The Garden Magazine, June, 1924 
301 
trees and Boxwoods for the lobbies of the Drake Hotel, not less than $10,000 
worth annually of high class decorative plants, such as we used to import from 
Belgium, could be readily sold in that one hotel alone. There are no proofs 
advanced on the part of the Federal Horticultural Board that Boxwoods or Bay 
trees have brought in any dangerous pests. These remarkable examples of the 
greatest achievements in horticultural production are no longer available to the 
landscaper and plantsman decorator, and no substitute has been or can be 
developed. Few florists realize the amount of publicity and profit they are 
steadily losing. Only through gradual general recognition by the florists’ trade 
and the general public of the useless expense and business losses entailed through 
pernicious bureaucratic stupidity at Washington, D. C., can this evil be corrected 
and the path of progress cleared. 
E VIDENTLY achievement has its drawbacks for a pathetic 
plea has just come from Louise Beebe Wilder begging that 
pilgrims be staved off and her privacy preserved. Or, as she 
more modestly and courteously states it: “The increase of 
general interest in rock gardening is such that I find it impossi¬ 
ble to receive visitors to my garden except by appointment.” 
The story of Mrs. Wilder’s rockery at Little Balderbrae is 
very delightfully told and pictured in her recently published 
“Adventures in My Garden and Rock Garden,” which might 
be suggested as a satisfying substitute, although we fear it does 
in reality but furnish further stimulus and is perhaps the true 
culprit in the matter of inciting pilgrimages. Some of the 
fascinating little plants that flourish at Balderbrae may also 
be found on pages 24 and 25 of the September, 1923, Garden 
Magazine. 
transparent and have a skin-like quality that suggests “that school-gir! 
complexion.” It proved hardy last winter. Seeds from Correvon, 
Geneva, Switzerland. 
Jasione percnnis, like a small blue Scabiosa, started bloom in June 
and was still going strong on September first. It is a small tuft of 
foliage with long, slender flower stems sustaining little blue tufts. 
Plants in semi-shade came to nothing. There is usually so little to 
show on a rockery after the first of July that I must mention this. 
As for Anemones from seed—I should have said “which are so seldom 
grown from seed”—I wonder if others find them as trying to their 
patience as 1 have.— Julian Hinckley, Cedarhurst, L. I. 
Where Can This Hardy Viola Be Had? 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
OME twenty years since I secured from the Old Colony Nurseries 
of Plymouth, Mass., some hardy Violets, the variety known as 
Viola Schonbrunn, highly and deservedly recommended by the charm¬ 
ing and learned owner of the nurseries, Mr. T. R. Watson. 
I have never seen the equal of this variety for hardiness, prolific 
growth, and fragrance. Can any of your readers, professional or 
amateur, inform me where this variety can now be procured?— John 
H. Ross, Jamaica Plain, Mass. 
Avoiding Blight on Aconitum 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
T GIVES me pleasure to write you that following your suggestion of 
last summer, I was able to avoid the blight or “ blacks ” on Aconitum. 
A NNOUNCEMENT is made by the American Dahlia So¬ 
ciety that this year’s exhibition on September 24, 25, 26, 
will be held in the 71st Regiment Armory, Park Avenue and 
34th Street, New York City. The phenomenal growth in the 
number of exhibits and the desirability of getting more ade¬ 
quate space for the exhibition has encouraged the directors of 
the organization to undertake the greater 
effort involved in the selection of this larger 
place. There will be splendid opportunity 
here for extensive trade exhibits on a very 
large scale, and the September Llower Show 
in New York under the auspices of the 
American Dahlia Society may be looked for¬ 
ward to as a real event in gardening. 
THE OPEPfJ (JOLUMN 
Readers’ Interchange of Experience and Comment 
Is This Truly a Late August Iris? 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
T ENCLOSE photograph—not a very good one— 
1 of the Vesper Iris (I. dichotoma). This little 
Iris, which 1 received from the government and 
which had probably been coddled all winter, only 
finished blooming on September first. If this is 
its true blooming date, it is unique among Irises. 
But it is also unique in another respect—for this 
grateful little Iris was in bloom for more than two 
weeks. Iris lovers must concede that the genus 
as a whole is disappointing in the ephemera! 
character of its blooms. Iris dichotoma, however, 
practises an economy. Like the mirabilis it opens 
only in the afternoon. The flowers are only a 
little larger than cristata. The color is a lovely 
lavender-blue. Botanicallv, the species is in a 
group by itself. It doesn’t list as a pogoniris or 
apogon or crested. And, so far as I know, it can 
only be had from the Government Bureau of Plant 
Importation. It is a native of China. 
Among the experimental plants on my rockery 
nothing has given me such a sense of discovery as 
Polemonium carneum. It is dwarf like P. reptans. 
The individual flowers are half again as large, 
opening out white and blushing to deep flesh 
pink. The petals are so thin as to be almost 
VESPER IRIS (I. dichotoma) 
A little late-blooming native of China 
with lovely lavender-blue flowers; 
photographed by Mr. Hinckley in 
whose Long Island gaiden it grew 
last summer (see accompanying text) 
During a long dry spell in 1922, when we were absent from home for 
several weeks, all my Aconitum plants, both of the late napellus strain 
as well as some treasured bicolor stock, blackened both in leaves and 
stem and died back to the roots. You suggested that treatment with 
lime worked into the soil, together with removal if possible to a moist 
situation, might be the solution. This I did, but left a few roots in the 
former location and subject to drought similar to that of 1922. I also 
kept the relocated plants well wetted with the re¬ 
sult that I had no trouble at all with the Aconitum 
under the new conditions in the new location; 
whereas the plants which had been left undis¬ 
turbed repeated the behavior of the year previous, 
blackened, and died back to the roots.—O. W. 
Stewart, Boston, Mass. 
An S. O. S. from a Nebraska Gardener 
To the Editors of T he Garden Magazine: 
DEING the greenest of amateurs my only rec- 
ommendation is that 1 have a personal love 
for every growing plant and regret that my gar¬ 
den is too small to hold them all. 1 have success¬ 
fully raised hybrid Delphinium and Columbine, 
also Tritoma, Pentstemon, Japanese Anemone, 
double Hollyhock, biennial and perennial Cam¬ 
panula, Dianthus, Lychnis, Lupin, Foxglove, and 
other perennials from seed, all now beautifying 
my garden. But occasionally something happens 
to some of them that surprises and dismays me, 
so I am venturing to write of my troubles, hoping 
somebody will be kind enough to give me some 
advice. 
(1) A long row of single and double Spice Pinks died 
last winter after three years of blooming. They matted 
deeply after blooming heavily in 1922. 1 watered them 
occasionally during the summer and did not cover them 
during the winter, but when spring came they died a 
lingering death, the last life shown in the ends of the 
long branches. What was the cause of this? 
(2) 1 have a hundred healthy seedlings of Japanese 
Anemone in a coldframe. How far apart should I set 
them and should they go in low damp soil, or ordinary 
garden soil? 
(3) Why did my Miss Lingard Phlox die in August 
after blooming heavily? Could it have been too fre¬ 
quent watering? Is that Phlox more subject to blight 
than others? Why were so many other Phlox plants 
speckle-leaved? 
(4) How near together may full grown Tritoma be 
allowed to grow? Mine live all winter in the garden 
protected with straw. 
