September, 1 9 1 -i 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



47 



LEEDSI 



A class containing some unusually fine 

 garden flowers, in fact I have never had a 

 failure with a Leedsi. They are all white 

 petalled and very much alike in coloring 

 but they have a style and individuality 

 about them not found in other sections. 

 They are the most delicately tinted of all 

 the daffodils and have one great advantage, 

 a delicate fragrance inherited from their 

 poeticus blood. At the top of the fist as a 

 garden flower I should place 



White Lady, a daffodil of sterling worth 

 and having almost every good quality. 

 It is big but not too big. It is beautifully 

 formed and gracefully carried. The cup 

 is beautifully ruffled and crimped and 

 is cream colored. It has a fine fragrance. 

 It looks delicate but is a robust hardy sub- 

 ject that need cause no worry. 



White Queen is larger and much more 

 expensive. It is a magnificent daffodil 

 something after the general style of Sir 

 Watkin. The petals are broad and smooth. 

 The cup is unusually large, flaring and 

 frilled. It is a haughty looking showy 

 flower but slow to increase. It was intro- 

 duced fifteen years ago but still retails 

 around a dollar and a quarter the bulb. 

 I could be perfectly happy with White 

 Lady if I didn't have White Queen. 



Waterwitch is another type of Leedsi. 

 It is one of the most delicately graceful 

 daffodils I ever saw. The flowers have 

 long stems and are rather pendulous, the 

 petals being long and the cup less imbri- 

 cated than in many others of the class. It 

 is very floriferous. The entire flower is 



creamy white. Some growers say it has 

 a pinkish tint at sunset or in the twilight 

 although I never could detect it. 



Ariadne is a very durable flower and 

 has a peculiar yellowish cast. The cup is 

 especially fine, being large, well expanded 

 and beautifully frilled. It is a fairly large 

 flower and an excellent garden plant. 



Mrs. Langtry, I believe, multiplies faster 

 than any other daffodil. It furnishes 

 quantities of flowers making up in quantity 

 what it lacks in quality. Beside White 

 Lady, Ariadne, Waterwitch or other modern 

 Leedsis it is a poor thing indeed. 



Minnie Hume, another very cheap var- 

 iety, is valuable because it is one of the 

 parents of the fine race of giant Leedsi. 

 It seeds very readily and scores of magni- 

 ficent flowers are the result of crossing 

 Minnie Hume and Mme. de Graaff. Any- 

 one is reasonably certain to secure seed from 

 this cross and it is interesting and well 

 worth while to try to raise seedlings. 



POETICUS 



To an ordinary gardener, there may be 

 distinctions but precious little difference 

 among the varieties in this class. They are 

 the very- hardiest of all the narcissus. The 

 chief distinctions are in the season of flower- 

 ing, roundness of the perianth, the shade and 

 quantity of-red in the edge of the eye, some 

 of the newer kinds being solid red eyed. 



I have grown five kinds, King Edward 

 VII, Horace, Chaucer, Glory, and the old 

 fashioned poeticus, early and late. Of these 



King Edward VII is the strongest grower 

 and most showy flower. It is much larger 

 than the type and a handsome plant. 



Chaucer comes earlier than King Edward, 

 has a larger eye edged with brighter red. 



Horace is late. It is a big poeticus and 

 its chief distinguishing mark is a brilliant 

 all red eye. 



Glory is another late poeticus something 

 after the style of King Edward VII but 

 with more regular petals and nearer to a 

 circular flower. 



POETAZ 



Twice I have bought collections of this 

 class but in each case was disappointed 

 with one exception. Poetaz Elvira flourishes 

 with all the vigor of a true poeticus, multi- 

 plies freely and makes a fine display. 

 Klondike survived one year, gave poor 

 flowers and died. Others did not survive 

 the winters of Illinois. It is possible that 

 the soil does not suit them. 



DOUBLE DAEFODILS 



A reader of this magazine wrote me some 

 time ago asking how to make Sulphur 

 Phoenix and the double poeticus bloom. 

 Frankly, I don't know how. I have come 

 to regard their blooming as an act of Prov- 

 idence. If Providence sends a cold wet 

 spring, they are reasonably certain to 

 furnish good bloom. If Providence pro- 

 vides a warm spring and only fairly wet 

 they are sure to bud and the buds are sure 

 to blast. However, concerning the double 

 poeticus, it does not do well in light soil. 

 Sulphur Phoenix likewise wants a heavy 

 soil but even then is a mean subject about 

 developing its blooms in this section. 



The double Van Sion is good for two 

 years or so and then turns green for me. 



Grapes In Everyone's Own Small Garden — By J. R. Matte™, 



QUALITY VARIETIES SELECTED TO FIT THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY 



Mary- 

 land.. 



ON THE smallest bit of ground 

 you can grow enough grapes of 

 the finest quality to keep your 

 family eating from August, when 

 they first ripen, till 

 after Christmas, and 

 even then the long 

 keeping sorts may not 

 begin to fail. They 

 are particularly suited 

 to home gardens be- 

 cause they may be 

 grown about the 

 edges, on trellises or 

 on the fence, and be- 

 cause proper varieties 

 will give you fruit no 

 matter much how 

 severe the winters or 

 how bad the spring 

 frosts. 



Good vines will live 

 and bear longer than 

 their planter lives, 

 and they begin to 

 yield the second or 



third year. If spring frosts kill the first 

 blossoms most varieties will put out a 

 second bloom. In cold sites plant the 

 grapes on the sunny side of a stone wall 



A single grape vine may be counted upon to yield from thirty to eighty bunches every season 



or a building, and in your garden any- 

 where set them so they get all the sun- 

 shine there is. Planting can be done in 

 fall or spring, as you like. 



It is said that 

 grapes prefer a loose 

 and fertile loam but I 

 should not hesitate to 

 plant them in any 

 garden without re- 

 gard to its type of soil. 

 I would give the 

 ground a thorough 

 working, and feed the 

 plants a little at 

 planting time. The 

 roots of the vines 

 ought to be set shal- 

 low — the lower tips 

 no more than six 

 inches beneath the 

 surface. About eight 

 feet apart is the pro- 

 per distance, though 

 this may be reduced 

 to six feet in cramped 



