August 28, 1896. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
177 
below the flange, hanging loose down the cup one on each side quite 
opposite to each other, forms a tight embrace to the stem of the 
tube holding the flower. The advantage of these two so-called 
springs is that the stem of the tube when pushed down can be fixed 
at whatever height is thought desirable for the flower, be it a large 
or a small one. This spring does away with the necessity of using 
any kind of support, as is required for the older-shaped cup, to fix 
the blooms at a given height from the board. The addition of the 
spring costs a trifle more than the plain ones, but is well worth it. 
The cup should be made in exactly the same manner as in the plain 
system, and should be 3 inches long, three-quarters of an inch in 
diameter, having a flange at the top one-eighth of an inch broad 
in a horizontal manner. This prevents the cup swaying to and fro 
when travelling. Narrow strips of brown paper wrapped around 
the outside of the stem of the tube which is inserted in the cup 
prevent the flower dropping lower than is required. Some use 
indiarubber rings for the same purpose, while other growers place 
pieces of cork or wood in the cup to raise the flower as required. 
NIGHT WORK AND NIGHT ENEMIES. 
Growers of Chrysanthemums who are desirous of perfecting 
superior blooms for exhibition have enemies by night as well as 
troubles by day to steer clear of. All these evils nesessitate con¬ 
stant watchfulness when the flowers are expanding. Earwigs are 
the greatest pest. It is surprising what amount of depredation is 
caused on one bloom during a single night by earwigs. Trap them 
with moss placed inside inverted pots, inverted on a stake amongst 
the plants, and examined every morning. By this means many 
Fig. 25.—Cups for Chrysanthemum Bloomr. 
may be destroyed ; but the best way to catch them is by going 
round after dark each night quietly with a light when they are 
busy feeding on the petals. They must be caught quickly. Nothing 
is better for this than a pair of tweezers. The least shake of the 
plant and they secrete themselves among the petals, and are not at 
all easy to discover again. Woodlice in some places are trouble¬ 
some, as they eat the florets from the under side of the flower. 
The damage is not always seen till the flowers sometimes are spoilt. 
They are not so numerous when the plants are standing on the 
concrete floor of the greenhouse as they are in vineries. The 
mulchings of manure used therein for the Vines is just the place 
for them to harbour, as it is generally dry on the surface in some 
parts of the house during the winter. Hand-picking from the 
flowers is the only remedy, and where they are numerous This must 
be incessantly carried out. Slugs too often disfigure the flowers 
by crawling over them, and in some cases they eat them. Where 
any trace of them is seen during the daytime they are almost sure 
to revisit the particular spot the next night. In this manner they 
can be caught after dark. Some bran laid on the top of the pot 
will act as a bait for them. Cockroaches where numerous are sure 
to find out the blooms, which are soon spoilt when three or four of 
these commence to eat them. They are rather difficult to catch 
when feeding, as the moment the light is turned on them off: they 
go. Where the plants are so situated that they are standing thinly 
about, a gentle shake dislodges them, when they can be killed on 
the floor. Cockroaches are most troublesome to plants that are 
placed in heat to push them along, these pests not generally being 
found in cool houses, as they are more partial to heat. Green 
caterpillars are sometimes a source of annoyance : except by chance 
the night is the only time to discover their whereabouts. 
It will be seen that growers of Chrysanthemums have many 
enemies, all of which must be subdued if perfect blooms are ex¬ 
pected. Then there is the ventilation of the house to attend to at 
night, giving more or reducing it as the weather may suggest, or 
admitting air in such a manner that rain does not beat on the flowers, 
which does much damage.—E. Molyneux. 
A CHAT ABOUT HARDY HERBACEOUS FLOWERS. 
[A Lecture delivered at the meeting of the Yorkshire Association of Horticultura 
Societies at Sheffield by the Rev. A. R. Upcber.] 
Mr. President, and Brother Gardeners all,—I have at this moment 
a painful consciousness that an apology is due from me to you on account 
of the position I am occupying this evening ; for of all the airy castles 
that I have ever built from my youth up until now, I certainly never 
had the audacity to dream that I should ever attain to such a dizzy 
height of honour as that of addressing the first meeting in Sheffield of 
the Yorkshire Agricultural Societies under the presidency of the first 
Archdeacon of Sheffield. 
Well, Sir, I have been asked to give a lecture, but I hardly like to 
call my remarks by so grand a name lest some facetious friend should 
remind me of the vast amount of talent and experience in horticulture that 
1 am addressing by a somewhat touching reference to a certain venerable 
relation and green Gooseberries. I prefer to crave your kind indulgence 
for a very short time—for I am glad for my sake that I am not an 
“ annual,” and for your sakes that my discourse is not perennial—while 
I have “ a chat ” with you about “ Hardy Herbaceous Flowers.” 
“ Sirs,” said a certain philosopher, addressing once upon a time a 
field of golden Wheat, “ if you will only lend me your ears I shall never 
want for bread.” And, “ Sirs,” say I, if you will only lend me your ears 
to listen to what I have to say, and your eyes to behold these lovely 
flowers that are here this evening to bear me witness, then I shall feel 
at least a hope that I have not come here in vain. 
When the energetic Secretary of the Sheffield and Hallamshire 
Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society requested me some months ago 
to give what he was pleased to call a lecture, I allowed myself to do so 
for three reasons 
Firstly, because I am glad to be able to help forward any association 
of societies which have for their object and aim such a civilising influence 
as that of the culture of God’s beautiful flowers. 
Secondly, because I felt it would be a capital opportunity of bringing 
before the notice of the gardening fraternity of Sheffield and its im¬ 
mediate neighbourhood, a subject concerning which I fear, from personal 
observation, with a few brilliant exceptions, there is a very limited know¬ 
ledge, and a still more limited practical experience. 
Thirdly, because, to a lover of flowers, as I honestly claim to be, the 
thought that there are hundreds of lovely herbaceous plants, growable in 
almost any ordinary garden soil, which, nevertheless, are perennially 
“ boycotted ” from our gardens, is simply maddening. Against all such 
unreasonable prejudice and culpable ignorance I beg leave, therefore, 
most respectfully to protest; and with this preamble, preliminary canter, 
or whatever else you like to call it, I take a header “ in mediae res 
which, freely translated, means on this occasion, “ into the midst of an 
herbaceous border.” 
(I). Let us glance at the nature of these plants. 
(1) . These flowers, remember, are perfectly hardy —that is to say, 
though exotics brought from foreign countries and naturalised in this, 
will grow and flourish in our garden soils and in our English climate, 
which, as an American once forcibly described if, is "as shifty as a 
waggonload of monkeys,” and in our English atmosphere, even though 
charged with Sheffield smoke. 
(2) . They are herbaceous —that is, they differ from shrubby plants 
in the limited and less woody nature of their growth, and in dying down 
to the ground every year after they have flowered and their leaves 
and stems have performed the functions necessary to their fature 
well-being. 
(3) . They are perennial— that is, they live f >r an indefinite number cf 
years, increasing, and so being propagated from the root, and bed ming 
each succeeding season more exquisitely beautiful than the last; a feature 
in their character which, together with their hardiness, makes them avail¬ 
able where their more fashionable rivals, now popularly known as ‘‘bed¬ 
ding plants,” cannot, for the above reasons, take their place. 
(4) . As regards the beau’y of these flowers, I will simply say there 
is no reason whatever why our gardens should not be one blaze of colour 
from February to November; or, in Sheffield, say from March to end of 
September, with a display in these plants alone, without the aid (f a 
single pane of glass, and with the smallest amount of labour. For the 
rest I am content to stand aside and allow these lovely blooms to p’esu 
for themselves. Looh at them ; study them ; consider them ; how they 
grow, “ Yerily, not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one 
of these;” and I would fain believe that you, who at present are 
strangers to them, when you come to know and love them in your own 
gardens—come to be “married” to them, as securely as is the reader of 
this paper, you will be able to say about these flowers what the Ncrfo'k 
