230 
The Garden Magazine, December, 1923 
no difference for some distance around. Nearly all the Hydrangeas in 
town have blossoms of deep blue. 
There are a few questions I wish to ask of you in regard to certain 
Iris. Can you tell me why Iris trojana refuses to bloom when I. khar- 
put, caterina, and Gloire d’Hillegom on three sides of it bloom pro¬ 
fusely? I have two plants of trojana from different sources, set out in 
different years and neither plant has ever bloomed nor shown much 
inclination to increase. 
Two years ago Iris tectorum bloomed and seeded with me. The 
seeds were sown as soon as ripe and germinated well. In 1922 and 
again this year not a single seed-pod matured. Why? Climatic con¬ 
ditions were not much different each year and the situation was the 
same. The plants themselves increase well. 
Can you tell me also if there is more than one variety of the crested 
Iris japonica? I have never seen but one listed, but 1 have two distinct 
forms, one a pale blue with deeper blue markings, the other almost a 
uniform lilac. Both are identical in foliage and growth. [See article 
elsewhere in this issue.— Ed.] 
I am enclosing a photograph of a white Banksia Rose about thirty- 
five years old which has almost covered a Live Oak tree in my garden.— 
(Mrs.) Leila B. Stapleton, Oroville, Cal. 
—As to your Hydrangeas; from observation of experiments con¬ 
ducted by the New Jersey Experimental station it seems that the 
coloring of the Hydrangea flower is positively governed by the alkalinity 
or otherwise of the soil. The fact that some shoots or some parts of the 
plant do not show the coloration is simply due to the fact that 
the lime was not operative at a certain period of the plant’s growth. 
AS BANKSIA ROSES CLIMB IN CALIFORNIA 
A thirtyfive-year-old White Banksia Rose almost covering a Live Oak tree in Mrs. Stapleton’s garden at Oroville 
