The Garden Magazine, June, 1923 
276 
some of my correspondents 
who had Pinks, but not 
bulbs, helped to discover 
several sources of supply— 
not an unlimited supply, 
but some. Then, also, one or 
two dealers offered some for 
sale last fall. 1 bought some 
Muscari bulbs of one corres¬ 
pondent, and Scilla seeds 
from another, immediately 
after the publication of the 
May Garden Magazine; 
and later received gifts of 
bulbs and seeds of Scilla 
and some small bulbs of 
Muscari, and 1 know of 
Scilla and Muscari bulbs be¬ 
ing bought of a well-known 
dealer last year—also that 
another dealer had several 
of the “prohibited” bulbs 
to be marketed this year. 
Perhaps my own fault dis¬ 
qualifies me from making a 
strong protest that a dealer 
who successfully raises some 
of these eagerly desired bulbs 
should have refrained from 
publishing that most impor¬ 
tant fact until this late day. 
My earnest request for these 
bulbs was neither the first 
nor the last published in The 
Garden Magazine, and 
there have been several ar¬ 
ticles published by some of 
the best authorities in the 
country to say that these 
bulbs could not be, or were 
not, successfully raised in 
this country. Once before a 
Californian nursery wrote a 
similar defense of Quarantine 
37, but their receivers could 
give me no information about 
getting these bulbs. Perhaps 
the dealer who now defends 
it may have smiled at the 
ignorance of these Eastern 5 
correspondents, but I think 
we should have been ex¬ 
tremely interested and grate¬ 
ful for the information that 
there was someone who grew 
them. We are all interested 
in knowing about this very 
important subject as we 
may not always be able to 
import these bulbs—but gar¬ 
dening is a much more inter¬ 
esting affair when men such 
as Mr. W. N. Craig, Mr. 
Carl Purdy, and the Elliott 
Nurseries look into the mat¬ 
ter thoroughly and give the 
rest of us the benefit of 
their efforts for the sake of 
helpfulness to gardens in 
general. 1 wish Mr. Payne 
would kindly give us further 
information upon the bulbs he grows, and of the other growers person¬ 
ally known to him, because bulb growing is an interesting subject 
with or without the Plant Quarantine and if the knowledge were gen¬ 
eral it would not happen that communications like mine, or inquiries 
to the Plant Distribution Department at Washington, would fail to 
elicit a response of any sort. 
I wish there might be some articles about these early spring bulbs 
in the magazine in time to 
be of service in making up 
our bulb lists. From what 
several correspondents have 
written me 1 think some of 
these are less well known 
than they should be and 
there is less familiarity with 
their proper classification; 
as for instance one corres¬ 
pondent has what she calls 
Giant Snowdrop (Galanthus 
Elwesi) that is entirely differ¬ 
ent in every way from mine 
—and mine were purchased 
directly from one of the best 
known growers in Holland. 
Mine conform to all the de¬ 
scriptions that 1 can find, 
blooming in late February or 
very early March and have 
two leaves and one flower 
stalk with a single bell¬ 
shaped flower and are about 
4 inches high, though the 
leaves grow somewhat longer 
after the blossom has faded. 
Hers grow about a foot high, 
have a cluster of flowers and 
bloom in May or June in a 
milder climate than New 
England. Now either she 
is growing some rare and 
interesting plant, or she is 
mistaken as to its name. 
[Obviously this is the Snow¬ 
flake, Leucojum, and not a 
Snowdrop at all.—Ed.] Then 
again 1 grow both Chiono- 
doxa and Scilla. 1 know 
they are very much alike 
and I know them apart, but 
am never quite sure which is 
which. When I read descrip¬ 
tions I think 1 am sure—un¬ 
til 1 read the next one—and 
1 have come to the conclusion 
that sometimes there must 
be a mistake in the illustra¬ 
tions, because sometimesone 
name and sometimes the 
other is given to what looks 
to me like the same flower. 
One, which 1 suppose to be 
Chionodoxa, is much larger 
and a more open flower with 
a white centre, while Scilla 
blooms a little later in my 
garden and has several bell¬ 
shaped flowers on each stalk 
and is a deeper blue and the 
bells hang down instead of 
opening out flat as does the 
other. [These are closely 
related, but in Scilla the 
perianth segments are dis¬ 
tinct, i.e. not united into a 
tube, whereas in the Glory- 
of-the-Snow they are so 
united and the filaments of 
half or all the stamens are 
expanded and petaloid.— Ed.] Muscari is easily identified, but I 
think there must be interesting information about its growing—such 
as growing it in masses in combination with other things according 
to a most interesting description in an English publication a short 
time ago. Then, perhaps someone might tell us how to plant so that 
we may be reasonably sure of a continued supply of all these bulbs. 
—R, F. Howard, South Lincoln, Mass. 
ROSE SOUVENIR DE CLAUDIUS PERNET 
Lovely in its simplicity this living room arrangement of three golden Roses 
in a quaintly shaped vase of dear green glass received the Garden Club of 
America’s second prize at this season’s International Flower Show; exhibitor 
Mrs. Branch Morgan of the James River Garden Club, Richmond, Va. 
