374 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
T 
EUSTOMA RUSSELLIANUM 
*HE exhibit of Eustonia Russellianum at the meeting 
of the Royal Horticuhural Society showed how 
ornamental is this decorative plant when well cultivated. 
The species is a native of Mexico, and was introduced 
into this country in 1804, but for some reason the plant 
never appears to have become very common in gardens, 
perhaps because it has the reputation of being a difficult 
subject to cultivate. With ordinary care and attention, 
however, it is not difficult to obtain good results. In 
former years the plant was grown under the name of 
Lisianthus Russellianus. The flowers of the type are 
mauve, but a distinct break, with pale pink flowers, has 
been obtained by Mr. C. J. Ellis in his nurseries at Wes- 
ton-super-Mare. The plants shown at the R. H. S. meet- 
ing were about 18 inches high, but specimens have been 
obtained with a height of more than three feet and a cir- 
cumference of seven or eight feet, carrying upwards of 
400 flowers and buds. A valuable characteristic of the 
Frctn Gaydencrs' C /",;■;. ,, i i I'lnii^ii '. 
Etistoiiia Russ-cllianuin — /'/mi. ci s M.::ii'e. 
blooms is that they remain a long time on the plant with- 
out fading, some having been found to remain in perfect 
condition for three weeks. 
The plant may be successfully treated as a biennial by 
raising seedlings one season to flower the next. The 
seeds, which are very minute, are sown on the surface of 
the soil, which should be light in texture. They are cov- 
ered with a sprinkling of silver sand, and the pots placed 
in a propagating pit, or covered with a sheet of glass. 
The utmost care is needed in winter in the matter of 
watering. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, 
they should be potted up singly into thumb pots, the com- 
post for this and all subsequent pottings consisting of a 
mixture of loam, leaf-mould, peat and a sprinkling" of 
sharp sand. Later they should be transferred to fairly 
large pots, and grown on in a cool, airy greenhouse. The 
seedling require very little shade when once established, 
and should be wintered in the warm end of the green- 
house, but ventilation should be introduced on every pos- 
sible occasion, and fire-heat used very sparingly. The 
stove house, with its hot, close atmosphere, would be 
very detrimental to the well-being of the plants, a little 
bottom heat in the early spring to assist the cuttings to 
strike being usually all the artificial warmth required. 
The success attained in the production of this beautiful 
hybrid shoidd encourage raisers in the endeavor to pro- 
duce fresh and equally beautiful new colors in this most 
useful greenhouse plant, which gives a succession of 
flowers over two or three months. — From Gardeners' 
Chronicle (English). 
SHIRLEY POPPIES 
'"pO make the most of these beautiful flowers they^ 
-*■ should be grown only for the house, not for gardea 
decoration, and cut the moment they open. If left on the 
plants a wet day ruins their delicate petals, and a sunny 
one completes the term of their life. The bed soon be- 
comes a straggling, untidy mass of stalks and seed-pods,, 
and in less than a month the plants are exhausted. But 
if they are cut the moment they burst from the bud they 
will last fully three days in the house, and the plants will 
continue bearing throughout the whole of July and Au- 
gust, and even far into September. The chief reason 
for the complaint that poppies are so short-lived is that 
they are often cut indiscriminately from a bed on which 
they have been allowed to flower at will, and many when 
brought into the house are already past maturity and 
begin to shed their petals immediately. 
Advantage should be taken of the fact, of which not 
every grower is aware, that the buds burst only at sun- 
rise. Every morning between six and seven I go out 
to the bed I keep for them in the garden and find a num- 
ber already awake, and others in the act of throwing ofif 
their green nightcaps and shaking out their delicate petals 
like crumpled silk handkerchiefs, while the bees hum 
roimd them in swarms. I cut every flower that is open 
or preparing to burst, and for the rest of the day nothing 
is seen but a forest of green buds. Visitors remark that 
I shall soon have a fine bed of poppies, little suspecting 
what a harvest has already been reaped. From a bed 
eight yards long and tapering from four to two feet wide, 
I cut daily from one to two hundred fine flowers. When 
not allowed to seed the quantity of flowers produced is 
incredible. 
The beginning of my poppy bed was a packet of se- 
lected seed some years ago, and from what some may 
consider an insignificant beginning, I have since enjoyed 
for two or three months a daily feast of color. Blooms 
four to five inches in diameter, ranging from purest 
white through every shade of pink, and through salmon 
and apricot to brilliant scarlet. — /. A. B. in Gardening 
( English). 
I 
SKIMMIA JAPONICA 
N not a few gardens the full beauty of Skimmia ja- 
ponica is missed betause either the male or the female 
form is grown, instead of both. The male and female 
flowers are borne on separate plants and just as the 
handsome Sea Buck thorn (Hipphophae rhamnoides) 
fails to fruit unless male plants are grown in association 
with female ones, so Skimmia japonica does not yield 
its bright red fruits unless about one male plant is planted 
with every half-dozen of those bearing female flowers. 
If the plants are thus associated insects will generally 
secure the fertilization of the blossoms, but artificial pol- 
lination is generally desirable to ensure a crop of showy 
fruits. 
S. japonica is a dwarf shrub, about a yard high, and 
generally much wider than high. The stif?, light green 
leaves are fragrant when crushed, and the dull white 
flowers, borne in short, terminal panicles, are also sweetly 
scented. The species hails from Japan ; a fairly moist 
and semi-shaded position suits it. — Exchange. 
