The Garden Magazine, August, 1923 
391 
beginning October, 1923. If the flowers exhibited do not score 
at least 90 points, the prize will not be awarded, but the accrued 
interest of the fund will be used as a scholarship in the Division 
of Landscape Gardening and Floriculture. 
This prize will be distributed as a single cash prize at the 
Annual Pacific Coast Horticultural Society’s Flower Show, held 
in the City and County of San Francisco. If the Pacific Coast 
Horticultural Society’s Flower Show suspends its exhibition, 
the Regents of the University of California may provide the 
prize for any other exhibition in this State, and if none be held, 
the prize shall be used as a scholarship in the Division of Land 
scape Gardening and Floriculture of the University of Cali¬ 
fornia. 
GLADIOLUS LOVERS, PLEASE NOTE 
HE American Gladiolus Society meets in convention and 
holds its annual exhibition in Rochester, N. Y., August 
13th and 16th. The City of Rochester is well pleased for the 
interests of the Gladiolus growers as the Gladiolus is also a 
popular flower across the northern border, and the Canadian 
amateurs are joining forces in the event. 
THE OPEUT^C olum; K, 
Readers’ Interchange of Experience and Comment 
unsigned communications —IVill those who have not received personal 
replies to letters and questions please understand that from time to time com¬ 
munications reach us sometimes without an address, sometimes without 
a signature, and that in such cases we are unable to redeem ourselves. 
A letter from “A Southerner, New Orleans, La.” remains unanswered 
because of the reason just given. Another writer asking for a good deal 
of cultural information gives no address and signs his letter with our name 
instead of his own. 
Game Laws and Roadside Planting 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
E WERE much interested in Charles Le Sure’s article on road¬ 
side planting but feel that before much can be accomplished 
along those lines adequate laws for the protection of our wild flowers 
must be passed. 
We find that our attempts to beautify our road are very unsuccessful 
because of motorists who not only pick the blossoms but dig up the 
roots as well. Consequently we feel that our legislators must be in¬ 
terested before the public can be convinced that our highways are for 
travel alone.—W. B. Ellsworth, Brookwood Farm, Ottawa, Illinois. 
The Search for Bulbs, More Bulbs! 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
HE letter of R. F. Howard in the June number is probably of in¬ 
terest to a good many people, for as gardens are spreading all over 
the country more search is made for these small dainty flowers. It 
surprises me to read the Editors’ note in Mrs. Howard’s letter that 
Scillas and Snowdrops do not increase as do Tulips and Daffodils but 
must be raised from seed. My small experience with these two varie¬ 
ties does not show that. A friend gave me a couple of Sc ilia bulbs while 
they were in bloom in the spring of 1922, this spring they did not show 
any increase of bloom, but thirteen small green shoots made quite a 
clump of Scillas; and as the same generous friend added several more 
small bulbs again this spring I am expecting soon to have a good supply. 
The Snowdrops are slower, but the two Snowdrop bulbs showed a fair 
increase and the friend who gave them to me tells me her supply would 
soon be large if she did not give so many away. If I can get hold of a 
dozen or two this fall, I think I will not need to worry about them. 
The Muscari or Grape-hyacinths do not seem to multiply as fast— 
those in my friend’s garden being still slower than the Snowdrops. I 
have not been able to get any of these but hope to this fall when 1 can 
then try saving seed. 
The place where these small experiments are being made is the Puget 
Sound region in the state of Washington. A good many people are 
trying much larger experiments with several kinds of spring-flowering 
bulbs and these trials may develop into an industry that will solve the 
problem of where to get these bulbs when the final quarantine is de¬ 
clared. R. F. Howard says that some good authorities claim these 
bulbs cannot be raised successfully in this country. Mr. O. M. Pudor 
of Puyallup Iris Garden has large plantings of some very fine Narcissus 
and also quite a large bed of Scillas which he raises very successfully. 
In his home garden, a long row of Scillas in front of yellow Primroses 
on each side of a walk under the Rose arbor made a very beautiful gar¬ 
den picture. 
I do not know any Western grower who has a large supply of Snow¬ 
drops or Muscari, but no doubt there are commercial growers trying 
them here. 
Chionodoxa I have not seen, but this spring I saw another small thing 
I would like to know the name of, a little like a Snowdrop but flower 
more starlike, white, green-tipped. It blooms here a little later than 
the Snowdrop.—G. G. Melhart, Sumner, Washington. 
A Link between Two Lands 
To the Editors o/The Garden Magazine: 
HAVE been very much interested in reading the “Travel Tales of a 
Plant Collector” by E. H. Wilson, appearing in current issues. In 
the April number there were several items which 1 want to call to'your 
attention. Mr. Wilson states that Grevillea robusta is practically the 
only Grevillea grown in California but G. thelemanniana, a very grace¬ 
ful shrub quite different from the G. robusta, is grown quite a bit in 
California. He also states that the Bottle-brush (Callistemon) and 
the Needle-brush (Hakea) are seldom seen, but I am happy to state 
that the Bottle-brushes, in many species both of Callistemon and 
Melaleuca, are now grown extensively—in fact, if it were not for these 
introductions from Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, and other 
countries, California would hardly come up to its reputation of being 
“the land of fruits and flowers.” The Araucarias,represented by three 
or four very distinct and beautiful species, are among our finest shade 
and lawn trees. 
Many of the names that Mr. Wilson gives are unfamiliar to me. It 
seems a shame that we do not have more of these interesting shrubs and 
trees because they all do so well in California. I hope to live to see 
the day when an arboretum, similar to the Arnold Arboretum, is 
established in California. Frequently one sees a plant or shrub which 
is very desirable, but which no one knows the name of, and which can¬ 
not be obtained in nurseries.— Allison M. Woodman, Berkeley, Cal. 
Governmental Zeal that Leads to Garden Negation 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
HE editorial entitled “Building Our Horticulture Up or Down?” 
in the June number of the magazine must find a ready response ir 
many hearts. Allow me to express my appreciation of it and my own 
sense of gratitude for the timely and reasonable words which set forth 
so clearly the inevitable result to American horticulture from the sort of 
protection given by our Government. When I was in Washington in 
April, on my way up from the South, 1 visited the Bureau of Plant 
Industry with a view to finding out if it would be permitted me to 
import this summer certain bulbs which cannot now be obtained with¬ 
out special permission. It was made clear to me—with all courtesy on 
the part of the official with whom I talked—that the importation of the 
small and innocent bulbs which 1 want would involve so much in the 
way of investigation and fumigation and vexation (on my part this, 
last!) that it was better to renounce all hope of obtaining them. On 
asking why we were allowed, say, twenty varieties of Narcissus while 
fifty or sixty others were excluded, 1 was told that in two years’ time 
all kinds of narcissus would be banned! 
I came up here to my little Northern garden a sadder and a more 
perplexed woman—in this same little garden where my spring bulbs 
were still in their glory. A good many of my early Tulips, sent over 
from Holland last fall, failed to appear; on digging, I found the bulbs 
still firm and sound but without roots, in the ground—so thoroughlv dis¬ 
infected in the Custom House, I suspect, that they were baked in the 
process! It was not the severity of the winter which affected them, for 
the old bulbs (which I crowd into my borders and under pergolas and 
even into bits of uncultivated ground each year as I plant my new 
ones) have all blossomed well, and Darwins and Cottage-gardens were 
superb. The lovely little lady Tulip (T. clusiana, “ la Signora dipinta” 
of Tuscany) is perfectly at home in my miniature rock-bed, as are T. 
mauriana and T. persica. Never have my old Crown Imperials been 
more stately and more decorative, never have their enchanting little 
cousins, the small Fritillaries, been so exquisite! Every sort of 
Narcissus—cherished for years and added to each autumn—has fairly 
