September, 1905 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



75 



mala, P. paradoxa, and P. arietina, all of 

 which are European or Asiatic. 



VARIETIES 



The varietal names of peonies are in a 

 chaotic state. In one case we may have a 

 number of different names for the same 

 identical variety, and, on the other hand, two 

 or more totally different varieties may mas- 

 querade under the same name. The Amer- 

 ican Peony Society is trying to straighten the 

 tangle. Taking a consensus of expert opinion, 

 however, it is possible to make up general 

 lists, which will be fair conservative guides 

 for making up a general collection. With a 

 few exceptions all the varieties given in these 

 lists have been in the trade for at least fifteen 

 years (many of them fifty years), and are still 

 popular and much sought after. 



EARLY FLOWERING VARIETIES* 



Single. — Tenuifolia, crimson ; Anemonse- 

 flora, yellow anthers; Officinalis, from white 

 to red; Arietina, very large rose. 



Double. — Officinalis, vars., rubra plena, 

 crimson; officinalis, vars., rosea plena, rose; 

 Officinalis, vars., alba plena, pink to white. 



MLD-SEASON FLOWERLNG VARIETIES 



Single. — Albiflora, white; Whitleyi, white; 

 Pottsi, semi-double dark crimson; Emily, 

 soft rose-pink; Stanley, maroon-crimson. 



Double. — White, or practically white. Fes- 

 tiva maxima, a superb variety; Alice de Julie- 

 court; Boule de Neige, exceedingly beautiful; 

 Mme. Calot; Noemie Demay, beautiful 

 light pink; Mme. Crousse; Albred de Mus- 

 set, blush white flushed with salmon rose; 

 Mathilde de Roseneck. 



Shades of Pink. — Artemise, Jeanne d'Arc; 

 Lady Leonora Bramwell, silvery rose, extra 

 good; Mme. Chaumy; Modeste (Guerin); 

 Charles Verdier; Delicatissima, light rose, 

 carmine margin; Modele de perfection. 



Red or Crimson. — Gloire de Douai, extra 

 good, perhaps the darkest of all peonies; Am- 

 broise Yerschaff elt ; Isabella Karlitzky. 



Pale Red and Sulphur Shades. — Mme. 

 Emile Galle; Triomphe de Paris ; Solfaterre, 

 the finest of all sulphur-colored peonies. 



LATE FLOWERING VARIETIES 



Duchesse de Nemours (Calot), white, very 

 large; Marie Lemoine, white with yellow 

 anthers, very beautiful; M. Dupont. white; 

 Triomphe du Nord (Millez), pink; Mme.. 

 Forel, pink; Souv. de Gaspard (Calot), pink; 

 Berlioz, red; Richardson's rubra superba, red. 



TREE PEONIES 



The tree peony, P. Moutan, is a woody 

 plant, or shrub, three or four feet in height, 

 which does not die down to the ground each 

 year. It is hard to propagate, because it 

 does not form large, fleshy rootstocks like the 

 herbaceous kinds. It is worth growing for 

 the large size of its flowers. Propagation is 

 usually done by grafting on roots of the herba- 

 ceous peony (P. officinalis), which tends to 



[* The names given in this article are those in common use 

 in the trade, but their accuracy is not guaranteed. The 

 whole matter of nomenclature is now being tested by 

 growing collections at Cornell.] 



make it short lived. Fortunately some 

 growers, and especially the Japanese, are 

 beginning to graft it on moutan stocks. 

 When this has been done it is necessary to 

 carefully watch the plants the first year and 

 break off all shoots arising from the stocks in 

 order that they may not choke out the graft. 

 If allowed to grow you will get a host of 

 magenta flowers instead of the delicate colors 

 of the graft. 



In warm, sunny situations tree peonies 

 have a way of budding out too early in spring 

 and so get frozen. On this account it is often 

 necessary to give them a slight protection in 

 spring on frosty nights. There are about 

 one hundred varieties of doubles and five 

 hundred varieties of singles to choose from, 

 but it is really harder to get hold of choice 

 kinds of tree peony than of the herbaceous 

 type. For lawn specimens and for shrub- 

 bery foregrounds the tree peony in pink or 

 white colors is unsurpassed. 



Cornflowers That Lived Outdoors 

 all Winter 



WE have raised cornflowers for many 

 seasons, but never before did we 

 have any that acted like perennials. They 

 bloomed in November, several weeks after 

 the tender vegetables were killed by early 

 frost. The early and continuous snow kept 

 them in cold storage, and in March the 

 plants turned to a healthy green and later 

 sent up buds that bloomed in May, when 

 self-sown cornflower plants were only a few 

 inches high. The plants were unusually 

 strong and bushy, which we attribute to 

 doses of liquid manure given them both last 

 fall and this spring. Doubtless our experi- 

 ence would not have been so remarkable if 

 we had not planted the seeds late, the end of 

 July, and then kept ail the fall-blooming 



flowers picked clean so they could not go 

 to seed. This season's bloom was a month 

 ahead of self-sown plants, which flower the 

 last week in June. R. A. Mason. 



New York. 



August-sown Lettuce That Broke 

 the Record 



Photograph by the author 



WE had fresh lettuce from the open gar- 

 den on New Year's Day. Seed was 

 sown August 13th, but some of the heads were 

 not used and were left standing. The snow 



108. Late flowering is induced by constantly 

 picKing off the earlv buds. These cornflowers 

 (Centaurea Cyanus) were made to flower in November. 

 They remained in the garden all winter and bloomed 

 again in March. A self-sown seedling shown in pot 



109. Sow iettuce in August and September forFali 

 crops. The earlier sowing will mature heads in the 

 open, later sowings are to transplant to coldframes. 

 These heads of Big Boston were sown August 13th 

 and gathered January 1st 



came early and came to stay, so the lettuce 

 was covered all winter. On January ist we 

 saw green leaves showing above the snow, 

 and an investigation revealed several heads 

 of lettuce that looked very fresh, hardly differ- 

 ent from what we pick in midsummer, except 

 that the outer leaves were thick and tough, 

 almost like cabbage leaves, but the hearts 

 were quite good, not so sweet and tender as 

 summer lettuce, of course, but still eatable. 



Several plants were left till spring. They 

 flourished and were in blossom on June 26th, 

 much ahead of the fall-planted lettuce, which 

 was no more than in bud on July 13th, when 

 the wintered lettuce had ripe seeds; from 

 these we expect to have a good crop of heads 

 this fall. Big Boston was the kind used in 

 this patch that wintered over, as that is recom- 

 mended as the "very best for fall," to which 

 we can add, the very best for winter also. 



What a pity lettuce will not stand the hot 

 weather, but evidently the only way to have 

 salad in midsummer is to plant endive! By 

 the middle of July lettuce becomes tough and 

 "bolts" — that is, it starts running to seed. 

 Plenty of water may help matters somewhat, 

 but it is of no use to expect the cos kinds, the 

 most delicately flavored, to stand the heat as 

 well as the cabbage sorts. Lettuce must have 

 a rich moist soil and the surface stirred often, 

 as quick growth makes for flavor, tenderness, 

 and looks. Nitrate of soda worked around 

 the plants, or dissolved in water and poured 

 near the roots, is used by some gardeners. 



