86 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 6, 1900. 
to Newquay, it is— in temperature— a hundred miles 
away ! Here Roses are still scenting the ambient 
air; here Honeysuckles entwine the cottage porch ; 
here the purple and the yellow Clematis are growing 
together in mutuality ; here Cannas blaze in beauty ; 
here Gynerium argenteum, the plumy Pampas 
Grass, reigns supreme. It is a lovely object when 
seen in good condition, its silky panicles and long 
glaucous-green leaves, together constituting a picture 
of noble proportions. 
Here, also, other plants flourish ; and here, also, 
a florist flourishes. Flowers all the year round and 
not a hundred miles from Newquay ! 
Trenance ! Sweet vale! 
No frosts ; no gale ; 
No noise ; sweet vale ! 
" Tre" enters very largely about here into the 
composition of village names. It is Scott, I think, 
who says:— 
“By Tre, Pol, and Pen 
You may know the Cornishmen.” 
But, by these same terms you may also know the 
towns and villages where Cornishmen love to congre¬ 
gate. 
On the cliffs and unkempt places there are many 
garden escapes, such as, Stocks, Wallflowers, Antir¬ 
rhinums, Mesembryanthemums, Rue, Cineraria, 
Oenothera, Centranthus, &c., which seem quite at 
home. 
As it is not a very long way from exotics to wild 
flowers, as instanced above, and as it is desirable 
that gardeners should know something about our 
native plants, I propose—with the Editor’s re¬ 
servation—to add a few remarks on this subject.— 
ARUM LILIES. 
Arum Lilies which have been standing outside all 
summer will now be pushing up their new growth. 
Before housing them, it will be found necessary to re¬ 
pot or topdress. If to be topdressed,scrape off 2 in. of 
the surface soil. Turn the plants out of the pots to 
see if the drainage is in working order. Replace the 
new compost (which should be a mixture of loam 
and decayed manure) making it firm with a rammer. 
We will be amply rewarded for our labour in the 
spring months, by the production of superb spathes. 
They require copious supplies of water in the grow¬ 
ing season, with liquid manure once a week. In the 
Glasgow Botanic Garden they are to be seen growing 
luxuriantly in a pond, the pots being half submerged 
in the water. The Arum goes under several names 
in gardens. Richardia aethiopica, R. africana, 
Callas and Trumpet Lily ; but the most familiar is 
Lily of the Nile, as it grows in the swamps of Egypt 
unobserved.— Adam Main, Morton Hall Gardens, 
Liber ton, N.B. 
- - Z— - 
“ SIMPLE PROPAGATING.” 
Ficus elastica, Crotons, Dracaenas, Neriums, &c., 
may be propagated in bottles of water ; in fact this 
is the easiest as well as the surest way of increasing 
them, and especially for Crotons and Oleanders, as 
it is very rare for any to fail treated thus. There is a 
plan of propagating Dracaenas, Ficus, &c.,by means 
of cutting round and mossing the stem, and also by 
splitting pots in halves and attaching them to the 
stem; but the latter plan involves too much time 
and trouble : whereas, suspending a few bottles in a 
warm corner of the stove and placing one or two 
tops in each, is only the work of a few minutes. No 
further attention is required until they are ready for 
potting. In potting great care ought to be taken to 
handle them gently, not to break the roots. Simply 
shake the soil down amongst the fibres ; give a good 
watering with tepid water, and the soil will subside 
all right. Managed in this manner there is no 
danger in breaking the roots; and at the next shift 
they can be potted more firmly. If the plants are 
leggy, especially Dracaenas, cut them over a few 
inches from the surface, and place the pots in a 
moist heat. A number of shoots soon spring up, and 
if taken off, will strike with freedom ; and if potted 
on will be fit for table plants in about eighteen 
months. — J . C. D ., Linlithgow. 
— -- —X— -- - 
HOYA CARNOSA AS A WALL PLANT. 
Some twenty years ago I saw a specimen of this 
lovely subject in most luxuriant health. It was 
planted out in a small brick pit in a three-quarter 
span Melon house, and the growths were trained to 
the wall by means of shreds and nails. The plant was 
in such vigorous health that it had in several places 
rooted to the wall like Ivy. It freely produced its 
beautiful trusses of wax-like flowers, and contrasted 
strongly with the miserable specimens one often 
sees growing in pots twisted round a wire trellis, and 
standing in some out of the way position where it has 
no chance of looking better or recovering its health. 
Specimens in pots generally suffer through being 
over-watered, and then if the drainage is not perfect 
the soil soon becomes sour, and the foliage loses its 
crispness and lustre. The soil that the plant I note 
grew in was composed of turfy loam, peat, sand, and 
lime rubbish, placed on good drainage. The tem¬ 
perature was high, the plant was freely syringed, and 
the house was damped down several times a day. It 
is generally known and understood that picking off 
the old flowers and seed pods greatly assists a plant 
and prolongs the production of blooms; but such is 
not the case with the Hoya Carnosa. The old flower 
stalks should never be removed, as they produce 
flowers another season.— George Potts, Streatham, 
S.W., September 29 th. 
THE WINTERING OF ECHEVERIA 
SECUNDA GLAUCA. 
This useful and effective bedding plant is much 
more hardy, and can be preserved through the winter 
months far more easily than is generally supposed. 
During the past sixteen years these have been 
wintered at the foot of a south wall here with the 
best possible results. The only protection they 
receive during frosty weather is double mats, except 
one year when the glass registered 3 0 below zero ; 
then only a covering of long litter was added. Out 
of several thousand plants only about a score 
succumbed, and that was owing to drip. The great 
point to aim at is to keep them, dry. We allow a 
distance of 14 in. from the foot of the wall, building 
them up in a slanting position to 30 in. high, which 
means a sharp angle, and every drop of rain is thus 
thrown off. Commence by putting a batten for the 
first row to rest on, which will just sufficiently 
elevate them off the ground. Arrange them neatly 
in rows, commencing with the largest plants, and 
finish at the top with the smallest. The suckers 
taken from the old plants will generally give the 
finishing touch. The soil should be of a dry porous 
nature, and pressed firmly on each row of plants as 
arranged. If done in a neat and workmanlike 
manner, valuable space under glass is not only saved 
but these form objects of interest during the dull 
days of winter, and the condition of the plants for 
bedding is far superior to those wintered under glass 
— A. Thatcher, Aldenham, Elstree. 
—- «« ■ 
CHRYSANTHEMUM GROWING, 
To my idea, is one of the most interesting studies 
that a gardener has to d<=al with, not because they 
are hard to grow, but because if cot taken proper 
care of they soon begin to show it, and if not recti¬ 
fied in time are soon spoilt. Chrysanthemums must 
never be checked when growing, or they will never 
get over it; they may appear to, but you can plainly 
see when the flowering time comes whether they 
have been grown properly or not. From the time 
they are put in their cutting pots until the time they 
have brought their blooms to perfection they must 
have great attention, potting them on as they want 
it, not keeping them until a certain date, and shifting 
them whether they want it or not. Watering and 
feeding are very important items, and should be 
carefully attended to. Plants when watered should 
have enough to thoroughly soak the ball of soil, not 
just wetted, but the pot should be filled to the brim 
unless a lot of room is left in the pot for top dress¬ 
ing. As soon as the pots are full of roots after the 
final potting then applications of soot water and 
liquid manure should be given occasionally in weak 
quantities. Gradually increase the strength of the 
manure as they get used to it. A dressing of 
Thompson’s or Ichthemic Guano is very beneficial 
at times, but I always like to water alternately with 
clear water to keep the soil sweet.— H. W., 42, 
Alexandra Road, Englefield Green, Egham. 
ROSE DISPLAY AT JACKSON PARK, 
CHICAGO. 
The wooded island at Jackson Park is now a mass 
of glowing colour, such as could hardly be equalled 
anywhere, and “Uncle” John Thorpe, as he is 
affectionately termed, says that not even the floral 
display at the Paris Exposition can equal it. 
One of the papers lovingly alludes to Mr. Thorpe 
as “ a red-whiskered Scotchman,” but it runs in my 
mind he is a Lancashire man, certainly English, and 
formerly of the firm of Van Halleck, Son, & Thorpe, 
of New York State. 
Fully 40,000 visited the display on a recent Sunday. 
All the old-fashioned sorts are represented as well as 
the standard varieties. Meteor and General Jacque¬ 
minot are particularly fine. The island itself is 
lovely, no formality being observed in its laying-out. 
It looks as if it had happened. Things grow riot 
here, and " it is very fair, and sweet and fair, in this 
garden by the sea.” 
We have, right in the city limits, a 16-acre patch 
of greenhouses mainly devoted to Rose culture. 
Forty-five thousand American Beauty plants were 
grown this spring, blooms fetching occasionally 4s. 
each. There is no other variety in such demand. 
They are grown in raised troughs, filled with black 
soil, about 8 in. deep, and will flower in August from 
slips rooted in sand in February. They are thrown 
away when one year old, after cuttings are taken 
The houses are lit by electricity at night, and flowers 
are cut twice daily. The heat is kept at from 50° to 
65 ° 
In one establishment in America eighty green¬ 
houses, each 150 ft. long, are heated from two bat¬ 
teries, and regulated by one man only. At night a 
watchman makes his round systematically, altering 
heat and ventilation according to climatic changes. 
A series of buttons which he must press registers his 
visits to different houses, and in the morning it is 
easy to follow up his movements during the night. 
As far as possible exact machinery is substituted for 
human help with good business results. This really 
would be good if more widely introduced than it is. 
Often serious losses follow a sleepy employee, and, 
anyway, the above system is more economical by 
far.— C. Macquarie, Chicago. 
— ■■ 
THE USE OF FLOWERS. 
God might have made the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small, 
The Oak tree and the Cedar tree, 
Without a flower at all. 
We might have had enough, enough 
For every want of ours, 
For luxury, medicine and toil 
And yet have had no flowers. 
The ore within the mountain mine 
Requireth none to grow ; 
Nor does it need the Lotus-flower 
To make the river flow. 
The clouds might give abundant rain, 
The nightly dews might fall, 
And the herb that keepeth life in man 
Might yet have drunk them all. 
Then, wherefore, wherefore are they made 
All dyed with rainbow light, 
All fashioned with supremest grace 
Upspringing day and night; 
Springing in valleys green and low, 
And on the mountain high, 
And in the silent wilderness, 
Where no man passes by ? 
Our outward life requires them not, 
Then wherefore had they birth ? 
To minister delight to man, 
To beautify the earth. 
To comfort man, to whisper hope 
Whene’er his faith is dim; 
For whoso careth for the flowers 
Will much more care for him. 
" A Woman." 
The Grifferae is a variety of the multiflora Rose, 
and is used as a stock for Noisette Roses, or any 
vigorous growing varieties. 
