January 13, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



17 



bright sunshine in the orangery, facing north-west. Theflower- 

 buds are now showing, and in the course of a montli it will 

 be worth going a long way to see. The conservatories are 

 gay with Cinerarias, Cyclamens, Primulas, Cytisus racemosus 

 and C. elegans, Eupatoriums, Antirrhinums, Coreopsis Drum- 

 mondii, Euphorbia fulgens and E. pulcherrima, Lantanas, Im- 

 pjtiens Sultani, Statice Holfordi, Freesias, Libomas and many 

 other plants. Daphne Indica, Begonia nitida, Freesias, Mignon- 

 ette and Violets emit a Dleasant perfume. 

 Wellesley, Mass. " T. D. Hatfield. 



Garden Phlox. 



T'HE varieties of garden Phlox are doubtless more useful 

 ■l for summer decoration than any other one class of plants. 

 They are in bloom for three to four months of the year, and 

 few hardy border plants give as much satisfaction for the little 

 care required. Perhaps the slight attention they need is a 

 drawback to their cultivation, as the general impression is that 

 it is only necessary to set out the plants and the work is done. 

 There could not be a greater mistake made with regard to gar- 

 den Phlox, or, indeed, any other garden plant of value, and 

 only such plants as Dandelion and Purslane take care of them- 

 selves. 



Ail highly developed plants, such as Phlox, Double Pyre- 

 thrum and Larkspur, are the result of rigid selection and atten- 

 tion, and the tendency is to revert or degenerate to original types. 

 How often when passing a neglected wayside garden do we 

 see near the fence a few Tiger Lilies, a clump ot Pasony, and 

 almost inevitably a few tall stems of the old purple Phlox. If 

 the latter is closely examined it will be found to be almost 

 identical with P. paniculata, from which all of this class sprang. 

 No matter how intricate the pathway up to the florist's stand- 

 ard of a good type of garden flower, it is only a step or two 

 back to original principles, and any one who grows such plants 

 in the garden knows tiiat it is more trouble to weed out the?e 

 reversions each year than to eradicate true weeds. The highly 

 developed varieties of garden plants must be nursed and fed 

 according to their needs. Phlox is a great feeder and requires 

 a constant supply of rich food to keep it in good health. A 

 strong clump will die out, not at once, perhaps, but in a season 

 or two, simply from lack of nourishment. Before it dies an 

 abundance of seed will have been scattered, and the weaker 

 the parent plant, the greater the proportion of feriile seeds, 

 for this is nature's method of perpetuating its kind. The 

 result the next year is a quantity of degenerates in the border, 

 and sometimes there is a tendency of the original plant to revert. 



There are three well marked divisions of border Phlox. 

 One has P. suffruticosa as its parent, and is not so often in 

 evidence as the other two that owe allegiance to P. paniculata. 

 From this species there are two sections, one early-flowering 

 and dwarf, and the other is taller and flowers late in summer. 

 These two last named are the ones of most value, from which 

 we have the best forms with brightest colors. There is 

 not much to choose between the productions of Lemoine in 

 France and Kelway in England. Lemoine was the pioneer in 

 this, as in other great advances with garden plants, while 

 Kelway has carried 011 the work and done much to distribute 

 his plants. A list of the best sorts is scarcely needed here, 

 and would be a repetition of lists already published. 



The longevity of these plants depends on their propagation. 

 If only a few reserve plants are needed to keep up the supply, 

 the clumps should be lifted in spring as soon as frost will per- 

 mit. They should be divided carefully and the pieces re- 

 planted in fresh soil. If a larger number is required, the 

 clumps should be placed in a warm greenhouse or hot-bed 

 until they send up young shoots. These should be taken off 

 as soon as long enough, when they will root freely. If grown 

 in pots and hardened off they may be set outdoors in early 

 summer, and they will flower freely at the proper time. Only 

 one large head will be produced the first year, but thereafter 

 the roots will increase rapidly. If a quantity of summer 

 decorative plants in pots are required, some may be kept and 

 grown on in pots, giving them a shift as they need it, and few 

 plants will give greater color-effects than good garden Phlox 

 grown in tins way. It is also possible to prolong the season 

 of flowering by taking off the flower-head as soon as it appears. 

 The dormant side-shoots will then develop, and the display 

 will be equally good, but laler. 



Like many other of our best garden plants, these are purely 

 North American. The original species was found here, but 

 was developed in Europe, as were Pentstemons, and more 

 recently the common wayside Aster. The latter are fertile in 

 good forms of garden origin, but these do not seem to have 

 yet recrossed the Atlantic. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Offict. 



Seedling Orchids. — We have had in flower here for six weeks 

 past a seedling Cattleya, a hybrid between C. intermedia and 

 C. Mossite. The flowers are much larger and in every way a 

 decided improvement on those of C. intermedia, the sepals 

 and petals beinga delicatelight rose, and the labellum blotched 

 with purple and yellow extending well up into the throat. The 

 pseudo-bulbs are nearly a foot long, with two large dark green 

 coriaceous leaves at the apex. A robust-growing Cypripedium 

 now flowering is a seedling of C. Ashburtoniae and C. Curtisii. 

 It has flowers as often as three times a year. It has a large 

 dorsal sepal with a deep band of white which ends with a shad- 

 ing of light green. The petals are shaded light purple with 

 numerous spots, and the dark hairs extend the entire length 

 on both the upper and lower margins. The pouch is large 

 and reddish brown, and altogether it seems to be an admirable 

 plant to breed from. Another is a seedling of C. Javanicum 

 crossed with C. ciliolare, a strong grower, producing two flow- 

 ers on a stem, large dorsal sepal white with light rose-colored 

 veins, petals light green spotted, and a pouch light red. We 

 have several seedlings of C. speciosum crossed with other 

 species and varieties, many of them in flower and others com- 

 ing on, and although we have none which present any decided 

 improvements either in richness of coloring or grace of form, 

 they amply repay all our trouble, and we are assured that any 

 one with even a small collection of Orchids can derive a great 

 deal of profit and pleasure by crossing them and raising seed- 

 lings. 

 Tan-ytown, N. Y. William Magee, Jr. 



Correspondence. 

 Orange Groves as an Investment. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Mass meetings are now being held throughout Cali- 

 fornia to ask Congress for increased duties upon importations 

 of such foreign-grown fruits as compete with those grown in 

 this country. Among the most interesting facts brought out 

 during the discussions is a careful and exact estimate by an 

 experienced orange grower of the cost of the high-class Orange 

 groves in the San Bernardino valley and adjacent districts, 

 which are now producing the fancy fruit that commands the 

 highest price, and of the annual product which may be ex- 

 pected from those groves. I have never seen such candid 

 figures upon this subject in print, and they may be of interest 

 to some of your readers. 



The initial cost of these groves was $250 an acre for the 

 land, $100 an acre for the water-rights, $50 for grading and 

 preparing to plant the trees, $too an acre for the young tiets 

 and $50 for the planting and staking, making the capital 

 invested at the outset $550 an acre. The use of money in 

 California costs ten per cent, per annum, and interest should 

 therefore be figured at that rate. The care of a grove costs, 

 on an average, $20 an acre yearly. There are assessments 

 upon the water stock, to pay the expenses of caring for the 

 plant and of delivering the water to consumers, amounting to 

 $4 an acre annually. With these expenses each year the in- 

 vestment amounts to $629 at the beginning of the second year, 

 $715.90 at the beginning ot the third year and $81 i.5othe fourth 

 year. At the end ot the fourth year $20 may be deducted as 

 the value of ten boxes of oranges ; $50 may be deducted the 

 fifth year for twenty-five boxes, and $100 the sixth year tor 

 fifty boxes. Adding the expenses as above and deducting these 

 amounts, the net cost at the commencement of the seventh 

 year is $980 an acre. The expenses of interest, etc., during 

 this year amount to $122, and a yield of 100 boxes may be ex- 

 pected, worth $200, net, thus leaving a profit of S78 above 

 expenses the seventh year. 



tn this estimate taxes are not considered, because they vary 

 with location and other conditions. But it is safe to assume 

 that the taxes for the seven years will wipe out the profit ot 

 the seventh year and add $20 to the cost of the grove, thus 

 making the cost at the commencement of the eighth year an 

 even $1,000. The production from this time on increases 

 rapidly, until, in the tenth year, it should amount to 300 boxes 

 an acre, worth, at present prices, from $450 to $600, andgiving 

 a net return ot from $350 to $450, or about forty per cent, upon 

 the investment. These figures are estimated upon the cost 

 of a Navel Orange grove, but the average seedling grove will 

 probably bring equal returns, because if will bear more fruit, 

 although it will be two or three years longer in coming into 

 full bearing. 



While many groves, even in favored districts, do not pro- 

 duce the above amount ol fruit, that product may now be 

 rendered almost a mathematical certainty by following 



