December 25, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 

 t 



517 



to a class that is all too scarce, namely, hybrids of delicate tints 

 approaching to white. Clio is another of this class, but grow- 

 ers say that it also is of a delicate constitution and not desirable 

 for early flowering, but as it is grown by the English growers 

 it would seem not to be delicate. Another season will, per- 

 haps, decide the matter. 



Mrs. R. G. Sharman Crawford is one of the newest Roses 

 with a good reputation for forcing. It is also distinct from all 

 others in color, a deep rosy pink, the outer petals shaded witli 

 pale flesh and merging into white at the base. It has been 

 one of tlie sensational varieties of recent years, and will prove, 

 it is hoped, good for indoor work. Captain Pf ay ward is another 

 sort not so well known as it deserves, a bright carmine-crim- 

 son of superl) form and sweetly scented, and will make a 

 good forcing Rose as far as can now be judged. - 



To those who cannot devote an entire house to early hybrid 

 Roses during the whole year, there is an easy way to get good 

 flowers quite as early and of equal perfection by planting in 

 boxes at least six inches deep and of length to suit the benches, 

 or long enough to plant four plants lengthwise and two deep. 

 We get two crops of flowers by this method eacli spring 

 indoors, and a considerable number of flowers during the 

 summer and fall when the boxes are set out-of-doors to make 

 their growth. They need comparatively little water ; a sprink- 

 ling overhead with the hose serves to keep them both clean 

 and moist, and in the fall the boxes are set on their sides to 

 keep the plants from fall rains and to help mature the wood, 

 which is at this time of a deep mahogany color with promi- 

 nent buds for next season's bloom. zr ^ /^ 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpct. 



Propagating Chrysanthemums. — We have renewed our propa- 

 gating-bed with clean gray sand, and intend in the course of a 

 week to put in some cuttings of Chrysanthemums for Speci- 

 men plants. This is about a month earlier than we have 

 usually done this work, but, as the plants are intended for 

 exhibition, they will need a longer season if they are to grow 

 large enough to win a prize. Strong, short-jointed cuttings 

 taken from as near the base of the stems as possible are the 

 best. These should be cut into tlie soft growth and shorn of 

 a few leaves, which would, if left on, hang about the base of 

 the cutting and encourage damping. Abundance of water 

 must be given for the first week, for the cuttings should never 

 be allowed to wilt. They will be rooted in about thirty days, 

 and may be potted into small pots in light soil and kept in a 

 cool house. 



Wellesley, Mass. J^ ■ J->. Ji- 



Solanum capsicastrum —For the Christmas season no better 

 decorative plant can be had than this old-fashioned and beau- 

 tiful little subshrub. The numerous globular fruits, which are 

 about half an inch in diameter and of a brigl^t scarlet color, 

 contrast well with the dark olive-green foliage. The plants, to 

 be effective, should be dwarf and bushy, about as wide across 

 as they are high and witli well-set fruit. To grow them suc- 

 cessfully, an airy and partially shady position must be had in 

 summer. The watering should receive careful attention, and 

 under no circumstances must the plants be allowed to get dry. 

 At the same time the drainage must be good. Pinching of the 

 young shoots is necessary to form bushy specimens, but as 

 soon as the flowers appear in summer care must be taken not 

 to pinch off flowering shoots. The flowers, and consequently 

 the fruits, are produced in little clusters nearly opposite the 

 leaves. The stem is slender and branching, with alternate, 

 more or less lanceolate, leaves, generally appearing two to- 

 gether, one being much larger than the other. Altogether, 

 this makes a most cheerful fruiting plant for Christmas table 

 decoration. 



Laelia anceps. — This beautiful Orchid, so rich in variety of 

 color, is one of the very best for the Christmas season. The 

 firmness and lasting quality of its flowers, their moderate size 

 and delicate texture make this one of the most valuable of 

 winter-flowering plants. The color ranges widely from pure 

 white in the rarer and more expensive varieties to flesh-color, 

 rosy purple, pale purple, rose and lilac, with more or less 

 deeply colored crimson-purple, deep purple or maroon in the 

 lip. The plants succeed well in cool and airy positions during 

 summer, tlieir growing season. They do well on blocks of 

 wood or in baskets, the former mode being preferable, as the 

 plants take no nutriment except from air and water. Well- 

 diluted manure-water once a week is excellent for this as well 

 as tor most Lrelias and Cattleyas. The large growers nowa- 

 days use very little fibrous peat and moss, if any at all, as it is 

 not essential ; it is rather an obstacle to the free development 

 of the numerous long and fleshy aerial roots. -v? cv r, 



Newark, N.J. " ^V. J. A. 



Correspondence. 



Chrysanthemums. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Probably the majority of visitors to Chrysanthemum 

 exhibitions in Boston would be as well pleased with smaller 

 specimen plants than they have been accustomed to see, if 

 they indicated equal cultural skill, but of late years the size of 

 the plant has become such an important element in success- 

 ful competition, that all growers for exhibition must make it 

 a leading object. 



Perhaps fashion in flowers has very much changed the 

 ChrysantliQiium during recent years, during even the last five. 

 The Boston schedule five years ago called for all classes, and 

 it was generally understood that there should be included rep- 

 resentatives of all the types ; and, as a matter of fact, the exhib- 

 itor who had the most diverse group, all things being equal, 

 stood the best chance of winning. But size does not always* 

 go with this differentiation of the species, so that the neater 

 Chinese, Anemone-flowered and Pompon varieties have been 

 discarded in favor of the Japanese sorts. 



I am disposed to think that we, the gardeners and florists, 

 are making this fashion rather than the public ; and that, if the 

 Chrysanthemum is losing its popularity, as some say, we are 

 to blame in a large measure. The criterion set up by the 

 Chrysanthemum Society of America, of a stiff stem, with foli- 

 age up to the bloom, of decided colors, yellow, white, pink and 

 crimson, without shadings, leaving out llie purple and bronze 

 colored varieties, forces raisers of new varieties who need 

 their recognition, -to discard many worthy kinds which would 

 lend variety in color, so necessary in tlie proper blending of 

 any color-scheme or combination. .The demand of the pro- 

 fessional florist for varieties of good shipping qualities has 

 been another important consideration with the judges ; and 

 any loose-petaled varieties, no matter how attractive in form 

 the flowers may be, seldom get more than " commendation." 

 Very naturally, the florist will not grow these odd varieties, 

 and discards them one after another as fast as it is discovered 

 that they cannot be shipped to advantage. The retailer does 

 not want them either, as he cannot handle them as profitably 

 as he can the compact and mostly incurved flowers of the 

 Japanese type, so common of late years. In looking over the 

 catalogue ofa leading firm in 1890, the only varieties of any 

 standing among florists to-day are Minnie Wanamaker, W. H. 

 Lincoln and Eda Prass, and these are holding their own for the 

 simple reason that they can be shipped advantageously. The 

 following comments I copy from Mr. A. H. Fewkes' report 

 as chairman of the Flower Committee, in the Transactions of 

 iJie Massachusetts Horticttltural Society for the Year iSg^. 

 He says : 



" The extremely large blooms are magnificent in their way, 

 and show what can be done with the Chrysanthemum in skill- 

 ful hands. We would not say one word against them, but in 

 striving for immense size are we not losing many interesting 

 forms which always attract attention when put on exhibition ? 

 It is true, these are not valuable commercially, but a Chrysan- 

 themum show is not complete unless all the various forms 

 are represented, and efforts should be made to grow as many 

 forms as possible. Many curious varieties have come to this 

 country from Japan which have been lost, simply because they 

 were of no use as market flowers, or because they could not 

 compete in the same class as the monster blooms. This 

 should not be so, and we hope at no distant time we shall see 

 more of the small but curious forms at our exhibitions." 



In moving among private gardeners and amateurs we know 

 that they would prefer to see more of the artistically and curi- 

 ously formed flowers grown than we have, and when a dozen or 

 more are arranged in a vase a variety of color and shading, 

 when handled with proper skill, produces the best effect, and 

 when it is possible to mix in a few smaller blooms with the 

 larger ones a still better effect can be made. Among the varie- 

 ties which florists every year discard may be found such as 

 Spaulding's Heron's Plume, a lovely variety with shining strap- 

 shaped petals of the purest white, and twisted like a ball of 

 ribbon ; Gloriana is a"^yellow variety of similar make; lora, a 

 finely built flower of tubular, twisted and inlerlaced petals, of 

 a lovely lavender-pink, a color found in no other variety. In 

 carrying a large plant of this variety over seventeen miles of 

 road into the Boston exhibition we had to make a separate 

 parcel of every bloom, snugly twisting it up in tissue-paper, or 

 all the blooms would have so interlaced that they never could 

 have been separated without destroying the beauty of the 

 plant. There is Tuxedo, of brilliant orange-red, no other 

 known variety equaling it in depth of color, but the flowers 

 are undersized ; that is enough to consign it to oblivion. 



