August i, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



307 



ing a new break. The larger-flowered Clematises are effective 

 plants when they do well, but, with the exception of C. Jack- 

 mannii, they are usually short-lived, even with skillful culture. 

 As generally grown they do not cover space very well, and it is 

 not a bad plan to grow them near some more thickly furnished 

 climber. 1 had a plant of Lady Bovill growing and flourishing 

 through a variegated Grape-vine, and the combination was 

 very good. The Clematis foliage has been much eaten this 

 year by the large black beetle which usually appears with the 

 Asters in August. 



The hardy Peas, especially Lathyrus latifolius, are useful for 

 fence-covers, as they will quite overtop it. Of these 1 fancy 

 the white-flowering ones, though those of a light pink color 

 are also pleasing. The type is an ugly purplish-red. I have 

 had named varieties of the type, Turneri being now in flower, 

 and this just escaped being a good color. There are a num- 

 ber of species of hardy Peas which it would be well to try, as 

 L. Drummondii, Sibthorpi, Gorgonus, rotundifolius and tube- 

 rosus, though 1 have not been able to establish them, except- 

 ing only the latter. Then there are several California kinds, as 

 Splendens and Sulphureus, which might be hardy south of 

 New York. 



We have two very good hardy climbers in Apios tuberosa 

 and the Adlumia. The latter is especially delicate, and would 

 be very handsome if it did not flower, but its quickly fad- 

 ing flowers speedily ruin its effectiveness. While not hardy, 

 there is no climber more handsome than Allamanda Hender- 

 sonii, which may be flowered successfully here in the open. It 

 will have to be prepared in the greenhouse by starting a good 

 dormant plant in bountiful root-room in fertile soil. It may be 

 transferred out-of-doors in June, and in not too much sunlight 

 it will flower as strongly as under cover. It might be well to 

 try some other greenhouse climbers in the open, the Passi- 

 floras, Bougainvilleas and Aristolochias, forinstance. How- 

 ever, the really hardy plants will furnish abundant materials 

 for most of our gardens, and there is little danger that we shall 

 all produce uniform effects. 

 Elizabeth, N. J. J.N.Gerard. 



Alstromerias. 



THE hardiness of these fine plants has been very much 

 *■ underrated. In my garden, seeds of Alstromeria auran- 

 tiaca and A. aurea, scattered by the bursting of the seed-vessels 

 upon the surface of the ground in August, take root and 

 grow vigorously the next spring. In this way the neighbor- 

 hood of a large bed always exhibits a number of small plants 

 which grow like weeds, but which do not bloom until the 

 second year. The bed itself has now become a dense mass 

 of plants, and must be dug over in September, so that the 

 tubers may be again planted at proper distances. The young 

 plants go through the winter without injury, though, in spite 

 of the relative mildness of the climate, the thermometer not 

 seldom falls to ten degrees, Fahrenheit, in the course of the 

 winter. Large plants require no covering to protect them 

 from cold, but, unless the root is in very well drained soil, 

 the tubers are apt to rot. I cover my large bed with a 

 board frame in November after the plants have died 

 down, simply to protect the roots from winter rains, yet one 

 or two large plants have done very well without this protec- 

 tion. The soil here is a light loam upon a bed of clay three 

 or four feet below the surface. A top-dressing of stable- 

 manure in the fall is a decided advantage. Vilmorin, in the 

 Fleurs de Pleine Terre, says that even in the climate of Paris 

 the tubers should be buried from twenty to thirty, and even 

 from forty to fifty centimeters (from eight to twenty inches) 

 beneath the surface. Now, not only here at Newport, but 

 even in the much more severe climate of Cambridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, no such precautions are necessary. In a very fine 

 private garden at Cambridge I have seen large clumps of A. 

 aurantiaca and A. aurea which have stood out for years with- 

 out any protection whatever, but it is to be noted that the soil 

 is a rather coarse sand with a bed of clay many feet beneath 

 the surface. What I have said applies also to A. Chilensis 

 and its various forms, but probably not to the other species. 



As it is difficult to import the tubers from Europe on ac- 

 count of their brittleness, it is much better to get good seed, if 

 possible. And this brings me to another point : Most of the 

 seed which I have imported came from a well-known Ger- 

 man firm in Italy, and 1 believe that the seeds sold in England 

 and France come from the same source. It cannot be ob- 

 tained, so far as my experience goes, until the late autumn 

 months at best, and frequently not until the spring. A very 

 small proportion of this seed will germinate, even if sown in a 

 frame as soon as received and protected during the winter, or 



if sown in a greenhouse. Whether this is due to the fact that 

 the seed is not fresh, or that keeping only a few months after 

 it is ripe injures its germinating power, I am unable to deter- 

 mine. There is always a great difficulty in obtaining from 

 Europe seed very recently gathered. As all gardeners know, 

 a year is lost when seeds of many species of Primula and 

 other fine plants are not sown until the spring after they are 

 collected. Has not the time arrived when seed-growing 

 should be undertaken with us ? The same remarks apply to 

 many fine bulbs for summer planting and autumn blooming. 

 I refer, forinstance, to all the Autumn Crocuses, Colchicum, Ne- 

 rines and Sternbergia lutea. These should be replanted as 

 soon as possible after the ripening or decay of the foliage. 

 But it is practically impossible to import the bulbs in July or 

 August. I have usually received them in September at the 

 earliest, and the bloom for the first year is then worthless. In 

 fact, such bulbs require several years to recuperate. Would it 

 not pay the California bulb-growers to cultivate the bulbs 

 which I have named ? 



Newport, R. I. W. G. 



The Hardy Flower-garden. 



AFTER repeated trials, CalochortusWeedii, a rare and beau- 

 tiful species from southern California, has at last bloomed 

 here. The plant is a little less than a foot high, bearing three 

 to five large bright yellow flowers, three inches wide. The 

 bulbs were planted in a frame last autumn and covered with 

 a good depth of leaves. It is one of the last of the Californian 

 species to bloom, coming into flower before the Mexican 

 Calochorti. 



Tigridia Dugesii (Watson), a Mexican plant, is now in bloom. 

 It resembles T. violacea in height, time of flowering and the 

 size of its flowers ; but the flowers are a very pale blue, almost 

 white in fact, with a brown and yellow centre. Nemastylis 

 flava, an Iridaceous plant from Mexico and quite new, is now 

 showing bright yellow flowers about the same size as those of 

 Trigridia Dugesii. The flowers of this genus are generally 

 blue. 



Bessera elegans, now in bloom, has done remarkably well 

 with me this year for the first time. It insists upon having 

 perfect drainage. Indeed, it demands more than this ; it re- 

 quires a dry, sandy situation, and would, no doubt, succeed on 

 the hottest portions of the rockery where the soil is two or three 

 inches deep. 



Erodium macradenium, a plant of the Geranium family, is 

 a low-growing hardy perennial from the Pyrenees. Its height 

 is about six inches, and the pale violet flowers are about half 

 an inch wide. The two broader petals are dark purple at their 

 base. It has been in bloom almost every day since the first 

 of June. 



Gentiana pneumonantha, the Wind Flower, has flowered 

 well with me. It will grow in drier soil than most species of 

 this genus. Its deep blue terminal and axillary flowers are 

 about an inch in length by half an inch through. It is a native 

 of Europe and attains a height of about eight inches. 



Centaurea Ruthenica is a Russian species three feet high, 

 with good-sized heads of pale yellow flowers. Its foliage is 

 rich, and, altogether, I consider it a much more attractive 

 species than the C. dealbata, from the Caucasus, which attains a 

 height of about eighteen inches, with more numerous, but 

 smaller, rose-colored flowers. Both species are quite hardy. 



Veronica spicata, which blooms about the middle of July, 

 has good-sized spikes of light blue flowers three to seven 

 inches long. The plant is about two feet high, hardy, and in 

 every way desirable for the mixed border. 



Lepachys pinnata, a tall western plant, closely allied to Rud- 

 beckia, the Cone-flower, comes into bloom about the last 

 of July. Its drooping bright yellow rays are quite pretty, and 

 it is effective for massing. Rudbeckia speciosa is somewhat 

 similar to the Lepachys, but is taller, with orange-yellow flow- 

 ers three inches across. The yellow petals contrast finely 

 with the dark purple disk. 



Silene Shafta, a Prussian species, opens its purple flowers 

 about the last of July. They are quite small, but numerous, 

 and make the little plant, when at its best, really pretty. Dian- 

 thus glaucus blooms after most of the hardy Pinks are past, 

 and I think this advantage worth noting. Its flowers are fra- 

 grant, about an inch wide, and of a light pink color. 



The little Welsh Poppy, Mcconopsis Cambrica, blooms from 

 seed about the 20th of July. The flower is a peculiar shade of 

 reddish yellow about two inches wide. The plant attains a 

 height of about ten inches. It is a perennial, but did not sur- 

 vive the winter here, though well protected. Perhaps this 

 protection was what killed it. However, it does finely treated 



