June 8, 1912 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



431 



HARD-WOODED PLANTS. 



One of the many features in which the 

 International Horticultural Exhibition of 

 this year differed from the preceding one 

 is that hard-wooded plants occupied a 

 far less prominent position than they did 

 46 years ago. At that time specimen 

 plants of these subjects were met with in 

 many gardens, and freely exhibited, 

 whereas now their culture is followed by 

 very few. 



Not only were hard-woocled plants, then 

 popular, but they had long been extensively 

 grown. This was brought forcibly home to 

 me when perusing some numbers of the 

 ^* Floricultural Cabjnet for the years 

 1845-6 and 7. In the reports of the exhibi- 

 tions then held at Chiswick and Regent's 



and attention that the old-time gardeners 

 used to bestow upon their plants. Whether 

 the vagaries of fashion will ever bring 

 them again into popularity remains to be 

 seen, but the fact is that the culture 

 of hard-wocxled plants as large specimens 

 is too sloAV for present-day ideas, and 

 furthermore, they are not of much use 

 for the supply of cut flowers, which is 

 now the standard by which go many sub- 

 jects are judged. 



The culture of hard-wooded plants is, 

 however, not discontinued in this country ; 

 in fact, some of them are grown in very 

 large quantities, but the sorts are, as a 

 rule, decidedly limited, and, instead of 

 huge specimens, they are now, generally 

 speaking, confined to pots fran five inches 

 to six inches in diameter. Some cult-'vators 



it is usually regarded as a hybrid. The 

 white variety — Erica hyemalis alba — is also 

 much grown. Anotlier winter-flowering 

 heath, whose culture has been considerably 

 extended within recent years is Erica 

 melanthera, that bears a profusion of very 

 pale mauve, almost white, blossoms, against 

 which the blackish anthers stand out in a 

 conspicuous manner. The flowers are small, 

 and have a slight but pleasing fragrance. 

 With the new year, or, at all events, before 

 it is far advanced, comes the showy red- 

 dish-pink Erica Wilmoreana, the beautiful 

 w^hijte-flowered B. oandidissima, B. per- 

 soluta alba, with tiny white bells, the 

 bright red K. hybrida, and E. Spenceria-na, 

 whose tubular-shaped blossoms are white, 

 tingeil more or less with lihic-rose. 



As spring advances the beautiful golden 



I 



LiELIO-CATTLEYA BEDOUIN. 



A magnificent specimen carrying twenty-three fine white and purple flowers. Exhibited by Lieut. -Colonel Sir George Holfoid at the 



Royal International Horticultural Exhibition. 



Park the size of some of the specimens 



was enough to take one's breath away. 



Thus the following, among a vast number 



of others were noted: Aplielexis humilis, 



2ft. high and 3ft. in diameter ; Boronia 



serrulata, 3ft. by 4ft. ; Chorizemas, 5ft. by 



5ft. ; Olvorizema Henchmanni, 2ft. by 2ft. ; 



Daviesia saligna, 4ft. by 6ft.; Eutaxia 



pungens, 3ft by 4ft. : Hovea Celsi, 3ft. by 



2ft.; Leschenaultia formosa, 2ft. by 3ft.; 



Pavetta caff ra, 8ft. by 4ft. ; Pimelea decus- 



sata, 4ft. by 4ft. ; Polygala oppositifolia, 



4ft. by 8ft. ; and Phoenicoma prolifera, 2ft. 



^7 4ft., witlx many others almost, if not 



^^lally, fine and Cape heaths innumer- 

 able. 



^^hen one considers the vast improve- 

 rnonts that have taken place in horticul- 

 tural structures and their heating since 

 that period, it says much for the great care 



grow a few kinds of heaths by thousands, 

 a busy time being -wthen the annual sales 

 of those plants take place at the end of 

 the summer or in early autumn, within the 

 environs of London. Just at that time, on 

 the point of opening its earliest purplish- 

 red blossoms comes Erica gracilis, a.nd its 

 pretty white variety nivalis, which is in 

 purity superior to the older variety alba. 

 After that comes the little white, sweet- 

 scented Erica caffra, and then follows the 

 winter heath— Erica hyemalis, so valuable 

 from the fact that it may be had in bloom 

 during the month of December, and at the 

 New Year. The little specimens of this 

 heath that one meets with in the florists' 

 shops of London about Christmas time are 

 models of cultural skill. It is strange that 

 the origin and early history of isuch a valu- 

 able heath as this should be unknown, but 



blooms of E. Cavendishiana are at their 

 best, and also the charming dwarf-growing 

 E. ventricosa, represented by several forms. 

 Towards the latter part of the summer the 

 scarlet-flowered E. cerinthoides coronata 

 and E. verticillata are very showy, but at 

 that season there is less demand for them, 

 and consequently they are grown in more 



limited numbers. 



Boronias are another very popular class, 

 of which the most generally grown are 

 Boronia megastigma, whose drooping bell- 

 shaped blossoms, though somewhat dull in 

 their colouring, are deliciously fragrant ; 

 B. heterophylla , with bright carmihe- 

 ooloured flowers ; and B. elatior, with 

 drooping rosy-red tinted blossoms, are later 

 in expanding than those of the others. 

 Epacrises are frequently grown in 6in. 

 and in this way deliglitful little 



pots 



