tops cut off. Of course, all the bulbs could be dug up, dried, and 
planted out again the next fall. These bulb beds should have 
new bulbs put in about once in four years. 
Ellen Eddy Shaw. 
THE GARDEN COLLECTION OF 
PERENNIAL ASTERS 
The perennial asters in the collection brought back from 
England last year by Mr. Montague Free, Horticulturist of the 
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, are just now coming into flower, and 
show most interesting and striking variations in color, size and 
shape of petals, as well as in the general habit of the plant. In 
all there are about seventy-five varieties represented here, ranging 
in color from purple and blue to pink and white. The colors are 
perhaps not as vivid as one finds sometimes in our native forms, 
but unusual hues have been developed, especially a shade of pink 
of great beauty. The plants were obtained in the summer of 1921 
by Mr. Free, from Aldenham House Gardens, near London, on 
the country estate of Hon. Vicary Gibbs, son of the late Lord 
Aldenham. They were set out last fall in carefully prepared soil 
in the bed bordering the east side of the walk leading from the 
Laboratory Building to the Children’s Gardens. The varieties of 
Aster novi-belgii, the New York aster, and A. novae angliae, the New 
England aster, are now at their best, with striking showy flowers 
of various shades of violet purple. King George, a variety of 
Aster Amelins, at the extreme north end of the bed, with slender, 
pale-blue petals, about one inch long, has nearly finished its 
blooming period. 
It is interesting to note that English horticulturists have paid 
particular attention to the cultivation and hybridization of our 
our native asters. The collection at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
is a good illustration of what has been done in England along 
this line. In general, besides the development of the different 
color shades, cultivation has resulted in increased size of the 
whole plant as well as enormous productivity. In fact, simply for 
lack of room, it would seem impossible for some of the plants to 
have anymore flowers. Some of the smaller, white-flowered forms 
are studded all over with diminutive, fairy-like blossoms which, 
contrasted with the green of the leaves, give a pleasing effect 
although not so striking as in the large-rayed varieties. Each 
wee blossom is, however, a thing of beauty in itself, like a tiny 
star— so that the name aster, the Greek word for star, is most 
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