624 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 5, 1905. 
Notes on . . . 
Our Illustrations. 
ON CENTRE 
Kniphofia Tuckii, a Dwarf Red-hot Poker. 
In most gardens only the common Red-hot 
Poker, or possibly some of its varieties, are 
to be found. There are, however, numerous 
distinct species. ,of Red-hot Poker known 
under such names as Kniphofia or Tritoma 
in gardens. Most of them coma from Cape 
Colony or some part of Africa, chiefly South 
Africa". That under notice comes from Cape 
Colony ; and while it has almost the same 
vigour as the common one, it flowers earlier 
and is dwarfer. 
The heads are conical, and in their earlier 
stages are of a dull red, fading to yellow as 
the flowers expand in succession from the base 
of the raceme upwards. The whole plant is 
only two or three feet in height, and' each 
remarkably stout stem rises clear above the 
foliage. The leaves are strongly channelled, 
with a strong keel, glaucous, and all the 
three edges are very rough to the fingers. It 
may be grown under precisely the same con¬ 
ditions as the common one, good and well- 
drained garden soil being in every way suit¬ 
able. The plant flowered in the first half of 
June in Kew Gardens. 
Iris amoena Mrs. H. Darwin. ’ 
Several Irises are grown under the name of 
I. amoena, and of garden origin, but the cor¬ 
rect name is said to be Iris hybrida. The 
variety Mrs. H. Darwin grows about 18 in. 
or 2 ft. high, and, as each stem haa about four 
heads of one to three flowers each, a splendid 
display is produced during the first two or 
three weeks of June; as may be seen by 
reference to our illustration, a very large 
number of these flowers are fully expanded 
at one and the same time. The individual 
flowers are nearly as large as those of the 
German Iris, and the falls are white, beau¬ 
tifully netted with purple and brown lines on 
the claw. The standards are also white, 
spotted, and lined with purple on the claw. 
At a short distance, however, the flowers for 
all practical purposes may be regarded as 
pure white. 
The stems being relatively short, they just 
surmount the foliage, so that they make a 
beautifully-furnished bed on the grass. The 
bed illustrated was photographed at Kew. 
Those who would like to imitate this method 
of growing Iris, unless they have very good 
soil, would do well to take out the natural 
material, and fill in with good loamy soil 
containing plenty of fibre ; in this the Iris 
will revel, and require little attention during 
the year, except, perhaps, a good watering 
or two during the early part of summer, be¬ 
fore the plants come into bloom. The variety 
forms a succession to the German Flag Iris. 
A Huge Bell Flower (Ostrowskia magnifica 
alba). 
The ordinary light blue form of Ostrowskia. 
is now fairly widely distributed in gardens, 
though there still remain a few who hesitate 
to attempt its cultivation. The particular 
variety which we illustrate on this occasion 
is still scarcer than the type, and practically 
a new plant, the flowers being, pure white. 
The blooms are of very large size, but vary 
SHEET (pages 622 and 623). 
in proportion to the vigour of the plant. They 
are certainly closely allied to Campanula, 
but have much more expanded flowers than 
the average run of the Bellflowers. 
Those who would attempt the cultivation 
of Ostrowskia should select light and rich 
well-drained soil, preferably in a situation 
where the foliage will be shaded from sun¬ 
shine during the middle of the day and the 
afternoon. Under such conditions the plant 
retains a healthy and vigorous condition, and 
flowers much better than if planted in a hot 
position fully exposed to the midday sun. 
Those who have not soil thoroughly suited 
to it could prepare a site by simply digging 
out a. large hole to the depth of 2 ft. or 3 ft., 
putting some drainage in the bottom, and 
filling in this with a prepared compost. 
Our photograph was taken, at Regent’s 
Park on June 7th, where this new variety 
was shown by Messrs. T. S. Ware, Limited, 
Hale Farm Nurseries, Feltliam, Middlesex. 
Gladiolus Fire King. 
The above is one of the early-flowering 
Glafioli, which have smaller flowers than 
those of the G. gandavensis section. They 
are valuable, however, for flowering in the 
early part of the season, and constitute the 
forerunner of their big relatives in autumn. 
Usually they grow about 12 in. to 18 in. in 
height, and, owing to this dwarf and compact 
habit, they are suitable for cultivation in 
pots, either for decoration in this form in 
the conservatory or as cut flowers. 
Fire King is notable amongst its kind for 
its large size and rich colour. The flowers 
may be described as bright orange-scarlet, 
with a crimson band on each of the three 
lower segments, enclosing a blotch that shades 
gradually from purple to white in the centre. 
These blotches give the flowers quite a striking 
and handsome appearance. 
The plant may be grown much in the same 
way as the late-flowering Gladioli in the open 
ground, by planting in February to bloom in 
the early summer. A light, rich, and well- 
drained soil should be selected, as Gladioli 
in general cannot be considered quite hardy 
if left in the ground all the winter. Indeed, 
the corms should be lifted and dried off in 
the autumn, or as soon as the leaves begin to 
fade. 
The Peacock Anemone. 
The above name is an old one, often applied 
to Anemone coronaria in gardens. More re¬ 
cently they have been described as St. Brigid 
Anemones, simply because they are a strain 
that have been developed chiefly in Ireland. 
In colour they are extremely varied, as most 
all garden flowers are when habitually raised 
from seeds. Practically all shades of colour 
may be found in them, ranging from pure 
white to rose-pink, purple, red, crimson, 
blue, and other intermediate shades, any¬ 
thing, in fact, except yellow. Our illustra¬ 
tion shows only a few of these flowers, one of 
which was crimson, others blue in different 
shades. 
Many of our readers will doubtless have 
observed these Anemones at various exhibi¬ 
tions at different periods of the year. The 
same plants do not flower over such a con¬ 
tinuous period as these exhibits would lead 
one to suppose. The secret of obtaining a long 
succession of flowers is to sow seeds in boxes 
at different periods of the year, and trans¬ 
plant the seedlings into other boxes later on, 
to be finally transferred to prepared beds in 
the open ground when they are sufficiently 
large. Such plants continue growing and in¬ 
creasing in size until they reach the flower¬ 
ing stage. 
In hot, dry summers, however, it is diffi¬ 
cult to get them to make much progress, and 
in such cases it is necessary to shade the 
beds from hot sunshine or have them in shady 
situations, and to apply water artificially. 
Those who succeed, however, in getting their 
plants to grow freely until September will 
then be rewarded by a beautiful display of 
bloom. Spring is, however, the natural sea¬ 
son for this species to bloom, but by the 
treatment above mentioned flowers may be 
had from April to November in the open 
air by those who care to take the trouble 
to look after them in dry weather. 
T he Japanese Snowball. 
There may be differences of opinion as to 
which is the best Snowball amongst the species 
of Viburnum. There are two of them, how¬ 
ever, which take a very prominent place in 
the estimation of the lovers of trees and 
shrubs, and usually that under notice holds 
the premier place. Botanically it is known 
as Viburnum tomentosum plicatum. The 
typical form of this species would have a 
cluster made up of very small flowers in the 
centre, with a ring of larger blooms around 
the outside. In the Japanese Snowball all 
the small flowers have been transformed 
into large ones, so that each truss forms a 
globular mass about the size of the fist. 
Our illustration on the lower right-hand 
corner shows a very large bed of this variety 
at Kew, and certainly, when in its best con¬ 
dition one can scarcely imagine a more in¬ 
teresting or more effective bed, consisting of 
a uhrub that requires practically no atten¬ 
tion, after being established, beyond keeping 
the soil clean and loose on the surface by 
hoeing until the plants get sufficiently large 
to completely occupy the space and cover the 
ground. The plant being perfectly hardy, in 
the southern half of England, at least, might 
be> planted in anyone’s garden, whether pro¬ 
fessional or otherwise. A bed of the size here 
indicated would not be convenient in every 
garden, but the grower could always have 
one suited to his own convenience. Even a 
single bush upon the lawn is an object of 
great beauty during the month of June. 
New Sweet Peas (see Supplement). 
After a period of 205 years of cultivation 
in the gardens of the civilised world, it is 
very difficult to get new and distinct colours 
worthy of taking their place amongst the 
named varieties already widely spread in cul¬ 
tivation. Although the whole of the varie¬ 
ties have been developed from one species 
(Lathyrus odoratus), it is still possible to im¬ 
prove by getting varieties of more robust con¬ 
stitution, a greater number of flowers on a 
stalk, or greater size of flower. 
On this occasion we refer to three new 
varieties, which have large flowers, a sufficient 
number of them on the stalk which flower very 
freely, and have distinct colours, in at least 
two oases, unlike anything else we have seen. 
On the left of our supplementary illustration 
are some sprays of Oxford Stripe. The two 
colours consist of clear deep blue stripes on a 
white ground. This variety, we think, is 
worthy of taking its place amongst the blue 
striped varieties, and might really be grown 
