6o6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 200. 





earth, and gave them a good supply of water, and his imitators 

 may be observed in many gardens in the early spring. The 

 successful growers give their various seeds intelligent study, 

 planting each in well-prepared earth, under proper conditions 

 of warmth and moisture. While my friends appreciate my 

 products, and do not decline to carry them away, they look 

 askance at my seed-pans, which, 'from my point of view, is 

 rather puzzling. Of course they all try a lot of seeds every 

 spring, and usually imitate nature by sowing generously and 

 reaping niggardly. The watering-pot generally does the'busi- 

 ness. Where there are no greenhouse facilities, altogether the 

 best plan for the ordinary run of garden-seeds is to plant them 

 in a frame in a warm corner, say, about the 15th of April in 

 this latitude. Such a frame need be only four boards nailed 

 together and covered with coarse sheeting, which, if oiled and 

 inclined, so much the better. All but the most tender seeds 

 will quickly germinate here, and need very little attention ex- 

 cept a slight care in airing, and the annuals will be mostly 

 ready to set out in the open as soon as the ground is warni. 

 Any one who has had sowings in various places in the garden, 

 each one of which must be protected from cats and hens, to say 

 nothing of watching that they are kept properly moist, will ap- 

 preciate a frame where they can be observed with a single 

 glance. Of course, Poppies and such hardy annuals are bet- 

 ter sown during the winter, mixing them with earth and scat- 

 tering them over their destined beds. 



There are many seeds of hardy plants which seem to do 

 better under rather rough conditions, and seem to need frost 

 or melting snow to start their germination. For seven or eight 

 years I have had under observation the seeds of Scilla Sibirica, 

 which are usually the first things to start in the garden under 

 certain conditions. I have found that seedlings of these are 

 never so abundant and so early as in those years when the 

 trickle from melting snow reaches them. One year those in 

 the border under these conditions germinated three months 

 earlier than those in a cold frame, not quite free from frost 

 but free from melting snow. While many seeds of hardy 

 perennials will germinate as readily as those of annuals, it is 

 not so as a rule, and the cold treatment (in a well-drained 

 place, of course) will be found more frequently the successful 

 one. For such seeds growers frequently expose the pans to 

 snow and frost, and then bring them into a moderate temper- 

 ature to sprout. But many of these seeds are so slow and ir- 

 regular in their germination that in ordinary cases it is as well 

 to leave them in the borders. 



For pans of slow-germinating seeds I have had success in 

 using burnt earth, which will stand for months without be- 

 coming mossy. This is prepared from clayey soil by heating 

 to a red heat. ' These slow seeds not only weary all but the 

 devoted gardener, but also the seedsman ; and it is slight won- 

 der that they are kept in stock by few dealers. The demand 

 is small, and they would be the source of endless complaints 

 from disappointed growers. The seedsman may have his 

 special sins, but I do not find that selling bad seeds is usually 

 one of them. Not only do they find it profitable to furnish the 

 best seed, but the majority of these have longer vitality than is 

 usually supposed.- A large proportion of them will be good 

 the second year at least, and many longer. But there are enough 

 which start too slowly for careless planters — a few hardy per- 

 ennials which need special care — and of these seedsmen are 

 naturally cautious. Seeds of some plants will preserve their 

 vitality for one, two, three or more years, and then all go off, 

 while of other plants one could tell the age of the seed by 

 counting the diminishing percentages in the seed-bed. 

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



Rose Notes. 



A T this time of the year many growers are tempted to give 

 ■**• some extra heat in the Rose-houses in order to secure a 

 larger number of flowers for the holiday season. In most 

 cases, however, they regret such action afterward, because the 

 plants so treated lose much vitality by the operation, and con- 

 sequently fail to respond later in the season when another crop 

 is expected. Preparation for the holidays is best made several 

 weeks beforehand, so that a crop may be brought on in regu- 

 lar order without injurious forcing. 



Careful handling in the matter of temperature is also fully half 

 the battle in forcing Hybrid Perpetuals, for too much heat will 

 give either blind wood or else miserable, deformed buds, while 

 the splendid foliage and flowers produced by many of the 

 market-growers are secured by a careful system of gradual 

 forcing applied to strong, well-rested plants. During mild 

 weather some ventilation will be needed, bearing, in mind the 

 fact that the sun's rays are less powerful now than they will 



be a month later, and therefore but little ventilation will be 

 required to keep the temperature within bounds. Of course, 

 direct draughts should always be avoided. Applications of 

 liquid-manure should be made with caution at this time, too, 

 especially to young plants of the present year's planting, 

 though two-year-oli plants in benches and Hybrids in pots will 

 require some such stimulant from time to time. 



Cuttings of Tea Roses may be put in at any time during the 

 winter and spring, but, if started now, good stocky plants will 

 be secured for next summer's planting. Only a moderate de- 

 gree of bottom-heat is needed for Rose-cuttings, and firm 

 young wood, from which a flower has recently been cut, is the 

 best material. 



The new Tea, Waban, will doubtless prove a valuable Rose, 

 and certainly it is a beautiful one when well grown, though 

 during the present season it does not seem to strike the popu- 

 lar fancy in some of the larger flower-markets of the country. 

 Fashion seems to favor light pink or rose-pink shades in flow- 

 ers rather than dark or reddish pink. Of its free-blooming 

 qualities there seems no doubt, but the growth this year 

 is weaker and the flowers smaller than those of its parent, 

 Catherine Mermet. It is quite possible, however, that this 

 condition is due to over-propagation, and that its vigor may 

 be regained after one or two seasons' growth. At present, 

 plants of Waban can, in most instances, be distinguished from 

 those of Catherine Mermet, where the two are planted side by 

 side, by its smaller leaves and thinner wood, but it is very 

 probable that these characteristics may disappear, for some of 

 the flowers of Waban exhibited by its introducer last season 

 were as large as the best flowers of its parent. 



A tendency to sport has been developed in Madame Hoste 

 in at least one locality, the sport having been in the form of a 

 fine yellow flower, so deep and distinct from the parent as to 

 match well-colored Perle des Jardins at a little distance. This 

 sport was propagated and tested this season, but I was recently 

 informed by the grower that it proved a failure as a novelty, 

 the young plants apparently having reverted to the original 

 variety. 



Souvenir d'un Ami is a handsome old Rose when well 

 grown, though comparatively little used of late years since 

 the larger pink Roses have been more fashionable, but a bench 

 of this variety a hundred feet long and a perfect mass of 

 dark green foliage and long, pointed buds, such as I saw re- 

 cently, was enough to delight any Rose-grOwer. The soil in 

 which these plants were growing was light and sandy, and it is 

 quite likely that this had something to do with their unusual 

 vifjor. 



Holmesburg, Pa. W. H. Taplin. 



Better Begonias Wanted. 



T^HE most enthusiastic admirers of this new race of plants 

 *■ have not gone beyond the truth in praising the brilliancy 

 of these flowers ; a crimson, orange, yellow or white Begonia 

 blossom, four or five inches in diameter, is certainly a remark- 

 able production, when we consider from what it has been 

 developed. 



Yet I confess that they seem, to me, to leave much to be 

 desired. I have grown, or seen, the best obtainable varieties 

 sent out by Laing and others, and neither in the untried seed- 

 lings sold at a low price by the hundred, nor in the selected 

 kinds which cost half a guinea each, do! find the admirable 

 qualities possessed by the original species. The greater size of 

 the flowers of most of the hybrids is not a merit sufficient to out- 

 weigh the entire want of grace which nearly all of these plants 

 display, and their almost total lack of distinctness of habit is 

 a grievous blemish. 



Begonia Boliviensis was one of the first species introduced ; 

 its flowers consist of long, lanceolate segments and hang down- 

 ward. No committee would now give it an award of merit, or 

 even tolerate it upon an exhibition table, but as I saw it last 

 August, growing in a partial shade, bearing, abundant foliage 

 as well as abundant blossoms, I thought it much more attrac- 

 tive than a number of hybrids of good quality growing near it. 



No tuberous Begonia has finer foliage than B.Pearcei, whose 

 leaves of bright green, veined with a much darker shade, have 

 the soft appearance of velvet, and, with the numerous bright 

 yellow flowers, make a plant of great beauty. B. geranioides 

 is a species unlike any other, with its tall flower-stems, carry- 

 ing a mass, of snow-white blossoms with yellow stamens, aris- 

 ing from the fresh, green foliage. It comes into bloom later 

 than many varieties and retains its beauty several weeks. 



No species can exceed B. Davisi in brightness. Excellent 

 for pot-culture or for the open ground, it forms a low, dense 

 tuft of leaves, surmounted nearly all summer by its scarlet 



