to remain for a week, when mold will spread with alarming 

 rapidity. Even if sunlight can be admitted for but three hours 

 and a hitle ventilation given, it is surprising how the plants 

 are benefited. There are very few days during the whole 

 winter when we do not give both light and air. Violets resent 

 coddling, and air should be given freely whenever the outside 

 temperature allows. If the thermometer registers several 

 degrees below freezing, even in midwinter, the sun warms the 

 frames sufficiently to permit a moderate amount of air being 

 admitted. Violets in frames make much more work than 

 when they are grown in houses, and the flowers are less con- 

 venient to pick, but the quality of blooms is as good in all 

 kinds, and much better in some, particularly the single varie- 

 ties ; the flowering season, too, is a little longer than with those 

 grown in artificial heat. 



It is well to look over the plants every week and remove 

 runners, decaying leaves and all signs of mold. When water 

 is required, the forenoon of a bright day should be selected 

 and care taken to wet the foliage as little as possible ; tepid 

 water ought to be used. The diseases known as spot and 

 leaf-curl still continue to wipe out batches of promising plants. 

 The real cause of these diseases are still unknown, and we 

 have no certain remedy for them. One day the plants look 

 thrifty, the next day a few spots appear ; those affected may 

 be picked off, but probably within two weeks the whole stock 

 is an eyesore and fit for the rubbish heap. A neighboring 

 florist, who for several years had grown splendid crops of 

 Marie Louise, had, four weeks ago, the finest house of this 

 kind I ever saw, with not a sign of disease anywhere on his 

 place. His plants had every possible attention and promised 

 a splendid harvest of bloom for the winter ; three weeks later 

 I saw the same house and there was hardly a single healthy 

 leaf, and every plant had to be thrown out. The grower of 

 these plants told me that during a spell of sunless weather in 

 November the whole work of destruction- was done within a 

 week. 



Where it is well grown, Marie Louise must still take rank as 

 the best Violet grown ; very few, however, have clean stock 

 of it in this section. The way this and other varieties are 

 grown by Mr. A. McKay, of South Framingham, Massachu- 

 setts, is an object-lesson to those who have never seen Violets 

 as he grows them. Last year he had flowers of Marie Louise 

 which covered a silver dollar, and this season his stock of this 

 variety, as well as Farquhar, Swanley White and Lady Hume 

 Campbell, is superb, and promises to beat last year's record. 

 We recently received some blooms of the new variety Farqu- 

 har from a friend on Cape Cod ; they averaged as large as a 

 half-dollar, and some were slightly larger ; for so early in the 

 season these were exceptionally fine, and the stems were 

 seven to eight inches in length. This variety promises to be a 

 useful one ; in color it is identical with Marie Louise. Lady 

 Hume Campbell is probably more grown than any other 

 double variety. Last year our plants in frames gave hardly 

 any flowers until the end of February ; this season they have 

 been blooming finely for the past six weeks. Although a good 

 deal paler than Marie Louise in color, its many good qualities 

 commend it to nearly all who have grown it. It is not disease- 

 proof by any means, as we have seen whole houses of it wiped 

 out, but, taken all in all, it is the cleanest of the double ones 

 we have grown, and many who have failed to make a success 



