498 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 355. 



December Notes. 



THE last Crocus has but lately disappeared from the garden, 

 which now shows life only in the progressive foliage of 

 early spring-flowering plants. December is the month in 

 which the amateur gardener can secure his most perfect rest, 

 even if there be a greenhouse to care for. If this house is a 

 small one it requires little attention, when many plants move 

 very slowly under the dull skies and short days of the season. 

 Low fires and plentiful supplies of air save much work under 

 glass. Evaporation is slow and insects do not increase very 

 fast,, and a few moments' work after breakfast suffices to keep 

 plants in fair order. It does not seem to me that the pursuit 

 of pleasure should commence before breakfast. 



The prompt replies to my request for cultural details of 

 Gloriosa superba (see page 426) interested me very much, 

 not only by the information, so clearly conveyed, but because 

 it was an instance of the differing conditions under which 

 flower-growers are working in various sections. Here is a 

 plant which makes great tubers in the open in Florida, and 

 requires a tropical stove in Massachusetts. Surely we are 

 justified in trying more than one treatment to any single plant, 

 and the rule of "supplying natural conditions" does not invaria- 

 bly give best results. Why should they ? Have we not often 

 found that foreign weeds which have become naturalized here 

 grow stronger than they do at home ? 



When one opens wide the greenhouse ventilators in late 

 May, and only closes them again in September, I fear that the 

 plants which require niceties of treatment must suffer. It is 

 in such cases that we amateurs are constrained and forced to 

 be content with inferior or uncertain results. Summer-grow- 

 ing tropical plants are always uncertain under my system of 

 free ventilation, yet there will always be some successes in 

 our collections. This season the Calanthes are doing well," 

 though the Gloriosas, which I suppose require about the same 

 temperature, have failed. 



■ During this month one can keep the greenhouse gay with 

 Paper-white Narcissus, Roman Hyacinths, Freesias, which 

 do not require much urging, and there will always be stray 

 plants in flower, and the list of these will increase as the days 

 lengthen and a higher temperature is maintained. 



Elizabeth, N.J. J. N. G. 



Late Chrysanthemums. — Philadelphia growers have found 

 Mont Blanc one of the very best late white Chrysanthemums for 

 profit. Of the pink varieties Mrs. Charles Dissel has not yet 

 been surpassed by any of its color. Eva Hoyt continues 

 among the most satisfactory of the late yellow kinds, and my 

 judgment is that it will not be superseded soon. All these 

 plants have been in cultivation for many years, but they hold 

 their ground well. Last year the variety Challenge was sent 

 out by Messrs. E. G. Hill & Co., and it gave promise of taking 

 the lead among late yellow plants. It is a noble flower of 

 first-rate color, and is very late, but it has the bad habit of 

 shedding its terminal buds, a peculiarity that I have never 

 observed in any other Chrysanthemum. I tried many of the 

 new white and pink varieties sent out last year, and said to be 

 late, but they all bloomed with the ordinary mid-season 

 varieties. Two years ago I raised a plant which I named Mrs. 

 Thomas Cartledge. It carries a large white flower, in- 

 curved, and of perfect form, and it has so far been one of 

 the latest on the list. I have not put it in commerce yet, for I 

 want the experience of another year or two to prove that it 

 really is what I hope it is. Another late variety I have named 

 " After the Ball." Its natural time of flowering is the first of 

 December. It is a large incurved blush-white variety, but it 

 shows the eye. This variety is not in commerce. 



Philadelphia, Pa. W. K. Harris. 



Correspondence. 



A Robust Pin Oak. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the meadow in front of my house, thirteen miles 

 from Philadelphia, is a Pin Oak, Quercus palustris, that has 

 retained its green foliage in a rather unusual manner this year. 

 About the 14th of October the Oaks in this locality had made 

 some progress toward a change of color, and two weeks later 

 (28th) the glory of the autumn coloring was at its height ; this 

 particular Pin Oak, however, retained a bright green foliage. 

 Three weeks after the first changes (November 4th) the other 

 Oaks had mostly lost their bright colors, but this one was still 

 green, with only the outer leaves a little brown, and now, two 

 weeks later (18th), it is more green than brown, although the 

 latter shade is very apparent. 



It would be interesting to know by what power this particu- 

 lar tree has retained its green, when three other Pin Oaks near 

 it colored three or four weeks earlier, and have lost nearly all 

 their foliage ; it is true that the latter in their early change took 

 on a brighter coloring, but the former, with its deep green 

 leaves, stood in marked contrast with all the other trees in the 

 landscape, except the Junipers. There have been numerous 

 frosts, and the thermometer has registered as low as twenty- 

 eight degrees. The tree is not in an especially protected loca- 

 tion, but it is a perfect type of its species, of medium size and 

 age, and beautifully symmetrical. 

 Saint David's, Pa. Henry Trimble. 



[Individuals of nearly all species of trees vary more or less 

 in the way their leaves change color in the autumn and 

 in the time of shedding them, and such individual peculiari- 

 ties are often constant from year to year. As we have often 

 insisted, gardeners should take advantage of them, and 

 propagate trees and shrubs for ornamental planting with 

 reference to the brilliancy of the autumn coloring of their 

 foliage. In a group of Pin Oaks, for example, an indi- 

 vidual, such as our correspondent describes, retaining its 

 green foliage after the other trees in the group had become 

 scarlet, would add greatly to the beauty and interest of the 

 plantation. This is a subject of much importance to land- 

 scape-gardeners and one that is full of possibilities, although 

 we have yet to learn that it has received any attention from 

 them or from the superintendents of public parks. — Ed.] 



Chrysanthemums Naturally Grown. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — Mr. Watson, in his London letter, referring to some 

 specimen plants of Chrysanthemums exhibited at the Crystal 

 Palace show, says: "As examples of exceptional skill they 

 were the feature of the exhibition, but in a picturesque sense 

 they were excessively ugly." A gentleman at the Boston ex- 

 hibition remarked of the groups of trained plants, " Fine plants, 

 but horrid." Both gentlemen stand high in the profession — 

 one is a practical gardener, the other a much-traveled and 

 scientific authority. 



Now, it is worth while for gardeners to analyze such judg- 

 ments and see exactly what they mean. Probably the under- 

 lying assumption is that specimen plants, if grown naturally, 

 would be less formal and more artistic. Mr. Gerard has fre- 

 quently, in your columns, urged the claims of Chrysanthe- 

 mums " naturally grown," whatever that may mean. It is hard 

 to imagine any one becoming enthusiastic over bare-legged 

 plants shivering in a frosty morning, with their heads hanging 

 down out-of-doors. One would rather see them in congenial 

 quarters, even if it is not perfectly natural to cover them up. 



I have grown a few specimens every year without stakes. 

 Thev were neat little plants of varieties suitable for this pur- 

 pose. I have observed visitors of an artistic and critical turn 

 go into raptures over them, but the fact is that they had not 

 been left to nature ; they had required and received just as 

 much care and skill in cultivationas the most severely trained 

 plants. They had been carefully pruned into shape, and kept 

 so by intelligent stopping, so that they were well-balanced and 

 quite globular in outline. If I had left them or any of the gen- 

 eral run of varieties grown out-of-doors as bush-plants, with- 

 out any training or handling, they would have been twisted 

 and blown out of all form and comeliness, more natural, per- 

 haps, but unsightly enough, especially after they had lost half 

 of their leaves from insect and fungous attacks. 



If societies will offer prizes for so-called natural plants they can 

 have good exhibitions of Chrysanthemums without stakes, but 

 the best ones will be grown with as much care and skill as the 

 most artificially trained varieties. If staked specimens are to 

 be grown they certainly ought to be grown well, and at the 

 late Boston show the prize did not go to the biggest plants, 

 but to the most highly finished plants. If natural specimens 

 are called for, the best ones will show to the instructed eye 

 that they have had as much thought and attention as if they 

 were staked and tied to the last degree. It is skill which 

 counts in gardening, and the man who is sufficiently expert to 

 grow first-prize trained plants will probably stand abreast of 

 any who grow first-prize natural plants. 



" Natural " is a convenient word to use when we wish to dis- 

 credit skill ; but nature has just as much to do in producing 

 staked plants as in producing good natural plants, so called. 

 Nature supplies the vital force — man directs it in either case. 



Boston, Mass. R. "• 



