THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE 



^ Jfaise <mWder 



rfutfforof 7 7fyS'arcferi , anc( 't?orfkrinMy garden " 



Winter is cold-hearted, 



Spring is yea and nay, 



Autumn is a weathercock 



Blown every way; 



Summer days for me 



When every leaf is on the tree. 



Christina Rosctti. 



The Blindness of T AST month the edi- 



the Dealers Lj tor administered to 



the plant dealers, seeds- 

 men, etc., a shaking-up 

 that has been wanting for a long time. May it 

 bear fruit! It is not meet that American gar- 

 deners who are interested beyond the elementary 

 stages of their craft should have to turn to Eu- 

 rope for material with which to pursue it. Just 

 now the country is swept by a wave of enthusiasm 

 for rock gardening; but how few are the rock 

 plants that are to be procured at home! A 

 search through dozens of catalogues will reveal 

 few beyond the most ordinary kinds. In the 

 matter of seed the situation is even more barren. 

 A lady wrote me a few days ago, after reading an 

 article in Country Life upon this phase of garden- 

 ing, wherein only easily grown rock plants were 

 mentioned, that she was unable to find seed of a 

 single one of these plants in the catalogue of 

 one of our most prominent eastern seedsmen! 

 Just fancy! I should be ashamed to put into 

 print the number of times a year I am under the 

 necessity of giving the names of foreign seedsmen 

 to persons who inquire where they may find the 

 seeds of plants that have been growing freely in 

 my garden for years. English seedsmen are 

 establishing in this country branches that are 

 widely patronized. Are our seedsmen blind to 

 this fact, or are they simply indifferent? And 

 are they and the nurserymen unconscious of the 

 nation-wide barter and trade that is going on 

 among serious amateurs who divide and share 

 their treasures down to the last detachable bi 

 that knowledge of this great craft shall increase 

 and interest in it be kept alive? And that be- 

 cause the dealers will not, or at all events do not, 

 cater to the demand. 



A few years ago one of our most progressive 

 nurserymen, who has since died, told me that at 

 a gathering or convention of his fellows, he was 

 severely taken to task by the head of another 

 large nursery firm for his efforts to collect and in- 

 troduce new plants to the American gardening 

 public, on the grounds of " let well enough alone." 

 This is significant and alarming. Of course 

 there are persons here and there in the horticul- 

 tural trade of our country who are doing good 

 and progressive work, and to them all honor and 

 gratitude is due. But the situation on the whole 

 needs a deal of improving. 



in the European trade, and grown by thousands 

 of European gardeners, they are not to be had by 

 us (since we may not readily import them), 

 short of a personal collecting trip to the Rockies 

 or the Selkirks, to California, or the Southern 

 states. With all this at hand are we still to be 

 put off with the seed of Zinnias and Marigolds 

 and Portulaca? 



The Problem of 

 Getting American 

 Plants 



"^TOW we are faced 

 -L^ with the unmiti- 

 gated hardship of Quar- 

 antine No. 3 7 — temporar- 

 ily, I shall say, for surely such a ruling cannot 

 long stand against the most intelligent opinion of 

 the country — and what is to be done? This 

 country teems with rare plants that would make 

 up to us in a great degree for what we are being 

 deprived of. But although many of them are 



Some More Fume- 

 tories. Pink and 

 Yellow 



A/TR. MORRISON'S 

 ^■*- note last month on 

 Corydalis bulbosa in- 

 duces me to speak of two 

 others of this dainty family that have given me 

 great pleasure. One of them is almost the oldest 

 inhabitant in my garden and was procured from 

 a Rochester nurseryman many years ago. I 

 have never seen it (Corydalis nobilis) elsewhere. 

 This truly "noble," member of the family forms 

 a great tuft of Jeaves not unlike those of the 

 Bleeding-heart (Dicentra spectabilis), from which 

 arise leafy stems closely hung at the ends with 

 pale yellow snap-dragony flowers gaily orna- 

 mented with orange and black. The plant 

 grows nearly two feet tall, and like the Bleeding- 

 heart, it disappears entirely soon after flowering. 

 My single plant has never seeded itself, nor has 

 it done anything so undignified as to be described 

 as having "spread itself," but its elegant con- 

 tours have slowly extended until it is a very 

 handsome specimen, an ornament to the sheltered 

 corner that it graces. 



All about this single plant of Corydalis nobilis 

 are the fine, fern-like tufts of another Fumetory, 

 Corydalis cheilanthefolia (for which no "popu- 

 lar" name can be easily devised). While the 

 former is at its best in mid-May, the latter may 

 be expected to send up its stiff little stalks of 

 bright yellow flowers any time in March that it 

 receives the least bit of encouragement. I 

 raised it from seed procured from an English 

 seedsman and since then it has taken care of it- 

 self, seeding freely in the rich soil of a shady 

 corner. It was in bloom this year at the same 

 time as Iris reticulata and might well be used 

 in the rock garden as a companion for that bril- 

 liant flower. 



I take it for granted that every one knows the 

 little Wall Fumetory (Corydalis lutea), that 

 rambles so delightfully about old walls in Eng- 

 land, and will do so here. It grows here freely 

 in the crannies of walls and steps, and indeed 

 anywhere that it is allowed to gain a foothold, 

 even making itself at times a most engaging nui- 

 sance. Its cheerful yellow blossoms are con- 

 tinued until freezing weather. 



An Iris for a 

 Sandy Plain 



"FOR two Mays now 

 *■ I have enjoyed the 

 flowering of the little 

 Sand Iris (I. arenaria). 

 Plants raised from seed in the spring of 1916 

 flowered freely in May, 191 8. It is a delightful 

 mite, with fragrant lemon-yellow blossoms set 

 off by a bright orange beard. It is just the plant 

 for a little sandy plain in a rock garden. The 

 slender rhizomes creep just beneath the surface 

 of the soil, spreading widely, and its narrow pale 

 green leaves do not exceed four inches in length. 

 The plants bloom so generously that Mr. Dykes 

 says they should be given new soil every two 

 years, or at least top-dressed in spring to keep 

 up their vitality. While they enjoy a sandy soil 

 there must be some enrichment below the sur- 

 face that the roots may reach. Descriptions of 

 Iris flavissima sound not unlike I. arenaria and 

 it would be interesting to hear from any one who 



226 



has grown this species, or the blue flowered I. 

 Bloudowii, which was introduced in 1832. 



Irises. Easily raised '"pHERE are many 

 from seed , _ 1 small Irises reall £ 



indispensable for the 

 '".".-' rock garden when once 



they are known to the gardener, and there is no 

 reason why, in spite of the rulings of the Agri- 

 cultural Department, we may not still enjoy 

 them for they may be raised from seed with 

 little trouble. My own very simple method, 

 which doubtless is to be improved upon, has 

 been to sow the seed in a coldframe as early in 

 the spring as I could procure it from abroad— 

 usually in April or early in May. The little 

 plants have been allowed to remain in the 

 frames over the first winter and set out in spring 

 in rows where they could be easily looked after 

 until they had proved themselves true to name. 

 I have raised many species in this way. Ger- 

 mination of Iris seed is slow, but the little plants, 

 once they appear, are sturdy enough and require 

 very little special care. 



Mr. Dykes advises sowing the seed in pots or 

 pans in early autumn and plunging the pots 

 outside in some "cool position." Germination, 

 he says, should take place the following spring. 

 Of course this advice is for more clement Eng- 

 land, and I don't know how it would work here. 

 It would be very helpful to hear from some of 

 those who are raising the Iris species from seed 

 in this country. If raising them from seed is to 

 be our only means of procuring them in the fu- 

 ture, we should all know all about it that is 

 possible. 



A Missing Plant ^THROUGH the kind- 



is Found X ness of several 



readers I learn that 

 the native Sedum pul- 

 chellum inquired for in the May number, may be 

 had of Bobbink & Atkins, of the Wolcott Nur- 

 series, and of the Elm City Nurseries. Also 

 it has been a great pleasure to receive plants of 

 this Sedum. It is entirely distinct from any of 

 its kind known to me, and promises to be a real 

 acquisition. A correspondent who knows the 

 plant in its native haunts writes "it does best in 

 crushed limestone, as used in surfacing roads; 

 the original habitat being limestone ledges in 

 shade." 



My correspondent also calls my attention to 

 the Fire Pink, a beautiful native Silene (S. vir- 

 ginica), which, he says, is one of the "'coals of 

 fire' species." I have not yet found this in any 

 American catalogue and Schuyler Mathews does 

 not mention it in his "Field Book of American 

 Wild Flowers." It is known and appreciated, 

 however, by our British gardening friends, for 

 Reginald Farrar in his "Alpines and Bog Plants" 

 writes "Silene virginica from hot Virginia is 

 gorgeous, but I have no hopes of ever succeeding 

 with so miffy a Southerner." 



It is not exclusively a Southerner, however, 

 the "Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture" gives 

 its range as extending from New York to Minne- 

 sota, south to Georgia and Arkansas. There 

 would probably be no difficulty in growing it 

 where our Wild Pink (Silene pennsylvanica) will 

 survive. 



There's Something qpHERE has been 

 In a Name After All 1 considerable dis- 

 cussion in various quar- 

 ters of late as to whether 

 we should continue to call the German Iris by 

 that name which has come to have so harsh a 



