June, 1890. J elliott society. 243 



The loss of the Spring bloom was not the onlj' disaster which the nmisual 

 season brought npon amateur rose growers. The fall of temperature on the 

 16th of March was so sudden and so severe that the sap laden shoots were split 

 in many instances down to the main stalk, like so many water pipes, and the 

 plants sickened and died by the hundred. It is somewhat remarkable that the 

 greatest loss occurred among the Eemoutant roses, which are regarded as per- 

 fectly hardy and live through the Winters of the frozen North without protec- 

 tion. On the other hand the Tea and Hybrid- Tea roses, which are not hardy 

 and survive the Northern Winters only in hot-honses, suffered comparatively 

 very little damage. Nor were amateiir gardeners the only sufferers. Mr. P. J. 

 Berckmans, the celebrated Southern florist, while in Charleston a few weeks 

 ago, said that the past season had been the most disastrous to his plants within 

 his memory. Out of 150,000 rose plants which he had set out into his open-air 

 nurseries, he had lost, he said, fully 140,000. 



All varieties of plants were more or less affected by the season, and in some 

 cases their usual habits were completely changed. Gladiolus bulbs, which usu- 

 allj^ shoot above the soil about the middle of April, and bloom in May and 

 Jmie, were blooming in the early part of March. Those which h^d not yet 

 bloomed up to the time of the March freeze, were so far advanced that they 

 were cut do^Ti, and, except in a very few instances, their blooms for the year 

 were destroyed. So it was with Lilies and Amaryllis. The Bermuda Easter 

 Lily, which is seen in almost every Charleston garden, and which usually 

 blooms here about the middle of May, was in full bud at the time of the March 

 freeze, and in my garden 1 did not get a single bloom, I have seen a few of 

 these Lily blooms in other portions of the City ; the plants were probably not 

 so far advanced as mine and the flower germ had not formed. 



Even the hardy Nereum, or Oleander, which was in full bud on the 1st of 

 March, was cut back and is now just putting forth new blooms. 



Chrysanthemums, which bloom ordinarily about the 15th of November, have 

 been so much perplexed by the vagaries of the season that many varieties are 

 now in bud, and I have some in actual bloom in my garden, six months ahead 

 of time. Of course the blooms are very imperfect, and by cutting the plants 

 down now they will, in all probabiUty, put out a crop of flowers in the Fall, at 

 their usual blooming time. 



Even within the green-houses the effect of the season has been felt. For 

 the fiist time in many years the Pelargonium Geraniums have failed to bloom 

 except in some few isolated cases. Zouales, on the other hand, have bloomed 

 as beautifully and as profusely as usual. 



The deficiency in rainfall daring the season was not without its damaging 

 effect upon the gardens, and, after the freeze, the drought furnished the pro- 

 per conditions for an attack from mildew, red spiders, and caterpillars, which 

 injured the rose plants materially. Happily the recent rains have driven these 

 pests away and the florist can now look forward to repairing his fortunes. 

 Should the conditions of the past season be duphcated, I think that the 



