August 26, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest 



407 



New Hardy Roses. — My observations upon the Rose are 

 chiefly with a view to their adaptation for garden-purposes. I 

 can speak of but few this season. Augustine Guinoisseau 

 seems to me an acquisition to the La France group, and likely 

 to prove a valuable addition to this class of Roses. The 

 color is a pale rose or cream, and apparently it flowers as 

 freely as La France, the plant making a similar growth. We 

 have now a trio of beautiful flowers, namely, La France, 

 Duchess of Albany and the above, that will undoubtedly 

 prove of great value for summer-bedding purposes. If we 

 could add to these a pure white, the group would supply a fine 

 quantity of color for the garden. Gustave Piganeau has a flower 

 of the largest size ; color, bright carmine lake ; habit, good ; 

 petal, firm ; I confidently expect this Rose to prove an acqui- 

 sition. The flower is similar to that of the Countess of Oxford. 

 Jeannie Dickson has a striking flower of a bright cheerful 

 color, rosy pink, and, from a single bloom, I am favorably im- 

 pressed with it. It is another addition to the scentless class 

 of Roses, and, like the Baroness Rothschild, its strength will 

 make it a fine exhibition rose. Lady Arthur Hill is another of 

 Dickson's new Roses ; the form of the flower is rarely equaled, 

 the color rosy lilac, and it appears to be a free bloomer. — 

 Win. H. Spooner, President of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society. 



Azaleas for Forcing. — Vervseneana bears a large double 

 flower of a rich rosy pink color, broadly margined with white 

 and with a carmine blotch. It is very distinct and free-flower- 

 ing, and it forces well ; indeed, it is one of the best of its class. 

 Imperatrice Victoria is perhaps the most beautiful of the 

 double-flowering Azaleas, with flowers of rosy pink, banded 

 with pure white. The plant requires careful attention during 

 the hot summer months, or the foliage will turn brown and 

 drop. Madame Louis Vervaene is a most distinct va- 

 riety, with flowers pure white, striped and spotted with 

 rosy carnation tints. Triomphe de Mont St. Amand bears 

 very large double flowers of a clear rose color, with pure white 

 ribbon and a bright carmine spot on the upper segment. The 

 best of the older varieties are Madame Vandercruysen, Simon 

 Mardner, Empress of India, Emperor of Brazil, Bernhard An- 

 dreas Sakuntala (if Easter is late), and Deutsche Perle (if 

 Easter is early). — James Dean, Bay Ridge, N. Y. 



New Pansies. — The old English and Scotch strains that the 

 German seedsmen have taken hold of and subdivided into 

 ever so many varieties remain practically the same under 

 their new names, and I do not see that any improvement has 

 been made in them except in the catalogues where they are 

 rechristened. A really new strain is the Trimardeaux, origi- 

 nated by a florist near Paris, France, but it has been greatly 

 improved since its first production. These Pansies are very 

 large in every way, with very hardy flowers and foliage, en- 

 during well the extremes of heat and cold, and they give gen- 

 eral satisfaction all over the country. Another new strain, 

 also of French origin, is the Odier, or fine spotted varieties, 

 which of late years have been greatly improved by the well- 

 known specialists, Cassier and Bugnot, the latter especially in- 

 troducing new shades of color and flowers which would have 

 been thought impossible a few years ago. These last strains, 

 however, are by no means as hardy as others, owing, I sup- 

 pose, to closer breeding. These two races are the only really 

 new varieties that have been introduced within the past few 

 years, and that are, in my opinion, of any merit, and I have 

 come to this conclusion after having tried within the past five 

 years everything of note in the Pansy line. — Denys Zirngiebel, 

 Needham, Mass. 



THE CONSTRUCTION AND HEATING OF GREENHOUSES.. 



Essays were read on this subject by Mr. John N. May, of 

 Summit, New Jersey ; Mr. E. G. Hill, of Richmond, Indiana, 

 and Mr. F. R. Pearson.^of Tarrytown, New York. Mr. Pearson 

 insisted especially on durability as an essential quality of such 

 structures, and considered the constant expense for repairing 

 one of the most serious drawbacks to commercial success. 

 He advised the use of a continuous iron rafter, from the ridge 

 to the ground and set in concrete, so that the frame of the 

 house will contain nothing perishable. After explaining elab- 

 orately the construction of such a house, Mr. Pearson spoke of 

 certain conveniences, and from this part of his paper we 

 quote the following : 



Devices which save labor are matters of prime importance 

 in the greenhouses of commercial florists. In arranging for 

 the application of liquid manure, for example, we have large 

 vat» out-of-doors that can be reached readily by carts, so that 

 the labor in handling the manure is small. The manure is 

 dumped into these vats from carts, and water is pumped into 



them by steam. After soaking for twenty-four hours or more 

 the liquid is drawn off into a side vat lower than the first ; two 

 valves close the pipes, oneleading to the firstvat, and one from 

 the well from which our water-supply is obtained, and the same 

 pipes and the same pump are used to distribute the liquid ma- 

 nure. We have such perfect control of it that we use weak 

 liquid manure regularly once a week, and sometimes oftener, 

 and no more time is occupied than in the regular watering. 

 The amount of labor saved by this will be best appreciated 

 when we state that we can now water the place with four men 

 with liquid manure in two hours, whereas by using cans it 

 formerly took four men two days to go over the place. The 

 difference in cost between the two methods would make a sub- 

 stantial profit alone in twelve months. 



In Rose-growing a large item of cost is the annual removing 

 and refilling of the soil in which the Roses are grown. We 

 use small tram car-wheels and dump-cars, the sides of the 

 benches being used as tracks. These cars are made large, 

 and run through the centre of the houses, carrying as much 

 soil as a good stout boy can push, which is more than four 

 boys could carry. When emptying a house, several cars are 

 used, and two or three men are employed filling the cars. As 

 fast as a car is loaded a boy propels it to the end of the house, 

 where it is dumped into a cart in waiting and brought back ; 

 during the time occupied in running down the first car a 

 second car is filled up by the same gang of men, which keeps 

 them constantly employed. By the time the second car is 

 filled the first has been emptied and returned, so by the use of 

 two carts to carry the soil away, and two or three cars in a 

 house, the men are occupied constantly, and the greatest 

 economy in labor is secured. Our houses are 304 feet in 

 length, with doors at either end, which necessitates carrying 

 the soil only 150 feet to the farthest point, and this is rapidly 

 reduced as the houses are emptied. 



An idea seldom thought of is the location of the walks and 

 the purlines with reference one to the other. We use drip 

 bars, which we consider a decided advantage, as they reduce 

 the drip in a house very much, but the location of the pur- 

 lines is still a matter of vital importance, especially where high 

 grade Roses are grown. Drip, in midwinter, on such Roses 

 as La France or American Beauty, will often destroy flowers 

 worth fifty cents to one dollar each. By locating the purlines 

 over the walks almost every atom of drip in the house that 

 would do damage can be obviated, and in our new houses 

 none of the purlines are over the benches. Some will say 

 there should be no drip in a properly constructed house, but 

 we find the drip that causes the damage is that produced from 

 condensation in midwinter weather, and not that which comes 

 in from out-of-doors, and which never occurs when a roof is 

 in proper condition. 



A point worth considering is the destruction of green-fly. 

 We have been skeptical as to the advisability of evaporating 

 tobacco-juice, fearing that the moisture generated would tend 

 to bleach American Beauty Roses, of which we are very large 

 growers, and for that reason we experimented some time 

 before using it on a large scale. Our experiments were satis- 

 factory, and we furnished our whole place with pans or gal- 

 vanized iron troughs, about three feet in- length and four 

 inches in width and depth, fitted to the steam-pipes, the steam- 

 pipes running through the troughs. By setting the steam- 

 pipes close to the bottom of the troughs the liquid is evapo- 

 rated in about two hours, or much more quickly than if the 

 troughs were placed on the pipes. This device should be 

 used more as a preventive than a cure, for if the house is 

 badly infested with green-flies it will take some time to remove 

 them, but when the tobacco-extract is evaporated regularly 

 and constantly no green-fly will ever appear. We have saved 

 hundreds of dollars by the use of this simple remedy, and 

 have demonstrated its desirability beyond all question. 



We consider it a great advantage to take the chill from 

 water before it is used on plants in midwinter. In watering 

 we use a steam-pump. The distribution pipe, after it leaves 

 the pump, is thrown into an ordinary galvanized hot-water 

 boiler, such as is used in kitchens, entering at the bottom, the 

 outlet being at the top. Through the centre of this heater or 

 boiler a coil of one and a quarter inch pipe has been intro- 

 duced containing about fifty or sixty feet. The exhaust steam 

 from the pump is thrown into this coil, and, in passing through 

 it, completely condenses, heating the water to a temperature 

 of about fifty-five or sixty degrees in the coldest weather, 

 which is about the normal temperature of the house. The 

 advantage of this scheme lies in the fact that exhaust steam is 

 absolute waste, and the lost heat is thus utilized. It is a very 

 practical adaptation, from the fact that there is no exhaust 

 steam unless the pump is working, and then the water is cir- 



