July 22, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
743 
Hardening §|iscellany. 
POPPIES AND DAISIES. 
Mine is a new garden, only just reclaimed from 
what may be called the wilderness state, and what 
with repeated failures and disappointments my only 
successful crop has been—wild Poppies ! These were, 
of course, self-sown, and I carefully left the seedlings 
while weeding, and now they form patches of scarlet 
here, there, and everywhere. Remembering how 
well ox-eyed Daisies and Poppies mix in bunches of 
wild flowers, it occurred to me to intermix plants of the 
well-known white Marguerite or Paris Daisy with my 
weedy but picturesque Poppies, and the combination 
is so effective that possibly some of the readers of 
the Gardening World may like to know of it, for 
there must surely be other gardens in which wild 
Poppies come of their own accord, and they may be 
practically turned into garden flowers by being 
associated with the white starry blossoms so popular 
with us all.— G. L. 
OUR GARDEN LILIES. 
It is quite true, as mentioned in your issue of July 
ist, that we seldom see permanent clumps of Lilies, 
even of the hardiest varieties, now, whilst some years 
ago they were common, but it seems to me that the 
reason is that we are too fond of transplanting, a 
practice to which Lilies do not lend themselves 
readily. In the days of our fathers Lilies were 
planted and then let alone, and flourished accord¬ 
ingly, but somehow we do not seem to be able to 
leave them in one place for two seasons together, 
we either want them in some other part or we want 
the space for something else, and the result is that 
they dwindle away and gradually die out altogether. 
I have had bitter experience on this point myself, 
and should have got into sad trouble about it if I had 
been a professional gardener. In a country garden 
I once had, I found old-established clumps of white 
Lilies in first-rate condition ; but I could not let well 
alone, I must need go moving them about for 
picturesque effect and to increase my stock, and the 
consequence was that in the course of a few seasons 
there were no Lilies left.— G. L. 
MARICA C-ERULEA. 
This is a stronger growing plant than M. gracilis, 
with large and showy, although somewhat ephemeral, 
flowers that are cupped at the base and open above. 
The falls are deep sky blue ; the standards are erect 
in the lower half, sharply revolute above the middle, 
and of a deep blue shaded with purple at the point 
where they are revolute, and striped with white along 
the centre. The basal concave portion of all the six 
segments is pubescent and transversely banded with 
brown and yellow. The stigmas are pale blue and 
end in two small arrow-like heads each. The leaves 
are of considerable length and resemble those of 
some of the broader-leaved Irises. It is not difficult 
to grow and flower in a stove or intermediate 
temperature. 
STROBILANTHES DYERIANU8. 
Already has this plant given evidence of its utility 
as a stove decorative plant, of free growth, and com¬ 
paratively easy culture. It reminds us somewhat of 
the kinds of colour to be met with in some of the 
Bertolonias, without the delicacy of those plants. 
There is no telling what size the leaves will 
ultimately attain, but already they measure 6 in. to 
8 in. long on dwarf plants, by 3J in. wide, and may 
be described as elliptic, stalkless, clasping the stem 
at the base, and of a deep purple, with green veins 
and margin. The colour becomes more distinct and 
clearly defined as the plants get older. A batch of 
comparatively small plants may be seen in the 
nursery of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, and is 
quite a new plant, having received a First-class 
Certificate a few weeks ago. 
TROP/EOLUM PENTAPH YLLUM. 
Several of the perennial species of Tropaeolum have 
given great satisfaction during the past summer, the 
heat notwithstanding. This applies more particu¬ 
larly to the tuberous rooted species, of which the 
plant under notice is one. The perennial rootstock 
consists of a large round tuber, which may be easily 
protected with a heap of ashes during winter in well- 
drained soil. It has been very floriferous in the 
nursery of Mr. T. S. Ware, Hale Farm Nursery, 
Tottenham. The flowers have a red tube, and sepals 
which are reddish externally and green spotted with 
red internally. The petals are small and of a deep 
red. The leaves are in themselves ornamental, con¬ 
sisting of four or five lanceolate-elliptic segments. 
The stems are very slender and climb by means of 
the twisting stalks of their leaves. As in the case 
of T. tricolorum this can be grown in pots for cool 
greenhouse decoration, training the stems over stakes 
or a wire trellis or framework of any desirable shape. 
SEEDLING BORDER CARNATIONS. 
I send you examples of this popular hardy old 
favourite. The plants have been planted some nine 
months, and were protected during the winter with 
dry leaves collected in the autumn—-Nature’s pro¬ 
tecting material. My object in submitting the 
blooms to you is to show what a wealth of beauty 
may be secured by the annual raising of seedlings 
when a judicious selection of varieties for seedling 
purposes is made and attention is paid to hybridizing. 
The mixing of plant-blood, if I may so speak, brings 
into existence a variety of colours little anticipated by 
the operator. In my fertilising operations I employ 
only a very few of the cardinal colours and as few 
varieties. From yellows fertilised by other colours 1 
have succeeded in obtaining a vast difference and 
clear, brilliant hues such as I did not possess in my 
small collection, and I have been agreeably sur¬ 
prised, if not astounded, at the result of my manipu¬ 
lation. The bed from which I have taken the blooms 
does not contain one single seedling, and very many 
of the plants have upwards of fifty buds and blooms 
on each plant, and all are remarkably free from the 
splitting of the calyx, hence I opine that my humble 
endeavours to produce good border varieties for my 
own gratification has been amply rewarded .—George 
Fry, Lewisham. [_A well-varied and interesting 
gathering, amply bearing out our correspondent’s 
remarks.— Ed.] 
A DWARF LEGUMINOUS PLANT. 
What is the name of the plant, apparently a 
Cytissus, which I saw growing a few days since by 
the road-side near Esher Common. It is when in 
bloom about 12 in. in height, not branching, or but 
little so, as the shoots seem to come direct from the 
roots. They are very slightly spiny, have small 
leafage, and when I saw the plants these stems were 
thickly clothed with Pea shaped flowers of rose 
coloured hue. It was really a beautiful plant, one of 
the most charming of wild flowers I have seen, and 
far prettier than are many things classed as hardy 
and grown in gardens. It is so rare that I don't 
recollect having seen it before. As the road here 
abuts on to the South-Wbstern Railway, I have 
wondered whether the plant had come from some of 
the chalk deposits of which the line is constructed. 
I am morally certain that were this pretty Legum- 
inose an imported plant it would have been put into 
commerce with a big flourish of trumpets.— A. D. 
[The plant you describe is not particularly rare, 
although local perhaps in its distribution, and 
usually affects sandy and chalky places. It grows 
in quantity upon Salisbury Plain and elsewhere, and 
had probably been brought with the ballast in 
making the line, but possibly from some neighbour¬ 
ing field in the locality you name. It is the Spiny 
Restharrow (Ononis spinosa), and is similar to O. 
arvensis, except that the latter has no spines. —Ed.] 
—-- 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
Orchid Growers' Calendar. 
East India House.— During the past week we have 
been favoured with a good quantity of rain, and as 
is often the case dull days have followed, necessitat¬ 
ing the use of fire heat in the daytime, and the sus¬ 
pension of the usual syringing overhead. A low 
temperature heavily charged with moisture would 
cause spotting in the leaves, and the damping off of 
young growths. Cattleya Dowiana and C. aurea 
are pushing spikes and will require careful watering. 
C. gigas Sanderiana, as they go out of flower, if 
located in this division, should be placed in the 
Cattleya house, where they can enjoy all the light 
possible, and any requiring it may now be repotted. 
Very little water will be required after being re¬ 
potted other than is supplied by the syringe when 
damping down, as they root more freely into a com¬ 
post that is kept, comparatively speaking, dry f 
without shrivelling much, and will, when the proper 
time comes, make strong flowering growths. 
Cypripediums that require plenty of heat find in 
the warm division genial quarters. They are now 
growing fast, and should be encouraged by being 
afforded weak doses of manure water occasionally. 
Miltonia Roezlii does best in this house during 
winter, but if a sufficiently moist place could be 
found in the Cattleya house, it would suit them 
much better during the summer months. We have 
tried them in the cool house with M. vexillarium, but 
they did not make much headway, so that it would 
seem they require a few degrees more warmth than 
do M. vexillarium. The best grown plants of M. 
Roezlii or, for the matter of that, M. vexillarinm, I 
ever saw were grown and shown by Mr. J. Douglas 
some few years ago. I have good cause to 
remember them, as it was through the fineplantsput 
up by him of this species that I had more than 
once to take a back seat when exhibiting at Regent's 
Park. They do not do well for long as specimen 
plants, and should be broken up into smaller pieces 
and grown on again on their exhibiting the least 
signs of going back. Good peat and moss, with 
pieces of potsherds intermixed, grows them well. If 
the atmosphere is at all dry thrips will attack the 
young growth, and must be kept under by fumiga¬ 
tion or by dipping the plants in tobacco water, but 
given a moist place and frequent syringings over¬ 
head during the summer will keep them in check. 
Cattleya House.— But for C. Gaskelliana and a 
few C. gigas this house would be rather dull. The 
former fine Cattleya will carry us well on into the 
autumn, when the autumn-flowering C. labiata will 
step in and carry us on through the early winter 
months. These are making up their growths very 
fast and must receive every encouragement by 
keeping them well supplied with water. They 
cannot stand being dried off at anytime. We have 
done without fire heat in this division for a few 
nights when it was so hot, but this week we have 
been compelled to light the fire in the evening to 
prevent the temperature falling below 60°' — C. 
Cypripedium Stone! Cannartae. 
The upper sepal of the flowers of this fine variety 
are creamy-white, with a few brown lines or veins 
towards the sides ; the outer face of both is nearly 
covered with an overlaid layer of a bronzy, shining, 
metallic brown, which gives them a fine appearance 
when seen from the back or when in bud. The 
petals are heavily shaded with this hue on the inner 
face, and spotted with prominent, nearly black 
markings. The lip is also more or less shaded with 
brown. An Award of Merit was accorded it by the 
Royal Horticultural Society, at the meeting held at 
Chiswick, on the nth inst., when exhibited by 
Thomas Statter, Esq., (gardener, Mr. R. Johnson), 
Stand Hall, Manchester. 
Cypripedium Massaianum. 
The parents of this hybrid were C. superciliare and 
C. Rothschildianum, the latter being the pollen 
bearer. It is the first hybrid that has appeared in 
which C. Rothschildianum has been concerned with 
the parentage. The upper sepal is broadly ovate 
with deep brown nerves and more slender green ones 
between. The petals are declinate, obloDg, acute, 
and pale green with deeper veins, spotted all over 
with brown and of a rosy shade at the tip. The lip 
is of large size and deep brown. It was exhibited by 
Messrs. F. Sander & Co., St. Albans, at the meeting 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, held at Chiswick 
on the nth inst., and was accorded an Award of 
Merit. 
A pigmy piece of Oncidium splendidum. 
Usually this should have a tall flower stem, but 
we noticed a small piece scarcely yet established in 
Messrs.Veitch’s nursery, Chelsea, which bore a single 
bloom on a scape only 2% in. high, and arising from 
the crown of a young pseudo-bulb. There were two 
other small pseudo-bulbs belonging to the piece and 
bearing leaves about 3 in. to 4 in. long. The sepals 
and petals are oblong and brown, banded trans¬ 
versely with yellow. The lip has a large terminal 
obreniform, yellow lobe, and a brown spot at the 
base of the lateral lobes. 
Odontoglossuni crispum. 
A fine variety of this cool Odontoglossum may now 
be seen in the nursery of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, 
