10 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



August, 1914 



a great advance in size on the older 

 type, such as Mrs. Langtry, Duchess of 

 Westminster and Minnie Hume, but it is 

 not my idea of a garden plant, being short 

 in the stem. In time we will have Norah 

 Pearson, Diana, Sir Olaf, H. C. Bowles. 

 Honorable Mrs. Francklin, The Fawn and 

 others, but with the exception of Diana 

 these are still expensive. We have, how- 

 ever, White Lady, which is any and every- 

 body's flower if ever there is one. 

 I am inclined to think it will be a 

 second Emperor. 



In the poeticus section the 

 number of the new varieties 

 is legion and the task of 

 selection is most difficult. 

 There is a consensus of opin- 

 ion over here that, like the 

 proverbial dog, every variety 

 "has its day" or year. One 

 is good in 191 2, and another 

 good in 1 914. The best ana 

 most reliable of the more 

 reasonable priced are Cas- 

 sandra, Homer, Horace (red 

 eye), Virgil (early), and Ben 

 Jonson; and of the more ex- 

 pensive kinds Acme (red eye) 

 and Kingsley (lovely rimmed 

 eye). 



An entirely modern type, 

 which we owe to Messrs. R. 

 Van der Schoot & Son of Holland, is the 

 "poetaz" — the result of crossing poe- 

 ticus ornatus with some of the polyan- 

 thus or tazetta varieties. [This type has 

 proven quite hardy in America — Eds.] 

 I consider the introduction of the white 

 trumpet Madame de Graaff, the evolution 

 of the giant Leedsii (such as White Queen) 

 and the coming of the poetaz (Elvira, 

 Aspasia, Jaune a. Merveille, Sunset, Irene, 

 etc.) the three great events in the introduc- 

 tion of daffodil novelties in recent times. 



Tulips have steadily been gaining popular 

 favor in recent years. The advent of the 

 Darwins about a quarter of a century ago 

 gave tulip culture a great fillip. The 

 introduction of finer varieties and the find- 

 ing and putting before the public many 

 choice cottage ones fanned the flame. 

 America wants these just as much asBritain. 

 So much so I am told that, to-day, there is 

 a sort of mimic mania taking place among 

 the growers at Haarlem in their eagerness 

 to acquire stocks of all the best. With 

 regard to what are known as "earlies" I 

 believe the demand is not so great as 

 formerly, and I am not surprised, for now 

 that Cottage, Breeder and Darwin tulips 

 are so much used in bedding arrangements, 

 it follows that there is less need for the 

 others. 



In one way they might be useful still, 

 and that is in what I term the "duplex" 

 tulip bed. This means that in the place 

 of any ground plant, such as an aubrietia, 

 arabis, or phlox, an early and a late variety 

 is planted alternately. Then the early 

 one, when it has done flowering, is cut off 

 either at the ground level or just above the 

 second large leaf. If this is a low priced 



Daffodils have a great range of form and some of the 

 newer poeticus and Leedsii kinds (shallow cups) have re- 

 markable colorings, while the trumpet kinds are more 

 solid and substantial 



one (such as Prince de Ligny, Artus, 

 Prince of Austria, Maas, or Duchess of 

 Parma), the cost need not be very heavy 

 and the two varieties could easily be 

 separated at getting-up time by the long 

 stems of the latter. 



For growing in pots, I think those who 

 wish for new or out of the way flowers 

 might invest in some bulbs of the pure 

 white double Schoonoord — it is as good 

 as any peony — in some Safrano, best 

 described as a pale yellow tea rose; and in 

 Lac van Haarlem, an old but not much 

 known rosy-mauve, rather dwarf growing 

 but a good doer and very distinct. Among 

 the singles, I take it for granted every one 

 grows the lovely orange-red Prince of 

 Austria. It is my ideal tulip and one of the 

 few really sweet ones. This last character- 

 istic it shares with Jenny, which for habit 

 and shape of bloom leaves nothing to be 



desired. Its color is a beautiful cherry 

 red, quite a shade of its own. Two, called 

 after American Presidents — President Taf t 

 and President Cleveland — are good. 

 The first is a striking white with a deep rose 

 edge, which gradually colors the whole, 

 and the second a charming combination of 

 a much paler pink and white. Both are 

 large fine flowers. The only other 

 one in this section that I will men- 

 tion is the new De Wet [which was 

 so conspicuous at the New York 

 International Flower Show in 

 1913. — Eds.] It is a sport from 

 Prince of Austria and in every- 

 thing but color it is a replica 

 of that grand plant. The 

 ground color of the petal is an 

 orange yellow, and there is a 

 fine net work of red veins dis- 

 tributed evenly all over it; the 

 combination giving a bright 

 orange tone to the whole 

 flower. With age the 

 red more and more pre- 

 dominates. It is the 

 best novelty we have 

 had for years. 



Breeders are old self 

 colored kinds that as a 

 rule have a more egg 

 shaped and longer look- 

 ing flower than the 

 square based Darwins. Many 

 of them have yellow bases 

 or bottoms. A fairy tale in 

 connection with this type of 

 flower that I have been told is, 

 that their popularity in the States is based 

 on the belief that the Pilgrim Fathers grew 

 them before the sailing of the Mayflower. 

 They very likely did have something of the 

 sort in their gardens, but they would be 

 there not because they were self colored, 

 as we like them, but because they expected 

 them to "break" or become striped. The 

 only tulips that were of much value until 

 the last thirty years were these broken or 

 striped ones. Now the case is reversed, 

 although I hear there are signs that the 

 old fashion may be revived to some ex- 

 tent. Of these breeder selfs none is more 

 refined than Louis XIV; its aristocratic 

 looking combination of deep rich purple 

 and glossy brown is always admired, more 

 especially in bright sunlight. Gondvonk, 

 a fine large tortoise shell comb color and 

 raw sienna, and Golden Bronze, a cad- 

 mium brown and deep yellow, are two 

 of the best of the brown-yellows. Then 

 there is Panorama, or as it is sometimes 

 called Fairy, but why this name should 

 be given to a flower that suggests anything 

 but such a being I cannot imagine. It 

 has a massive mahogany red bloom of the 

 size and height of the Darwin Millet. 

 Lastly, I would mention Marie Louise. 

 This is a round flower of a fascinating shade 

 of pale old rose edged with a warm apricot 

 and is very distinct. In some years it 

 "comes rough"— that is, many of the 

 flowers develop an abnormal number of 

 segments and sometimes a petal is distorted, 



