October 20, 1800. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
119 
cinifolium is a pretty creeping alpine with branching 
spikes of rose-coloured flowers. They are easily 
increased by division of the roots, which is prefer¬ 
able, and by seed sown in April.— A. Thatcher, Alden- 
ham, Elstree. 
• g - ■ — 
CLERODENDRON FALLAX. 
This useful decorative plant, with its broad erect 
leaves, and bright scarlet flowers, is easily raised 
from seed sown in January and February, and potted 
on as soon as large enough ; or it 'may be grown 
from cuttings, taken from old plants, started in 
spring and struck in a propagating case where they 
soon root. After they are rooted, they should be 
potted in a mixture of loam, peat and decayed cow- 
manure, with a sprinkling of sliver sand, using 48’s 
and 32’s for potting them in, as these sizes are most 
useful. Clerodendrons delight in a strong, moist 
heat, kept near to the glass to prevent drawing, and 
shading in bright sunshine, as the leaves easily get 
burnt. When the flower spike shows they may be 
removed to an intermediate house. This will some¬ 
what harden them for the conservatory, or going 
into the house for decoration. During August and 
September they are exceedingly useful for these 
purposes, remaining for a long time in full beauty. 
After flowering less water should be given to gradu¬ 
ally dry them off, after which place on a shelf in a 
warm house till spring, then prune them back and 
place in heat to start into growth again. A sharp 
eye must be kept on insects, &c.; sponging and 
dipping, as any appear, in one of the many well 
known insecticides now in commerce is the best 
remedy.— John Botley, Blythewood Gardens, Maiden¬ 
head. 
BEGONIA GLOIRE DE SCEAUX. 
I am glad to notice two short notes recently anent 
the above useful winter and spring flowering plant, 
for it is quite a decorative subject when not in bloom, 
its rich coppery leaves having a telling effect when 
intermixed with well coloured Crotons. We find 
spring-struck plants do better than keeping and 
growing on old plants the second year. Your 
correspondent, Mr. James Reid, did not say whether 
he cut them back after flowering or not, but I pre¬ 
sume he does so, as he says they are easily struck. 
The most satisfactory way we find in increasing the 
stock is to cut the old stems up into single eyes with 
leaf attached, and dibble the same into cocoanut 
fibre in a close case, potting up as soon as rooted, 
which quickly takes place in this light material. 
We pinch the leading shoot at the second leaf, pot¬ 
ting on as required. A 5 -in. pot will grow fine 
plants. I learnt from our county council lecturer 
this Begonia is easily rooted from the leaf, similar to 
Gloire de Lorraine, of which so many of your corres¬ 
pondents have recently had a say. We hope to give 
this a trial next spring. We find it advisable to keep 
away the syriDge when in bloom, as the flowers 
drop so soon and the foliage decays if kept wet over¬ 
head. They do well in the Fern house at this stage. 
— Grower. 
PERENNIAL ASTERS. 
This beautiful and interesting family, better known 
perhaps as Michaelmas Daisies, although more 
extensively grown of late, promises to become even 
more popular when the newer varieties become more 
generally known, and deservedly so, coming into 
flower as the majority of them do, when other flo Ber¬ 
ing plants have been spoilt by early frosts. I think 
the reason why they have been so despised is because 
the varieties so often met with, especially in cottage 
gardens, have no decided colour; and are entirely 
different to the newer kinds which possess some 
beautiful shades of colour. Another important 
point in their favour is that their blossoms are quite 
regardless of autumn cold and rains. Their cultiva¬ 
tion is of the simplest ; although they delight in a 
good soil, they do not refuse to grow in almost any 
soil or situation. The essential point is to select the 
best kinds. Some good varieties from 1 ft. to 2 ft. 
high are Madame Cacheux, Amellus amelloides, 
diffusus horizontalis, niveus, and Amellus bessarab- 
icus; from 2 ft. 103 ft. high, ericoides, laevigatus, 
Novii-Belgii Miss Stafford, paniculata W. J. Grant; 
from 3 ft. to 5 ft. high, grandiflorus, Novae-Angliae 
ruber, Novii-Belgii and its varieties F. W. Burbi^ge, 
densus, and Berenice. The last named tall growing 
kinds produce a fine effect if planted in the back row 
of a border, or any odd space near tall growing 
evergreens, where, besides having a charming effect 
at this season, they supply plenty of flowers for 
cutting for vases.— G. Robins, The Gardens, Dudley 
House, Springrove, Isleworth. 
ORCHID NOTKsTgleIiHGS, 
By the Editor. 
Orchids from Cheltenham —A box of grand 
blooms of Orchids, chiefly Cattleyas and Dendro- 
biums, have reached us from Mr. James Cypher, 
Queen’s Road Nursery, Cheltenham. The varieties 
of Cattleya labiata were notable for their great size 
and lively colours. They measured about 9 in. 
across the petals, and 2| in. to 2* in. across the 
lamina of the lip. Needless to say these measure¬ 
ments or amplitude of size add largely to the 
gorgeous appearance of the blooms. One had a rich 
crimson purple lamina, and others were conspicuous 
by the heavy purple veins running through the same, 
the expansive throat showing the orange blotch to 
advantage. Even more gorgeous in their rich colour¬ 
ing were the flowers of Cattleya dowiana aurea, the 
greater part of the lip, including the tube, being 
lined with crimson on a rich orange ground. 
The lip in this instance measured 3J in. long 
and 2f in. across the wavy lamina. The substance 
was also excellent. A spike of the hybrid C. Man- 
tinii accompanied the others and was notable for 
the rich purple sepals and petals and crimson-purple 
of the lamina. Vanda caerulea, with its beautiful 
sky-blue marbling, measured 4 in. across. 
Amongst the Dendrobiums, D. aqueum, otherwise 
known as D. album, was notable for the size of the 
flowers, which had only a yellow blotch on the lip 
to contrast with the snowy purity of the rest of the 
flower. One bloom had actually three lips, showing 
the vigour of growth. For autumn and late summer 
flowering this ought to be more grown, as the white 
flowers are well shown up by the evergreen foliage 
as in D. chrysanthum. Dendrobium Phalaenopsis 
scbroderianum was represented by a large number 
of flowers in many colours. The finest and rarest of 
all was D. P.s. hololeucum, the pure white variety, 
which is still very scarce and valuable. Two very 
dark varieties of the same Dendrobe had pu r ple 
segments and a maroon-crimson base to the lip. The 
others were lighter but showed many pleasing com¬ 
binations of colour. A chaste form had the lamina 
of the lip lined with rose, and the petals tipped with 
rose, the rest being white. Cattleya Loddigesii 
Harrisoniae had large and chastely coloured flowers 
of a very light shade. A spike of Zygopetalum 
maxillare was also noteworthy. 
-- 
CROSSING AND RAISING CHRYS¬ 
ANTHEMUMS. 
Two years ago I made my first and only experiment 
in hybridising the Japanese Chrysanthemum; and 
out of some nine pairs of plants, I was so far success¬ 
ful in raising about 130 plants. With a very few 
exceptions I flowered them all the same year as 
they were sown. Several of them if still in exist¬ 
ence (I have since left the profession), and grown 
for exhibition purposes, will vie with many of the 
best show varieties. 
With your permission I might give a few words as 
to my procedure. I had a house which was empty, 
waiting for repairs. The house was span roof, well 
heated, and well ventilated, and by a no small 
amount of shifting the plants about I escaped 
drips. In the latter end of November I chose the 
plants I wished to cross. I tcok them into this 
house, and stood them in pairs, of which pairs I 
intended one plant as pollen bearer, and the other as 
seed bearer. I was careful when pairing them to have 
the flowers on pollen bearing plants younger 
than those on the seed bearing plants. I kept the 
heads about 18 in. from the glass, and kept the 
night temperature at 50° to 55 0 , with 5? to 108 
warmer during the day (I might say that the flowers 
were on the crown bud), and then I set to work and 
pollenised the plants several times daily carefully 
with a camel hair brush. The plants were rather 
sparingly watered, and all drops wiped up at once. 
I found my worst enemy was greenfly, but by 
persistently vapourising with nicotine, I managed to 
keep them clean. 
This watchful care was carried on until the 
middle of January, or a little later, when I had all 
the seed heads cut off. I put them on trays, and 
stood them over the warm pipes in the same house 
(some 4 in. off the pipes), turned them daily, and as 
they thoroughly ripened by a little manipulation the 
beads fell in pieces, when I put them in paper until 
the middle of February, when they were sown. 
I might say that previous to sowing I had occasion 
to call on one of our best experts in raising seedling 
Chrysanthemums. I told him all about my experi¬ 
ment, when he told me I did not need to trouble 
with them. As they were difficult to get seed from, 
he doubted if I would get a single seedling from the 
whole lot. I knew what he had done and was 
doing, and came away in very small hopes of success. 
However, the next day I thought I would sow the 
seed and see; but instead of keeping the parentage 
of each lot as I had them labelled, I mixed up the 
whole lot together, sowed them in shallow boxes, 
and stood them in an early Peach house. Much to 
my surprise and chagrin I raised the number as 
stated at the beginning of this article. 
I write this to show how easily Chrysanthemums 
may be raised from seed, and by crossing only the 
best varieties, and keeping dwarfness in view, it is 
possible to do what a few and very few gardeners 
are doing at the present time. We have a Moly- 
neux, a Coombes, and a Weeks, noted for their 
success in raising varieties better by far than any 
foreign introductions, simply by using a little 
common sense. Why not others go and do likewise?— 
Wm. Rushton, 249, Junction Road, Upper Holloway, N. 
The OicRid Growers’ Calendar. 
Greenhouse Orchids— " I wish we could grow 
some Orchids ! ” is a common exclamation, " but as 
we have only a greenhouse it is no use our thinking 
about it.” This is a mistake, however, for with a 
little trouble there are many beautiful Cap3 or 
North American Orchids that thrive well in a green¬ 
house. From the Cape comes the beautiful Disa 
grandiflora, which does well in frames faciDg north 
during the summer months, and at the cool end of 
the greenhouse in winter. 
Shallow pans suit them best, and the compost 
they like is fibrous peat, live sphagnum moss, bits of 
sandstone, which should be made rich by an addition 
of some leaf mould or well rotted manure. They 
like a liberal amount of moisture at all times, which 
is best afforded by the syringe. 
From North America come Cjpripedium parvi- 
florum (which somewhat resembles C. Calceolus), C. 
candidum, C. humile, and C. pabescens; C. gutta- 
tum from Siberia, and C. japonicum from Japan. 
Then there is the beautiful C. spectabile and C. 
spectabile album, which I have seen in great masses, 
doing well planted out in the South of England. 
Being terrestrial species, those potted up must not 
be raised above the rim of the pots, as is the custom 
with most Orchids, but the compost should be about 
an inch below the rim. This admits of a thorough 
watering being given them. 
The compost should be similar to that recom¬ 
mended for the Disas, except that the peat should be 
more broken up. Good drainage is essential on 
account of the amount of moisture required at the 
roots, which must be allowed to pass freely away. 
By placing them at the north end of the greenhouse 
during the winter months, and in cold frames facing 
north during the summer months, a grand display 
can be had with a very little trouble. Insects trouble 
them but very little, providing their treatment is in¬ 
telligently carried out. Sometimes though in very 
hot summers thrips and green fly will attack them, or 
a few might get on them from other occupants of 
the greenhouse during the winter, but these may and 
should be got rid of at once by the use of the 
vaporiser. 
Cypripedium insigne I have seen done exceedingly 
well in cold frames during the summer months,produc¬ 
ing plenty of flowers when returned to a warm 
greenhouse in winter. C. villosum, too, will do finely 
treated in this way, and no doubt a great many other 
things would be all the better for a system of cooler 
treatment during the summer.— 5 . C. 
