266 
The Garden Magazine, January, 192T 
A Blue and White Grouping 
To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 
O NE corner of my garden which is devoted mostly to blue flowers 
contains a lovely grouping of Phlox divaricata Laphamii and 
Iberis sempervirens. They are in the front of an ordinary border and 
the soft plumbago blue blossoms of 
the Phlox overtop the white of the 
Candytuft by just enough to make 
the combination very effective. 
The rather thin foliage of the 
Phlox seems to need just such a 
sturdy growth as the Candytuft 
makes to cover its lower stems and 
a prettier foil for the delicate blue 
blossoms than the green and white 
of the latter could hardly be found. 
A little shade helps the Phlox and 
the Candytuft seems indifferent. 
Their long period of bloom (about 
six weeks) very nearly coincides, 
although the Candytuft is really 
lovely two weeks before the Phlox 
is out much, while the Phlox is still 
blooming when the other is form- 
ing seed pods. During the last 
part of their bloom they are joined 
by some light blue Iris which is 
much the same shade as the Phlox. 
A near-by group of Iris tectorum 
carries the same shade of blue in 
the centre of the blossoms, reach- 
ing deeper tones in the falls. — 
Leila B. Stapleton, Oroville.Cal. 
Irises Blooming in Summer 
To the Editor of 
The Garden Magazine: 
Y JAPANESE Irises (Iris Kaempferi) were transplanted, in 
north central Ohio, two years ago, as late as November fifth, 
in good clay loam heavily enriched with rotted cow-manure. Some 
were in fact actually set right in small masses of the manure. Around 
each plant, to prevent the caking of the soil, was later put a small 
quantity of well decomposed street sweepings containing a considerable 
CANDYTUFT, PHLOX, AND IRIS 
So grouped in unison that mingled soft, dull blues of Phlox and 
Iris and the glistening white of the low growing Candytuft make 
a color combination delightfully delicate and cool. The strik- 
ingly different types of growth also offer interesting contrast 
proportion of sand. Early in December a mulch of leaves six or seven 
inches thick was applied. This was removed about April first. Dur- 
ing the droughty spells of the following summer the plants were 
heavily watered. For the second winter the mulch was again applied, 
as it should be annually. The past summer has been rainy and cool. 
W ithout artificial irrigation, after blossoming profusely at the regular 
season, my plants continued, all of 
them, to bear blooms, nearly as 
large as the mammoth ones of 
early J uly, all through the summer 
without interruption and in num- 
ber more than one half as many as 
in the regular season. The last 
were brought into the house Sep- 
tember third. — Frank B. Meyer, 
Ohio and Maryland. 
Seedling Dahlias 
To the Editor of 
The Garden Magazine: 
T THINK my experience with 
1 seedling Dahlias last season 
might interest some of the readers 
of this magazine. 1 had about 
thirty of them, and, while not all 
were desirable, yet at least two 
thirds of them would average quite 
as beautiful as those from pur- 
chased roots, and the remarkable 
thing about these seedling plants 
is that they were in bloom earlier 
than those from roots and were 
also larger and stronger plants. I 
had at least three that were fully 
six feet tall. I did not have either 
greenhouse or hotbed in which to 
start the seedlings, but started 
them in a suitable place outdoors 
where, in case of threatened frost, 1 could cover them. I don’t think 
I will bother so much hereafter with roots. This is my second ex- 
perience with seedlings. It is a great pleasure to be expecting these 
beauties, all the time realizing that you do not know exactly what you 
are going to get. — A. W. Foreman, IVhite Hall, III. 
[And, of course, it has its disappointments too. — Ed.] 
TO EVERY FRIEND OF AMERICAN HORTICULTURE 
A Preliminary Report by the Executive Committee Appointed at a Conference of Representatives of Horticultural 
and Other Societies, Held June 15, 1920, in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City 
C<r^^N AUGUST 20, 1912, the Congress of the United States 
■y^Y -'4 enacted a law entitled “An Act to regulate the importation 
\-V' [fl of nursery stock and other plants and plant products, to 
lul cna b' e Secretary of Agriculture to establish and main- 
tain quarantine districts for plant diseases and insect pests, 
to permit and regulate the movement of fruit, plants, and vegetables 
therefrom, and for other purposes.” 
Under the provisions of this law the Secretary of Agriculture, at 
the request of the Federal Horticultui al Board, issued, in 1918, 
Quarantine Order No. 37, which, after due notice and hearings, be- 
came effective on June 1, 1919. 
Designed for the admirable purpose of protecting the United 
States against the admission of additional insects and diseases in- 
jurious to plant-life, the regulations promulgated from time to time 
under the quarantine have in effect acted as an embargo pre- 
venting the importation of any plants or seeds except those 
permitted by narrow and seemingly arbitrary rulings. Further, 
permits to import under these regulations have been granted or 
refused in such fashion as to make the Federal Horticultural Board 
the controller of horticultural research and commerce in a way hard 
to square with the necessities of an adequate quarantine. 
Under these regulations all importations of plant material, whether re- 
ceived at Boston or New Orleans or New York or San Fransicso, must first 
go to Washington for examination and fumigation, being then forwarded to 
the consignee at his expense; and the delays incident to this procedure and 
the treatment to which the plants are subjected, have in some cases injured 
them and in some cases completely killed them. 
While it is true that the Federal Horticultural Board theoretically will issue a 
permit to anyone for the importation of plants he may desire, it is. also sadly 
true that in certain cases either such permits have been arbitrarily denied 
or so long delayed that the opportunity has passed. It is also a fact that 
the requirement of a bond to follow the importations for two years operates 
as an effective embargo to plant importation by amateurs. 
The official acting for the Federal Horticultural Board determines the quan- 
tity of any plant which in his wisdom it is proper to admit for propagation 
purposes, and there seems t< be no logical basis for his determination. 
Few realize that the present quarantine was issued after the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, on Feb. 26, 1918, had submitted to the 
Department of Agriculture a report in which it was stated that in 
