GRACEFUL FORMS OF ASPARAGUS, 



203 



GRACEFUL FORMS OF ASPA- 

 RAGUS, HARDY AND TENDER. 



There are, perhaps, no plants that have grown 

 more rapidly in favour within recent years 

 than the various forms of Asparagus, and for 

 their beauty and usefulness few plants better 

 deserve popularity. For lightness and elegance 

 in form and outline, for their lasting charac- 

 ter in various temperatures, whether cut or as 

 plants, and for general ease of culture and free- 

 dom from insects and disease, they are of the 

 utmost value. Their general adoption has been 

 a main factor in the advance of modern floral 

 art, with its trails of Smilax and its plumes 

 and feathers of Asparagus-fern, replacing the 

 heavy and crowded arrangements for so long 

 in use. Their variety in aspect and habit of 

 growth appeal to varied tastes, and the ease 

 with which they adapt themselves to all sorts 

 of uses as climbers, basket plants or trailers, 

 whether for houses, hot or cold, rooms, or out- 

 doors, place them within the reach of all. The 

 family is large and widely spread, extending 

 from China and Japan through Asia to south- 

 ern Europe, and thence to South Africa, where 

 by far the largest number occur. Save two or 

 three, they are plants of the warm temperate 

 zone, few species being hardy enough for the 

 open and few needing more than greenhouse 

 temperature. They succeed best in light, rich 

 soil, require copious waterings during growth, 

 and an occasional dressing of bone-meal or 

 rotten manure. If grown for cutting they do 

 best planted out, with a good light and a cool 

 temperature ; the resulting sprays are better 

 than those grown in pots, and will last fresh 

 for many weeks when cut. More heat and 

 moisture result in rampant growth, but the 

 growths are less useful and fade more rapidly, 

 and the plants are more subject to pests. All 

 may be increased by division, and for pot plants 

 this gives good results, but most are readily 

 raised from seed, and this is the simplest way. 

 In the south of Europe their culture outdoors 

 is very general, and the popular varieties are 

 now planted in quantity to supply northern 

 markets during the late autumn and winter. 

 Sprengeri in particular does well, making free 

 growth, which, when well ripened, is un- 

 touched by sharp frosts, though tender shoots 



may be destroyed. As seen on terrace walls 

 with such plants as the Parrot's-bill Lotus and 

 the New Zealand Bramble (Rubus australis) it 

 is fine indeed, the vivid trails, 6 or 8 feet in 

 length, loaded in autumn with fruits, for size 

 and colour like a red-currant, which spring up 

 in all directions on falling to the ground. The 

 combination of vivid green and glaucous grey, 

 varied according to season by the crimson Lo- 

 tus flowers, the tiny fragrant blossoms, or the 

 red berries of the Asparagus, and relieved in 

 places by the tufts of Bramble with its bright 

 yellow spines and filmy outline, make such a 

 show as is not easily forgotten. All the species 

 are fine in leaf, some also for their flowers and 

 berries, and we think that the half-hardy kinds 

 might be made far more of a feature for out- 

 door use in favourable spots. Even Sprengeri 

 will stand a good deal when grown cool; acuti- 

 folius, declinatus, umbellatine and caspieus, are so 

 nearly hardy, that if planted on a wall and well 

 protected in winter, they will survive in mild 

 districts, while several other sorts are perfectly 

 hardy. 



The popularity of the Asparagus has re- 

 sulted in the multiplication of seedling or hy- 

 brid plants, in many cases hard- 

 New • • • 



. . ly to be distinguished from the 

 varieties. <, ; P , ~- , 



older types, though offered as 



new forms. A new and very distinct plant has 

 been recently introduced, however, upon the 

 Continent, and is to be seen at Kew, if not 

 elsewhere in this country. It is a climbing 

 plant named A. Duchesnei, a good grower,with 

 foliage of dark green, the leaflets long and nar- 

 row, and arranged flatly in opposite rows, al- 

 most after the manner of a Cephalotaxus or 

 Yew, but far lighter and less densely set. This 

 new form is very distinct, and sure to prove 

 useful, as it becomes better known. A second 

 plant which has given rise to some little con- 

 troversy is A. myriocladus, a seedling plant of 

 the A. retrofractus type. Its form, as shown at 

 Holland House, is good, with stout curving 

 shoots holding themselves without support, 

 and dense short foliage crowded into rounded 

 tufts. Its habit is more compressed than that 

 of the type, so much so as to fit it for use as a 

 basket-plant. On first pushing, the young 

 shoots are a pretty rose colour, changing to 

 vivid, and finally to dark, green, with age and 



