Glimpses of Ventura Gardens. 
Charies Howard Shinn in ‘‘ Garden and Forest.’’ 
Sir—One of the most charming towns of the 
Pacific Coast is Ventura, of old christened San 
Buena Ventura, and surely it was an espec- 
ially good venture of the Franciscan Mission- 
builders that led them to thisnarrow crescent 
of sheltered land, sloping south to the Pacific 
and guarded from storms by mountains and 
islands. In the first week of September I vis- 
ited the place and found it full of surprise 
and pleasure. No portion of California will 
better justify a horticultural pilgrimage. 
Two Date Palms, planted by the priests, yet 
remain in the old garden of the Mission. The 
church bell still stands in vines and trees, 
swinging from ancient cross-bars, and the old | 
Mission building gives the quaint town a 
peculiar beauty of its own. 
It is hard to say what trees and flowers do 
rot thrive here, so surprising is the range of 
species. One passes a Ficus elastica tree, for 
instance, in an old garden; the tree istwenty- 
three years old, and it has a trunk that girths 
four andahalf feet, Thespread of itsboughs 
covers a circle whose diameter is fifty-five | 
feet, and it is twenty-five or thirty feet in 
height. It isa tree of astonishing beauty and 
form, and the town of Ventura should buy the 
ground so as to name and care for it. 
The most attractive and interesting garden 
here is that of Mrs. Theodosia B. Shepherd, 
who is a well-known hybridizer of varions | 
flowers. The advantages of locatiou are great, 
but she hasshown uncommon skill in utilizing | 
those advantages, and her name is now prom- | 
inent among California growers and experi- | 
One of the first things of import- | 
menters. 
ance I noticed here was her new Begonias, 
Mrs Shepherd has avery large collection of | 
fibrous-rooted species, and after numerous 
experiments is now rejoicing in a strain of | 
attractive hybrids of Gloire de Jouy X rubra. 
This new production isreally a race of giant | 
Begonias, some of which send up canes six or 
eight feet high, with rich. lustrous, metallic | 
leaves, often fifteen inches long by eight 
inches wide. 
parent types, hang down in long, open pan- 
icles of rose, rose-red, or coral-red Nothing 
could be finer for use as backgrounds in Bego- | 
niahouses Three varieties have been named 
Fair Rosamond, Heart’s 
jeska. Ihe Begonias are grown in the ground 
here, but are sheltered by lath-houses which 
shut off about one-fourth of the light at all | 
seasons, and, being partly covered with deli- 
cate-leaved vines, at times shut out fully 
One-third of the sunlight. In more inland 
situations these lath-houses, or open sheds of 
slats, should shut off as much as one-half of 
the light. They are becoming more generally ! 
Printed by the ‘‘ Free Press ’’ Ventura, California. 
The glossy and brilliant-hued | 
flowers of immense size, far surpassing the | 
Delight and Mod-.| 
| 
used in California gardens for Fernsand many 
classes of plants besides Begonias. 
Growing out of doors, without protection, 
and flowering to.perfection, I took especial 
note of the following vines: Bignonia venusta; 
B. magnifica B. siderafolia, and B. Tweed- 
iana; Bougainvillea glabra and B. spectabilis- 
Ipomoea Learii and many other Ipomceas; 
Passiflora incarnata, Tacsonia Von Volxemi, 
T. Buchanani and a noble Tacsonia which is 
possibly a cross between the scarlet and the 
pink varieties, called by Mrs. shepherd T. 
Sutherlandi. There is also a grand climbing 
Solanum from Mexico, one of the most pic- 
turesque of tropical vines. Nowhere else in 
California can be found finer specimens of 
these beautiful vines, and they form one of 
the most memorable features of the place 
A plant of Cereus triangularis, which has 
climbed to the top of the two-story house and 
far up the slope of the roof, has wide fame 
throughout California. Planted out in the 
garden are many of the finest Cacti. I noticed 
two species of the spineless Anhalonium, 
eight species of Cereus, two of Echinopsis, 
six of Echinocereus, five of Kchinocactus and 
many of otherclasses. HEspectal attention is 
being paid to the edible-fruited Cacti, and 
these, as well as others, are being crossed on 
a large scale, so that great numbers of seed- 
lings are coming along. 
All experiments are not made out of doors, 
however, even here. Several well kept prop- 
agation houses and greenhouses for tropical 
plants contain large collections. Some Or- 
chids do well out of doors in suminer hung 
against the trunks of trees. Lelia anceps 
has grown and bloomed for three winters in 
such a location. 
Among the striking specimens here is a 
plant of Streptosolon Jamesoni, from Central 
America, an evergreen bush twelve feet high 
and fully as broad, which blooms from March 
to October. Its effective Browallia-shaped 
flowers of bright orange, changing to cinnabar 
red, are produced in great profusion There 
isan Hrythrina Cristi-Galli tree that stands 
about sixteen feet high, with branches cover- 
ing a circle thirty feet in diameter, and a 
double trunk, either stem of which is ten or 
twelve inches in diameter. Nearly three 
acres in the home garden, and five or six acres 
in other parts of the town, are devoted to the 
growth of plants and seeds. I cannot even 
mention the uew varieties of Fuschias, Abu- 
tilons, Cannas, Gladioli, Cosmos, and many 
| other species of flowering plants which Mrs. 
shepherd has originated here. She is working 
with tireless energy and passionate devotion, 
much as Luther Burbank of sauta Rosa works, 
and no other woman in California has done 
as much in this field, 
