744 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
September 25, 1905. 
RENTSTE/nONS. * SOME CHOICE 
_ *>1' V A PIFT 
1 111 1 1 1 1 min n t ttt -ttttti i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i ^ “ v 1 
Much has been written about Pentstemons, 
and varieties galore have been praised by 
writers, but one is apt to forget, therefore a 
note when the plants are in flower may serve 
to remind others what they have missed by 
not securing them. I have to mourn the loss 
of several varieties through a plague of wire- 
worm, which never made its presence known 
until the plants were in their quarters. 
A glorious thing is Edwin Beckett, a rosy 
scarlet, with a darker margin, great in size, 
great in all ways. George Home has the 
colour of a soldier’s tunic, the white throat 
being splendid, a most striking colour. Emile 
Rodigas at first looks much like it, but the 
colour is darker, the trumpets being very 
large- 
A grand spike has John A. Elliot., the choco¬ 
late-marked throat showing up well against 
the rosy crimson trumpet. As a rose I ad¬ 
mire John Jennings; the shade is fine, the 
throat being pure white. The crimson scarlet 
of Lady Arthur will tell anywhere, the white 
throat with dark margin throwing the colour 
well out. Lewis D. Wigan is somewhat like 
it, but it comes larger, a truly grand flower. 
For massing, Miss Talbot is most telling, the 
■vivid crimson making a perfect blaze. Mrs. 
Forbes has a huge trumpet and a great spike, 
which tends to make it a crimson worth grow¬ 
ing. A light scarlet is Mrs. Oliver, a crim¬ 
son margin showing up the white throat. A 
wonderful flower is Mrs. Jennings, being soft 
pink in colour. It has chocolate markings in 
the throat. Apart from its grand trumpet 
and fine spikes, it blooms very freely. A 
beautiful crimson and red is M. Deherain, 
whilst M. Millardet has darker flowers. 
Peter Headman brings' us to white, the only 
colour being a scarlet edge. Colour seems so 
much associated with Pentstemons that one 
cannot realise a pure white. Of rosy lilac 
hue is Simon Campbell, with dark markings ; 
whilst the ground colour of Arthur J. Ward 
is the same. It has a pure white throat. 
William Oliver has a dark chocolate circle 
around the white throat, the main colour being 
rosy crimson. 
Lord Rothschild is a magnificent thing, 
rosy pink, with a veined throat. 
Jane Dieulafay is whiter than Peter Read- 
man, the tinting being but slight. The final 
of my batch is Dr. Barrie, a purple crimson, 
with a white throat, and a few veins. 
I would very much hesitate to say that this 
list is exhaustive, or that they are the finest ; 
but they please me, and I fear I am a trifle 
hard to satisfy. A fault with these named 
sorts is their sparse growth. 
Very few make really good shoots, so that 
propagation is slow unless one acts viciously 
for a season, and stops all flowers until a 
stock is worked up. 
The time is now suitable for propagating, 
and the spikes should not be allowed to remain 
longer than necessary if a stock is desired. 
Fortunately, they are not hard to strike ; in¬ 
deed, there is no culture at all. A cold frame 
doeg the work. Cal. 
Cattleyas. ± 
Perhaps this short article may be of use to 
some gardener who has a longing to become 
a raiser of hybrid Orchids, and yet does not 
know the best way to raise such. I am afraid 
I shall have to curtail my notes to get them 
in the allotted space (one column). 
After having got your seed pod or capsule 
ripe on the jrlant, it will be found a good 
idea to cut it and wrap it up well in white 
paper, and then carry it about for three or 
four days in one’s waistcoat pocket, as by so 
doing the heat from; your body will thoroughly 
ripen the seeds, as you cannot well lay the 
seeds to dry in the sun or air, for they are 
so very minute that they would blow away 
with only a breath of air. 
Row prepare your pots. I use 48s always. 
First, three parts fill the same with broken 
crocks, then get some old but sweet Orchid 
compost, and well scald same, so as to destroy 
all insect life. Now get some coarse calico, 
and cut a piece about 8in. square. Then put 
enough of the compost on the calico, so that 
when it is made into a ball the size of the pot 
top the centre of the mound will be about half 
an inch above the rim of the pot, but the sides 
must be fully fin. below the rim. Let the 
ends of the calico rest on crocks; then get 
some finely-chopped Sphagnum moss, and 
press some in all round but below the rim of 
the pot. Now, when the calico has been well 
moistened, it is ready to have seeds sown on 
to it. 
After sowing, put the pot into a close, warm, 
propagating frame ; it must be sprayed three 
or four times a day. Never water with a can ; 
only spray them with a fine spray, or all your 
labours will be wasted. Give air for a short 
while once a uay. 
THE WAY TO RAISE THESE 
MAGNIFICENT 
HYBRID ORCHIDS. 
In about ten days (providing the seed is 
fertile) you will, with the aid of a glass, be 
able to see good seed from bad, and, with 
proper care and attention, in seven weeks or 
so you will see some baby Orchids for your 
trouble. 
The shortest time in which Cattleya 
hybrid seeds have germinated with me was 
in five weeks and four days, and I may say I 
at present have some five or six hundred on 
seed pots, many ready to prick off. 
It is a good plan to have some small thumb 
pots ready filled to prick off into a good fort¬ 
night before wanted. Fill same with crocks 
half full, and then fill up with a compost of 
well-chopped sphagnum moss, Oak leaves, and 
peat. Prick off as soon as you can see small 
leaves, say from gin. to fin. in length. 
Very great care and attention are required, 
and patience, or failure will be the result. 
With the Editor’s sanction, I will give a 
further article in a short while on raising 
Odontoglossums, Dendrobiums, and Cypri- 
pediums. Japonica. 
[Please do.—E d.] 
-♦- 
Omphalodes Luciliae. 
The plants of this genus belong to the same 
family as the Forget-Me-Not, and are usually 
of some shade of blue, varying to white. In 
this instance the flowers may be described as 
pale sky-blue with a creamy-yellow eye. The 
spathulate leaves are also of sea-green hue. 
The slender flower stems spread about over 
the foliage so that altogether it is a slender 
plant chiefly suitable for planting on the 
rockery. At the same time, it is a very choice 
subject for such a situation. 
A Rich Gentian Blue Flower. 
(Exacum zeylanicum.) 
The flowers of this Gentian-wort do not 
belie the character of the family for their 
rich and dazzling intensity of blue. The 
flowers are produced in terminal cymes, 
and in the centre of the blue produce a 
marked contrast with the orange anthers 
which strongly recall the flower of a Potato.’ 
Certainly this section of the order comes very 
close to the Potato family, but the leaves of 
the plant under notice are opposite instead of 
being alternate. The plants shown by Messrs. 
J. Veitch and Sons on August 15th were 16in. 
high, and freely branched. Tire plant prac¬ 
tically likes stove heat, but could well be 
utilised in the conservatory during the 
summer months. In gardens the plant is 
better known under the name of E. macran- 
thum. 
THE ONION MAGGOT. 
As an Onion grower, I feel impelled to join, 
issue with “ W. P. R.” when he critises Mr. 
H. Morris. 
I was under the impression that all Onion 
cultivators used soot in large quantities, 
because it acts as a deterrent to maggot, or, 
correctly speaking, the fly. “ W. P. R.” is 
apparently acquainted with the life history 
of the Onion fly, therefore it must be patent 
to him that if the fly is kept from depositing 
its eggs there will be no maggot. For the 
same reason Celery growers scatter soot along 
the trenches to keep off the fly before egg- 
depositing commences. 
To think soot would kill the maggot in the 
Celery leaf would be equally as ridiculous as 
imagining it would destroy Onion maggot in 
the bulb. 
The use of paraffin spray is quite ineffica¬ 
cious as a destroyer of either Onion or Celery 
maggot, but it is a perfect preventive of fly 
attacks. 
However, when soot is available I always 
use it, because of its stimulative properties. 
I do not profess to be an Onion expert, but 
I never am troubled with Onion maggot nor 
that other terrible plague, mildew, and I 
attribute my immunity entirely to the use of 
soot in conjunction with salt. Some might 
perhaps suggest that I reside in a district 
little affected by these troubles, but I cannot 
recall a worse area. Everything depends on- 
strong healthy growth, and I generally suc¬ 
ceed with both glass-sown and outdoor-sown. 
Tripolis I do not concern myself with, be¬ 
cause our spring-sown crop is sufficient for 
our needs. 
The soot and salt are applied two or three 
times during the season when rain is about, 
the first being given when the plants are 
about two inches high. I use one part salt 
to two of soot, and just colour the ground 
with the mixture. Celery I treat similarly. 
Last year, as was well known, was a very 
bad one for Onions, the bulbs going off whole¬ 
sale. We never had a better crop, and had 
a fair surplus to dispose of when the shortage 
was most keenly felt. 
For outdoor sowing I am greatly taken with 
Improved Reading, but there are some very 
poor stocks about. 
Tlie true variety is a splendidly shaped 
firm flat bulb, and a grand keeper. Another 
very promising Onion is Golden Globe, a new 
American sort of medium size. As a keeper it 
possesses remarkable merits, bulbs at the end 
of May being very firm and devoid of growth. 
Cal. 
