The Garden Magazine, August, 1924 
423 
cultural Board on the ground that itwasat thepresent timeoffered 
in American catalogues. The grower then mentioned another 
variety of the same general type but not so good, and because it 
was not in domestic catalogues, permission was granted for him 
to import it. And so the silly farce goes on. 
Is it a legitimate exercise of “quarantine” powers, which re¬ 
acts in the line of encouraging the importation of discarded in¬ 
ferior varieties, not because the higher quality one is any more 
prone to disease but simply because in the past the American 
dealers have recognized its merits and have favored it as against 
a poor substitute? Why is it the business of the Federal 
Horticultural Board to determine which variety can be im¬ 
ported? What clause of the law is it that has been construed to 
give this Board such power? The direct result of quarantine is 
“downward progress” in our horticulture. 
A PRIZE FOR THE BEST DAHLIA POEM 
HROUGH the generosity of Mrs. Charles H. Stout, The Garden 
Magazine is privileged to announce the offer of a $50 cash prize 
to be awarded for a new and original poem on the Dahlia. Verse sub¬ 
mitted in this competition must be of joyous mood in any lyric form, 
but not exceeding six stanzas in length. Competition closes October 
1st, 1924, and all entries must reach The Garden Magazine not later 
than that day. Contestants may submit any number of entries, with 
the name and address of the author plainly marked on each one, ad¬ 
dressing them to the Dahlia Poem Contest, care of The Garden 
Magazine, Garden City, N. Y. 
Three men of letters, themselves poets of distinction, have generously 
consented to act as judges—Mr. Christopher Morley, Prof. John 
Erskine of Columbia University, and Mr. Frank Ernest Hill, one of the 
founders and editors of The Measure, a magazine of verse. 
“FOR BETTER DELPHINIUMS” 
HE peculiar individuality of the Larkspur as a garden flower fully 
justifies the greatly increased present-day interest in its improve¬ 
ment. Mr. Rea, who writes the very practical article on pages 407, 408 
of this issue, has been a particularly successful Eastern grower of this 
flower which finds a place in every garden that makes any pretension of 
quality. 
Along the Northern Pacific coast the Delphinium seems to have 
acquired a new home and is establishing itself with all the glamor 
and sentiment that has been woven around it of old in European 
gardens. Washington and Oregon are doing great things for the 
Delphinium. 
A few enthusiasts are publishing at San Raphael, California, a semi¬ 
annual called For Better Delphiniums of which three numbers have 
appeared. It has sixteen pages about the size of this magazine, and 
contains individual reports by growers and raisers. 
Postponements Seem Inevitable This Year! The American Gladio¬ 
lus Society announces that the Gladiolus Show scheduled for the 8th, 
9th, 10th of August at the American Museum of Natural History, 77th 
Street and Central Park West, New York City, is postponed until 
August 22nd, 23rd and 24th. 
THE OPEU^C ol UM^ 
Readers’ Interchange of Experience and Comment 
Some Bulbs Do Grow in America 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
PROPOS of bulbs and previous letters in The Open Column 
a correspondent from California has written me, somewhat 
indignantly, that bulbs can be and are raised in California. My corre¬ 
spondent writes that her father has been growing them on the coast 
for twenty years and she “feels safe in saying that they can be grown 
as well if not better than in Holland.” 
This seems to me a matter of great interest to American gardeners in 
general who do not happen to live in California next door to a bulb farm 
(and several of us do not) and we are in grave danger of believing that 
bulb raising in California is mythical. 
It seems to me also an important matter that “there are more bulbs 
grown here than the Eastern people think, but we have no market for 
them yet so do not offer them for sale. We have here about 150,000 
Paper-whites (grandiflora); 100,000 Daffodils of different varieties; in¬ 
cluding Chinese Lilies and Soleil d’Or; Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese 
Iris; Lilium candidum; Godfrey Callas, and many other sorts in smaller 
lots. My father has several million Paper-whites and is the largest 
grower of the King Alfred Daffodils in America. He also has large 
quantities of other bulbs. George Lawler of Tacoma is our largest 
grower in the north.” 
My correspondent does not think Mr. Purdy’s climate suitable 
for bulb growing (apropos of his article in the December, 1922, Garden 
Magazine telling us what he had been able to discover on the subject) 
but at least Mr. Purdy tried, and moreover he gave us all the benefit 
of his researches, and 1 think we are properly grateful to him. And we 
cannot but remember that, during the years when we were sorely handi¬ 
capped by the Quarantine, those other California growers preserved an 
almost unbroken silence on the subject when it would have been an 
enormous comfort to us to know that they could be raised anywhere in 
America. 
Also, it is not enough to say that these Californian bulbs “will” bloom. 
1 think that the editorial note in the April G. M. is almost the only 
definite information we have had that they do grow successfully, or 
should I say they may grow in view of my dealer’s statement that his did 
not bloom? 
It seems to me that the Californian growers would have no complaint 
of “no market,” even though the Quarantine has been partly lifted, if 
they would give us the kind of helpful information that Mr. Purdy and 
Mr. Pudor do.—R. F. Howard, Silver Hill, South Lincoln, Mass. 
Meeting the Home Maker Halfway 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
AM pleased to note the proposed invasion of the “House” in the 
near future by The Garden Magazine and am hoping the said house 
will be a small one—without a servant for the most part. No good 
magazine seems to have, as yet, covered this territory.— Mrs. W. T. 
Clements, Los Altos, Cal. 
Nearly 800 Blooms in Three Days! 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
Y HUSBAND is very proud of our Callirhoe (flowers crimson 
with white center) of which there are now three plants growing 
together—the stems reach 6 to 8 ft. long, flat on the ground, in a circle 
about the roots. As many as 240 blooms have appeared in one day, 
just about as many the day before and after. The Callirhoe blooms all 
summer, attracting a lot of attention. When mowing the lawn the 
stems are thrown back out of the way of the mower. A lot of seedlings 
have come up.— Mrs. Cora Jewell, Darlington, Ind. 
Who Can Help This Garden Neighbor? 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
N THE Open Column for April, there is a letter from Mrs. R. F. 
Howard, South Lincoln, Mass., concerning the hardy old-fashioned 
Clove Pink. When 1 was a child one of our neighbors had a large 
garden bordered with the pink variety. I have never seen the red 
or the white. For many years, since 1 have become interested in 
gardening, I have written to different seedsmen with the same result 
experienced by Mrs. Howard. 
Do you think that I could buy some of the plants of the genuine Clove 
Pink from any of your readers?— Mrs. E. A. Swan, 462 Gramatan Ave., 
Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 
An Improved Grafting Paraffin 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
GOOD deal of correspondence has come out of my notes in the 
Garden Magazine on grafting, and you may wish to record my 
conclusions to date. 
For tree grafting work I have found that melted parowax is the best 
material for this latitude. Farther south it remelts in the hot sun and 
in the mountain regions with much fluctuation in temperature range it 
sometimes flakes off from the graft. In order to obviate these defects 
I have been experimenting during the past year and find that raw pine 
gum known commercially as common turpentine is miscible in practi¬ 
cally all proportions with all of the paraffins. It makes them more 
elastic, allows them to cling more closely and constitutes an improve- 
