14 
T H E G A R D E N M A G A Z I N E 
February, 1 SI 1 7 
Who’s Got Brinkle’s Orange Raspberry? 
— It seems to have “gone out.” I have 
not seen any since my late boyhood. 
Does any one know where it is now being 
grown. Perhaps youth placed a halo upon 
it, but as I remember it was a higher flavored 
berry than any other yellow variety I have 
tested. Golden Queen, the only prominent 
yellow variety offered by nurserymen, in 
my estimation is inferior to Brinkle’s Orange. 
Is any reader growing both of these? If so, 
let’s hear from him. — D. J. H., Ontario. 
The Dahlia Again. — Mapy times have I read 
in your magazine about the success with this 
plant and the ease of culture, while others 
seemed to experience difficulty. The Cactus 
Dahlia has been a favorite of mine for seven 
years now and I have tried a number of varie- 
ties, which have always given good results, ex- 
cept last year, and I have never before experi- 
enced a greater disappointmentwith any plant. 
I know of three other people in this vicinity 
who are growing Dahlias and they too had 
the same experience this year; and others, 
from ioo to 400 miles from here, had no better 
success. Some of the plants were dwarfed, 
the buds would rot before opening, and nearly 
11 
\ 
all the blooms were to some extent blighted, 
or were imperfect and worthless. In late 
fall, just when the frost nipped them, the 
flowers were becoming better. I believe that 
the excessive wet and cold of the early part 
of the season was the cause. Our growing 
season is short and setbacks cannot easily 
be overcome. — Carl Z,apffe, Minnesota. 
More About the Matilija Poppy. — It was in- 
teresting to read the note on this plant 
in the January issue. A number of years 
since there was considerable discussion in 
the horticultural press, about the growing 
of the Matilija Poppy, Romneya Coulteri, 
a native of California found in scattered 
regions from Santa Barbara to Southern 
Mexico. It is said to be abundant near 
Riverside. 
At one time we tried to raise it from seed 
at Rochester, N. Y., but the young plants 
were “miffy” and our attempts were fail- 
ures. Nine years ago we noticed strong roots 
offered for sale in a French catalogue. We 
bought a few plants, and planted them in a 
very porous, leachy, sandy soil, on a slope 
facing the south, in one of our city parks, 
and we confess we had little hope of their 
success, when hearing of so many failures. 
Much to our surprise, some months after- 
ward we noticed them growing vigorously, 
and during the summer of 1909 the plants 
produced a number of flowers, and they have 
flowered freely every season since. We have 
always mulched the crowns of the plants in 
the winter time with leaves to exclude the 
frost. The plants have spread rampantly, 
by stolons, and they cover an area at the 
present time of about 150 square feet. 
It throws up strong stout stems four to 
six feet in height, which incline at a slight 
angle, and at the approach of winter the stems 
are partly killed. They are then cut 
down before mulching, and we treat it 
much in the same way as an ordinary 
herbaceous perennial. 
The leaves are bluish green, or 
glaucous, and are lobed into four or 
five segments, on stalks 
about one inch in length. 
The first flower comes from 
a terminal bud, and three 
to five flowers are produced 
on lateral stalks four to 
seven inches long. The 
satiny white flowers are 
four to six inches in diam- 
eter, and display in the cen- 
tre a roundish mass of 
golden yellow stamens 
around the ovary. It is 
usually in bloom with us 
from the first of July until 
the first of August, 
and an individual 
flower lasts about 
three days. 
Our experience 
here with this hand- 
some flowering plant 
would seem to justify 
the following con- 
clusions: Procure 
strong roots (the 
roots consist of a few 
The California Tree 
Poppy. Romneya Coulteri 
has a strong fascination for 
the Eastern cultivator. It 
is well worth growing for its 
glorious flowers 
thick prongs); plant in spring in porous, 
warm, sandy loam on a southern exposure; 
be sure that no water or stagnant moisture 
rests on the crowns in the winter months; 
and protect from frost with a generous 
mulching of leaves. — John Dunbar, Roches- 
ter, N. Y. 
The Beautiful Pepper Vine. — A beautiful 
native American vine that has not yet 
come into its own, if I may judge from the fact 
that in the fifteen years in which I have been 
an amateur gardener I have not seen a single 
mention of it in any gardening magazine and 
have found it listed in only one catalogue out of 
the dozens on my desk, is the Pepper Vine — 
— Ampelopsis arborea, described by Lin- 
naeus in 1753 as Vitis arborea and called by 
some botanists Vitis bipinnata, Cissus ar- 
borea, or Cissus stans. Perhaps it has been 
forgotten among the host of newer plants. I 
have never seen it growing anywhere except 
in the place where I got my first root and in the 
gardens of a few of my friends to whom I have 
introduced it. I can not understand why it 
has been overlooked and so am going to set 
forth what I have learned of it in the hope 
that its virtues may be tested by some garden 
enthusiast who has not yet found them out. 
And if one or two of the more laggard nursery- 
men who, as Mr. McFarland says in a recent 
number of The Garden Magazine, “ought 
to lead us but instead slowly follow” are 
moved by these notes to accumulate a stock 
and offer it to their customers, I shall feel that 
I have transferred to these pages some of the 
spell that this vine has exerted over me. 
The pepper vine does not cling, like the 
Boston Ivy and Virginia Creeper, but climbs 
by tendrils on any light support, such as a 
trellis or wire fence. It is a fairly rapid 
grower — not a speed-law breaker like the 
Kudzu, nor yet so unconsciously deliberate as 
the Evonymus. If left to itself it develops 
a somewhat woody stem (whence probably 
the specific name arborea) and tends to be- 
come bare at the bottom. To prevent the 
bareness it should be cut back every year or 
two, and so treated it will grow at just the 
right rate for the average garden of not un- 
limited space. 
Its beauty lies wholly in the attractive foli- 
age, for the flowers are minute, scarce, and of 
interest only to the botanist. But the gar- 
dener who can appreciate grace of form and 
poise and pleasing coloring will find in the 
ieaves and stems ample food for his admiration. 
The photograph of a characteristic spray 
shows the shape of the leaves, which average 
an inch from base to tip. The young foliage 
is usually bronze green — the peculiarly hand- 
some hue shown by the copper beech in mid- 
season — and as it matures it changes to a rich, 
slightly bluish green. The leaves are what the 
botanist calls nearly glabrous, which means in 
plain talk smooth, but not shiny. 
The young stems are no less attractive, 
being of an indescribable pinkish-maroon color 
that blends perfectly with the bronzy tone of 
the leaves. 
The greenish pinhead flowers, which grow 
in clusters like those of the tricolor ivy, are 
rarely followed by small berries that are at 
first green, then cerise, and finally the dark 
maroon of the Tartarian cherry. 
The roots of the pepper vine travel laterally 
and send up shoots here and there, which can 
be dug up and set out, and a single vine well 
started will furnish plenty of young plants. 
The vine grows well in either sun or shade, 
and although Britton and Brown, in their 
