826 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 18 , 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
A Big French Pear. —Fig. 352, page 
823, from the London Gardener’s Chroni¬ 
cle of September 3, 1905, illustrates a new 
pear now being introduced by .the dis¬ 
tinguished pomologist, M. Charles Baltet, 
Troyes, France. M. Baltet thinks this 
pear, for which he proposes the name 
“Roosevelt,” is destined to bring about a 
revolution in fruit gardens and orchards. 
The tree is said to- be a robust grower, 
and very productive, either as a standard 
or as a dwarf, grafted on quince stock. 
The pears grow very large, sometimes 
measuring over five inches in diameter. 
The cut is supposed to be under, rather 
than over, natural size of the best fruits. 
The flesh is snow white, melting and of a 
delicate, sweet and agreeable flavor. The 
color of the ripe fruits is light yellow 
shading to lemon, with bright red spots 
on the sunny side. The season in north¬ 
ern France is from September to Novem¬ 
ber, being in good eating condition 
through the whole month of October. M. 
Baltet has tested it for years, and does not 
hesitate warmly to recommend it. His 
great reputation will go far to encourage 
trials of this sensational variety. Who 
will he first to test it over here, and what 
will it amount to in our climate and under 
our cultural conditions? Many pears of 
high and permanent value have come out 
of France, but we do not know any good 
ones as large as a Twenty Ounce apple 
among them. 
Flower Novelties. —Some very good 
flower seed novelties have lately been in¬ 
troduced. We have had occasion to men¬ 
tion some of the more conspicuous ones 
in previous notes. 
Nicotiana Sanderae holds out well, 
making a fine show of color as late as 
November 2. The blooms drooped and 
shriveled during hot Summer days, only 
standing up morning and evenings, but 
throughout October our planting has 
made on the whole a most cheerful ef¬ 
fect. Some of the purple shades are dull 
and lifeless, but others range well into 
bright carmine. Nicotianas endure light 
frosts very well, but succumb to a freeze 
severe enough to kill tomato plants. 
Much seed of Sanderae has been saved, 
and it is likely to he cheap enough next 
year to be within the reach of all. Grown 
in the border with marigolds, Zinnias and 
Cosmos it will make a pleasing addition 
when fierce midsummer heat is over. 
Tmpatiens Holsti grew exceedingly 
well in the garden, and was constantly 
covered with large, bright red blooms 
until the middle of October. When 
grown in quantity it should be most de¬ 
sirable for bedding, especially in warm 
light soils. The habit is all that could be 
desired, as outdoor specimens grow low 
and fiat, with many branches of almost 
even height. Pot plants grow taller and 
make good conservatory specimens. 
Platycodon Mariesi Macrantiium.— 
This is a gem among hardy perennials. 
The Rural Grounds received seeds about 
seven years ago from a distinguished Ger¬ 
man grower, who claimed it to be the re¬ 
sult of very many years’ selection from 
Platycodon Mariesi, now regarded as a 
garden form of the only true species, P. 
grandiflorum, and which has practically 
disappeared from cultivation. P. grandi¬ 
florum has long been a favorite border 
plant, usually known as the Chinese bell¬ 
flower. It grows two or three feet high 
and forms a very handsome plant with a 
profusion of large blue or white saucer¬ 
shaped flowers, opening from conspicuous 
balloon-like buds. It grows too lanky for 
windy situations, and is usually blown 
over by storms when in the height of its 
Summer beauty. P. Mariesi was much 
dwarfer and more compact, and bore 
larger dark blue flowers, but the improved 
habit was never well fixed in the seed that 
found its way into commerce. Plants o ’ 
all heights, from one to three feet, woult 
grow from a single packet of seeds, with 
a corresponding variation in form anc 
arrangement of branches, though the 
blooms were fairly uniform in size anc 
color. The raiser of the present large- 
flowered novelty, P. Mariesi macranthum, 
worked quite 20 years in selecting from 
the dwarfest and most compact plants, at 
the same time increasing the size ant 
number of blooms, while retaining the 
rich blue shade, so acceptable in the best 
original forms of P. Mariesi. P. ma¬ 
cranthum, or as we may now call it, the 
Dwarf Chinese bellflower, has a hardy 
and long-lived tuberous root, grows 
quickly and easily from seed, opening 
flowers so large on small plants that when 
grown in a thumb pot, the plant, pot anc 
all, can he placed inside the bloom. Grown 
in ordinary soil in an exposed position on 
the Rural Grounds the plants have never 
been broken clown or blown over by our 
wildest gales, nor have they been in any 
way injured by frost, though entirely 
without protection. They bloomed the 
first Summer when three inches high, and 
each successve year have grown stronger, 
until the topmost buds now reach some¬ 
thing over two feet in height, the plants 
forming well-balanced clumps. The 
flowers open widely, and average four 
inches in diameter, intense deep blue, very 
rarely white or light blue, in color. The 
foliage makes a neat tuft near the ground, 
the flower stems shooting up from eight 
inches to two feet, according to age and 
size of plant. The blooming season ex¬ 
tends from June until the last of August, 
the plants being covered with flowers dur¬ 
ing the whole interval. We consider the 
Dwarf Chinese bellflower invaluable for 
beds, borders or edgings in the herbace¬ 
ous garden. This variety has been offer¬ 
ed under the misleading name of Tuber¬ 
ous-rooted Clematis and also as Platyco¬ 
don Tom Thumb. Seeds may be had 
for 10 to 25 cents the packet and should 
he sown early in Spring either in pots or 
in the garden. In either case the plants 
will bloom by midsummer. The tuber¬ 
ous roots may he transplanted any time 
when dormant, and should be set about 15 
inches apart. 
Scutellaria Baicalensis Coelestina. 
—This is a hardy skullcap from eastern 
Siberia, with tuberous roots, bearing pro¬ 
fuse spikes of attractive light blue flowers 
with white centers, resembling to some 
extent Salvia patens. The plant grows 
very erect, reaching the first year about 
18 inches in height, blooming in a few 
months from seeds. It is said to propa¬ 
gate easily from cuttings. We grow our 
plants in sandy soil in and exposed sunny 
situation. They grew freely and bloomed 
profusely in July. The flower spikes are 
excellent for cutting, as this particular 
shade of blue is not too common at the 
season. The plant when blooming re¬ 
sembles a ®dwarf blue-flowering snap¬ 
dragon, if such an oddity can be imagined. 
Seeds received from J. M. Thorburn & 
Co., New York. 
Dianthus Laciniatus Mirabilis.— 
The Miracle pink from Japan. Fig. 121, 
in The R. N.-Y. for April 8, 1905, was 
engraved from a dried specimen of this 
remarkable novelty. Our garden plants, 
however, produced flowers twice as large, 
exceeding five inches in diameter, in color 
ranging from pure white to very deep 
crimson, some with beautifully contrast¬ 
ing white and pink zones. The long 
thread-like fringes add much to the 
beauty of these great blooms. The plants 
are very thrifty, growing over a foot high 
and blooming the whole season. 
Sweet-scented Diadem Pink. —These 
are beautiful hybrids of the border or 
Scotch pink, Dianthus plumarius, pos¬ 
sessing much of the delightful clove frag¬ 
rance of the species, combined with beauty 
of color and varied markings of the Chi¬ 
nese pink. We can well remember when 
the diadem-flowered strain of Heddewig’s 
pinks was introduced, considerably more 
than 30 years ago. The price was 50 
cents the packet, containing scarcely 20 
seeds. They were all but unattainable 
at the time, but a packet was finally Se¬ 
cured, which, it is needless to say, was 
grown with extraordinary care. The 
lovely shades and markings were a rev¬ 
elation of beauty that has since never 
palled, though the strain quickly became 
cheap and common, as it is an excellent 
seeder. Here we have these marvelous 
colorings transferred to the lonsr-lived 
Scotch pink and enriched with its appeal¬ 
ing fragrance. These sweet-scented dia¬ 
dem pinks bloom freely the first year 
from seed, if started as early as March, 
and form beautiful tufts, growing larger 
and more floriferous for several seasons. 
Seeds cost 25 cents the packet, and are 
easily grown. w. v. F. 
Close Cropping. —I made a short visit to 
Wethersfield, Conn., not long ago. The town 
Is noted for its onion raising and formerly 
for onion seed and garlic. They also raise 
a good deal of celery and their method of do¬ 
ing this was new to me. At the time the 
onion seed is planted every third, fourth 
or fifth row is planted with celery seed, 
the plants later thinned, and plants removed, 
used for the later crops (the distance l>e- 
tween the rows of celery being determined by 
the strength of the land). The onions are 
ready to remove before the celery is ready 
to be bleached with boards for the early 
market; later it is pitted for the Winter. 
Two crops are taken off the ground with 
good profit to skilful growers; stable manure 
is plowed under and ground is heavily top- 
dressed with chemical fertilizer. e. p. 
Windsor, Conn. 
708 
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