October 3, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



397 



Carnations should have been housed before this date ; but, 

 to insure health and to enable the plants to hold their foliage 

 at tlie bottom, it is best to give them a reasonable amount of 

 space, and also to stake them up before the growths fall over. 

 Various wire devices are now to be had for the latter purpose, 

 and one of the most convenient of these is a wire standard to 

 which are attached several adjustable wire rings. 



Primulas and Cyclamens that have been grown in a frame 

 during the summer had better be removed to the greenhouse, 

 for they will then be much more under control, and less likely 

 to suffer from an oversupply of water. Chrysanthemums 

 will naturally demand a great deal of space and attention for 

 the next two months, some of the chief points in their care 

 being the disbudding and tying of those intended for exhibi- 

 tion, and their protection against insects, since it is impossible 

 to produce perfect flowers with a companion crop of aphis. 

 To keep down the latter pest it is a good plan to spread tobacco- 

 stems among the plants, and to renew the dose as often as 

 the vapor becomes weak. 



The fall crop of bulbs for winter and spring blooming will 

 also come to hand at about this time. Lilium longiflorum and 

 L. Harrisii will be among the first to arrive, and the sooner 

 these are potted and placed in a cold frame the better. My 

 practice has always been to plant the Lilies in their blooming 

 pots at once, rather than to put them in small pots at first, and 

 give them another shift later in the season. 



Tulips, Hyacinths and Freesias should also be planted as soon 

 as the bulbs arrive, for a strong root-growth is essential to 

 success with them. Violets seem to have become so subject 

 to fungoid diseases in some localities that many growers have 

 dropped them altogether, but if clean stock can be had to start 

 with it is well worth the additional labor to spray them regularly 

 with some germicide and thus secure a crop of these charm- 

 ing flowers. One of the first requirements for successful 

 Violet culture is plentiful ventilation. The Violet is essentially 

 a fresh-air plant. At this season, too, overwatering should be 

 carefully avoided, although the other extreme is quite as bad, 

 for drought usually results in an attack of red spider. 



Holmesburg, Pa. W. H. Taplill. 



Begonias as Bedding Plants. • 



THE past summer has given additional proof, if any were 

 needed, of the great value of Begonias in the flower-gar- 

 den. No bedding plants, except, perhaps, Cannas, have flow- 

 ered so well or so continuously or have made a display equally 

 striking. In the very hot and dry weather the tuberous-rooted 

 section did admirably. A slight shade, copious watering and 

 an occasional feeding of liquid-manure seemed to suit them 

 to a nicety, and plants raised from seed sown in February gave 

 any number of flowers six inches in diameter. Just now, when 

 the Geraniums look old and bedraggled, as they too often do 

 after heavy rain-storms, the Begonia-beds are as attractive as 

 ever. 



I should like to emphasize what was said in a recent num- 

 ber of Garden and Forest as to the value of the variety 

 Vernon of Begonia semperiforens. After two years' expe- 

 rience, I cannot speak too highly of it, and whether growing 

 in a heavily shaded place or in the full sunshine it seems to 

 flower equally well. The plants are smothered with bloom all 

 the season through. In the full sunshine the leaves take on a 

 beautiful bronze hue, while in the shade they retain their dark 

 rich green color. 



This year we had a border of Begonias, consisting of many 

 winter-blooming sorts and several ornamental-leaved varie- 

 ties, the green and the variegated forms being evenly mixed, 

 and the whole wasbordered with a row of the tuberous-rooted 

 kinds. The border is shaded from the midday sun, and none 

 of the plants were scorched. Beside an occasional watering 

 and a little topping to keep them shapely they had little care, 

 and yet they made one of the most attractive borders on the 

 place. When lifted with good balls of earth at the root, care- 

 fully potted, placed in a shaded house and sprayed for a few 

 days, these make excellent plants for decorative use in winter. 

 None of those which we have lifted have wilted, and hardly a 

 leaf has dropped. So much better plants are secured from 

 those which are set out, that we shall hereafter discontinue the 

 raising of fibrous-rooted Begonias in pots during the summer. 



Among the varieties which do specially well and flowered 

 profusely with us are the following : Semperlforens Vernon, 

 Semperlforens alba metallica, maculata, Carrieri, incarnata, 

 Weltoniensis, Gilsonii, Sutton's Perfection; Paul Bruant and 

 Bijou deGand. Plants of the Rex section are very useful, but 

 they do best in a heavily shaded place. In rock-work they are 

 most effective and make excellent plants to lift at this season 



for winter use in the conservatory. To have good plants at 

 bedding-out time we insert sections of leaves in the propagat- 

 ing-bed about the end of November, from which we have 

 good stock in four-inch pots in May. When lifted at this sea- 

 son and put in six or eight inch pots they make much finer 

 plants than those which had been grown along in pots all the 

 season. . 



Taunton, Mass. W. N. Craig. 



Pansy Seedlings.— It is now the custom among some of the 

 large growers of Pansies to sow their seeds broadcast in the 

 open in August. It is found that great numbers of plants can 

 be grown very economically in this way, and that they are 

 sturdier and stronger than those more tenderly treated in 

 frames. It would seem a rather risky matter to broadcast 

 these expensive seeds in such an August as we have just 

 passed, a season about as dry as ever known here, after weeks 

 of entire absence of rain, yet a few days ago I saw a large plot 

 of sturdy seedlings, numbering many thousands, which were as 

 vigorous as could be desired, and where the germination had 

 been so general that the plants stood rather too thickly. The 

 seed had been sown broadcast on well-prepared ground, which 

 was covered over with a light mulch of short manure after being 

 compacted. As soon as germination was well advanced the 

 mulch was gradually removed and the plants fully exposed. 



Elizabeth, N.J. G. 



Grapes Prematurely Falling. — The grape-growers of Chautau- 

 qua County will lose part of the crop this season by what is 

 called " rattling" from the stems. The grapes begin to rattle first 

 from the end of the cluster, and generally the clusters farthest 

 from the main vine are earliest affected. The outer margin 

 of the leaves is commonly found to be dried up. The rattled 

 fruit has an insipid taste. In vineyards on newly plowed sod, 

 and in old-established vineyards, the trouble does not appear 

 so serious as in other places, and in many cases vineyards 

 affected last year are not troubled this season. The grapes 

 rattle on high and on low land, on rich and on poor land, on 

 heavy and on light soils. The cause of the trouble is not 

 known, though it is generally supposed in Chautauqua County 

 to come from a lack of potash in the soil ; but while feeding the 

 vines with potash has stopped the rattling in some vineyards, 

 it has not proved a preventive in all cases. Observation seems 

 to show that a faulty nutrition of the vine is at the root of the 

 difficulty, but the conditions which cause this weakness are 

 not satisfactorily determined. There is a possibility that some 

 specific disease is affecting the vines, and its character may 

 yet be discovered. 



Cornell University. G. Harold Powell. 



Correspondence. 



Vases for Cut Flowers. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The article entitled " Vases for Cut Flowers," in your 

 issue for September 19th, seemed to me to contain many 

 words of wisdom, and the teachings of wisdom — that is, of 

 good taste — are too rarely followed in the current methods of 

 arranging flowers for the drawing-room or the dinner-table. 

 And yet I should like to have space to note one or two pas- 

 sages in which I think your correspondent has omitted to 

 mention important points to be considered in choosing 

 flower-vessels, or has restricted the field of choice within too 

 narrow limits. 



In the first place, he almost entirely bars out glass vessels 

 by saying that " All colored glasses are to be rejected, and 

 white or colorless glasses are also objectionable, since, as a 

 rule, flower-stems are unsightly." True, he makes the admis- 

 sion that this rule has exceptions, but, in my judgment, the 

 exceptions are so numerous that the rule should not be laid 

 down. No material for flower-vessels is more beautiful in 

 itself than good glass, for its fragility and the light reflected 

 from its surface give it a delicacy of aspect which accords well 

 with the floral beauty it contains. Moreover, while the stems 

 of many flowers are so unsightly that it is well to conceal them 

 in an opaque vessel, in other cases the stems and lower leaves 

 of cut flowers form an important element of their beautv. A 

 transparent vase, through which the water and inner stems 

 and leaves may be clearly seen, displays a fine group of roses 

 to better advantage than anything else. Indeed, whenever 

 actual ugliness cannot be charged against the lower portions of 

 a cut flower, their revelation of the individual manner of 

 growth of the specimen is generally advantageous. Pure 

 white glass or transparent opalescent glass seems to me an 

 excellent material for flower-vases, and one which should be 



