January, 1911 



THE GARDEN M A (; A Z I N E 



267 



is hardy? Yes, the white water-arum 

 (Peltandra sagillcefolia) has a broad whitish 

 spathe three or four inches long and it also 

 has bright red berries. It grows wild from 

 Southern Virginia to Florida, but I do not 

 know where I can buy it or whether it is 

 hardy. Will anyone who can supply it 

 please answer? 



I am sorry to say that the Northern 

 representative of the plant just named is 

 not nearly so attractive. I mean Pel- 

 tandra Virginica, called the "green water- 

 arum " because its spathe is green. The 

 berries also are green. The spathe. is 

 four to eight inches long but is convolute, 

 not flattened out and calla-like. 



AROIDS WITH FRAGRANT FOLIAGE 



Let us now turn to the aroids that do 

 not depend upon their spathes for beauty 

 but have other attractions. The place 

 of honor I should give to the sweet flags, 

 American and Japanese, not only because 

 the candied root stock is good to eat, but 

 because the foliage when crushed in the 

 hand gives forth a pleasant, aromatic scent. 



The common sweet flag {A corns Calamus) 

 is native both to Europe and to America. 

 It has sword-like leaves about two feet 

 high. The variegated variety (striped 

 with yellow or white) is seen in almost 



every water garden, but it is a little too 

 showy for my taste. I prefer the wild 

 green form which anyone can collect. 



The Japanese sweet flag grows only eight 

 to twelve inches high and in this case 

 also the variegated form is more popular 

 than the green. You see it in hanging 

 baskets, vases, rockeries and greenhouses. 

 Florists sometimes use it for cutting. 

 For the peat garden I prefer the green form 

 because it makes pleasant grassy tufts. 



RARE HARDY AROIDS 



If the general reader is not asleep he 

 may now doze off with a clear conscience, 

 as the rest is solely for you, Mr. Collector. 

 I will go through the list to the bitter end 

 because you ask me to and because I know 

 you are a "soft mark " and easily separated 

 from your money. 



Biarum. These sound pretty ratty to 

 me — a spirally twisted spathe ten inches 

 long and a tail-like spadix. B. tenuifolium 

 is from Spain; B. Pyrami and Bovei from 

 Asia Minor. 



Pinellia. The Japs could import three 

 species for you, if you care to wait a year 

 and then probably find out they are no 

 good. 



Spatheyma. Our old friend skunk cab- 

 bage. A mighty good plant if you don't 



bruise the leaves. First flower of the year 

 and has the widest range of color among 

 the aroids — red, purple, brown, yellow, 

 green. It is too coarse for a small peat 

 garden, but there is a big one at Haver- 

 ford, Pa., where skunk cabbage is pro- 

 tected and encouraged in wet woods for 

 the tropical effect of its foliage. You 

 walk through these woods on dry paths, 

 see this noble expanse of foliage and wonder 

 what this grand plant can be. 



Lysichitum. A Japanese skunk cabbage. 



Orontium. This is a little darling — 

 the "golden club," so called because the 

 beauty of it resides in its yellow spadix. 

 The effect is that of small yellow flowers 

 on white stalks. The spathe usually 

 falls away while the flower is young. 

 The leaves are beautiful, too, velvety/ 

 green above and silvery below. It can 

 be planted in swifter water than ordinary 

 aquatics because of its strong root hold. 

 Some say it has the fault of being difficult 

 to eradicate when established. You can 

 find it growing wfld in swamps and on the 

 edges of ponds or buy it from the leading 

 American dealers in aquatics. 



Au revoir, Mr. Collector, I wish you 

 joy of your aroids. We hope you will 

 send us photographs of your peat garden^ 

 when you get some good ones, 



Larkspurs That Really Flourish -By w. c. Egan, 



START YOUR OWN PLANTS FROM SEED AND THEY WILL WITHSTAND THE TRIALS 

 OF OUR CLIMATE— HOW TO SECURE TWO CROPS OF FLOWERS IN ONE SEASON 



NO, a bit of the sky has not dropped from 

 the heavens and settled on the lawn. 

 It is only a bed of Delphinium belladonna 

 that flares its vivid living sky-blue spikes 

 before an admiring visitor, whose inquiry 

 suggests the above assertion. June, the 

 merry month of brides and flowers, possesses 

 no formidable rival of this mass of 

 color, the dehcacy and vividness 

 of which, combined with stateliness 

 and grace of the flowering spikes, are 

 unsurpassed. And the abundance of 

 deep green, laciniated foliage is an ad- 

 mirable foil. 



This variety (for evidently it is not a 

 species, but a hybrid showing a strong 

 infusion of the blood of D. grandiflora or 

 D. Chinen'^e) has a unique history. Years 

 ago — perhaps fifteen or more — one 

 plant originated in an English nursery 

 and, its beauty being appreciated, it was 

 given the name of belladonna. Unfortu- 

 nately it did not perfect its seed, and 

 propagation by cuttings and root division 

 was resorted to in order to increase and 

 perpetuat" it. For many years the Euro- 

 pean gardens were supplied with plants 

 from this source, and a few reached 

 America. As is often the case with various 

 plants whose extended life is carried 

 forwa'-' by continued propagation, its 

 vitalit became impaired and a large 



group of it, with me at least, seemed out 

 of the question, as the plants were weak 

 and short lived. 



Fortunately, however, one plant in 

 England seeded. Just as if Nature, fear- 

 ing the annihilation of such exquisite 



heiphinium fonnosum: Its liybrds are Qiiite common 

 in our' gardens 



beauty, imbued this one plant with the 

 germ of fertility, and we can now have 

 the plant with all its original charms 

 strengthened by renewed vigor. I can 

 see no difference in the flower of the 

 seedlings and the original propagated 

 plants (there was one exception, a self- 

 colored deep blue appeared in a batch of 

 some fifty plants), but a slight variance 

 may be noted in the foliage, and the plants 

 grow taller. 



The group illustrated on page 269 is 

 composed of plants one and two years old 

 and average from four and one-half to six 

 feet in height, the flower spikes being about 

 fifteen inches long. And the individual 

 flowers, which last much longer than is 

 usual with this species, are an inch and a 

 half in diameter and, as indicated, a clear 

 lively sky-blue with a pure white "bee." 

 The bed is fifteen feet by nine. The 

 plants are well staked, having withstood 

 several strong windstorms before being 

 photographed. 



When the season of main bloom is 

 over, the plants are cut down to the sofl 

 and before long, if well attended to, 

 fresh growth appears and a second crop 

 of bloom develops — not as profuse as 

 the first, but with much more freedom 

 than in the ordinary forms. Like all 

 attractive flowering plants, the larkspur 



